Bodybuilding Ideas
The Role of Nutrition in Muscle-building
If you've been reading up on muscle-building, you've surely encountered write-ups on nutrition playing a huge part. Of course, you need to work out in the gym and take your rest. But to sustain you through your workouts and your body's ability to produce muscle, you have to be careful about what you eat.
First, you need enough calories to get a six pack. There are two reasons for this. One, you need calories to give you fuel to perform your routines in the gym. Without enough energy, you wouldn't be able to finish enough sets or repetitions that are required in your program. You could even end up being hypoglycemic, which is dangerous to your health. Hypoglycemia is when your blood sugar levels drop too low, and one of the causes could be over-exercising when you haven't had enough food.
Another reason you need enough calories is for your body to be able to synthesize new muscle fibers. Remember that your muscle don't just grow on their own. There are mechanisms behind it, and the main driver of these mechanisms is energy. Without enough calories, your body won't have enough fuel to manufacture new muscle fibers when you've damaged your old muscle fibers during workout. Therefore, you can't expect any significant growth in size.
Do you know more tips on how to build muscle? Aside from calories, your body also needs enough proteins. Note that muscles are made up of amino acids which are sourced from proteins. If you don't have enough of this macronutrient in your diet, what will your body not have enough to use to build those new muscle fibers that increase your size. Aside from that, proteins also aid you in losing excess weight. There are many good sources of proteins, such as eggs, nuts, cottage cheese, whey, milk and of course, lean meat. For each pound of body weight, you 0.07 grams of protein.
There are also supplements that you can take for muscle growth such as chromium and ZMA (zinc monomethionine and aspartate and magnesium aspartate). However, keep in mind that supplements are never a substitute for real food. In fact, they are not essential to muscle-building, but they may help.
If you are serious about packing on muscles, you have to approach your goal from all possible angles. You go to the gym and perform your routines, take your rest because they're critical to muscle growth, and then you eat right. Eating right is not only about eating enough, but it is also about choosing what you eat. Read http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/inclusive_fitness.aspx to understand more about inclusive fitness.