Bodybuilding Diet and Exercise: The Principles of Building the Perfect Body

Who can forget the physique of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Pumping Iron as he went on to win his seventh Mr. Olympia? His combination of size and symmetry was declared by many to be the perfect body. This bodybuilding physique led many young boys to begin picking up weights and starting off on their own journey to achieve perfect bodies.

Getting into ripped and extremely muscular shape is a little harder than just picking up a dumbbell and starting to curl, however. It requires intense determination and dedication to both diet and exercise principles. Body building is perhaps as much science as it is physical exercise and diet as it requires the right combination of both to achieve maximal results. First let's look at some of the exercises that bodybuilders do to achieve their superhuman bodies.

Of all the exercises that one can do to build muscle, none is more effective than the squat. This exercise allows you to lift an incredible amount of weight and will develop your entire lower body as well as many of the muscles in your upper body. In addition, exercises such as the bench-press, dead lift, and pull up will work most of the other groups of muscles in your body as well. Bodybuilders, as they become more experienced, incorporate different types of isolation exercises as well that are designed to hit individual muscle groups. These isolation exercises help bodybuilders develop extreme muscle density and definition that gives them their marbled statue look. Because muscle growth actually takes place during rest periods, it is important to take a day or so off of lifting weights in the middle of the week to allow your muscles time to grow. If you simply work out 6 to 7 days per week, you can easily over train and your muscles will actually shrink rather than grow.

The diet of a bodybuilder is extremely important as well. One must eat to not only provide their muscles with the proper nutrients and energy to grow, but also to not add additional fat stores to their body; this process is an extremely delicate one indeed. Most bodybuilders prefer diets that are extremely high in protein because it is the building block of muscle growth. In addition, while they do consume varying amounts of carbohydrates, they try to do so by including slow burning carbohydrates such as various fruits and vegetables versus sugary sweets that can cause insulin levels to spike in the blood and potentially cause unwanted fat gain around their midsections. Their diets may change drastically directly before competition so as to lose all possible water and fat from their body to achieve that extremely tight ripped look when hitting the stage. Now, most of us won't ever put on a pair of bikini trunks and slather our bodies in oil to compete in pose off, but by following basic bodybuilding diet principles we can get our bodies in peak shape and turn more than a few heads at the beach.