Carbohydrate manipulation is perhaps the most important nutritional aspect of the bodybuilding diet, in all phases of bodybuilding competition and growth. Let’s learn more about the body’s carbohydrate needs during off-season, pre-contest, and post-contest recovery periods.

Off-season
All bodybuilders start in this phase. When the decision is made to gain muscle, a decision is made to seriously bump up the calories. Carbohydrates play a major role in this process. You can’t let your fat levels get too high, because you don’t want to get fat, and because you wish to preserve your cardiovascular health. Likewise, you can’t let your protein levels get too high (500 grams daily or above) without placing your kidneys and other organs at serious risk. For this reason, the only remaining source of calories (needed for growth) is carbohydrates. In the off-season, depending upon your bodyweight, metabolism, and body fat levels, carbohydrate levels can get as high as 3000 calories (750 grams of carbohydrates daily).

Pre-contest
Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy used by the body. When the body is faced with some tough task – say, 45 minutes of cardiovascular training – it will automatically burn any local carbohydrate (sugar) sources first. This includes the food in your stomach and the glycogen stored in your muscle cells. It is only after these sources of carbohydrate are no longer available that stored body fat is burned for energy. This is why most bodybuilding diets involve restricted carbohydrates and cardio completed on an empty stomach upon rising in the morning.

“The Bounce”
Following a bodybuilding competition, it’s definitely time to give the body some much-needed rest. Since you’ve probably deprived yourself of a desired level of carbohydrates for several months, there is a fairly good chance you will want to gorge yourself on some delicious foods following the show. This can be dangerous for several reasons. Some bodybuilders gain 15 to 35 pounds in only one week following bodybuilding shows, thanks to massive binging. Additionally, several of the body’s systems can be adversely affected by spiked sugar levels. Have a nice delicious meal, but don’t overdo it.

A word about protein
Protein levels should remain constant throughout the year. You need approximately 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. If you’re a 220-pound bodybuilder, you should be consuming 350 to 450 grams of protein per day. This applies in all phases – off-season, pre-contest, the bounce, and any other lay-offs. Carbohydrate intake is manipulated for energy requirements and to manipulate body fat levels. Protein should remain constant all year, if you wish for your muscle levels to remain constant as well.

If you’re using a Ketogenic diet for pre-contest nutrition, your requirements will change accordingly. Additionally, those bodybuilders who use anabolic steroids will be able to assimilate 100 to 150 grams more protein daily, based upon bodyweight and receptor response. Any bodybuilder introducing the potentially dangerous use of insulin to his AAS cycle should complete additional research on carbohydrate levels and requirements, as going too low on carb intake while taking insulin can result in death.

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com

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We all know the eternal off-season, forever bulking bodybuilder who is constantly talking about how he’ll crush the competition, once he diets down and gets in shape. Very often, this bodybuilder will just talk about it for years and never actually follow through with the diet. However, when he does, he often does well in his first show, as those years of carrying that much bulk have led to a pretty solid foundation of muscle. If you’re one of those “permabulkers”, or guy in the gym carrying twenty extra pounds of “bulk”, it might be time to check out your body fat levels to determine if you’re carrying too much fat, and possible hampering your progress.

Optimal body fat/hormone range
Most experts agree that 10 to 12% body fat is the most effective range for managing the highest testosterone levels with the lowest estrogen levels. Hitting 20% body fat and beyond often leads to a nasty case of gyno which could require surgery to correct.

Quality of diet
Twenty grams of fat consumed in the course of eating a steak is going to be much better for muscle building purposes than 20 grams of fat consumed from a pack of Twinkies. Eat a lot of food to bulk up – but make it clean food! Steak, chicken, fish, pasta, rice, and vegetables are all good bodybuilding foods. And don’t forget about milk – nothing adds muscle to the body like milk!

Natural vs. AAS user
If you use anabolic steroids, you are probably already aware of just how easy it is to maintain “low-ish” body fat levels when on AAS. With many steroids, your body becomes a furnace, more efficiently burning up calories. Additionally, new muscle fibers require more maintenance calories. Guys like Jay Cutler – at 280+ pounds of muscle – need 4000 calories per day just to maintain the muscle they have. Granted, your needs will be less. But the more muscle you gain, the most calories you will burn without doing any activity.

Stimulants
While you may enjoy the high levels of energy and focus (and great 6-pack abs) that the use stimulants like Clenbuterol or the ECA stack (ephedrine, caffeine, aspirin) deliver, they also limit muscle growth. Limit their use to short cycles in the pre-contest cycles. If you are currently addicted to caffeine for workouts (either using caffeine pills or energy drinks) the time is now to cut back their use. Your gains will increase as your body’s cortisol levels decrease.

Sleep
Seven hours of sleep is an absolute minimum for bodybuilders looking to add mass in the off-season. A nap of 30 to 60 minutes, following a workout and a nice big meal, is even more optimal for releasing natural growth hormone while giving the body time to recover. Remember, we don’t grow in the gym. We get a pump in the gym, but that’s just blood flowing and muscle fibers tearing. It’s during the night – when sleeping – that the body releases growth hormone and the muscles are able to develop.

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com

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Ask any bodybuilder who has sustained a leg injury – intermediate or professional – and they’ll all likely tell you the same thing. There was a small warning sign. Perhaps some soreness or stiffness in the region was present. Or, maybe they felt something just not feeling right. Many major leg injuries are precipitated by smaller pains. If a bodybuilder is able to recognize these signals and immediately halt the workout – and seek medical attention if necessary.

Soreness in the region during warm-up
If a muscle group is sore during warm-up, think back to the activities you were involved in earlier that week which may have led to this soreness. If it’s just stiffness, you should be able to work through it. Perhaps you had to sit in a boring seminar for eight hours the day before. Or, perhaps your legs aren’t quite healed from the cardio 2 or 3 days before. Soreness isn’t a huge problem, and you can usually work through it with extra stretching and a medium-intensity workout.

Immediate “crick” in knee
There are times in the gym where you just don’t warm up adequately, and upon completing your first set of squats, you feel a small ‘crick’ in the knee. These pains are often warning signs that something is out of place and you are about to sustain a much larger injury, if you place maximum weight load upon the joint. Step back, train another body part, and return to train legs in 2 to 4 days.

Shooting pain in muscle group at any time during workout
If at any time during your workout you experience any kid of shooting pain, it’s time to end the workout. You may have punched a nerve, or you may have simply strained something. Whatever the cause of the shooting pain, further lifting will only make it worse.

The Snap
Two years ago, Arnold Classic winner Victor Martinez was training chest when he felt a small tear in his pectoral muscle. For most bodybuilders, a torn pec is almost a career-ender. And most bodybuilders tend to pray, ignore, and pretend the pec isn’t torn, hoping their career isn’t over. Instead of taking that path, Vic Martinez immediately sought medical attention from industry professional Heather Green, who was able to fix the very small pectoral tear before it developed into something which harmed the visual appearance of his pectoral. If you feel something ‘snap’ or ‘pop’ during a workout, it should be obvious that your workout for the day is over. Don’t try to test the muscle group. Don’t try to work through it. Slowly walk to your car, making an assessment of what has happened to what muscle group in your leg. Remember that since many injuries start small, you may be about to trigger a much larger injury.

Dedication and devotion to the gym is one thing. Injuring yourself further by ignoring signs of a serious injury is quite another. Don’t derail yourself from weeks or months of training by sustaining an avoidable injury. Train smart, and at the first sign of an injury, halt the workout and consider medical attention.

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com

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Immune system is the single most important factor not only in bodybuilding, but in life as well. In life, our bodies survive just as long as it takes for our immune systems to allow some free radicals to create toxicity, which leads to cancer. If we could keep our immune systems strong enough, we would live decades longer. In the gym, it’s very similar. When we lift weights, we put our bodies in a state of stress. The muscles release toxins as a byproduct of our lifting. We can create growth by answering these deficiencies through diet and rest.

There are some nutrient windows which exist around traumatic events to our immune systems which should be further explored if you wish to not only be a successful bodybuilder, but live a healthy life as well. The use of carbohydrates, particularly in a quick delivery system such as Gatorade, can give the immune system a boost, if they are delivered at the right time. Let’s address a common misconception and learn the most effective time to administer carbohydrates in relation to a workout.

Pre-workout carbohydrate supplementation
Studies have shown that carbohydrate drinks before a workout provide no stimulation to the immune system. There isn’t a way to “pre-empt” the damage about to be done to cells due to tough workouts.

During-workout carbohydrate supplementation
The data is sketchy here – but it may benefit you to play it safe and consume a Gatorade/water mix during your workout. It is reasonable to believe if drinks are beneficial after a workout when the damage is done, that they would be more and more beneficial to your immune system as the workout goes one, and more and more damage is done. In other words, if carbs are highly useful when your workout is complete and you’ve done 20 sets, wouldn’t they be somewhat useful after you’ve completed 10 sets as well?

Carbohydrate supplementation after a workout
Improved immune system function can arise from consuming a carbohydrate drink immediately following a workout. Even better would be a mixture of protein and a sugary drink. The immune system has certainly been disrupted, and your body is in a state of damage. Instead of letting these free radicals roam your system looking for cells to destroy, deliver carbs to your body to provide the immune system with the means to destroy them.

Sleep, diet, supplementation and intelligent training go a long way in ensuring the immune system is able to function at its highest capacity. Always get at least 7 hours per sleep each night, with at least 30 minutes of relax time each day. Eat enough calories so that your body is not continually in either a state of overall caloric deprivation, or macronutrient deprivation, should you lack carbs, protein or fats. Use vitamin C at the conclusion of your workout, and again before bed. Vitamin E should also be taken twice daily. Finally, look into the use of Acia berry and other anti-oxidant rich foods which can boost the immune system. The goal of the bodybuilder is to gain muscle – and stimulating the immune system to recover faster will ensure you build a great deal more muscle!

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com

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For the sake of your health and your bodybuilding career, you should train in a natural way. This saves you the strain of having to dodge anti-narcotic agents once you see them around the corner. If you expose your body to these illegal substances, you are exposing t to something more than the harmful effects that come with their use – dependence. When your body becomes dependent on a certain substance, it becomes difficult for it to resort to normal operation without serious alterations to the way you live your life. You may, for example, have to go to rehabilitation in order to shrug of the dependence on steroids.

When you use substances which provoke your body to actions which go beyond the norm, you are exposing yourself to dangers such as breaking your bones, tearing your muscles and generally, increased frequency of accidents especially in the earliest stages of use. You may luckily pass this stage and ultimately achieve your goal of a getting six pack. But the problems will not stop there. There are sometimes serious bodily defects to live with. It all depends on whether these defects are acceptable to as the price of an admirable physique. If this is the case, natural bodybuilding is not for you.

When you build your body in the natural way, your body adjusts itself naturally to the exercises you are doing, in a natural way. The body gets the right method and before you know it, you are on a natural course to getting a bodybuilder’s appearance. This is a good practice because you can keep the level of your physical development to manageable levels unlike in unnatural bodybuilding methods.

Every time you work out you make an honest attempt to make your body operate in a way which is not harmful at all. In this way you can rest in the assurance that the fruits of your labor are genuine and as such you have nothing to fear.

You can test the response of your muscles when you engage in natural bodybuilding. In other methods, you just won’t have such an opportunity. In fact all you need to do is sit back and watch some funny chemicals do some chemistry for you. This is a good way for a lazy person to get things done but it is not a proud way to live or to keep fit.

A training program will save you from the lure of going for the easy option. The trick lies in cultivating a sense of enjoyment, which is not very difficult to cultivate anyway. A good example of a source of enjoyment is the angle experiment. Different angles will stretch different muscles and muscle groups. After some minutes of preliminary trials, soreness will creep in and soon you will lose interest until the following day. But afterwards, you will find as if there are no upward limits to the inventions you can make using your body muscles. This illustrates the joys of natural bodybuilding. Add this to stress management principles and bodybuilding can’t get any better that this.

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com

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Potassium is a mineral that is very much important. It is an electrolyte that is found within the cells of a muscle and it works very closely to sodium in regulating the levels of body water. Potassium also plays a much critical role through facilitating what may be termed as body electrical potentials through the nerves and the muscle cells and the end result is usually muscle contraction. Glycogen storage is also a major role that potassium plays and this is relevant in bodybuilding since it is the storage of energy used for high muscular intensity.

A balance in sodium potassium is equally important since ones it fails the fluid levels in the body are compromised and this is a danger to healthy bodybuilding. The end result may be muscle cramps, dehydration or general weakness and all these compel one to a bed rest or quitting bodybuilding. Potassium intake is normally not a problem for many since the foods that hold this mineral are sweet and available, however great concern falls on the individual bodybuilder to make sure that they learn more on the role of the mineral and its availability from the respective consumed types of food.

Copper is another important mineral in bodybuilding, this is because it helps to transport oxygen as well as the mode in which it is utilized. Of late the mineral has proved to be vital than before, this is because of the research currently carried by specialists that were never present in the former times. Enzymatic reactions are said to be processed by copper and therefore it remains a vital mineral. When a body builder has intense exercise, copper still remains the key to all this. The reason being that, the mineral increases in the levels of bloodstream when the process intensifies therefore allowing a direct control of muscular contractions. However, in copper consumption checks and balances are important in order to avoid any inconvenience.

Another key mineral is Vanadium. The term may be complicated since it is not commonly used but in bodybuilding it is a major feature. It is referred to as the non electrolyte mineral and of late it has been much recognized in bodybuilding. The relevance of the mineral is on blood cell increase. It is a kind of a salt and this mineral has a sulfate that enhances oxygen distribution from the blood cells and therefore increase energy delivered from the tissues. The only problem arises because there has never been a clear understanding of the mineral with the relevance in its effects to any bodybuilder. All that is important is to know that, it enhances the body’s theoretical mechanism and therefore its consumption is very important in bodybuilding.

Finally, iron is also essential in bodybuilding. It is responsible in transporting oxygen to all parts of the body. Therefore it brings a recovery process through energizing the tissues after workouts. To female bodybuilders, this mineral is far much essential than to male since the earlier looses a lot of the mineral during their natural processes and therefore replacing this mineral is important. But always understand that whatever the gender iron must be taken to substantial amounts to enhance proper body building.

Whatever the mineral, anyone should understand their importance and the amounts in which they should be consumed and proper information on the same should be sought before any usage in bodybuilding.

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com

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