Fitness Training Today
Fitness / Wellness

Banishing Misconceptions about Vegetarian Body Building

Written on January 24, 2010 – 2:34 am by Terry

Who says that you need to eat meat in order to succeed in body building? Vegetarians are not the stereotypical thin and gaunt images that you see portrayed in some public arenas.  Rather with complete understanding about nutrition, you can create a diet chock full of healthy essentials that could help support your vegetarian body building. There are many misconceptions about vegetarians which is the reason why many people don’t associate them with body building.


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Proteins Can Be a Problem


Many people believe that without eating the flesh of an animal, you will not be able to get enough protein and other essential nutrients. That is simply not true when it comes to vegetarian body building as you can easily get proteins from other food sources. Soy products, beans, various grains, eggs and dairy product provide plenty of muscle building proteins.


Of course, many vegetarian body building athletes are drink supplemental shakes with whey protein as well as other important vitamins and minerals like zinc, vitamin B12, iron and more.




While meat can provide those items, it doesn’t provide enough for the minimum daily allowances for body builders. The same applies with other foods that contain those essential vitamins and minerals. Supplements are important to get enough of the essentials that are lacking in any diet, vegetarian or not.


Cannot Build Strength or Muscle Mass


Vegetarians actually have a better chance of increasing their strength and size while on their meat-free diet. Vegetarian body building means exactly that – building muscle mass and strength based on a diet filled with fruits, vegetables and whole grains.


Eating meats can actually slow down your metabolism because it takes so much energy to digest it whereas with a vegetarian diet, your body actually speeds up its digestion.


Vegetarian body building means being creative with meals to ensure that you have plenty of vitamins and minerals represented in the foods you eat. Many body builders who abstain from meat have consulted with nutritionists to ensure that their diet as well as supplements provides what is needed to maintain and grow muscle mass.


Vegetarianism Not Healthy


Vegetarianism is actually quite healthy as seen by the much lower cholesterol and blood sugar counts that many vegetarian body building athletes can attest to! Many meats, even the lean ones have the presence of “bad” cholesterol or LDL which can raise cholesterol and therefore, blood pressure. In addition, trans fats and saturated fats are almost a thing of the past when dropping meat from the menu.


All the foods that vegetarians eat along with some supplemental items can more than provide all of the vitamins and minerals that your body needs to succeed at vegetarian body building.


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What Is A Body Building Muscle Supplement?

Written on January 23, 2010 – 7:09 am by Terry

If you walk through any health or nutrition shop you will notice that there is a tremendous number of body building muscle supplement products on store shelves. The sheer volume of products is overwhelming and their popularity is quite strong.




While many people are familiar with the fact that these products exist, they may not be aware of how these body building muscle supplement products work. Unfortunately, because these products are in such fierce competition with one another they have a tendency to employ a ton of over the top advertisement campaigns so as to stand out in the marketplace.


Unfortunately, a number of these ad campaigns leave the false impression that there is a miracle out there that will maximize one’s ability to grow muscle.


The Truth


First, what must clearly be understood about these supplements is that no body building muscle supplement is a miracle product. There is no product that will magically burn fat and enhance muscle growth while eliminating that pesky need for working out.


Sure, there are a number of products with wild over the top ad campaigns that make these grandiose promises, but these products are less than honest and even less successful in terms of actually delivering what they promise.


The products out there that fall into the body building muscle supplement category are essentially one of two things known as mass gainers and whey protein supplements. A mass gainer is a drink that provides a massive amount of calories in liquid shake form so as to help someone who is having difficulty gaining weight the ability to gain weight without packing on fat.


What whey protein does is that it provides the body with quality protein so as to aid in the repair and growth of muscle after a solid exercise program. While this description of these products may make them sound mundane, it is also an accurate assessment.


Again, there is no body building muscle supplement that can provide any miracles so avoid looking for them. Instead, keep your feet grounded to the earth and look for those products that provide an honest and sensible result.


These products are not necessarily expensive and are generally quite effective. Of course, some brands are a little better than others and then there will also be issues of personal taste involved in the selection that you make. But ultimately if you stick with legitimate products you will achieve the results that you desire.


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The Two Main Body Building Programs Explained

Written on January 19, 2010 – 7:51 pm by Terry

Body building is a sport many people are not entirely familiar with mainly because they generally only hear about the results of contests and generally not about the actually training that is involved in such preparation for the contests.




Additionally, most people work out in gyms to keep in shape and generally follow the same workout all year round. When one is training for a body building competition there will be a need for two separate body building programs in order to achieve the ability to enter a contest.


These two phases will be clearly examined and explained herein. The body building programs are the off-season phase, the pre-contest phase and the contest phase.


Off Season Phases


The off season phase involves body building programs that center on mass building. That is to say, during this phase the goal is to get as huge as humanly possible and not worry so much about definition. Now, this weight gain must be primarily muscle because packing on excess fat will not do anyone any good.


It will simply make the pre-contest cycle significantly more difficult and that is a self-defeating venture. So, instead one needs to watch diet closely and to perform a significant volume of mass building exercises. That means the primary exercises to be performed during this phase will involve serious compound exercises such as military presses, bench presses, etc. This cycle usually runs several months and requires much consistency in order to effectively be undertaken.


Pre-Contest Contest Phases


The pre-contest phase is usually refers to the six to eight weeks that precede a competition and involve a “shredding” process where the goal to be achieved is definition of the muscles. This involves a significant amount of isolation exercises that target single body parts as well as a great deal of cardio…repeat…a great deal of cardio. Of course, the other area of consideration that is critical during this phase is diet.


Often, when people think of body building programs they often think of exercises as opposed to the quality diet that is the epicenter of all body building programs. No matter how hard a person works out or how much time they invest in exercise, all work will be completely thrown out the window if a poor and sloppy diet is employed. As such, it is critical not to eat poor quality foods or to eat any type of food at levels of excess that could prove self defeating.


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