Bodybuilding regimens emphasize muscular growth, because judges evaluate the amount of muscle mass on your body at bodybuilding competitions. Your training must impose enough stress on your muscles to stimulate muscular growth, and bodybuilding progress depends on continually imposing greater amounts of stress on your muscles. Effective bodybuilding requires nutrients that supply raw material for muscle growth, and gives your muscles enough time to use those nutrients effectively.
Muscle Fibers
Your muscles contain fibers with different proportions of energy-producing mitochondira or contractile proteins. Fibers with more contractile proteins have the greatest potential for growth. Slow-twitch fibers contain more mitochondria to provide energy for extended periods of time, but have fewer contractile proteins. Bodybuilding emphasizes workouts target fast-twitch muscle fibers, because fast-twitch fibers contain fewer mitochondria but more contractile proteins.
Intensity and Progress
Bodybuilding workouts target fast-twitch muscle fibers with exercises that require short bursts of intense strength. The National Federation of Personal Trainers recommends exercise sets that include four to six repetitions for muscular growth. You may stimulate growth by selecting the amount of weight that you can perform only four repetitions with for individual exercises. Bodybuilding workouts support continual growth by increasing the weight for a individual exercises only after you can perform six complete repetitions for each set. Larger muscle groups may require up to 10 sets, while four to six sets are more appropriate for smaller muscles.
Recovery Time
Muscular growth only occurs during your post workout recovery. Bodybuilding requires enough recovery time for energy repletion, tissue repair and muscle building. You may divide a full body workout into three days to ensure that each muscle group gets at least two days to recover. You may perform chest and back exercises on the first day. Shoulder, bicep and tricep exercises may occupy day two; and the third day targets your quadriceps, hamstrings and trapezius.
Recovery Nutrients
Proteins, carbohydrates and fats are the basic muscle building recovery nutrients for bodybuilding. You may need to ingest dietary protein for approximately 15 percent of your daily calories, because your body uses protein to build, maintain and repair tissues in your body. Carbohydrates may occupy 60 percent of the ideal bodybuilder's daily calories, because they replenish muscle energy and help you conserve protein that your body can use for muscle building. Fats are important bodybuilding nutrients, because bodybuilding workouts typically exceed 20 minutes, and fat also provides your body with energy for physical activity that exceeds 20 minutes. Fat also stores vitamins and other nutrients that help drive chemical reactions that support your recovery.
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