Bodybuilding exposes muscles and tendons throughout the body to gradually increasing resistance

Science of Bodybuilding-1

Published in

Coinmonks

5 min readMay 31, 2022

Bodybuilding exposes muscles and tendons throughout the body to gradually increasing resistance. Thus, it is a strength training that tries to increase the size and strength of the skeletal muscles by putting the body under more and more heavy loads.

In most cases, gravitational force is used to achieve this improvement. What a dumbbell or barbell does is act as a large mass (hence a large weight force towards the ground) that the person will try to balance with their muscles. The muscles that regularly come under such a load get bigger and stronger by going through physiological processes.

In this article, rather than the physiological development principles of muscles, we will explain the subjects that individuals who want to develop muscles should know at a basic level and their basic biological infrastructure. Since the purpose of this article is not to prepare a complete bodybuilding guide, we strongly recommend that you consider the general scientific information given here as introductory information and turn to personalized programs.

Of course, someone who wants to build muscle has to do weight training to strengthen the muscles. However, as we will examine this topic in more detail below, let’s take a look at other important components that are sometimes overlooked by those who set out to build muscle.

Nutrition: The Key to Everything!

Traditionally, bodybuilders follow low-calorie, high-energy diets lasting 2 to 4 months to reduce fat and increase muscle. Because the nutrients necessary for the growth and development of the muscles must be present in the muscle environment. As the muscle mass increases, it will be necessary to increase the amount of food. A bodybuilder needs to know very well how much, when and how to consume proteins, sugars and fats.

Nutritional Philosophy

There are some harsh realities in life. For example, no exercise can make up for the diet’s deficit. Or as the nutritional science world says: “You can’t beat a bad diet by running.” What this is trying to say is that unless you’re a super-athlete (and even then, there are limits), you can’t lose weight just by exercising without changing the way you eat. The reason for this is simple: It’s hard to burn calories, but it’s easy to get.

You know those famous comparisons: There are 527 kilocalories (or “calories” as popularly erroneous) in 100 grams of chocolate you buy from the market. It may not take you a few minutes to eat this. But to burn the same calories, you need to walk at a speed of 5 kilometres per hour for more than 1.5 hours.

Of course, not everything in nutrition is calories, but where you get that calorie determines whether you eat healthily or not. In other words, 50% of the calories of 100 grams of chocolate come from fat. 100 grams of chicken meat has 165 calories and only 5% is fat.

We are not making the claim that “fat is bad” here, because such a generalization cannot be made for any food group. To expand on Paracelsus’ famous saying: “It is the dose that separates medicine (and food) from poison.” You just need to have a certain proportion of the food groups you need to take. Moreover, these rates vary according to age, weight, height, gender, health status, amount of physical activity and what you want to do with your weight (whether you want to lose weight, build muscle or stay at a stable weight). Therefore, these should be determined by a nutritionist.

Biomolecules That Life Needs

The human body is not just made up of proteins. In this context, it needs many nutrients from sugar to protein, from fat to vitamins, from water to minerals. In this respect, recognizing “life biomolecules” is important so that you can properly listen to your body’s needs.

Sugars (Carbs)

As everyone knows, sugars are the energy source of our body. However, they are not used in bodybuilding only to give energy to the body. When sugar enters your body, the secretion of the hormone insulin immediately increases. This hormone works to lower blood sugar. However, it is also known to have a role of increasing protein synthesis. People who do not consume enough sugar experience difficulties in strength training and rapid glycogen depletion.

However, excessive consumption of sugar will be stored in the body first as glycogen and then as fat. For this reason, the balance should be very good and adjusted by professional dietitians.

Proteins

Proteins are the main substance of the structures that enable the muscles to work. Today’s professionals say that 25–30% of the total calories taken by bodybuilders should come from protein. However, this idea is not universally accepted, so you have to choose according to your own needs and goals.