There are a lot of Americans in this world who are looking for a way to look and feel strong and healthy. The problem is that not everyone knows how to get started and keep up the process of building a strong, healthy body. The use of proper nutrition and supplementation with high intensity training and a good amount of rest will be effective in building a strong and healthy looking body. Anyone can train with weights, but training with intensity is a whole different story. High intensity training gives better results from a good training program. A lot of people forget that proper nutrition provides the body with the fuel it needs to train effectively.
Another thing people do not recognize is that supplements are essential for the body, and they will also help give better results from high intensity training. And a person must also remember one cannot train with intensity without a good amount of rest. Rest and recovery is very important for muscles to grow and for increasing muscle strength. Building a strong and healthy body revolves around high intensity training, proper nutrition, supplementation, and rest and recovery. Any individual is capable of gaining not only physical but also mental strength.
In order to get any results out of a workout, it must be done with intensity. A longer, low intensity workout is much less effective because it will not be stimulating the muscles; it will be annihilating them. All exercises should be performed with intensity, resting only one minute between each set and two minutes between each exercise. Its not so much what exercises we do but rather how we do them that matters most. We must perform these exercises intensely to produce rapid results (DOrso and Phillips 58). In every intense workout there is a high point,and everyone has the skill to create a high point.
Hitting a high point in an intense workout is when the body is pushed to the extreme. Creating high points make people feel good about their workouts. When you develop the skill to intentionally create high points, you can not only experience more energy and greater success in life, you can also produce major results in minimal time, in any area (DOrso and Phillips 60). Nothing will be accomplished in a workout if he or she worries if free weights or machines are better. Free weights and machines both have advantages in a workout and both should be included in a workout (Cardena). As long as the exercise is performed with intensity, it does not matter if it is with a machine or a dumbbell.
Exercise selection is an important part of a good workout. A person should focus on only one or two exercises, that way more intense sets can be performed of that single exercise. Performing a small number of exercises enables you to perform many more sets, whereas the more exercises performed the less sets performed, which is not good (Cardena). There are three ranges of repetitions that should be included in a workout: to enhance strength, between one and five repetitions are performed; to enhance muscle power and growth, between six and twelve repetitions are performed; and to enhance muscle endurance, between twelve and fifteen repetitions are performed. The number of repetitions you do determines the intensity of your workout (Phillips, et al 298).
All three types of repetitions can be done in one exercise by performing multiple sets. High repetitions do not directly develop strength or mass, they contribute to the process by supporting strength and mass development (Phillips, et al 298). For a workout to be intense it should only take forty-five minutes. Although a ninety- minute workout may be more productive, it will not be nearly as intense as a short, brief workout. Very short sessions allow you to bust your butt with very high intensity (Phillips, et al 299).
Too much rest between sets will cause the muscles to cool off and add time to a workout. Short rest periods may limit the amount of weight used, but they force the body to fortify its recovery mechanisms, and they also take time off of a workout which gives more time for muscles to recover and grow (Phillips, et al 299). It should not take longer than a minute to perform each set. Each repetition has a tempo to be performed in each set; a positive, a negative, and a pause. Exercise tempo refers to the amount of time it takes to perform a repetition (Phillips, et al 300).
Every single workout that is performed should be planned out the night before so everything will go exactly how it should from beginning to end. If the workout is not planned out, a person will spend more time deciding what exercise to do or how many sets they will perform, rather than going to the gym, performing an intense workout, and getting out as quickly as possible. Before each workout you should know what exercises your going to do, how many sets, the number of reps, and how much weight your going to use (DOrso and Phillips 57). All workouts should be brief, intense, and highly effective.
The upper and lower body workouts should take less than four hours a week because too much exercise prevents results (Phillips, et al 38). The muscles do not grow during a workout; they are actually being damaged during a workout. According to a personal trainer at a local gym people should give their muscles three to five days to rest and repair to ensure proper recovery because the muscles are growing while they are being rested and relaxed (Cardena). A lot of rest is required in order to perform a high intensity workout. The most important part of putting the human body through an intense workout is feeding it the proper nutrition.
A person cannot reach a high point without eating right. Developing good eating habits will give a person much more satisfying results from an intense workout. Proper nutrition provides the raw materials your body must have to construct new skin cells, brain cells, muscle cells, bone cells, new blood, and even a new heart (DOrso and Phillips 50). Without good nutrition it is basically impossible for any kind of exercise to be effective.
The only way to get sufficient results out of a workout is to feed the body the proper nutrition it needs for everyday life. With a regular, intense, training program, and good nutrition, you can actually transform your body (Phillips 50). The body should be feed six times a day to develop a pattern for the body to get used to. And according to Phillips on the Internet, everyone should make sure theyre eating six quality nutritious meals and drinking ten glasses of water per day (Q&A).
Every day should have a plan of what is going to be eaten and when. Every meal a person eats is planned; never should a person just grab a bite to eat. Before we begin each day, well need to plan what were going to eat and when (DOrso and Phillips 51). By eating the proper nutrition every day, the body is actually re-creating itself. Without feeding the body with the right fuel the body will begin to lose muscle, gain fat, and feel sluggish. The process of re-creating the body begins with quality nutrition, when you nourish your body with pure energy, you transform from the inside out (DOrso and Phillips 81).
In order to look good and feel good for life, he or she needs an opportunity to feed the body intentionally, instead of eating accidentally. Eating quality nutrition is just as important as exercising intensely, and once you discover the right method of feeding your body, youll never have to relearn it (DOrso and Phillips 82). Protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats are important for the body, but water is more important for the body than anything else. Water transports many of the quality nutrients the body consumes into the muscles. Healthy muscle is comprised of more than 70 percent water (DOrso and Phillips 51). The body cannot transport nutrients without water, it will be hard to get any muscle growth and you could be the most dedicated exerciser and the most responsible eater, but if youre not drinking enough water, all the benefits from your hard work can go right down the drain (Griffith 164).
If protein is not included in a diet, it will be hard for an individual to get any results out of a workout, protein is absolutely necessary if you want to maximize your muscular gains(Zulak 125). Protein and carbohydrate intake should be spread out over all six meals, and under normal circumstances, protein serves a vital role in the maintenance, repair, and growth of the body tissue (Phillips, et al 257). With a good carbohydrate intake, the body will have energy in a high intense training session, and the muscles will look and feel more full. The muscles may become depleted by not eating enough carbohydrates, carbohydrates are very important because if your body doesnt have enough, it has to metabolize more protein (Phillips, et al 257). And it is hard to remember, but no matter how much people eat, they must drink as much water as possible. A combination of good, quality foods gives the body more ability to gain muscle mass and burn body fat.
All six meals a person eats should be balanced to get results from intense training. Each meal should be divided into thirds, consisting of protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables. This will help spread out the quality nutrients the body needs throughout the day. Each meal must contain a balance of protein, complex carbohydrates, and a quality vegetable in order for you to really get the most out of your weight training (Phillips, et al 259). Incomplete rest periods can cause the body to become overtrained. When participating in an intense workout the body needs at least eight hours of sleep: Without rest, over time the body cannot sufficiently recover, and it also makes it that much more difficult to consistently fit six meals into a persons busy schedule (Cardena).
Another important thing for the body is to take in as many calories as possible. Calories are important so the muscles do not give up any quality nutrients, if youre ingesting too few calories, youll not only lose muscle, youll also lose energy and endurance(Phillips, et al 258). Supplementation is another important aspect to building a strong and healthy body. There are three general categories of effects from supplements.
The first way a supplement might help you build muscle, lose fat, and improve your health is simply by making up for deficiencies, and if the body does not build muscle and burn fat properly it may be deficient in one or more nutrients (Phillips 14). Vitamin supplements are used to protect the body against nutrient deficiencies, which are taken every day of the year. If the body does not have a nutrient deficiency, not to worry, the body can still benefit from supplements. The second way a supplement can help the body is by providing a nutrient that is under-supplied to cells or not normally available in optimal levels in the diet, but not all regular foods provide the quality nutrients that the body needs because muscle cells require certain nutrients (Phillips 15).
A third mechanism by which a dietary supplement may work is when it produces a drug-like effect on cellar processes, which means that a supplement may not be required such as caffeine, but it can still have an effect on that cells normal function. Not all people will get positive effects from supplements because there are so many different supplements for so many different people. This is when foundation supplements come into the picture. Foundation supplements are essential to everyday life and essential nutrients are essential to life itself.
A foundation supplement is something you take all year and is usually an essential nutrient such as a vitamin, mineral, fatty acid, etc. and without essential nutrients, over time, the body will become weak and ill (Phillips, et al 222). Multivitamins, multi-minerals, and essential fatty acids should be consumed every day. We know there are approximately a dozen essential amino acids, a multitude of vitamins and minerals, and two essential fatty acids that must be obtained in order for the body to maintain proper bodily functions (Phillips, et al 223).
Linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid are the two essential fatty acids, and its virtually impossible to get optimal amounts of unprocessed essential fatty acids from our heavily processed food supply (Phillips, et al 224). Our food supply does not provide for many of the essential nutrients that our body needs every day. Specifically linoleic and alpha linolenic acids are considered essential because the body cannot manufacture them and must obtain them from outside sources (Romano 190). Then there are performance supplements that should be taken regularly to increase muscle strength and muscle growth. Whey protein, antioxidants, and creatine are examples of performance and health enhancing supplements.
Whey protein is great for muscle growth, but it may also improve immunity (Phillips, et al 225). A good protein supplement or high-quality meal-replacement product which includes whey protein is an important part of any supplement program but they are not needed to survive (Cardena). Antioxidants are important for the long-term health and muscle strength of the body. Some antioxidants are essential nutrients, but not all of them.
Antioxidants are a special class of vitamins and other non-vitamin compounds which neutralize free radicals, which means a broad range of diseases have been implicated, such as cancer, atherosclerosis, immune deficiency, and diabetes (Phillips, et al 225). Though it may be the best performance-enhancing supplement around, creatine isnt an essential nutrient, but that does not mean it cannot be taken all year long (Phillips, et al 225). Creatine puts lean mass on many people, increases strength, is not very expensive, and it is safe. Maximum results from an intense workout will not come without performance supplementation.
Without an intense workout, a person will not get any results by using supplements. Only those people training on the edge, looking for that extra 10-20 percent of growth that performance supplements can provide, will know how much a difference they can make (Costa, Horine, and Platz 131). The people who are really interested in getting results are the people who spend their money on supplements, and if you are training for maximum results, and are willing to settle for less, you will probably see little effect from supplements (Costa, Horine, and Platz 131). Supplements provide more nutrients to the body than most regular foods. A good diet is not enough to get maximum results out of an intense workout, and in order to get the necessary nutrients for maximum growth into your body, at a time when you really need them, you will need nutritional supplementation (Costa, Horine, and Platz 131). Rest and recovery is something important that provides maximum results to training, nutrition, and supplementation.
Not a lot of people pay too much attention to how important rest and recovery really is. Proper recovery from high intensity training will provide an increase for muscle growth and muscle strength. With a quick, brief, intense workout the muscles have a greater amount of time to recover. A person should allow three to five days for their body to fully recover from a high intensity workout. After a workout is the best time to consume performance supplements because the muscles are in a recovery state, but remember, it is between workouts that your body rebuilds itself. It is between workouts that your muscles repair themselves, growing stronger and firmer each time (DOrso and Phillips 40).
The ability to recover is very important for maintaining muscle growth. During a workout the muscle cells are damaged, and if you work out again before the muscles have had time to rebuild, you will short-circuit the recovery process: And thats not good (DOrso and Phillips 40). It is like trying to rebuild a building after it has been hit by an earthquake. Getting the proper amount of sleep will also provide for a large amount of muscle growth. The muscles and the body actually grow while it is sleeping. A person should get at least eight hours of sleep a night because if you do not allow for proper sleep, you will be cheating yourself of growth you would otherwise be getting (Cardena).
Without being fully rested it will be hard for a person to perform a workout with full intensity. The muscles will not grow and a person would not be getting maximum results from his or her training sessions. Not getting enough sleep will hinder your chances at maximum growth (Costa, Horine, and Platz 116). Even if the body is not being put through an intense workout it still needs the proper amount of sleep. Relaxation is an important part of the recovery process in order for the body to be capable of proper recovery. A person should relax immediately after an intense workout when recovery is most important.
There are many different ways of relaxing, the ability to relax after a workout, and to stay relaxed, is vital if you want to maximize recovery capabilities (Costa, Horine, and Platz 116). By relaxing, the muscles are given a chance to grow and develop the way they are suppose to and your body needs an opportunity to respond to the training stress it has received and time to transport vital nutrients to muscles for energy and development (Costa, Horine, and Platz 115). Another thing that contributes to helping the body recover faster is a good massage. Massage can speed recovery and enhance growth, relieves stress from a high intensity workout, and it can also prevent injuries during future workouts (Costa, Horine, and Platz 118). Overtraining is what will keep the body from proper recovery and achieving maximum results from intense training sessions. If a person trains the same muscle group two days in a row, the body will not recover properly and overtraining occurs when the body is stressed beyond its ability to recover (Cardena).
It may not seem correct, but more recovery than training is required for getting strong and staying strong. Your ability to recover will be a big factor in maintaining and increasing growth (Costa, Horine, and Platz 115). A person who does not know how to recover properly will fail to get results from intense training, that is why it is essential that you become familiar with techniques to enhance recovery from your workouts (Costa, Horine, and Platz 115). Building a strong and healthy body is not easy to accomplish.
A person must have the mental toughness to transform his or her body into a body for life. There is not one individual that can say he or she is not capable of being physically and mentally tough. Building a strong and healthy body takes more than just exercise. It starts with a high intensity training program, which will only be effective with proper nutrition, the use of performance-enhancing supplements, and the proper amount of rest.
All it takes is a commitment and a little know-how to put these four pieces together for a quality program to build the best-looking body ever.
