Proving Something To Yourself

The major benefits of body building should be obvious to just about anyone, with the fact that physical power is always highly coveted. Strong men have always been respected and held in awe, as far back at least as Samson in Biblical times. But often someone who takes up body building is not thinking about being held in awe. In fact many are thinking just the opposite, wanting people simply to stop thinking of them as a twelve-stone weakling. Showing that you can do what it takes to become physically strong and powerful takes work – but it is work that carries its own reward.

There are many practical situations in which the ability to lift something heavy, or simply to move something large, is of major importance. But shifting a mental block is at least as valuable. Many of us underestimate just how physically strong we are, and how much potential we have, and as far as proving it goes there is no better way than training to a point where we are capable of physical achievements that would be beyond many.

Most of us would love to be capable of things that we watch happening on television week in and week out. Many of the most popular sports feature individuals who have trained to the point where they are capable of pushing another (pretty large) human being backwards at a high speed. Gridiron and rugby – two of the major sports in their countries of origin, would be impossible without the muscle bound guys who don’t always get the credit – but are invariably favorites with the fans.

Practical Reasons for Body Building

When people look at body builders, there is often a suggestion that the word “vanity” is never far from their minds. After all, it is pretty much impossible to be a body builder without it being fairly obvious. Even in a suit that covers up all the muscles, a long term body builder can often be hard to distinguish from a moving wall. But to assume that vanity is behind most people taking up body building would be unfair, and simply massively inaccurate. There are many practical reasons why you would consider taking it up.

Quite apart from any competitive considerations, there is the fact that for most of us, situations will occur that necessitate a bit (or a lot) of heavy lifting. As well built as some of us may be naturally, heavy lifting still takes it out of you. But if you have been working on the exact muscle groups that are required for the job, then you will be in a good position to get through such a task with a minimum of sweat. In fact, people will often pay you to do it for them. If you have been working those muscles for years, that’s pretty close to money for nothing.

Being able to lift and move heavy items is something that comes up again and again, if you are moving house for example. The simple thought of doing such a thing is enough to bring many individuals out in a cold sweat. Those muscles may provoke envy in many, but they can also win you a bunch of respect.

Competition

You can do more or less anything competitively these days. There are competitions for things that maybe half a century ago would have been unimaginable in a competitive context, and as time goes on the field increases in size. But it should come as no surprise that among the things you can do competitively in body building. It is something that has clearly definable and measurable results. And it fits in well with a competitive spirit, as it is something towards which you can train and put in a whole lot of effort.

If you are a relative novice to body building, there are competitions for the newcomer which are probably the best choice if you are feeling competitive. The guys who have been competing for years are liable to make anyone feel somewhat daunted and even a little bit discouraged. The one thing that must sit as a caveat for any potential competitor is that it is not a pursuit for a shrinking violet. In order to demonstrate the success of your body building regime it is necessary to pull some poses that would make the average person blush. But if you have been working on your physique and got it to a level that you’re happy with, why would you not show it off?

Most areas have regional competitions, and if you do well enough there there are many levels above that to which you can graduate. Perhaps someone reading this might go on to be another Mr Universe!

A Sense of Accomplishment

The benefits of body building for a physical boost are clear and proven. No-one can deny that there is a lot to be gained from a physical aspect from training well and putting in the effort required to build your muscles. But less attention is paid to the beneficial effects that training can have on a more personal level. Treating a body building regime as a personal project will see to it that you gain a sense of accomplishment at each step along the way – something which cannot be underestimated in terms of importance. The benefits of having a sense of personal accomplishment are well recognised, and there are many of them.

A good body building regime will contain a number of goals that you need to attain to keep the process on schedule and effective. In reaching these goals you will give yourself a well-deserved sense of accomplishment that will in turn drive you on to achieve more and hit higher goals. This sense of accomplishment transfers into everything you do, and when life presents you with challenges it gives you something to call upon that shows you do not fall back when life gives you something to take on.

There are so many reasons why body builders take up training. Some will do it competitively, some just for their own personal intentions. Whatever the reason it cannot be denied that a successful body building regime has many other effects beyond the building of muscles. It is up to you what your motivating factors will be, but personal achievement cannot be underestimated among the possibles.

Keeping in Shape

Although body building is principally seen as something largely cosmetic – there is not a heck of a lot of practical reason for having arms wider than a small tree – there are reasons beyond the aesthetic effects of it for sticking to a regime. Not least of these is that a good body building regime can have a knock-on effect on your general good health. As long as it is a measured and defined program, a body building regime can be one of the best things you ever do on the auspices of good health.

Your heart requires exercise. One of the most frequent contributory factors in a heart attack or heart disease is a sedentary lifestyle. As much fun as it may be sitting on a couch watching television and eating nachos, it does not make a recipe for a long life. It will also give you less chance of successfully running for a bus. By training often and well, you will lose the fat that makes your energy levels so low.

Additionally, staying in shape will allow you to do so much more. If you have kids, being able to join in their games is something on which you cannot put a price. Kids seem to have boundless energy, and if you do not have an exercise regime to keep you in shape, their energy will seem unmatchable. Being able to keep up with them will allow you to play more of a part in their games, and make parenthood all the more enjoyable.

Use the right equipment

If you were digging a hole, and the spade you were using had a shaky handle and a broken blade, you would take a lot longer to dig that hole than a guy with a well-made, new spade. If you were trying to play a guitar and it only had five strings, then you would not get such a great sound out of it as a guy with a new Fender. So when it comes to body building, there is something to be said for using new, efficient equipment. It may cost more than second-hand, and you could buy some cheaper weights, but would the saving justify the use of the poorer equipment?

Badly designed weights can work muscles in the wrong way. The advantage that you gain with better equipment is that, for the same amount of work, they give you far more than basic or poor equipment. There is little point in cutting corners when it comes to training – all that will happen is that you will struggle at some point down the line and you will regret it. At that point you may decide to upgrade your equipment – and all you will have done is delay the spending, incurred some extra and held yourself back.

Instead of this, ask someone who knows you, and who knows training what kind of equipment you should go for. Working with the right equipment is worth the effort and the cost, and will save you money in the long run. There is no point at all in half-measures where training is concerned.

If You’re Injured, Find Something Else

Training to gain the shape that you have always wanted makes for an intensive regime of hard work and effort. You can never be in too good of a shape, so it is important to maintain a quality training regime, and it’s the word “quality” that is important. Quality wins out over quantity, every time. The key here is that if you get injured, you do not dwell on how it is keeping you from training. You have to accept that training must wait for a time when you can do it effectively, and in the mean time find something else to do.

If you are sitting about getting wound up about how you want to get back in the gym, then you will not be effective when you get back in there. All that will happen is you will take the first sign of recovery as a green light to get back in the gym and the training you will do once there will be a great deal less effective than it would be under normal circumstances. Efficiency and quality are the watchwords, remember. As much as you may want to get back in the game, realise that there is little point in training at half of your potential.

Find another way to fill your time – it doesn’t really matter what that is. It could be something slow paced like gardening, or anything else. Something that keeps your mind occupied is the key. If you are left idle, your mind will wander right back to the gym – and you will follow it there, which will not help.

Learn to Take a Break

Getting into the gym to work out and build one’s muscles up is a highlight of the week for many of us, no matter how many times a week we do it. It can allow us to work through the tension of the rest of the week, give us time to think things through while also expending some energy. It would not be going too far to suggest that there are many of us who view training as an indispensable part of our weekly routine. However, a training regime does need to have breaks built into it if it is ever going to be effective and worthwhile.

The benefits of training regularly are proven. It would be easy to conclude from this that any time spent training makes those benefits all the greater, and within a certain limit this is true. But for training to have the long term effect that we are looking for it will be necessary for you to take regular breaks in order to kick back and relax. Going at a hundred miles per hour all the time will have one result only – burn-out. The ill-effects of that are worse than not training at all.

If you simply live to train, you will miss the opportunity to get things out of life that effect you positively on a mental and physical front. When you are relaxed and happy, the body releases chemicals that you need in order to keep an upbeat mentality. Without that mentality, any setback in your training regime may well be met with resentment and anger, and the result will be poor or non-existent training sessions.

Don’t Get Carried Away

Enthusiasm is a valuable part of the body builder’s make up. There are times for all of us when going to the gym may feel like a hassle that we can do without, but in sticking to a regime that has been designed for a purpose, we get a lot closer to the purpose in question and benefit as a result. A stop-start regime will mean that you are always going back over old ground, and the first part of any training regime even post-warm up will be devoted to regaining muscle tone rather than adding it. So if you can motivate yourself to get in there and go for it, half the battle is won.

Equally it is important to bear in mind that enthusiasm can have its costs if it is unbridled. Spending time in the gym is vital for getting into shape, but it is equally true to say that you can spend too much time in the gym, or try to fit too much work into the time that you spend there. The effect of this is that they will cause themselves an injury, or at least make a continued regime a lot more difficult than it should have been. Having some mobility is important, and by building up too much muscle you can compromise your own mobility.

The answer is to design a routine with some space to relax written into it. On doing this, you will give yourself something realistic to stick to, with results you can monitor and learn from.

Steroids

Although illegal in athletic competition, the use of steroids is not illegal per se. Amateur body builders – and in some jurisdictions, the professionals too – are free to use whatever aids they need to use. That being the case, many people will have no qualms about reaching for the medicine cabinet to make things easier and even more efficient. There is no question, however, that steroids can only give so much because they borrow from what you already have. The damage that can result from this is a very good reason to think long and hard before deciding to use steroids.

One has only to look at the highly publicised cases of some high-profile individuals to see what damage steroids can do. More than one professional athlete has died as a result of the long-term effects of steroids, as the extra boost that they give can put an undue strain on the heart and other internal organs. Even upon retirement, the effects that the use of steroids can cause will mean that a user needs to be very careful with the effects of artificial help. And this is before we get to the famed effects of “roid rage”, which can turn an otherwise placid individual into a person given to bouts of unprovoked anger.

In the end, it is up to the individual if they want to use steroids to get the boost that takes their training to the next level. But ask any doctor and they will tell you that there are huge downsides to relying on the effects of steroids, against a short-term, superficial upside.

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