Hey bootcampers,
Bodybuilding is a fantastic sport. I mean the competitors are intense and the dedication and discipline they must have to be successful is not easily paralleled in society. Those who participate in bodybuilding have the tenacity, dedication, and time, not to mention the genetic predisposition to be successful.
Do you and I have that ability? I mean do we have 6-8 hours in the day to do nothing but eat and train? Do we have the genetic make up to be successful in this sport (maybe some of us do). Do we have such a strict eating schedule that we can not enjoy a slip up from time to time? In truth that is a body builder world. It is their profession to eat and train, and they spend a lot of time doing it.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, we don't have that luxury. We have jobs, families, and other obligations that take up almost all of our time. Often the last thing we think about or make time for is for exercise, and when we do make the time we only have small windows in which to train. So we better make them count.
So why do so many gym goers still train like body builders? Maybe some of them have aspirations for big things in the sport, then that is great. But many gym goers are training just to stay in shape or are training to lose belly fat. But they aren't to blame they take the programs they get out of the latest muscle magazine and hit the gym.
Bodybuilders don't train to lose belly fat. They train to be the most blown up and biggest and most ripped of anyone else on stage. For the average person, that isn't the goal they have in mind at all. Many people just want to see their abs, or fit into the same size clothes they did in high school.
The reality is that bodybuilding routines and fat loss routines are two very different things but many use them together thinking they will still yield the same result.
A typical body building routine will have you training one body part per day or a split routine of two body parts on separate days. You will train all of one muscle group first before moving on to the next muscle group. Often you will do several exercises for the same muscle group and will rest for a few minutes between sets. Your typical body building routine will take at least an hour and a half to complete. You will train a lot of single joint movements and a few multi joint movements but your goal is to get a really great pump in the muscle.
A typical fat loss routine will have you training either full body or also in split body routines. You will alternate between muscle groups or movements and will have little to no rest from one exercise to the next. This is more like a circuit format where you will rest at the end for a short time before starting a new round. Your typical fat loss routine will take less than an hour to complete. You will train a lot of multi-joint exercises as your goal is to boost the metabolic demand on the body which means you are increasing how much oxygen you need and how quickly your heart can pump blood. The higher the metabolic demand the higher the fa.t loss effect (afterburn-calories burned after exercise).
As for the nutrition, these are two very different animals. In bodybuilding there is a huge calorie amount taken in to help build bulk and build muscle. So your calorie intake is going to be much more than what you are used to if you want to see results (about double depending upon body type and previous experience). Your carbohydrate intake will also be very high. With fat loss programming, your calorie intake is cut so you are at a deficit from your normal intake, and your carbohydrate intake will be restricted to an extent.
As you can see they are at two very opposite ends of the spectrum when you look at nutrition. As for exercise there are some similarities but also some glaring differences.
So before you go into the gym and start training from any program you find in a magazine, make sure it has your goals in mind and it is the most effective training program for those goals.
yours in fitness,
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