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Bodybuilding is about building a physique. Who wouldn’t want to have a perfect physique? However, to achieve this much-desired physique, people often resort to shortcuts. Today, bodybuilding is divided into two categories: natural bodybuilding and conventional bodybuilding. We are all familiar with the latter and, at competition level, it dominates natural bodybuilding, which is still practised by a small niche group of athletes. Natural bodybuilding is practised by athletes who do not use performance-enhancing substances.
The cornerstones of natural bodybuilding are diet, training and the use of supplements. It is only over the course of several years that a natural athlete manages to build a solid physique through a suitable diet, a personalised training plan and targeted supplementation. Let’s take a look at how an athlete practising natural bodybuilding can manage their diet, training and supplementation.
Natural bodybuilding: nutrition, training and supplementation
Nutrition depends on the individual: as well as gender and age, it is important to understand body composition, assess nutritional status, be aware of previous habits and take occupational activity into account. Only after a detailed medical history has been taken can the first step be determined together.
“How many times a week should someone practising natural bodybuilding train?” “How long should you train before entering a catabolic state?” These are the questions most frequently asked of an athlete practising natural bodybuilding. Let’s put that aside for a moment and set the record straight: you need to listen to your body. “Train when your body tells you to.” Indeed, as well as training below your potential, you run a greater risk of injury. Having established this basic premise, we can offer some advice on how to manage your training. 12 sets for the ‘major’ muscle groups and 9 sets for the ‘minor’ groups could serve as a starting point when planning a training session. As we’ve already mentioned, this needs to be put into context, as some athletes can push themselves further, whilst others need to train differently. The same applies to the choice of exercises. As there is no single exercise that is perfect for everyone, the most functional exercises will be selected based on the individual’s medical history and a postural assessment. Finally, it may be useful, every six weeks, to have a recovery week, during which the intensity of the training sessions is reduced, for example by lowering the weights and focusing on fixed sets. The recovery week is effective for the athlete’s muscular and neural recovery.
Just like diet and training, supplements must also be chosen carefully by athletes practising natural bodybuilding. They should be regarded as a complement to the diet.
There are several types available and, amongst all the possible ways of using them, the most common is to take them around the time of training, in order to improve and optimise performance – something that food alone cannot achieve, as it would require further metabolic processes to make it ready for use. As we have already mentioned, supplements are also chosen according to the athlete’s goal. However, within the framework of a training programme, there are certain supplements that are essential. The basic supplement regimen for an athlete practising natural bodybuilding consists of taking protein, amino acids and dextrose. Other supplements, such as creatine, glutamine, multivitamins, etc., are taken at specific times and over a period of several weeks. There are numerous brands on the market offering products with different characteristics, to such an extent that beginners and/or the average consumer are often unsure which supplement to choose. One of the most established companies in the sector is Tsunami Nutrition, which offers certified products of the highest quality.
Which supplements are essential in a natural bodybuilder’s diet?
For proteins, we recommend WHEYPure, ISOPure and HYDROPure PROFESSIONAL, which are produced using different processes and used in different ways depending on individual needs. For amino acids, on the other hand, a good option is BCAA Pure PROFESSIONAL or SUSTAPure PROFESSIONAL, which includes the addition of Sustamine, a dipeptide molecule that prevents muscle catabolism whilst increasing protein and glucose synthesis. Finally, DEXTROPure is simply dextrose. It is mainly used post-workout to help restore glycogen stores depleted during exercise.
2 ALKAPure PROFESSIONAL (double-buffered creatine), GLUTAPure PEPTIDE (Glutamine Peptide) and NATURAL HEALTH MULTIVIT (Multivitamin containing vitamins and minerals) are just three of the supplements that can be added to those described above, the difference being that they must be taken at specific times of the day.
