Body Rhythms and Future of Bodybuilding

The future of bodybuilding may not be in the weight room of your local gym, but in a researcher's laboratory. Scientists are listening to your body rhythms to help you enhance your performance tomorrow.

There are a few body rhythms affecting our bodies. Seasonal rhythms are felt at a specific time of year. We've all had "spring fever" and some of us get seasonal affective disorder, which causes depression during the shortened days of winter. Infradian rhythms last longer than a twenty-four hour cycle. The menstruation in women is a perfect example. Then there's the Circadian rhythm, which follows a twenty-four hour cycle such as wakefulness and sleep.

Scientists are studying these rhythms. That research will eventually help bodybuilders to enhance their performance. You see, our biological clocks take their cue from the environment and the pulse of our planet as day turns to night and winter becomes spring. This internal clock is also affected by our genetic make-up, age, and gender influencing how our bodies change from morning to night. It affects our blood pressure, body fat, weight, blood flow, as well as other vital functions.

As night turns to day our bodies react. Heart rates quicken and blood pressure increases all in anticipation of increased physical activity. All these functions are regulated by our biological clocks located in the brain, and these biological rhythms are genetically programmed into our cells, tissues, and organs.

In the future, when we have a deeper understanding of these rhythms, we will eventually be able to take advantage of our biorhythms to improve our workouts and retain excellent health.

There are a handful of researchers looking into body rhythms and its affect on bodybuilding. T Reilly studied the influence of circadian rhythms on exercise. He's noted that the effects of these rhythms on body temperature, cortical arousal, endocrine factors, and muscular peak torque are all enhanced in the PM hours. Therefore, his studies show that greater training loads would be better tolerated in the evening than morning.

However, the jury is still out on this one. Are you a morning or night person? Humans have individual differences in the timing of their behaviors that determine their circadian typology. Some people prefer daytime activities--the morning person. Others prefer the nightlife--evening person. At one extreme is the lark and the other end the owl.

Most of us fit someplace in between. The lark/owl differ in sleep-wake patterns and biological rhythms as well as preferences for physical and mental activities. Morning people prefer to rise between 5 AM and 7 AM and retire between 9 PM and 11 PM. Evening people prefer to wake up later than their morning brothers. You'll catch them in the kitchen for breakfast around 9 AM to 11 AM and they don't crash for the night until 11 PM to 3 AM. Naturally, this difference in sleep cycle affects training schedules.

Various hormones produced by our bodies are affected by circadian rhythms. For example, testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) exhibit circadian rhythm with peak concentrations in the morning and reduced concentrations in the evening and while we sleep. Researchers are discovering that bodybuilders can maximize optimal training responses if they can alter the hormonal environment, for hormonal events play a significant role in signaling the cellular remodeling process of skeletal muscle protein.

Here's where things get really technical. Anabolic hormones, hormones, which stimulate muscle growth, such as T and growth hormones, regulate protein synthesis. Catabolic hormones, on the other hand, such as C, regulate protein degradation. The balance between these anabolic/catabolic hormones influences protein turnover. The net result of this complex process is muscle mass.

Circadian time structures on hormonal events can depend greatly on an individual's morning-evening preference. Researchers Stephen P. Bird and Kyle M. Tarpenning at Charles Sturt University, Australia investigated the influence of circadian rhythms on hormonal responses to heavy resistance exercises in bodybuilders. They used two different exercise periods on separate occasions, 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM. They wanted to see how hormones responded to a specific weight lifting session.

Bird and Tarpenning formed two groups of weight lifters based on their morning or evening preferences. The morning group showed a reduction of C levels during their exercise period finishing 47% below their pre-exercise value. In contrast, C levels for the evening group increased by as much as 32%. Since C has a catabolic role in the breaking down of tissue, body builders have an invested interest in its potential as a tissue break down agent. Also, an increase in T indicates tissue growth or anabolism.

Bird and Tarpenning compared the AM resistance-training group to the PM group and reported a significant increase in post exercise T/C ratio. They concluded that this ratio in monitoring overall anabolic/catabolic status may affect the growth of muscle mass.

In the future, when there is a deeper understanding of the effect of hormones on our bodies in relation to our body rhythms we could possibly harness this information to mold ourselves into godlike. One little pill at night and we wake up looking like Mr. Universe without pumping an ounce of iron. But until that day happens, back to the weight room.

About the Author: Dane Fletcher is the world's foremost training authority. He writes exclusively for GetAnabolics.com, a leading online provider of clenbuterol and creatine. For more information, please visit http://www.GetAnabolics.com.

A Primer On Bodybuilding Techniques

There are certain steps that a bodybuilder must follow when doing weight training. These techniques almost always include improved form to make the exercising harder as opposed to easier.

There are many different bodybuilding techniques can you can use to improve your physique. These include pyramids, negatives, drop sets, twenty-ones, giant steps, partial reps, and forced reps. These are all wonderful techniques to be used according to your requirements.

Using the technique of constant tension without reaching the locking point is very effective in some exercises. Full contraction plus full range stretch is important, which means the bodybuilder must perform every rep of every exercise at the full range of motion.

A bodybuilding technique that enables the bodybuilder to thoroughly work out a single muscle group is called the giant set. The giant set consists of three different exercises performed successively, focusing on a specific muscle. This can be done for every muscle but one must use it sparingly on the back.

Drop sets are a good way to round off a workout for specific muscles. They give you a pumped-up feeling in the muscles and consume the last bit of energy left in the muscles.

Twenty-ones is a technique that works every area of the muscle as opposed to a single range.

Another good technique is constantly thinking "maintain tension," while you intentionally increase the tension on the muscles while doing the rep.

Other bodybuilding technique that you can use super sets that are good for exercising a particular range of muscles, completely exhausting the muscle fibers, and working two separate groups of muscle.

Slowing down with your reps can also help. Slow repetition is often more effective repetition, because this small change in technique can help improve form as well as boost muscular development.

You can employ any one of the many bodybuilding techniques. You need to vary your technique frequently so that your muscles do not get used to a particular exercise.

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Bodybuilding Supplements Vs. Anti-aging Supplements

Bodybuilding Supplements

You may be caught asking yourself, do I really need a bodybuilding supplement to reach my bodybuilding goals? No, you don't necessarily need them, but bodybuilding supplements have proved to be useful tools to help you get the job done.

There's plenty of great bodybuilding supplements around that will give you the results that you desire. These bodybuilding supplements work well because they give your body the exact ingredients it needs for building muscle mass. A major factor in building muscle mass is your consumption of calories, if you don't consume enough calories then your body has no bricks to build any muscle with. A bodybuilding supplement is going to give you all the ingredients that your body needs to create muscle.

Along with taking a daily bodybuilding supplement, you should also be incorporating a solid exercise routine and a healthy diet. Especially be careful with your diet! A bad diet can undo the beneficial properties that a bodybuilding supplement will give you. After exercising, make sure you give your body sufficient rest periods. These are the times that your body will be building more muscle.

Bodybuilding supplements can be very easy to take. Some come in pill form, and others you can drink in milkshake form. They all vary in taste, so make sure you pick a supplement that you actually like!

Anti-aging Supplements

Use anti-aging supplements to naturally eliminate the effects of aging by treating the root of aging, unhealthy skin. Anti-aging supplements provide the perfect natural solution for treating skin wrinkles and other fine lines. They will help nourish your skin and give it the proper ingredients it needs to function properly.

Wrinkles and fine lines are commonly caused by dry skin. Anti-aging supplements will help you combat the dehydration of your skin, and thus fight the appearance of wrinkles.

When using your anti-aging supplement, make sure it gets properly absorbed in your skin. Also, take precaution when it comes to ingredients and be sure the supplement is hypoallergenic and non photo toxic. These two things can cause problems instead of solving them.

Anti-aging supplements will also repair your skin and remove things like age spots and damaging chemical toxins. Harmful elements like toxins ultimately detract from the health of your skin and will only help to dry it out. A good anti-aging supplement will also improve the elasticity and dexterity of your skin as well.

Take care when selecting the right anti-aging supplement for you. Look at the ingredients and make sure they contain the right things that help benefit your skin. Check for ingredients Vitamin A, C, E, and Vitamin D. Plus things like ginseng, zinc, proteins, fibers, and other natural ingredients help improve the quality of your skin.

Natalie Aranda writes about health and fitness. There's plenty of great bodybuilding supplements around that will give you the results that you desire. These bodybuilding supplements work well because they give your body the exact ingredients it needs for building muscle mass. A major factor in building muscle mass is your consumption of calories, if you don't consume enough calories then your body has no bricks to build any muscle with.

Home Gym Equipment

When you are setting up a gym in your home, you will need about ten basic pieces of equipment to make it successful. If you are setting one up for a male, you will probably want to make sure some of the weights are heavier to meet their needs. First, you will want a 50llb dumbbell set. A good dumbbell set which includes a set of 5llb, 8llb and 12llbs dumbbells. Dumbbells are essential in toning any body because they create lean, defined muscles which give you a sleek look as well as help burn more calories. You also are going to need a barbell set. Barbell sets are good to go along with dumbbell sets because they target different areas of the muscle, giving you an all around better workout. To help you with your weight lifting, you can purchase a pair of weight lifting gloves, which will allow you to have a better grip on the bar, as well as protect your hands from calluses.

Now that you've got all your weight's set up, you are going to need something to work out on. If you're budget allows, you can purchase a weight bench, which allows you to do exercises of all kinds. However, if you can't afford to buy a weight bench, you can buy an aerobics step, which allows you to do many of the same exercises. You can also use an exercise ball to do your exercises on, which is very popular because they help increase balance, and core strength. After you are done your work out, you need to stretch, so a mat would be useful so you avoid rug burn, as well as bruising you're spine. These are the basic necessities for any home gym, but if you find you're self wondering what exercises to do after you've got you're gym set up, you might want to purchase a workout book as well.