Muscle Building Diet
How important is the food you eat? Well, if your goal is muscle building here is something you should know: “Bodybuilding is 85% nutrition.” This was saidby none other than Vince Gironda, one of the greatest trainers of his time.
Although he experienced some fame as a bodybuilder, he was more well known for being a trainer to the stars. Known as the “Iron Guru”, Gironda whipped many stars into shape, including a stint with Arnold Schwartzenegger – one of the most famous bodybuilders of all time.
For decades, the Iron Guru’s list of students was a veritable who’s who in the bodybuilding world.
From the 1950s up to his death in 1997, Gironda was convinced that a muscle building diet played a vital role in bodybuilding success. During his long career, he played a fundamental role in spreading this principle to all of his trainees.
In brief, an effective muscle building diet should emphasize useable sources of protein. Also important are natural carbohydrates in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables. In addition nuts, fats and oils play a supporting role in a bodybuilding diet. Gironda indicated that serious bodybuilders need to include supplements in order to quickly regrow torn muscle tissue as well as reduce the amount of subcutaneous (under the skin) fat in the body.
Bernard Beverley, a renowned biologist, stated that human muscle tissue is 100% biological. How does this translate to body building? It means that eating foods that are high in biological content is key for developing muscle tissue as far as possible. However, a common misconception is that foods high in protein automatically have a high biological content. Many people do not realize that all proteins are not the same. To clarify, biological content refers to food that is made up of the same protein structure as the protein found in human tissue.
It may come as a surprise, but the egg is the food with the highest biological content. Other close contenders include raw milk, organ meats (liver, kidneys, heart), lamb, poultry, steak, and fish. Certain vegetables such as beans and legumes are considered a great source of protein, and should definitely be included in a muscle building diet.
It is interesting to point out that soybeans, although herald as having super high protein content, are only about 22% biological. This means you would have to eat massive quantities of soy to obtain the amino acid content of the high quality proteins listed above. While preparing bodybuilders for competition, the Iron Guru suggested eating up to three dozen eggs per day!
The point of consuming all this protein has to do with muscle growth. After a heavy workout, the idea is that an influx of protein will help muscles heal quickly and reach new levels of strength. Of course, once your muscle building goals have been achieved, you should gradually reduce the amount of protein in take.
There are other approaches to the muscle building diet. Some focus solely on red meat and fresh vegetables, while others are high in dairy products and fish. The truth is, each of these methods have one common goal: to rebuild and replace muscle tissue quickly with a heavy protein diet. It is important to know that these plans are not intended to be long-term diets. No matter what diet approach you use, it was Gironda’s belief that bodybuilding supplements help a great deal with muscle building. Some of his recommended supplements include: desiccated liver, lipotropic amino acids, kelp tablets, and wheat germ oil.
Along with these supplements, the Iron Guru often put his students on a special pre-competition diet to get rid of remaining subcutaneous fat. These were composed of four days of eating zero carbs, and then a day of normal eating. This cycle would continue for up to eight weeks, and resulted in muscles and veins popping on the skin surface.
To summarize, a solid muscle building diet should focus on protein, good carbohydrates, fats, and fiber. A good breakdown is 25% protein, 40% natural carbs (this does not include refined starches or sugars) and a healthy balance in fat and fiber.
The special competition diets that cycle between four days of zero carbs and a fifth healthy day should be followed no more than eight weeks. In addition, appropriate supplements need to be taken.
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