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It’s true, abs are built in the kitchen. Follow the 5 rules to eat right for the bodybuilding beginners and make the most of your workouts.

Finally,  you have made the first move towards a healthier lifestyle and got yourself a gym membership. However, all that hard work in the gym is not going to show any result if your diet is not right.  Know what to eat and when to support strenuous workouts and build the body of your dreams.

1. EAT RIGHT FOODS BEFORE  YOU WORKOUT

Will you run your car on an empty fuel tank? No. Similarly, if you don’t eat the right foods before exercise, you are going to feel fatigued and light headed due to low blood sugar, during your workout. Naturally, this will not let you push your limits in the gym. The ideal diet before a work out is light, nutritious and a mix of carbs, preferably complex and proteins to maximize your energy and workout intensity. Choose light and nutritious foods like oats, brown bread, egg whites, fruits along with milk or yoghurt to get a generous dose of carbs and proteins. Always remember to have your pre-workout foods 30 minutes before you exercise.

If you are a morning workout person, bananas are for you. Loaded with potassium and digestible carbohydrates, bananas work as nature’s snack bar and provide the right fuel for the workout. 

2. DIET AFTER WORKOUT

Your body stores surplus carbs in the form of glycogen in your muscles. When you work-out, your body first burns pre-workout foods for energy, then it breaks down glycogen reserve. A nutrient rich post workout meal is critical to restock glycogen reserve and supply essential nutrients to worn out joints and bones. To restock the depleted glycogen reserve, you need to eat enough carbohydrates to trigger the release of insulin, an anabolic hormone, responsible for shuttling carbohydrates and amino acids into the muscle. Research shows that 0.8g carbs and 0.4g proteins/per kg of body weight maximizes glycogen synthesis, protein repair and helps stay in a positive nitrogen balance. 

The right post workout foods include oats, with fruits and milk, scrambled eggs and fresh fruits, whey smoothie, greek yoghurt with fruits and protein bars. Twice the protein content than regular yoghurt, greek yoghurt provides a double dose of amino acids to your muscle tissues. Get your nutrition within 45-60 minutes of your workout for improved recovery and muscle synthesis. If you sweat heavily or your exercise lasts longer than 60 minutes, an isotonic post workout drink will help you replenish your lost electrolytes and energize you quicker than plain water. 

3. MORE IS MERRIER

If you have been eating three large meals during the day, now is the time to change. Jim Stoppani, sports scientist recommends the calorie intake in beginner bodybuilder is 20-22 calories per pound of body weight. This means a 150-pound bodybuilding beginner will need approximately 3000 -3300 calories per day. A recent study in the Journal of Applied Physiology has found that spacing out meals in 6 smaller meals with 20g protein helps subjects lose body fat, build lean muscle mass with or without training. The diet for beginner bodybuilder should include frequent feedings since after three to four hours of no food the body switches to a catabolic state (a state in which you lose muscle and gain fat!). The body believes that it is starving and it starts feeding itself on lean muscle tissue and it prepares to store calories as fat. 

4. HOW MUCH PROTEIN FOR BODYBUILDING BEGINNERS

Workout causes muscle tissues to degrade and protein in your diet allows newer and heavier muscles to construct than in ordinary circumstances. A 2007 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that muscle size increases 0.2 percent per day, over and above the simultaneous high protein breakdown, during the first 20 days of a strength-training program. If you are starting out in muscle building or are returning after a lay off you will need more protein than a weight room warrior who is almost near his genetic ceiling for strength and size.

Most research studies recommend protein intake for beginner bodybuilders at 0.75g/lb body weight. The point to note is that with an increase in your training age, your optimal protein intake will go down.  As your body becomes efficient at preventing protein breakdown lesser protein is required for building the smaller amount of muscle after each training session.

Along with the amount of protein, it is equally important, how protein is spaced out in your meals. A 2014 study in the Journal of Nutrition shows that muscle protein synthesis increases by 25 percent if it is spaced out evenly at each meal.  Whey protein supplement after a training session and in-between meals is an effective method to remain in a positive nitrogen balance. A slow-digesting protein, like cottage cheese, keeps amino acids trickling throughout and does not let you go protein hungry. 

5. DRINK AMPLE WATER FOR MUSCLE GAINS

Did you know the much-touted protein comprises only 20 percent of your muscle tissue and water plus minerals constitute remaining 80 percent? Therefore, men and women on anabolism trail, say ‘bottoms up’ to the good-old water bottle.

Though, water is a zero calorie drink, it is an important medium wherein energy reactions take place. Therefore, if your body is dehydrated, these energy reactions will suffer. This will cause fatigue and reduce performance, especially during intense workouts.  The standard guideline for drinking water lies between 3.5 to 7 litres for muscle building champions.

Nourish your body with the right foods and be consistent with your workouts. Patience and perseverance will reward you with a sculpted body.

Glutamine, a non-essential amino acid or an active partner in your lean muscle gains! What is the status, you wonder? Actually both, yet most muscle building aspirants are unsure and ignore this critical muscle building supplement, thereby missing a chance to speed up post-exercise recovery and quicken muscle synthesis!

To begin with, glutamine is a non-essential amino acid. Your body produces it naturally to provide fuel (nitrogen and carbon) to many different cells in the body.  Sixty percent of glutamine is stored in the skeletal muscle and the rest is found in the lungs, liver and stomach. Under normal circumstance, the human body can produce more than enough glutamine required. However, when the body experiences stress caused by illnesses like common cold, burns or surgery, supplemental glutamine becomes necessary.

GLUTAMINE: YOUR MUSCLE BUILDING FRIEND

Naturally, glutamine is found in beans, poultry, fish and dairy products. It is predominantly used for fuel by the small intestines, immune system, hair follicles and the gastrointestinal tract. Glutamine is the most abundant single amino acid found in the blood stream. In the past couple of years, research studies have emphasized the role of glutamine in muscle building. It’s the most important component of muscle protein and helps repair and build muscles.

In fitness enthusiasts, glutamine becomes significant as it is the key fuel source for the cells of the immune system and the muscle building folks know the kind of stress they place on their immune system when they train ferociously. Moreover, the digestive system of fitness passionate too struggles to get enough glutamine to cope with their high protein diet.  

Both make glutamine supplementation mandatory for people serious about fitness and bodybuilding.

MINIMIZES CATABOLISM

For building muscles along with intense workouts, you need to focus on minimizing catabolism by preserving the muscle mass from breakdown. Intense physical exercise depletes glutamine, the primary source of fuel (carbon and nitrogen) and the body has to resort to the storage depot, the muscles to access glutamine for the other cells in the body.

 Here, supplemental glutamine can help by providing incremental dosage which helps prevent the breakdown of muscle cells to provide fuel to other cells. This is particularly useful for people who are cutting down.

BOOSTS RECOVERY

An intense workout session burns glycogen, the longer chain version of glucose stored in the muscle cells for energy. The byproduct of this process is lactic acid. Left unchecked it can make muscles stiff and unable to contract. Glutamine pool in your muscle cells helps produce bicarbonate ions to neutralize the effects of the lactic acid buildup. Naturally, supplementing with glutamine will keep the reserve primed which enables you to train longer and achieve greater exercise intensity. 

REMAIN HEALTHY

Strenuous workouts stress your immune system. Most long-distance runners get sick after 1 week of race day. A scientific study has found that 80 percent long distance runners supplemented with glutamine stayed healthy whereas in the placebo group only 48.8 percent stayed well. Intense workouts reduce the effectiveness of the immune system because glutamine is required to boost muscle recovery and this non-essential amino acid is needed in significant amounts for healthy immunity. When you supplement with glutamine, you provide your body with the necessary fuel to stay healthy. This may allow you to train more frequently without as many of those frustrating down periods.

MORE GROWTH HORMONES

Growth hormone produced in the pituitary gland is critical for increasing muscle mass and bone density. Stating it simply, it’s impossible to bulk in the absence of growth hormones. A study published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a relatively small amount of glutamine significantly increased growth hormone levels. The sample group for the study was given either a placebo or 2 grams of glutamine to drink. 30 to 60 minutes post supplementation, the blood samples were analyzed for plasma growth hormone levels. Those who consumed glutamine experienced an increase in their growth hormone by more than 400 percent.

SUPPLEMENT TIME

EARLY MORNING	Consume 5g of glutamine with your favourite beverage in the morning
POST WORKOUT	Consume 5g of glutamine immediately after your workout session.

While picking a glutamine supplement, choose only micronized glutamine, like MuscleBlaze Micronized Glutamine for its quick solubility and fast absorption to stimulate muscle synthesis and maximize recovery after a strenuous workout.  Soon you are going to surprise everyone with your muscle gains. 

Tyre flips demand every ounce of the strength you have. Certainly, these tough tyre somersaults are not for newbies. Know the right technique before you attempt these flips. 

Tyre flips are the most recently introduced version of the functional exercises and is finding its way into every common gym goer’s routine. It has been considered a strongman routine for a very long time. The amount of strength and body function involved in just flipping the tyres from one end to another is immense and when the tyres are really heavy, it can be a humbling experience! However, when you do it right the rewards come in the form of a new level of power and athleticism.

So how do you know if you are strong enough for the tyre flip exercise? If the tyre is really a motorcycle or a car tyre, which weighs a few kilos, then yeah you are pretty strong enough. But when it comes to flipping tractor tyres, which are actually used in many of the competitive events, then you need to stop and think- Should I do it?  Rather, than asking yourself can I do it?

Before you attempt flipping such a tyre, you need to know the basics of the techniques by heart. If you attempt such a flip with a rounded back and a horrible wriggly uncontrolled movement, then you risk injury.

BASICS OF TYRE FLIPS:

In order to perform a tyre flip, you need to pick it up from the ground, lift it up and push it forward. This involves lifting a dead weight from the ground, cleaning it up and pushing it forward. So the basic movements are bending and lifting, and horizontal push, for 90 percent of the time, except when you change your grip from underhand to overhand.

The most important movements you need to be pretty good at, especially when it comes to form are:

• Deadlifts
• Cleans
• Shoulder Military press

You need to have a pretty good hang of these workouts to even attempt the tyre flip. Having a good deadlift involves an erect back with a neutral spine along with good hip mobility. Cleans help you understand how to move the weights without fatiguing your minor muscles. And shoulder presses help you develop a good set of deltoids which are essential in pushing the tyre over. Along with these exercises, if you have a good benching and squatting/lunging ability, it will definitely help you in major events where tyre flips are to be performed.

And, you need to be moving around serious weights in these workouts because tyre flips are usually performed with tyres weighing over 300 pounds.

When you start with your tyre flips, ensure that you perform repetitions with proper form. This means that you would perform fewer reps. Isn’t it how you’ve started out initially? Slow and steady?

You could do 2-3 sets of 2-5 reps per set. Or you can even do 10-20 sets of 1 rep with 20-30 seconds rest in between each set. The priority here is proper form and technique. Once you get that right, you can work on doing more reps and sets.

DO’s:

• Do the tyre flips as the first exercise of your workout, as this is a multi-joint compound exercise and requires all your energy
• Maintain form for each rep.
• Wear the right gear when flipping tyres. Too tight or too loose, and you could get distracted.

DON’Ts:

• Do not perform tyre flips at the end of your workout. It requires maximum effort, which you have at the beginning of your routine.
• Do not perform with an injury. You will risk an aggravation.
• Do not stop breathing. You will end up pre-exhausted.

Tyre flips require a strong foundation of your primary lifting skills. It requires strength and technique, both of which can be acquired only after you have invested enough time in honing them. Mastering each of the basic exercises would give you the ability and confidence in performing the tyre flips.

Follow the above pointers and perform the tyre flips the right way, and you can grow into a full-blooded monster in no time!!!

CrossFit, the extreme fitness program of hardcore training camps and super fit has gone mainstream. Know the basics.

You see CrossFit Games on the TV, read about CrossFit-related articles in almost every fitness magazine there is, and hear about it from your friends and family members who are into fitness. You can see people admiring it as the epitome of fitness, and people ridiculing it for its “not-so-safe” tag at the same time. You hear about WOD and see them being done in the gym, and even at the local bar, people are talking about their best WOD timings!!

Basically, CrossFit is everywhere!!!

WHAT IS CROSSFIT

CrossFit, Inc. is a fitness company founded by Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai in 2000 and is promoted as an exercise philosophy and also as a competitive fitness sport. CrossFit includes workouts from high-intensity interval training, Olympic weightlifting, plyometrics, powerlifting, gymnastics, calisthenics, strongman, and other exercises. “CrossFit is not a fitness program, but a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competence in each of ten recognized fitness domains. They are Cardiovascular and Respiratory endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Balance, and Accuracy” – Greg Glassman (www.CrossFit.com).

WHY SHOULD YOU CROSSFIT

CrossFit is a great place for you to start (if you have a great coach).  You can learn how to do all the important lifts in a supportive, encouraging and nonjudgmental environment. You feel competitive and rewarded when you complete

It has so many benefits associated with it and has benefitted elite athletes as well as normal people with a sedentary lifestyle. It helps develop strength and explosive power. Your training undergoes improvement, irrespective of type and model and it has a positive effect on your basic day to day function. CrossFit accelerates metabolism and increases fat burn and improves control of the body and its utilization across different planes and motions.

The official website (www.CrossFit.com) highlights the universal scalability of the program that makes it perfect for any committed individual regardless of experience. In fact, the same routine, with a difference in load and intensity is used for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts.

This means that on each day there is a particular workout for everyone, young and old, who comes to CrossFit. For example, if the workout is shoulder press-ups with 95 pounds but you can only do the same routine with the bar (45 pounds), then that’s where you’ll begin. A similar movement or reduced reps can be done in a case of any injury. As time passes and you get stronger and experienced, you’ll slowly work towards doing the workouts as given.

BASIC CROSSFIT TERMS

The Box: the CrossFit arena, or the space where you perform CrossFit. Basically, that is your gym floor.

WOD: “Workout of the Day” – the main routine you are going to perform that day. There are many WODs. But you would be hearing about 2 types mostly – Girl (easier) WODs and the Hero (more difficult) WODs.

AMRAP: “As Many Rounds/Reps As Possible”.

For Time: The fastest man to complete wins. No time limit for that WOD.

Skills: The basic movement pattern for a workout routine. It can be anything – from a basic push-up to overhead squats to handstand push-ups.

HOW TO EXCEL

Now before jumping on the bandwagon, there are 7 things you should know to help you successfully perform and dominate the CrossFit box.

1.   Master the skills that are given in the first half of every CrossFit workout. They help you learn and perfect new movements and utilize them in your WODs

2.   Improve your mobility and flexibility so that the movements you perform are fluid and help you perform to your maximum potential.

3.    Follow the progression prescribed. DO NOT jump straight away to your 1-rep max lifts. If you have to reach to the top of the flight of stairs, you have to walk on each step.

4.    Listen to your body, especially if it is telling you to stop. It could go a long way in preventing injuries.

5.    Keep a log to track your progress and help you scale new heights.

6.    Wear the appropriate gear. DO not perform your workout with too loose or too tight clothes.

7.    Most important –find the RIGHT GYM. A gym dedicated to CrossFit and with the right instructors would help in the singular focus on CrossFit.

All these are some of the essentials. Follow them and you could be well on your way to ruling the CrossFit world!!