Bodybuilding
Looking for a bodybuilding gym? Here are some essentials to consider. Make sure the gym has a variety of free weights, resistance machines, and cardio equipment. It's also important to check that the gym is spacious for weightlifting activities and has a designated area for stretching.
Finding the right club has always been a hassle yet challenging, but here is some advice to guide you through your research.
What is Bodybuilding?
Bodybuilding is the sport of developing one's muscles through hypertrophic exercises. In order to achieve muscle growth, the athlete progressively overloads muscles through resistance exercises. The sport of bodybuilding has a distinct focus on aesthetics. There is a difference between other forms resistance training, such as Olympic weightlifting or powerlifting, and bodybuilding. Bodybuilding competitions are not based on how much weight an athlete can lift or move. The definition of bodybuilding is a competition in which competitors are judged on an aesthetic basis - on the size, shape, fullness, and proportions of their muscles. Modern bodybuilders often see themselves as members of a distinct subculture that has developed around the sport.
The Bodybuilding Subculture
Today, a distinct subculture has developed around the sport of bodybuilding. Those that hope to compete on stage must maintain strict dietary and exercise programs for many months out of each year, often restricting them from indulging in social drinking or eating. Thus, those preparing for competition have tended to surround themselves with others with similar goals and training routines. In recent years, social media has led to the growth of the bodybuilding subculture and allowed amateur bodybuilders the chance to follow and connect with other enthusiasts and professionals.
Notably, those physiques that many bodybuilders strive for have been seen by some as excessively muscular, unsightly, and even grotesque. This sense of being misunderstood by non-bodybuilders has only propelled the growth of the subculture.
Diet and Exercise in Bodybuilding
The main two components of bodybuilding are resistance exercise and diet. While many people carefully monitor their diet and exercise routines to achieve good health and looks, bodybuilders who are preparing for competition often take diet and exercise to the extreme. This intense focus on diet and exercise makes looking inward to the bodybuilding subculture an attractive option for many who feel misunderstood by others in their lives.
Resistance exercise programs for bodybuilders range greatly, from beginner workouts to advanced routines. Most bodybuilding programs, those aiming at increasing muscle size rather than overall strength, focus on completing exercises in the hypertrophic range. Bodybuilding experts tend to regard the optimal range of reps per exercise set as 8-12. Bodybuilders tend to focus most on ''stage'' muscles, or those muscles that accentuate the aesthetic ''V-shaped'' physique. Thus, bodybuilders tend to focus on growing the chest, shoulders, and arms, while maintaining a slender abdomen. However, modern bodybuilders stress the importance of training all muscles to create a symmetrical physique. Bodybuilders utilize a combination of compound and isolation exercises to achieve hypertrophy, including the bench press, the squat, and the barbell bicep curl. Bodybuilders train multiple times a week, sometimes taking only one day off from resistance training per week.