Training

Bodybuilders use three main strategies to maximize muscle hypertrophy:

• • Strength training through weights or elastic/hydraulic resistance

  • Specialized nutrition, incorporating extra protein and supplements where necessary

  • Adequate rest, including sleep and recuperation between workouts

Weight training

Weight training causes micro-tears to the muscles being trained; this is generally known as microtrauma. These micro-tears in the muscle contribute to the soreness felt after exercise, called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It is the repair to these micro-trauma that result in muscle growth. Normally, this soreness becomes most apparent a day or two after a workout. However, as muscles become adapted to the exercises, soreness tends to decrease.

Nutrition

The high levels of muscle growth and repair achieved by bodybuilders require a specialized diet. Generally speaking, bodybuilders require more calories than the average person of the same weight to support the protein and energy requirements needed to support their training and increase muscle mass. A sub-maintenance level of food energy is combined with cardiovascular exercise to lose body fat in preparation for a contest. The ratios of food energy from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats vary depending on the goals of the bodybuilding.

Meals

Bodybuilders usually split their food intake for the day into 5 to 7 meals of roughly equal nutritional content and attempt to eat at regular intervals (normally between 2 and 3 hours). This method purports to serve 2 purposes: to limit overindulging as well as increasing basal metabolic rate when compared to the traditional 3 meals a day.

Here are some of my favorite reads for you:

1. Maximize Your Metabolism!

2. Healing Your Gourmet!

Non muscle-developing methods

Some bodybuilders, particularly at professional level, use substances such as site enhancement oil to mimic the appearance of muscle where it may otherwise be disproportionate or lagging. Surgical methods are also often employed to remove steroid-related gynecomastia in male bodybuilders, and breast implants in female bodybuilders who wish to retain a feminine physique, which can be compromised in terms of breast reduction by intense weight training.