Let’s be honest: this is another idea that has been on my mind for a long time. Since I’m an athlete myself, I run into this topic all the time. On one hand, I know what resources I have to invest to get results; on the other, I hear and see how people regard me, the sport I chose, and the representatives of bodybuilding and the strength sports. To some extent it’s an old, worn-out topic, a well-known myth, but I’ll take the liberty of stirring it up again. “Bodybuilders, weightlifters, powerlifters, they’re all introverts with a warped mindset and low-browed types!” Yes, yes. Although I sincerely hope this view has faded, there are still plenty of people who think so. I’ll cut it short and take the courage to claim that COMPETITIVE BODYBUILDERS ARE THE SMARTEST ATHLETES OF ALL!
That’s exactly how it is, and I’m not at all ashamed to admit that this is a song of praise for bodybuilders. And who is this article aimed at? Once again, at those who take us for narrow-minded, uneducated iron-movers with a limited outlook. And there are plenty of them.
Freaks we certainly are, both in our mindset and in our looks, but an ordinary person who may see a trained, stage-ready physique a couple of times in a magazine or on TV can’t even imagine what it takes to reach such condition. I won’t even talk about the sacrifices and the agonizing last days of the diet period before a contest. I’ll talk precisely about the KNOWLEDGE you need in order to achieve a look that can even stand being displayed on stage.
Knowledge of different diet strategies, of nutrition in general, of nutrients, of how the body functions, of body composition.
Getting into shape is a science in itself. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that a competitive bodybuilder, and even more so one who has managed to come in in great condition, must have fairly thorough knowledge of biochemistry, physiology and anatomy, and surely I’ve left something out. And real knowledge at that. Knowing only that “lift the bar and you’ll get strong” or “you have to eat lots of dairy and meat to get strong” won’t get you anywhere. When we talk about eating: why you have to eat, what we get from one food or another, why to eat exactly this way during the diet period. Why protein is needed, why you also have to rest, why to cut salt intake a couple of days before a contest, what happens to the salts when I consume them, where the carbohydrates go, and so on. You have to know all of this, and in many cases people do. It’s a fine science.
I think in practice it works like this: those who don’t understand how the body works and such “deep mechanisms and functions” will never be successful in their training either. Not just in training, but in preparing contest condition, too. That’s why I’ve always told young gym guys (whatever sport they do): read and educate yourselves. Read as much sport-specific literature and as many articles as you can; in many cases that will be the key to success. Training doesn’t simply work by one of the top guys saying, here, lift this much weight this many times, eat “this” on top of it, and after this much time you’ll look like this and lift this much. All the more so because those of us who know the field know that there isn’t really one single scheme for achieving success. Training, bodybuilding training, any training, gets results when the athlete knows what they’re doing. AN ATHLETE CAN’T AND MUSTN’T BE STUPID!!!
Okay, coming back to the original topic: for some reason I’ve been left with the impression that representatives of other sports mostly just train, paying practically zero attention to recovery, and especially to nutrition. Maybe that impression is wrong, but I’ve never heard of long-distance runners (let’s say at the national average level, youth, juniors and recreational runners) worrying, after a 15–20 kilometer workout, about quickly replenishing their energy resources or about their protein or amino acid intake??? Or do they worry??? Or do they even understand why you need to eat after training? As I see it, quick recovery should interest even athletics distance runners, because faster recovery means you can start the next workout sooner. If anything, among the representatives of many other sports you can come across the belief that you definitely must not eat until 1–2 hours after training.
I’m certainly not trying to claim that this applies to everyone. I think it can’t be said of the athletes who have won medals at World Championships and the Olympic Games and compete in their sport at world level, such as our discus throwers, skiers and others. Nutrition at that level is undoubtedly set up extremely strictly.
And coming back to the original idea of this piece, I think the importance of nutrition among bodybuilders has been at a higher level for decades than in the practice of other athletes. On one hand, the criteria that the sport places on its athletes naturally demand it.
So, all things considered, taking into account the manipulations a bodybuilder has to carry out on their body, it can still be said that bodybuilders must/should be the smartest athletes.
NB!!! This certainly doesn’t apply to everyone. Many athletics competitors, combat-sport athletes and so on, who are also regular visitors to this site, may feel addressed. Once again, it isn’t 100% true that only bodybuilders know about nutrition, but let’s be honest, the general tendency has, in my understanding, been like this for a long time.
Author: Janar Rückenberg
Come and train! ArtGym
