Bodybuilding and nutrition:

Nutrition is - without the slightes exageration -one of the most important elements of bodybuilding. This sport, though it may seem simple at first glance for an onlooker, is in fact a rather complicated and well balanced system, one that needs to have several elements working in unison in order to yield the expected results. Nutrition is a cornerstone of this system, together with a correct and thorough exercise program and plentiful rest and recuperation. Of course there are loads more elements that also need to be present but what we’re going to focus on, is the importance of nutrition and the need for dietary supplements.
To better understand the impact of nutrition on bodybuilding, one needs to understand the way the human muscle works during an exercise and how exactly it puts the nutrients, available to it, to use.
During a contraction the target musclegroup utilizes some of its muscle fibers to “get the job done” so to speak, but only a few of those. With the next rep it makes use of further fibers, and thus progressively it calls in all of the available muscle fibers as the going gets tougher and tougher. Eventually all the muscle fibers get fatigued and - in the ideal case - that’s when it is time to end the set. Why does muscle get exhausted and what exactly is involved in the process ? one might ask.
Muscle fibrs become incapable of contraction once they get filled up with lactic acid, the byproduct of the burning process that takes place in the muscle during contraction. As muscle fuel is oxidized during the contraction energy and waste result. Energy is converted into motion with the help of the bone structure and ligaments, whilst the waste just builds up.
During the rest between two sets the waste is hastily removed ( at least a part of it) so some of the muscle fibers regain their ability to contract. As the next set is performed the fibers are fatigued once again and filled with lactic acid. Much of the waste built up this way remains in the muscle though, and the aching, burning sensation known as muscle-fever that follows a thorough workout is due to it.
What we failed to mention so far though is that the muscle takes up a lot of fuel for the oxidation. This fuel is normally derived from basic nutrients by the digestive system, however a normal diet will most probably not produce enough of it to cover the needs of the muscles subjected to the heavy workloads a bodybuilder must endure. Up to a certain point - till reaching a reasonable level of fitness that is - a change in the diet might yield results. Eating more high-quality proteins carbohidrates, fibers and vitamins will probably cater well for a beginner bodybuilder’s needs. When the going gets tougher though, and more spectacular results are sought, the above presented -apparently simple- equation needs to be tampered with.
The genetical predisposition for accumulating muscular mass is not a variable here so plainly put there’s nothing one can do to make this element more favourable.
What can be increased though is the amount of fuel the muscle can tap into, through carefully engineered dietary supplements. The more there is of this, the less the risk of running out of it and ending up in an apparent muscle-exhaustion/overtraining symptom that can seriously limit someone’s development in more ways than one. Another variable is that of the waste removal. Accelerating this aspect leads to a faster recovery, and thus - implicitly - to hastened muscle development. Before you go: “oh I had no idea the muscle-contraction mechanism is such a simple one” we need to warn you. It isn’t. The above presented model is a very-much simplified picture, meant to make the basics more understandable. In fact there is a plethoria of other chemical processes involved in it , and they each represent yet another variable in the equation that can be modified in order to vary the final result.
Modern dietary supplements take care of a variety of tasks stimulating these processes. Fat burners, diet pills, different vitamins, ammino acids and minerals needed to derive some of the main fuel ingredients, the trace elements needed to produce the derivatives and so forth and so on. One can see that the actual process is of an almost infinite complexity.
Modern supplements managed to figure a part of this equation out, and make use of it, for the good of the athlete.

- By Alex Wright