Living the bodybuilding lifestyle is all-encompassing. You can’t out-train a poor diet and you can’t focus all your attention on ensuring the best food is always eaten yet you leave elements of your training on the table week after week.
Some people will tell you that being a bodybuilder is 50 percent training and 50 percent nutrition while others will skew those numbers up or down depending upon which facet of the process they are focusing on at that time.
I look at it this way, it’s 100 percent for both yet the one most people screw up is nutrition. You have to put just as much emphasis on your food as you do your training and once that behavior becomes a habit, then the real progress will occur.
Remember, there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to nutrition however here are some really great dietary strategies that you should make habitual to ensure your growth as a bodybuilder.
Protein with Every Meal
I work with many people on their nutrition and one of the major pitfalls I usually run into is the lack of adequate protein in their diets.
A properly balanced macronutrient-based diet for a growing bodybuilder has to contain a sufficient amount of protein to ensure recovery and subsequent growth occurs. If there is not enough protein, then progress and muscle growth will suffer.
Make sure that every time you sit down to eat a meal, it contains the right amount of protein for the number of meals you will eat in a day to add up to the total amount of protein you need to reach your ideal intake. I would rather see you eat a protein only meal versus a meal void of any protein at all.
The Easier the Diet, the Better
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of following a diet plan is that it can become very cumbersome ensuring that you always have your meals ready to go at a moment’s notice and that you bring those meals with you wherever you go.
Often times this becomes the downfall of the program simply because of inconvenience or because you ran out of certain foods and can’t get to the grocery store or because in your busy daily schedule you don’t have the time to sit down and eat.
It’s great to have lots of variety in your nutrition plan but that takes a lot of effort and time to prepare. I like the idea of making things as easy as possible which could mean doubling up on the same meal a couple of times a day, including protein shakes using VP2 Whey Isolate as your base and then adding things like oats and natural peanut butter to it or leaving it to stand on its own as a meal because this will make your life and sticking to the diet much easier.
Perfect with Peri-Workout Nutrition
Finally and very importantly as well, always make sure your peri-workout nutrition is on point; always.
What you eat before you train will be key for the energy you’ll need to train with enough intensity to force new gains. The intra-workout nutrition you utilize will enhance pumps, support mental focus, create a nitrogen-rich environment, and initiate the recovery process much faster than without. And your post-workout nutrition sets the tone for recovery and growth.
If you’re training as hard as you should be then you certainly want to ensure you take full advantage of your efforts in the gym and turn all of that hard work into new muscle. Being perfect with your peri-workout nutrition is your first stop for allowing that to happen. Use your VP2 Whey Isolate shakes before and after your workout, mix a nice muscle inducing cocktail of BCAA 4500, Micronized Creatine Monohydrate, GL3 L-glutamine, and a serving of DGC for your intra-workout shake and grow like never before!
If you can turn the three aforementioned dietary strategies into daily habits, then I guarantee you will see new and better results. Falling into the bad habit of not doing so will leave you as you are and wondering why you’re not growing.
They say doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result is the exact definition of insanity. I say that depends. Stick with what I just shared with you and the only insanity you’ll experience is the amount of muscle you start putting on year after year!
