Natural bodybuilding or how to swing naturally

Greetings dear readers and guests of FitKiss.Club!

My name is Vitaly Okhrimenko and I am pleased to present you a publication that has one simple goal: eliminating information gaps in the site structure.

It just so happened that I have been running this online magazine for the second year, actively covering the subtleties and nuances of natural bodybuilding, but I still haven’t written what natural bodybuilding is.

Natural bodybuilding - what a wondrous beast it is?

Since the birth of competitive bodybuilding as an independent sport in the middle of the last century, doping has become one of the attributes of the sport of aesthetically powerful people. Moreover, doping is used in any sport in which we are talking about superhuman results, be it sprinting or powerlifting.

But while Olympic sports are strict about doping, professional bodybuilding takes the use of pharmacological dopings for granted.

After all, the main goal of bodybuilding is to build large muscles with a minimum percentage of body fat, which at the genetic level sounds absurd. And for a very long time, competitive bodybuilding developed in step with the development of sports pharmacology.

Just 20–25 years ago, sports pharmacology did not have the status of “taboo” and was quietly distributed in all pharmacies in the country.

And then a stereotype was formed: if he’s a jock, then he’s definitely a chemist and impotent. Moreover, this stereotype is so powerfully ingrained in the people’s consciousness that try to get it out of there today.

It is impossible for a person who does not influence his hormonal balance from the outside to take a prize at the championship of professional bodybuilders (read as: does not stuff himself with anabolic drugs). Needless to say, the effect on hormonal levels of health does not add.

Pharmacology helps you achieve results in bodybuilding faster and more efficiently at the cost of your own health.

And although officially, at the state level, anabolic steroids are considered a prohibited product, it is not difficult to get them and anyone can do it. Often young people come to the gym and do not have time to understand the process of muscle building, but they rush to buy anabolic steroids. And what's the result? They don’t become Schwarzeneggers, but they happily spend money on harm to their health and potency.

It is important to understand that taking anabolic steroids for a beginning athlete who has not yet used the resources provided by nature is, to put it mildly, not justified.

Anabolic steroids are an intervention in the hormonal levels of the body, which leads to the most unpredictable consequences.

Reasons that justify taking steroids:

1. Preparation for competitions;
2. The goal is to prove oneself in big sports;
3. Long-term stagnation after several years of progressive training.

And then, the last point is in question. There are more reasonable ways to overcome muscle stagnation, which I will tell you about today. Now we will briefly and informatively, as far as possible, try to understand how to pump up without steroids.

THE HOLY TRINITY OF BODYBUILDING

Bench, deadlift, squat - three basic exercises, using which you can achieve almost any results and develop absolutely all muscles. All three exercises together are called “base”, and anyone who does not do them, by definition, does not belong to the sect and is only an object of condescending grins among real adherents.

So, attention, once again - the holy trinity of bodybuilding:

SQUAT

PRESS

DEADLIFT

And no matter what the boorish celebrity blogger writes, no matter what your neighbor/neighbour/brother/matchmaker/bastard tells you, know that the bench press, deadlift and squat are the three most effective exercises for building a beautiful body. Both male and female. Whether you want slender legs or pumped ones, you still need a “base” for all this. Proven by any advanced amateur or athlete.

At the same time, remember that all other exercises in the gym, including any of the hundreds of machines in the gym, are just auxiliary and are needed to only enhance the effect of the “base”.

Yes, of course, you can stick your neck out and basically build up a decent body without using a base. But this will require a lot more effort and protein.

In general, the “base” is mandatory, including for girls, if they want to be real adherents of the Kachkov sect - slim and beautiful.

Age is also no barrier to ignoring the “holy trinity.”

From sectarian humor about the “base”:

The insignia of an adept is the body, which is also a cross that is proudly worn. Muscle volume is like a military rank, sophistication is like a palette of awards: unspoken insignia of distinction and hierarchy.

Natural Bodybuilding Championships

With the rise of bodybuilding as a sport, and until the 90s, there was nothing for naturals to do in competitive bodybuilding. It is impossible to compete with “chemists” without interfering with hormonal levels.

As a matter of fact, in the 90s, after repeated studies that proved the detrimental effects of anabolic steroids on an athlete’s health, the term “natural bodybuilding” appeared. Steroids were removed from free distribution in pharmacies and labeled “prohibited.” True (and unfortunately) as I said above, getting them is not difficult to this day. And today we can safely say: natural bodybuilding is not a myth, natural bodybuilders exist!

Nevertheless, proper bodybuilding from the amateur level gradually developed into a competitive one . Although according to statistics from 2015, 93% of those training in the gym do not perform anywhere. They train, as they say: “For themselves.”

But in order to compete in a bodybuilding competition, natural athletes will have to prove that you are really natural.

1. First, you will have to take biological tests to confirm your attitude towards “honest” bodybuilders.
2. Then you will need to prove your integrity using a lie detector.

All conditions so that “himari” does not leak into the arena of natural athletes.

Conclusion

Natural bodybuilding is not just a difficult path, it is a real struggle, both with yourself, with life circumstances, and with your own genetics, which more often pulls you back than helps you develop muscles. And even by creating truly “greenhouse” conditions for hypertrophy, a bodybuilder without the use of steroids will progress very slowly.

And also read: 3 bodybuilders who are unrecognizable in the off-season → Evolution of the form of Mr. Olympia winners →

How to swing in nature

Muscle growth is impossible without 3 things:

1. Increased load on muscles;
2. The body's hormonal response to stress;
3. Excess nutrients that thicken muscle tissue.

Hormonal intervention allows you to build muscle mass with a relatively small increase in body fat. For us – lovers of all things natural

, you need to decide on the goal.

Possible goals for straight men:

• Gaining muscle mass (in addition to muscle mass, fat mass also increases);
• Drying (when getting rid of excess fat, muscles are also lost);
• Keeping the body in good shape.

Keeping your body toned is the easiest and healthiest form of bodybuilding.

Depending on your goals, you need to build both a training program and a rest and nutrition program. Pharmacological bodybuilding replenishes the body with hormones necessary for growth, which increases height. And everything would be fine, but there is one thing:

When the body is replenished with hormones from the outside, it reduces the independent production of these hormones!

And I have not yet mentioned the harmful effects on internal organs, such as:

• Liver,
• Kidneys,
• Heart.

Accordingly, to increase the effect of outdoor training, you need to create favorable conditions for the body for increased generation of hormones necessary for growth. And here 3 things will help us:

1. Workout;
2. Rest;
3. Nutrition.

The Natural Bodybuilder's Journey

From the table of norms for muscle mass in the body, it can be seen that the minimum norm is 33% muscle. A sedentary lifestyle does not add muscle mass, so most people have about 33% muscle in their body.

To gain 50% of muscle you need to grow by about 17% from a sedentary lifestyle. This is the path of a natural bodybuilder with no training experience.

If a man can do 12 pull-ups, then he is not starting his natural bodybuilding journey from a sedentary lifestyle.

In the first year of strength training, muscles grow quickly and can grow by 10%. In the second year of training, growth rates slow down and muscles grow by about 5%. In the third year of strength training, the increase is only 2%.

Features of training for naturals

The first thing that will help us build impressive muscles with health benefits is basic exercises with systematically increasing load. In natural bodybuilding without steroids, muscle growth is possible only under conditions of stress that is unusual for the body. That is, if we do the same exercises from training to training, with the same approaches, we will not get any growth in nature.

It is important to understand that growth will be impressive until the body has time to adapt to the load.

In the first year of weight training, it is enough to adjust or change the training plan once every 3 months. It would be good to keep a training diary so that you can clearly see both the level of progress and the nuances that provoke this progress. Based on this data, it will be possible to create a more accurate and effective training program.

The correct training program for a natural in the first years of training can consist exclusively of split training (when 1-3 muscle groups are loaded with several exercises for each in 1 training session). This will help exhaust the potential given by Mother Nature. When the potential is used, your muscles will stop growing from the load. It's at times like these that many of us break down and move to the dark side of the moon. And some even leave the sport altogether.

Several times over the course of 6 years of training, I was faced with the desire to either give up on sports or try steroids. However, I managed to cope with the temptation and find (and at the same time try) those methods that allow me to continue to progress for the sixth year now. True, the most dramatic progress was in the first year of training, when in 12 months I managed to gain 10 kg of muscle mass:

Remarkable elements and techniques of natural bodybuilding help overcome stagnation:

• Periodization in natural bodybuilding,
• wave periodization,
• dropsets,
• supersets,
• trisets, etc., etc.

Famous natural bodybuilders use these techniques in their training. Over time, all of them will be described within the framework of this project and will be included in the link block, which is located at the beginning of the publication. It would be nice to subscribe to updates so as not to miss out.

In the meantime, I advise you to learn 2 principles of building training for straight people:

1. At least 70% of the exercises in a natural's training program are basic exercises.
2. You cannot allow the body to adapt to the load; you need to constantly change and improve something in the training program.

As a rule, first there is an increase in load, and then muscle building that can cope with the new load. Therefore, if the working weight does not increase, you should not expect much muscle growth either.

When we reach the genetically possible type of growth in strength and mass, each subsequent kilogram becomes more and more difficult. But (!) this strength and mass will remain with us forever, which cannot be said about chemists.

Sometimes, in order to increase the working weight, say in squats, you have to work hard for 1 goal for a whole month. But with what pride you then overcome the new weight that you... Depending on the goal of natural training, both the working weight and the number of repetitions in the approach are formed.

Without going into details, this information can be classified as follows:

• Less than 6 repetitions per set – strength training;
• 6–8 repetitions – mass training;
• 8–10 repetitions – training for tone;
• More than 10 repetitions – training for weight loss.

This refers to the average number of repetitions in a set, provided that the last repetition is given, if not at the peak of capabilities, then with great difficulty.

Relaxation Basics for the Straight Guy

Anabolic steroids allow chemists to recover faster, so they can train every day. For naturals, muscle tissue recovery is harder and takes longer, so we need to train less often and less intensely.

For a natural bodybuilder, especially if he is pursuing the goal of gaining muscle mass, 3 workouts per week will be more than enough. In this case, the duration of the workout should not exceed 60 minutes.

Short workouts, 40-60 minutes, consisting of mostly compound exercises with plenty of rest time between training days are best for natural bodybuilders.

Well, in order to recover well between workouts, you need to get enough sleep. Muscles swell during training, but they grow during sleep. So for effective growth, a natural athlete needs to sleep at least 8 hours a day.

Which is better - BB cream or CC cream?

The follower of BB cream, CC cream, can be considered an innovative solution today.

The product has been further improved, and the name “CC” can be translated as “full correction” or “color control”. Both names are correct.

Like its predecessor, CC cream performs several functions at once:

• foundation,
• moisturizing and nourishing cream,
• sunscreen,
• rejuvenating agent.

There is no need to ask the question - which is better bb cream or cc cream - CC cream has slightly different goals. Anti-aging ingredients no longer act as a pleasant bonus, but are full-fledged participants in your skin care.

Now this is no longer prevention, but full-fledged treatment. CC cream contains natural skin brighteners, antioxidants and vitamins.

Leveling the relief and adapting to the natural tone have become more expressive, although the color palette does not indulge in an abundance of shades. Thanks to its lighter texture and natural ingredients, the CC cream promises to simultaneously brighten and mattify the T-zone.

Here are two natural CC creams that are worth checking out.

Natural Bodybuilding and Nutrition

In order for muscles to grow, calorie consumption must exceed the body's energy expenditure (supercompensation mode).

To get rid of fat, the calorie content of food must be less than energy expenditure (undercompensation mode).

In both the first and second cases, it is necessary to get calories from the right foods.

1. Proteins from which muscles are directly built are fish, meat, dairy and fermented milk products, poultry, eggs.
2. Complex carbohydrates, the calorie content of which is spent on maintaining energy levels, are cereals, grains, legumes, pasta, vegetables, fruits and berries.

But you should beware of simple (slow) carbohydrates contained in chocolate, sweet fruits, sugar, confectionery and flour products, honey, jam, etc. They will certainly replenish your energy level, but can cause the accumulation of excess fat. And since the word “bodybuilding” is located next to the word “natural” in the title of the article, we should refrain from excess fat.

Regardless of the purpose of training, meals should be divided into 4-6 approaches. And here is an important point:

• We gain muscle mass by eating a lot at a time;
• When we are drying, we eat little at a time.

A very simple principle that many of us either ignore or consider it insignificant and are looking for some secrets of natural bodybuilding that will allow us to pump up quickly and effectively. But the secret lies on the surface. No wonder they say: “everything ingenious is simple!”

After a workout, a so-called protein-carbohydrate window is formed and all the calories taken during this time go towards muscle building. Therefore, it is desirable that the food filling the protein-carbohydrate window consist mainly of protein. Well, amino acids, proteins or BCAA are even better suited for these purposes.

DRUGS

Grandmothers or parents of sectarians, seeing huge colored jars with large inscriptions on the outside and white powder inside, immediately grab their hearts, and someone grabs validol - their son (grandson, granddaughter, daughter) has gone downhill. And it is almost impossible to explain to them that the can contains ordinary protein, which could be replaced with fish, chicken, shrimp - only simpler and cheaper.

This is what a jar of protein supplement looks like.

In addition to proteins in huge jars, “sectarians” often take a variety of amino acids (protein components) such as BCAA (the so-called “betseashki” - three essential amino acids, roughly speaking, “the same proteins, only different”) and, for example, creatine (a nitrogen-containing carbon acid, which in its essence is also a protein and is involved in energy metabolism in muscle and nerve cells. Used to increase strength, muscle mass and short-term aerobic endurance with proven safety).

A page of sectarian humor.

Almost all professional athletes use anabolic steroids, but it is not customary to talk about this with ordinary people.

Firstly, because these drugs are prohibited. Since 2003, for the purchase/sale of “drugs” or “vitamins” (as professional athletes call them) in Russia, punishment ranges from a fine of several thousand rubles to imprisonment for up to 8 (!) years. Agree, this is very convenient for the court and it’s the Russian way - you can impose a fine of 10 thousand, or you can put him in prison for 8 years. In general, when every citizen is a criminal, it is very convenient and comfortable for the state. Naturally, ours.

Secondly, due to the negative image associated with possible side effects that may arise due to non-compliance with the regimen and dosage.

Moreover, special “natural bodybuilding” competitions are held among athletes who do not use steroids. But, looking at the mounds of the participants’ muscles, it’s hard to believe in the purity of the experiment.

Sports nutrition in natural bodybuilding

It amuses me when people who are far from sports equate sports nutrition with pharmacology.

Sports nutrition is all about benefits, and every natural jock should at least fork out for protein.

But the role of sports nutrition in muscle building should not be exaggerated. I believe this: 90% of success is achieved through training, rest and nutrition, and only 10% of success remains with sports nutrition. However, tithing is also a lot!

10 types of sports nutrition for natural bodybuilding (sorted by importance):

1. Creatine monohydrate: lean mass gain + cutting + increased energy.
2. BCAA mass gain + fat loss + strength gain.
3. Protein gain of lean mass + reduction of fat.
4. Mass gainer + increase in strength.
5. Amino acids gain lean mass + reduce fat.
6. Beta Alanine increases power + increases endurance.
7. Sports vitamins set of lean mass + health benefits.
8. Glutamine gain lean mass + increase strength.
9. Caffeine increases energy + reduces fat.
10. Citrulline malate increases recovery rate + lean mass + increases strength.