Category:SciencePaper Title:Human Training: Building a Strong and Healthy BodyText:Human Training: Building a Strong and Healthy BodyThere are a lot of Americans in this world who are looking for a way to lookand feel strong and healthy. The problem is that not everyone knows how to getstarted and keep up the process of building a strong, healthy body. The use ofproper nutrition and supplementation with high intensity training and a goodamount of rest will be effective in building a strong and healthy looking body. Anyone can train with weights, but training with intensity is a whole differentstory. High intensity training gives better results from a good trainingprogram. A lot of people forget that proper nutrition provides the body with thefuel it needs to train effectively.
Another thing people do not recognize isthat supplements are essential for the body, and they will also help give betterresults from high intensity training. And a person must also remember one cannottrain with intensity without a good amount of rest. Rest and recovery is veryimportant for muscles to grow and for increasing muscle strength. Building astrong and healthy body revolves around high intensity training, propernutrition, supplementation, and rest and recovery. Any individual is capable ofgaining not only physical but also mental strength.
In order to get any results out of a workout, it must be done with intensity. A longer, low intensity workout is much less effective because it will not bestimulating the muscles; it will be annihilating them. All exercises should beperformed with intensity, resting only one minute between each set and twominutes between each exercise. Its not so much what exercises we do butrather how we do them that matters most.
We must perform these exercisesintensely toproduce rapid results (DOrso and Phillips 58). In every intense workoutthere is a high point,and everyone has the skill to create a high point. Hittinga high point in an intense workout is when the body is pushed to the extreme. Creating high points make people feel good about their workouts.
When youdevelop the skill to intentionally create high points, you can not onlyexperience more energy and greater success in life, you can also produce majorresults in minimal time, in any area (DOrso and Phillips 60). Nothing willbe accomplished in a workout if he or she worries if free weights or machinesare better. Free weights and machines both have advantages in a workoutand both should be included in a workout (Cardena). As long as the exercise isperformed with intensity, it does not matter if it is with a machine or adumbbell. Exercise selection is an important part of a good workout.
A person shouldfocus on only one or two exercises, that way more intense sets can be performedof that single exercise. Performing a small number of exercises enables youto perform many more sets, whereas the more exercises performed the less setsperformed, which is not good (Cardena). There are three ranges of repetitionsthat should be included in a workout: to enhance strength, between one and fiverepetitions are performed; to enhance muscle power and growth, between six andtwelve repetitions are performed; and to enhance muscle endurance, betweentwelve and fifteen repetitions are performed. The number of repetitions youdo determines the intensity of your workout (Phillips, et al 298). All threetypes of repetitions can be done in one exercise by performing multiple sets.
High repetitions do not directly develop strength or mass, they contribute tothe process by supporting strength and mass development (Phillips, et al298). For a workout to be intense it should only take forty-five minutes. Althougha ninety- minute workout may be more productive, it will not be nearly asintense as a short, brief workout. Very short sessions allow you to bust yourbutt with very high intensity (Phillips, etal 299).
Too much rest between sets will cause the muscles to cool off andadd time to a workout. Short rest periods may limit the amount of weightused, but they force the body to fortify its recovery mechanisms, and theyalso take time off of a workout which gives more time for muscles to recover andgrow (Phillips, et al 299). It should not take longer than a minute to performeach set. Each repetition has a tempo to be performed in each set; a positive, anegative, and a pause. Exercise tempo refers to the amount of time it takesto perform a repetition (Phillips, et al 300). Every single workout that is performed should be planned out the night beforeso everything will go exactly how it should from beginning to end.
If theworkout is not planned out, a person will spend more time deciding what exerciseto do or how many sets they will perform, rather than going to the gym,performing an intense workout, and getting out as quickly as possible. Beforeeach workout you should know what exercises your going to do, how many sets, thenumber of reps, and how much weight your going to use (DOrso and Phillips57). All workouts should be brief, intense, and highly effective. The upper andlower body workouts should take less than four hours a week because too muchexercise prevents results (Phillips, et al 38). The muscles do not growduring a workout; they are actually being damaged during a workout. According toa personal trainer at a local gym people should give their muscles three tofive days to rest and repair to ensure proper recovery because the musclesare growing while they are being rested and relaxed (Cardena).
A lot of rest isrequired in order to perform a high intensity workout. The most important part of putting the human body through an intense workoutis feeding it the proper nutrition. A person cannot reach a high point withouteating right. Developing good eating habits will give a person much moresatisfying results from an intense workout. Proper nutrition provides the rawmaterials your body must have to construct new skin cells, brain cells, musclecells, bone cells, new blood, and even a new heart (DOrso and Phillips50).
Without good nutrition it is basically impossible for any kind of exerciseto be effective. The only way to get sufficient results out of a workout is tofeed the body the proper nutrition it needs for everyday life. With aregular, intense, training program, and good nutrition, you can actuallytransform your body (Phillips 50). The body should be feed six times a day todevelop a pattern for the body to get used to. And according to Phillips on theInternet, everyone should make sure theyre eating six quality nutritiousmeals and drinking ten glasses of water per day (Q&A).
Every day should have a plan of what is going to be eaten and when. Everymeal a person eats is planned; never should a person just grab a bite to eat. Before we begin each day, well need to plan what were going to eat andwhen (DOrso and Phillips 51). By eating the proper nutrition every day,the body is actually re-creating itself.
Without feeding the body with the rightfuel the body will begin to lose muscle, gain fat, and feel sluggish. Theprocess of re-creating the body begins with quality nutrition, when younourish your body with pure energy, you transform from the inside out (DOrsoand Phillips 81). In order to look good and feel good for life, he or she needsan opportunity to feed the body intentionally, instead of eating accidentally. Eating quality nutrition is just as important as exercising intensely, and onceyou discover the right method of feeding your body, youll never have torelearn it (DOrso and Phillips 82). Protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats are important for the body, butwater is more important for the body than anything else. Water transports manyof the quality nutrients the body consumes into the muscles.
Healthy muscleis comprised of more than 70 percent water(DOrso and Phillips 51). The body cannot transport nutrients withoutwater, it will be hard to get any muscle growth and you could be the mostdedicated exerciser and the most responsible eater, but if youre not drinkingenough water, all the benefits from your hard work can go right down the drain(Griffith 164). If protein is not included in a diet, it will be hard for anindividual to get any results out of a workout, protein is absolutelynecessary if you want to maximize your muscular gains(Zulak 125). Protein andcarbohydrate intake should be spread out over all six meals, and under normalcircumstances, protein serves a vital role in the maintenance, repair, andgrowth of the body tissue (Phillips, et al 257).
With a good carbohydrateintake, the body will have energy in a high intense training session, and themuscles will look and feel more full. The muscles may become depleted by noteating enough carbohydrates, carbohydrates are very important because ifyour body doesnt have enough, it has to metabolize more protein (Phillips,et al 257). And it is hard to remember, but no matter how much people eat, theymust drink as much water as possible. A combination of good, quality foods gives the body more ability to gainmuscle mass and burn body fat. All six meals a person eats should be balanced toget results from intense training.
Each meal should be divided into thirds,consisting of protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables. This will help spread outthe quality nutrients the body needs throughout the day. Each meal mustcontain a balance of protein, complex carbohydrates, and a quality vegetable inorder for you to really get the most out of your weight training (Phillips,et al 259). Incomplete rest periods can cause the body to become overtrained. When participating in an intense workout the body needs at least eight hours ofsleep: Without rest, over time the body cannot sufficiently recover, andit also makes it that much more difficult to consistently fit six meals into apersons busy schedule (Cardena). Another important thing for the body is totake in as many calories aspossible.
Calories are important so the muscles do not give up any qualitynutrients, if youre ingesting too few calories, youll not only losemuscle, youll also lose energy and endurance(Phillips, et al 258). Supplementation is another important aspect to building a strong and healthybody. There are three general categories of effects from supplements. Thefirst way a supplement might help you build muscle, lose fat, and improve yourhealth is simply by making up for deficiencies, and if the body does notbuild muscle and burn fat properly it may be deficient in one or more nutrients(Phillips 14). Vitamin supplements are used to protect the body against nutrientdeficiencies, which are taken every day of the year.
If the body does not have anutrient deficiency, not to worry, the body can still benefit from supplements. The second way a supplement can help the body is by providing a nutrient thatis under-supplied to cells or not normally available in optimal levels in thediet, but not all regular foods provide the quality nutrients that the bodyneeds because muscle cells require certain nutrients (Phillips 15). A thirdmechanism by which a dietary supplement may work is when it produces a drug-likeeffect on cellar processes, which means that a supplement may not be requiredsuch as caffeine, but it can still have an effect on that cells normalfunction. Not all people will get positive effects from supplements becausethere are so many different supplements for so many different people. This is when foundation supplements come into the picture.
Foundationsupplements are essential to everyday life and essential nutrients are essentialto life itself. A foundation supplement is something you take all year and isusually an essential nutrient such as a vitamin, mineral, fatty acid, etc. and without essential nutrients, over time, the body will become weak and ill(Phillips, et al 222). Multivitamins, multi-minerals, and essential fatty acidsshould be consumed every day. We know there are approximately a dozenessential amino acids, a multitude of vitamins and minerals, and two essentialfatty acids that must be obtained in order for the body to maintain properbodily functions (Phillips, et al 223). Linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acidare the two essential fatty acids, and its virtually impossible to getoptimal amounts of unprocessed essential fatty acids from our heavily processedfood supply (Phillips, et al 224).
Our food supply does not provide for manyof the essential nutrients that our body needs every day. Specificallylinoleic and alpha linolenic acids are considered essential because thebody cannot manufacture them and must obtain them from outside sources(Romano 190). Then there are performance supplements that should be taken regularly toincrease muscle strength and muscle growth. Whey protein, antioxidants, andcreatine are examples of performance and health enhancing supplements. Wheyprotein is great for muscle growth, but it may also improve immunity(Phillips, et al 225). A good protein supplement or high-qualitymeal-replacement product which includes whey protein is an important part of anysupplement program but they are not needed to survive (Cardena).
Antioxidantsare important for the long-term health and muscle strength of the body. Someantioxidants are essential nutrients, but not all of them. Antioxidants are aspecial class of vitamins and other non-vitamin compounds which neutralize freeradicals, which means a broad range of diseases have been implicated, suchas cancer, atherosclerosis, immune deficiency, and diabetes (Phillips, et al225). Though it may be the best performance-enhancing supplement around,creatine isnt an essential nutrient, butthat does not mean it cannot be taken all year long (Phillips, et al 225).
Creatine puts lean mass on many people, increases strength, is not veryexpensive, and it is safe. Maximum results from an intense workout will not come without performancesupplementation. Without an intense workout, a person will not get any resultsby using supplements. Only those people training on the edge, looking forthat extra 10-20 percent of growth that performance supplements can provide,will know how much a difference they can make (Costa, Horine, and Platz 131). The people who are really interested in getting results are the people who spendtheir money on supplements, and if you are training for maximum results, andare willing to settle for less, you will probably see little effect fromsupplements (Costa, Horine, and Platz 131). Supplements provide morenutrients to the body than most regular foods.
A good diet is not enough to getmaximum results out of an intense workout, and in order to get thenecessary nutrients for maximum growth into your body, at a time when you reallyneed them, you will need nutritional supplementation (Costa, Horine, andPlatz 131). Rest and recovery is something important that provides maximum results totraining, nutrition, and supplementation. Not a lot of people pay too muchattention to how important rest and recovery really is. Proper recovery fromhigh intensity training will provide an increase for muscle growth and musclestrength. With a quick, brief, intense workout the muscles have a greater amountof time to recover.
A person should allow three to five days for their body tofully recover from a high intensity workout. After a workout is the best time toconsume performance supplements because the muscles are in a recovery state, butremember, it is between workouts that your body rebuilds itself. It is betweenworkouts that your muscles repair themselves, growing stronger and firmer eachtime (DOrso and Phillips 40). The ability to recover is very important formaintaining muscle growth. During a workout the muscle cells are damaged, andif you work out again before the muscles have had time to rebuild, you willshort-circuit the recovery process: And thats not good (DOrso andPhillips 40). It is like trying to rebuild a building after it has been hit byan earthquake.
Getting the proper amount of sleep will also provide for a largeamount of muscle growth. The muscles and the body actually grow while it issleeping. A person should get at least eight hours of sleep a night because ifyou do not allow for proper sleep, you will be cheating yourself of growth youwould otherwise be getting (Cardena). Without being fully rested it will behard for a person to perform a workout with full intensity. The muscles will notgrow and a person would not be getting maximum results from his or her trainingsessions.
Not getting enough sleep will hinder your chances at maximum growth(Costa, Horine, and Platz 116). Even if the body is not being put through anintense workout it still needs the proper amount of sleep. Relaxation is an important part of the recovery process in order for the bodyto be capable of proper recovery. A person should relax immediately after anintense workout when recovery is most important. There are many different waysof relaxing, the ability to relax after a workout, and to stay relaxed, isvital if you want to maximize recovery capabilities (Costa, Horine, and Platz116).
By relaxing, the muscles are given a chance to grow and develop the waythey are suppose to and your body needs an opportunity to respond to thetraining stress it has received and time to transport vital nutrients to musclesfor energy and development (Costa, Horine, and Platz 115). Another thing thatcontributes to helping the body recover faster is a good massage. Massage canspeed recovery and enhance growth, relieves stress from a high intensityworkout, and it can also prevent injuries during future workouts (Costa, Horine,and Platz 118). Overtraining is what will keep the body from proper recovery and achievingmaximum results from intense training sessions. If a person trains the samemuscle group two days in a row, the body will not recover properly and overtrainingoccurs when the body is stressedbeyond its ability to recover (Cardena). It may not seem correct, but morerecovery than training is required for getting strong and staying strong.
Yourability to recover will be a big factor in maintaining and increasing growth(Costa, Horine, and Platz 115). A person who does not know how to recoverproperly will fail to get results from intense training, that is why it isessential that you become familiar with techniques to enhance recovery from yourworkouts (Costa, Horine, and Platz 115). Building a strong and healthy body is not easy to accomplish. A person musthave the mental toughness to transform his or her body into a body for life.
There is not one individual that can say he or she is not capable of beingphysically and mentally tough. Building a strong and healthy body takes morethan just exercise. It starts with a high intensity training program, which willonly be effective with proper nutrition, the use of performance-enhancingsupplements, and the proper amount of rest. All it takes is a commitment and alittle know-how to put these four pieces together for a quality program to buildthe best-looking body ever. Works CitedCardena, Pablo. Personal Interview.
29 Jan 2001. Costa, Leo, Russ Horine, and Tom Platz. Big Beyond Belief. Serious GrowthIII. Visalia:Optimum Training Systems, 1994.
DOrso, Michael, and Bill Phillips. Body-For-Life. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Griffith, Meagan. Research Update. Muscle Media Jul.
1999: 164. Phillips, Bill. Q&A with Bill Phillips. http://BodyForLife. comDecember 5, 1999.
Phillips, Bill, et al. Sports Supplement Review. 3rd Issue. Golden: MileHigh, 1997.
Romano, John. Muscle Meals. All Natural Muscular Development Mar. 1998:190.
Zulak, Greg. The Muscle Molecule. Muscle Mag Dec. 1997: 125.Science
