After spending time visiting various bodybuilding and nutrition forums, I have noticed a trend of similar questions asked by those new to fitness and bodybuilding. Well-meaning members take the time to answer the questions, but what they often don’t mention is the question asked was the wrong question. To understand why they are the wrong questions, let’s take a look at the most popular questions that are asked by bodybuilding newbies.
First, the vast majority of questions I see posted by aspiring bodybuilders have to do with supplements. What are the most important supplements to take? At what times should these supplements be taken? What brand is the best of a given supplement? How much can I expect to gain per a period of time on a given supplement? If you are new to bodybuilding, these are the wrong questions to be asking.
Following the supplement questions, the next most common questions posed by beginners have to do with exercises and training. I believe the reason why these questions are posed less often than supplement questions is many beginners believe they have a good grasp on what it entails to exercise correctly. They ‘know’ the more they lift weights, the more muscle they gain. They simply wish to know which exercises are most effective, how many reps is most effective and similar questions. While training techniques is definitely an important aspect of bodybuilding, these questions are again far from the most important ones. Often these beginners are spending 3 to 4 hours at a time working out, overtraining to the point that it does not matter how many reps they are doing per set, each rep is just increasing the amount they have overtrained.
Finally, a very small percentage of these beginners may get to the most important questions regarding gaining muscle mass or losing body fat. These are the nutrition questions. There are many reasons why this area gets the least amount of attention from newbies. For those looking to gain muscle, many simply do not realize the important role nutrition plays in this process. Second, many have their own ideas about what entails proper nutrition. With the amount of misinformation circulating, these preconceived ideas are almost always not only ideal, but highly detrimental to their goals. And the final reason nutrition questions are put on the back-burner, is beginners hope they do not have to pay attention to this area as long as they focus on the first two (supplements and exercise). Many of those looking to shed fat want to see how well their diet pills mixed with a stroll on the treadmill work before sacrificing their double cheeseburgers and coke. Many of the ones wishing to pack on muscle want to believe that all they need is supplements and weight-training.
I believe the process of building and sculpting your body should be likened to constructing a skyscraper. The process of constructing this building requires many important parts and it’s a process that does not happen overnight
The most important part of creating the building is acquiring the raw materials. It does not matter how many workers or how many machines that were gathered if the material to construct the building is not present. The workers can work as hard as possible, but they simply cannot make a building out of air. Their intentions might be great, but all of their hard work is futile. However, having materials is not enough. It needs to be quality material. Foundations constructed with poor materials will not be strong enough to support the massive structure of this large building.
Also extremely important in the construction of a skyscraper is the workers and the machines they use to perform their work. Ideally, the construction manager will hire just enough hard working workers to achieve the construction. Anyone in management can tell you there comes a point where adding more employees starts resulting in diminishing returns.
With the building materials, the workers and the construction equipment the project now has all it needs to achieve its goal. At this point the management might decide it could be worthwhile to add additional expenses to help the construction finish a little quicker. If it’s hot out, the purchase of some large fans might help keep the workers cool so they can work longer and at a little better efficiency. Whether management decides to invest in any of these additional items will not affect the overall goal greatly. But once they have maximized getting the best materials and the optimum number of workers, it might then be worth the extra expense to achieve that last little bit of efficiency.
Now what would happen if the project manager focused on the least important areas? Maybe he read the latest issue of ‘Skyscraper Construction Weekly’ and paid close attention to all the various adds on maximizing worker productivity. One would show some highly expensive working gloves. Next to the gloves are two pictures. The first shows a poorly constructed and worn down building with the caption ‘Constructed by Workers wearing regular gloves. The other picture shows a beautiful and strong sky scraper with the caption ‘Built by workers wearing Ultimate Gloves’.
After purchasing many pairs of these extremely expensive gloves and every other piece of equipment he hopes will give him a quick advantage he looks at getting workers. He wants the project done fast so he hires as many as he can find, figuring the expense will be taken care because they will finish the building so quickly. Finally, he gathers whatever material he can find. A lot of its questionable at best, but he decides the extra workers will make up for it.
Hopefully the comparisons in the construction of the skyscraper to those with bodybuilding are obvious. It makes no less sense for a construction manager to focus on the hype of various accessories when he hasn’t first gotten the right materials and the right amount of workers giving it all they got than it does for one to worry about supplements when they are eating poorly and exercising inefficiently.
<message edited by CowboyMouth on Friday, June 29, 2007 7:51 AM>