Bodybuilders Lifestyle

Before you start building muscles you need to know what it takes other than workout to build and maintain a healthy and strong body. I am trying to give you my experience so that you don't do the same mistakes I did as a young man. Bodybuilding is not a part time job, it's a full time 24/7 lifestyle.
In order to build muscles you need to work out regularly. Make the workout time as sacred as going to school or eating your meals. If you train on a choppy schedule you'll get choppy results. There will be breaks but even during those breaks you'll be doing some light training to keep your muscles working and your heart pumping.
The workout should include cardiovascular exercises to strengthen your heart and weight training to trigger your muscles to grow. The two can not be done on the same day, or at least not in the same set.

Aside from the workout, the rest of your life is what defines you as a bodybuilder. You don't have to be a pro bodybuilder to live this lifestyle, if you are at all serious about building and maintaining a healthy and strong body you need to stick to the rules.
Rule #1: Sleep a lot.
The exercises keep your muscles working and trigger their growth by having the blood flow to them and by causing some micro-injuries in the fibers. When those micro-injuries heal the fiber gets thicker because it will compose of the old injured fiber and a few new ones that will grow around it to support it. This is how the muscles grow. This healing process and the formation of new fibers around the micro-injuries happens mainly when you sleep. So sleep a lot and in a dark place.
The dark sleeping hours are essential for your recover as well, so you need to combine continuous sleeping hours with the dark. So the best thing to do is to sleep early so that you go to sleep and wake up while it is still dark if possible.
Rule #2: Eat well.
The bodybuilder diet is one of the most strict ever, but it pays. And not following it harms you, so you need to stick to it. Here is what you need to focus on while preparing your diet:

• Stay away from fat, red meat, salt, and alcohol. Contrary to what some might tell you, caffeine doesn't help you during the exercise, so stay away from it. Just to keep you in the know, caffeine causes blood vessel contraction, which is contrary to what you need. If you ever heard of the nitric oxide supplement that bodybuilders take, they work by relaxing the blood vessels and make them wider to accommodate for more nutritions and oxygen supply to the muscles during the work out and after. If you drink caffeine you are preventing your muscles from getting enough.
• Your body can digest and absorb maximum of 30 grams of protein at a time. So you need to split your protein share of the day on mini meals throughout the day for maximum benefit.
• Carbohydrates are essential for supplying your muscles with the energy it needs to keep working during the workout, and after the workout they transform into glycogen in the muscles to replace the amount depleted during the workout.
• Drink plenty of water throughout the day. If you are not urinating at least 7 times a day it means you need more water to keep flushing the toxins and wastes out of your body.
• Calcium and vitamin D are important for your bones. And don't under estimate the value of healthy bones. Without healthy bones your muscles are useless. How do you think I knew that?
• Eat plenty of fresh vegetables (salad) and fruits for vitamins instead of the supplement. In 2007 if my memory is still clear about it, a scientist published an article about the nutritional supplements and how they harm the body more than they benefit it. Of course the drug companies lobbied against the research and get themselves some more time to sell their stuff. Don't take any supplements, your body is better off the natural way. It's not going to be nice if you have a good looking body now and after 10 years this same body becomes a burden on you because of the supplements you took as a youth. Again ask me how did I know that?

In the future I'll try to post some recipes for healthy bodybuilding meals, so come back and check on those later.
Rule #3: Be patient:
Building a body is a lengthy process and it is for your own benefit to take your time. Again, supplements that promise mass gains and fat burning are more harmful than useful, and if you like your body to stay strong and healthy longer as you progress in life you'd better stick to the natural path. Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger's body now and 20 years ago. As far as I know from the press he had a liver failure and some other health complications. Also look at Frank Zane, he never looked bulky, but he hadn't changed much over the years even after he retired as a pro bodybuilder.