Whether you plan on, or have already engaged in, lifting weights to improve your overall health and enhance your body composition by adding mass and/or stripping away body fat, one thing is for sure—you are, in one way or another, " bodybuilding".
No matter what your fitness goals may be ... to compete locally, to compete nationally in hopes of obtaining a pro card, to just simply lift weights in order to build up a skinny/shapeless body and feel better about yourself, or to gain some muscle and lose some excess fat for health reasons, living the bodybuilding lifestyle can help propel you towards your goals that much faster and make them a reality.
When I say "bodybuilding lifestyle," I am talking about the many big and small aspects that help to create and maintain a healthy way of living cornered around correct exercise, eating, and recuperation.
The quality of work you perform and the success you obtain in the gym will also reflect on the quality of your life outside of the gym, and vice versa. Each one benefits the other, and a lack of attention in one area can easily spill over and affect the outcome in the other areas of your life.
Your health is your life, and bodybuilding is one of the number one ways to improve your personal health, allowing you to acquire and enjoy the most that every day has to offer.
What's Entailed In Living The Bodybuilding Lifestyle?
In order to get the most out of bodybuilding and to reach your fitness goals, certain variables (such as diet, training, and recuperation) must be adhered to consistently—day in and day out.
The best way to make sure that you are successful in achieving the results you seek as quickly as possible is to incorporate these variables as part of your everyday life, instead of viewing them as mere chores, which can then seem like inconveniences more than key elements to living a longer, healthier, more prosperous life.
To help maintain your consistency with diet, training, and recuperation, smaller variables, such as cutting down on heavy partying, not smoking, passing up on unhealthy fast-food, checking over nutrition labels of foods you buy, training with high intensity, setting goals, and giving yourself 8-10 hours of sleep nightly, should be implemented as much as possible into your lifestyle. Take a step back and look at your day-to-day lifestyle in general.
What kinds of foods make up the majority of your diet? Are you eating two or three big meals per day instead of the needed 5-7 smaller proportioned nutritious meals needed to kick your metabolism into high gear?
Are you training consistently on a proper program with 100% intensity? Do you have a plan or set goals every time you workout? Do you party or consume alcohol often, and not get much sleep? Are you happy with your progress in the gym as well as the progress with your life in general?
These are just some questions you can, and should, ask yourself from time-to-time to determine if you are making positive choices and living a lifestyle that is suitable for reaching your goals and obtaining success.
The Need For Balance
Just as it is essential to follow certain guidelines in order to reach your goals in bodybuilding, you should also strive to balance out your life by indulging in other activities and enjoyments that life itself has to offer. Bodybuilding should not consume you or your life, and just like anything else, too much of one thing can become destructive.
Bodybuilding is a 24-hour sport, which requires a certain degree of dedication, sacrifice and repetitive work in order to prevail successfully—but one can, however, get caught up in putting "all their eggs in one basket" and placing too much energy and focus into one thing only.
Instead, use what bodybuilding has taught you both inside and outside of the gym, and apply these benefits in positive ways to other important areas of your life. Whether it be performing your job better, being more successful in school, decreasing anxiety to better relieve daily stress, taking on new responsibilities, setting new goals, or improving your overall mood and self-esteem.
By providing balance to your bodybuilding, as well as establishing goals outside of your fitness endeavors, a more complete lifestyle can be had, and in return, your bodybuilding goals will continue to remain fresh and in a progressing state.
The Benefits Of Leading The Bodybuilding Lifestyle
The benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle through bodybuilding are endless, and it is through bodybuilding itself that many key ingredients for success, not only in bettering one's own health, but also enhancing one's entire way of living, are readily provided, when the time is taken to realize and seek the "bodybuilding lifestyle".
Being more fit equates to being physically able to do more life activities you enjoy doing with much more energy and motivation, slowing down the aging process (living longer), increased confidence and self well-being, better overall body functioning and performance, and knowing that you can achieve the goals you set out to do, both inside the gym as well as in all other areas of your life.
Allow the hard work and discipline that you put forth in your workouts to carry over into the other aspects of your daily activities, and I guarantee that you will have a more well-rounded and successful lifestyle. Your health and fitness should be the last thing that stops you from enjoying both the simple and finer things that life has to offer.
By combining your passion for bodybuilding/fitness and utilizing the three basic elements I've discussed above (training, diet, and rest) correctly, while continually making healthy choices and balancing out all other facets of your life, you can improve your lifestyle and set yourself up for optimal results both inside and outside of the gym.
Living the "bodybuilding lifestyle" is an enjoyable way of life, but remember, it is not your whole life. Realize what bodybuilding has to offer you, seize the benefits and apply them to your everyday life. Most importantly, have fun, stay healthy, and maintain balance among all your daily life activities and goals!
And what better time to start enhancing your progress in the gym and making changes to the way you live your life than now! New Year's is just around the corner and there is not a better resolution you can set for yourself than to start living the bodybuilding lifestyle!" to help create success in all areas of your life!