Nutrition: More Important Than Lifting

 Nutrition: More Important Than Lifting

 

THE INTRODUCTION:

Let me start off by saying this, you can lift all the weights you want, but if you aren't eating right then your body will NEVER look the way you want it too. If you put cheap gas in a Mercedes Benz, it will run like crap, so will your body if you put CRAP in it. Consider bodybuilding a bicycle for a second (stay with me!). First, we must learn how to ride this bike (how to train). This bike has two wheels, that we have to learn to pedal and balance for them BOTH to work. The bike will not work if one wheel goes off balance, or falls off. One wheel is nutrition and the other wheel is lifting, do you see how they will not work without each other?

Most of us aren't elite athletes who are CONSTANTLY moving throughout the day and burning calories in most things they do. Whether its practice or training, they burn more calories in a daily routine than regular people may burn all week. Athletes job is to train, while most of us do training to stay healthy, they do it for a paycheck. These athletes might be able to get away with a not so great diet, but us regular people cannot. That's why people like Chad Johnson can get away with eating McDonald's everyday and still look like they came straight out of a magazine. Most of us also remember that diet Michael Phelps was on in the 2008 Olympics. These athletes burn an INSANE amount of calories per day, so let's consider them the exception to this article.

Outside of our training, most of us probably lead lifestyles that aren't in constant motion. The point I'm trying to drive home here, is that we all have to have a grip on our nutrition in order to see results from our training. You may be getting stronger with that crap diet, but you won't be looking any leaner or stronger in the mirror.

THE GOOD STUFF:

This is information I wish I was aware of when I first began lifting. In the past year I really began to understand nutrition the consequences of what I put into my body. When I first began lifting, it was training for football. I wasn't conscious of the health benefits or anything, I was just a young high school kid trying to get as big as possible and eat whatever was put in front of me. Basic nutrition was all I really understood, which didn't do that well for me. I was as strong as an ox, but my body wasn't looking ideal at all in my eyes.

Now that I'm solely training for my benefit, I understand nutrition a lot more and how important it is. Ever since I switched to Intermittent Fasting and just eating a lot more healthier, I've seen a transformation in my body that I never saw my in my five previous years of training. Lifting is 80% nutrition, without a doubt.

If someone is putting hours on top of hours in the gym every week, why wouldn't they want to make sure the right foods are going in their body to actually benefit from the training? Food is the ONLY thing our body has to recover from the damage done to our muscles during lifting, so why would you neglect that? Do you really want those french fries repairing your muscles instead of a super salad with all the right fixings? Didn't think so.

Unfortunately most people don't realize this until they have been training for a year or longer. Most people begin lifting with bad nutrition and get fooled by the newbie gains they see in the first few months. Once these gains and their physique stops changing, the alarm rings off that their bad diet is killing their progress. Nutrition and training go hand in hand. You can't see gains in the gym without eating a wholesome diet, and vice versa.

Setting goals for your bench press next month should be as important as setting goals for what you need to achieve in the nutrition department. Whether its cutting down the fried foods, eating more greens, more protein, or anything else that makes you a healthier person. Spend just as much time on your nutrition plan, as your lifting plan.

THE END:

If you guys read this blog consistently, then you know I am a believer in having a plan for EVERYTHING. This doesn't mean you have to write it down, you can make a plan in your head. Every day I have a plan in my head of the food I'm going to put in my body and I plan accordingly to make sure it's as healthy as it can get. 

Even if you don't have a good grip on nutrition, EVERYONE has a general idea of what is good for them and what isn't. Having a good nutrition isn't hard, but it's harder than ordering that value meal at McDonald's. Don't be lazy, if you are gonna spend years training your body, give it the right fuel it needs to work. Proper nutrition is a lot more difficult than training, it takes a lot of time to understand. I'm still learning and will always be learning. But, I promise, it will all be worth it. If any of you want help on understanding nutrition, just email me and I'd love to help you on your path to a new body. Next week's article will further this nutrition lesson, look forward to that guys. Have a good week.

P.S.

I've decided to cut down to 1 post a week on Wednesdays. I feel this will give my articles a better chance to be read more, instead of being overshadowed by the other article. It will give me more time to promote my one article, then juggle two. School starts up in two weeks also, so this is a good time to try to make a way to balance everything out.