Most people, including most bodybuilders don’t give anywhere near enough attention to their water or fluid intake each day. As with the other four areas of this guide, water is critical to your bodybuilding success, nothing is a bigger killer of hypertrophy (muscle growth) as is dehydration. Let me explain…
To grow, your body needs to be in what’s called an ‘anabolic’ state. This means that the body is in the position where it feels comfortable enough to worry about (in terms of our interests at least) synthetizing or creating additional muscle. For this to occur your body needs:
- A plentiful energy supply (from your diet where you’re ingesting more calories than you need to maintain your body in its current state)
- No deficiencies in any vitamins, minerals and various enzymes and catalysts (things that make the reactions work inside your muscles)
- Protein to actually build the muscles with
- Fully hydrated environment
It is this last section we are interested in here – for your muscles themselves to be anabolic you need to be drinking sufficient water or fluids in order to maintain them at the optimal level of hydration (this is quite easy to do – just make sure you NEVER feel thirsty and always drink at LEAST three litres of water a day, and possible much more. You should be going to the toilet quite often, every couple of hours – this helps prove to yourself that you’re properly hydrated). Water is involved in some shape or another in most reactions within your body and so is vital to survival, let alone getting big!
An example of how water levels in your muscles affect your growth: When you are on a diet and are restricting your carbohydrate levels your muscles do not store so much energy in them, in the form of glucose and creatine. These substances are very hydrophilic – they attract water, and are surrounded by it – for each gram of glucose in your muscles there is around seven grams of water – fabulous for creating a hydrated, anabolic environment for muscle growth. This is one reason why it’s so hard to build muscle if you’re restricting your diet, and why diet is so important to getting big.
Closing comments on the Beginners Guide to Building Muscle
So, after covering five different sections it all boils down to this:
- Keep a journal! You won’t know where you’re going or where you’ve been without one – it’s like going on a road trip without a map!
- Train hard in the gym but don’t over train – spend the shortest time in the gym that gives you the optimum chance for muscle growth
- Concentrate on your diet AT LEAST AS MUCH as you do on your training
- Eat lots of protein to give the muscles the building blocks they need to build you bigger muscles
- Supplement to ensure your body has what it wants, when it wants to ensure maximum growth
- Drink LOTS of water and eat plenty of carbs (consider creatine supplementation) so the muscles are hydrated and energy is available for the building process.
Follow this advice and you’ll be well on your way to gaining muscle quickly! There is lots more information and advice on this website – please take a look around, or failing that go make a healthy meal with lots of protein in it (40 grams would be great!) or get down to the gym and kick some!!
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you the very best of luck with your bodybuilding endeavour, no matter what your objects are and we would love to hear from you – let us know how you do. All the best!
Beginners guide sections:
- Training Routine
- Diet
- Supplements
- Rest
- Water