The importance of hydration in bodybuilding and fitness

70% of the human body is water.Being dehydrated will hinder your results in a MAJOR way.

*Being hydrated can increase your strenght in the gym by 19%.When you are even 3% dehydrated you lose up to 19% of your strenght.

*Water helps with digestion of food.It helps shuttle the important nutrients to your muscles more efficiently.

*Water makes a big part of the ingredients of the fluid responsable of lubricating your joints which plays a big factor in avoiding injuries in the gym.

*Being dehydrated reduces your energy levels as well as your strenght.If you want results, if you want to build muscle fast and get ripped DON'T be dehydrated.

The average man should drink approx. 3 liters of water per day and the average woman needs 2.2 liters of water every day.For every scoop of protein powder you consume you need to drink another cup of water.

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How to achieve muscle hypertrophy to build muscle fast.

First i'd like to talk about the term hypertrophy.It is the excessive development of an organ/part.more precisely the increase in size by thickening of muscle fibers.
To achieve hypertrophy you must be staying within 8-12 rep.range for upper body and 15-25 rep range for the lower body.

Lower rep ranges are for building strength.If  you are staying within 3-5reps you will be gaining a lot of strength fast, but not as much mass.
This is the 4 time champion of the World's Strongest Man as you can see he doesn't have massive muscles and an amazing looking physique.









And this is a bodybuilder having much more massive muscles and being bigger at a much lower body fat %.










Lower reps fail to stimulate your muscles in the way that brings out hypertrophy.You must be using a weight that allows you to do a minimum of 8 reps and a maximum of 12.The only muscle in the upper body that needs a 15-25 rep range are the abdominal muscles.Lower body muscles require 15-25 rep range as well because your legs and abs are endurance muscles.

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Quick bodybuilding protein shake for the summer

I'll share with you how I usually make my protein shakes for bodybuilding and fitness in the summer.

For shake this you will need:

* A handful frozen blueberries and 5 frozen strawberries(I'm using a mixed package of blue+strawberries I got from my local groceries store)
*200ml of Milk
*A scoop of  whey protein powder
*Optional:An oreo cookie
*NOTE:You can use fresh blue/strawberries, just add a couple of ice cubes.Also the amount of milk can be reduced/increased depending on your preferred density.

picture from greenlitebites.com

It's pretty self explanatory but here is a step by step guide:
1.Pour a cup of milk into the blender bottle
2.Add a scoop of protein powder
3.Stir/shake the milk with the protein powder to avoid any powder sticking to the bottle when you blend.
4.Add the berries and the oreo cookie.
5.Blend it for 30 seconds.
6.Enjoy :]

Nutritional facts:

*209 calories
*3.5g of fats
*18g of carbohydrates
*26g of protein
*17g of sugars

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Bodybuilding Stunts Growth?

The reaction of almost everybody that is uninvolved in fitness and gets told that i do fitness is:Oh you won't grow anymore, you will stay short for the rest of your life etc.

Well I'm proof that bodybuilding does not stunt vertical growth at all.I grew more than an inch in the last couple of months and i am still growing(I'm 15 177cm+) While i am training really hard in the gym and constantly improving my performance.

Bodybuilding/doing fitness by itself will not stunt your growth, in fact it may even boost it.It has been proven that weight training increases your naturally occurring testosterone levels and if you are not destroying body in the gym like some idiots i see doing weights that exceed their capabilities and visit snap city every time they visit the gym you WON'T STUNT your growth.

There are things how ever that can stun your growth.Those are steroids, malnutrition  and some supplements.

I'll start with the steroids.

So your bones are connected by cartilage which holds them together and over time some of the cartilage turns into bone, but that doesn't continue forever.At one point in puberty when your body is pumping out hormones like crazy your cartilage sees the huge amount of hormones and it decides that it is time to stop growing cause in order to have so many hormones you are an adult.Well when you take steroids they turn into hormones, huge amounts of hormones and your body can't tell from where exactly they are coming from so it thinks you have become an adult and boom it stops your growth.And if you get off the steroids there is NO guarantee that you will continue growing.My opinion is that there is very little to no chance for the growth to come back.

Now lets talk about the nutrition.

It's been proven that bad nutrition will stunt your growth.You can't know by how much but it will, it may be an inch or even a millimeter but why take the chance?Try to lay off the french fries, chips etc. It won't only make you fat but it may also stunt your growth.A very important substance for bone growth is calcium everybody that is 9-18y old should try to get 1300mg of calcium every day

And about the supplements

If you are young, you should not be using any other supplements than a multivitamin and a good quality protein.Many of the supplements on the market contain substances that can stunt your growth so why take the chance?Good nutrition is all you need to build muscle, supplements may help you build muscle, but most of the time they are just bullshit spreaded by fitness magazines and companies to make you waste money on useless supplements.

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Quick high protein tasty yogurt desert recepy for bodybuilding and fitness.

First I'd like to apologize about not posting much recently i will start posting regularly again soon i'm having some issues these days.

For this high protein fitness desert you will need : 

* 200g. low fat greek yogurt
* 1 scoop of protein powder[pref. chocolate]

* a hand full of blueberries+strawberries[If you are using frozen berries like i am just microwave them for 15 seconds and they're ready to eat]
* Optional: tbsp. of oatmeal/muesli.
NOTE:Measurements don't have to be exact.
Stir all this up and it's ready to eat.

Nutritional facts:

 226 calories.
 11.5g fat.
 10g carbohydrates.
 34g protein.
 NOTE:For those nutritional facts I've used plain greek yogurt if you use low fat one you will have even less calories/fats.
Enjoy!

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Coffee as a pre-workout supplement.Will it help you build muscle?

The benefits of using caffeine as a pre workout supplement are immense.

Many studies have been made about the caffeine affect on weight training and sports.

And it is the cheapest bodybuilding supplement around.And it is the most used substance on the planet which makes it extremely easy to get.Many of the diet pills have caffeine as the their main substance.

What is caffeine?

Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that is a psychoactive stimulant drug. Caffeine was discovered by a German chemist, Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, in 1819. He coined the term ''kaffein'', a chemical compound in coffee, which in English became ''caffeine''.

Here are some of the benefits of caffeine:

*Increases muscle strength.

*Increased stamina.

*Increases metabolism by breaking down fat and freeing fatty acids which causes fat burning.

*Reduces pain.

*Reduced muscle soreness.

*Caffeine can relieve post workout pain by as much as 48%

*If mixed with carbohydrates it replenishes muscle glycogen faster after a workout

*Weight lifters that used caffeine as a pre-workout have been able to do more repetitions on the bench 

press.Another study shows that they weight lifters were able to use 5 more pounds on the bench press.

*Increased mental clarity.This is a very important factor.Your ability to concentrate better in the gym will greatly improve your results and performance.

Caffeine is available in pills or coffees.And in caffeine more doesn't mean better, it has been proven that 200mg is the optimal amount, anything more than that will have little to no effect.

But excessive amounts of caffeine can have some nasty side effects like:

*Restlessness
*Irritability
*Anxiety
*Heartburn
*Headaches
*Fatigue
*High blood pressure
*Sleeplessness
*Rapid heartbeat
*Nausea
*Stomach instability

Taking caffeine regardless of your workout program/workout routine/sport will increase your ability to results and performance and will help you build muscle.
I recommend taking caffeine ONLY before your workouts for an increased effect.If you are drinking coffees every day it's effect will decrease rapidly and it may lead to caffeine addiction.
Taking caffeine as pills has been proven to be more effective but i drink mine cause i simply enjoy coffee a lot :) It's your choice.

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