Body Building for Teenagers by Junior Mr Scotland

My name is Nick Wolanski and I am a teen bodybuilder and have been so for around three years now. The first weights I ever lifted were my mum's dumbbells which lay around the house. As soon as I curled that first rep I knew I wanted to start bodybuilding. I slowly progressed to my high school gym where at first we lazily played around but soon began to structure a program. I began to fall in love with the feeling of sore aching muscles and the challenge of getting that last rep in. I have always had one of my best friends Kevin working out with me who happens to be the strongest; even though it pains me to admit it! He has stuck with me through my entire time as a bodybuilder so I would like to thank him for that. Together we began a quest for strength, size and general health.

Three years on and I have grown exceptionally well since beginning. I just won my first bodybuilding show; the Mr Scotland under 21. I am sponsored by LA Muscle; Thanks a lot LA MUSCLE. So why am I writing this your probably still wondering huh. Well in those three years I have gained a massive wealth of knowledge with regards to training techniques, nutrition, dieting and the biggest pain in the ass subject... SUPPLEMENTS!!

So I am going to share my knowledge with you teenagers out there who have decided to take a stand for yourselves and get healthy and improve your physique. I will help you avoid some of the common pitfalls, company gimmicks and useless information that you will undoubtedly be fed along your journey to become bigger, stronger and full of confidence. I will tell you this though; Bodybuilding requires a tremendous amount of will power because it takes time to build a strong physique and yes you will get stuck in a rut and not grow for a while; and yes you will get sick of eating properly; and yes you will get hassle from your mates for choosing to drink water and take protein shakes instead of getting drunk and taking drugs. But I promise you this my friends.. There is no greater pleasure which I have met in life so far than looking in the mirror and seeing 3 years of effort and hard work paying off. Your abs are ripped, bicep's peaked and chest pumped out of control. It feels absolutely amazing and you will be filled with a sense of achievement and awe!

So there's my introduction and I hope you are beginning to get inspired and are ready to start reading the science behind bodybuilding and get cracking on your journey towards a great body.

NUTRITION Well here we are then, FOOD. You probably thought I was going to start by telling you the moves needed to get huge guns didn't you? Or about the best selling product on the market which will pack on tonnes of muscle in only four short weeks. Well my friends food is the most important thing in a bodybuilders life and I can tell you I wish I had learned that 3 years ago as I would have saved myself a lot of money on useless supplements. You see food is the very building blocks of muscles and is as important as the strong foundations under your house or the petrol in your parent's car. Without proper nutrition your body will not grow to its full potential and gains will be slow.

However, sadly it is more complicated than just scoffing down anything you like. The key to successful nutrition is a very very delicate balance and must be custom designed to comply with your bodies needs. The needs of a 175 lb bodybuilder is different from the needs of a 200lb bodybuilder, likewise the needs of your body are different from the needs of your best mate whom you train with. I wanted to raise this point early on so that it is absolutely clear that you understand that your body is UNIQUE and therefore will not respond in the same way as your best friend or the professional bodybuilders in FLEX.

Too many people and especially teens pick up a magazine; read about Ronnie Coleman's 25 set chest workout and then go to the gym to replicate this. You do not posses the genetics of these athletes and are not taking the substances which allow these men to grow so big. All that will happen to you is great injury, no results and you will probably give in due to lack of progression A successful bodybuilder is he who listens to his body to find out what works best. Some people will grow on heavy weights where others can grow big on light weights. So remember that you are unique and must establish what works best for you. Now then; glad we got that cleared up so we can get stuck right into some serious nutritional science. Firstly let me tell you about the three main food groups that will make up your diet: 1. Protein 2. Carbohydrate 3. Fat PROTEIN Many people will tell you that protein is the most important food group when you are trying to grow muscle. Well this is quite true but worded very badly. You see without the correct amount of protein you cannot build muscle however if you consume enough protein but neglect carbohydrate or fat then you will still not build muscle. In my opinion you must consider all three equally important to get maximum muscle growth. Now I could really go into the science of protein but I think that tactic would just confuse you seeing how you are just starting out in bodybuilding. You only need to know three things about protein at this stage: 1. Briefly what it is 2. Where do you get it 3. How much do you need Muscle is made up of protein; Protein is made up of things called amino acids and I will discuss amino acids in more detail later on in the supplements section. Protein is the building blocks of muscle and without it your muscles will not grow. So you're probably thinking "well how much protein should I be taking each day then" This is actually very easy to calculate so here goes!

The standard equation is easy: take your weight in pounds and multiply by 1.5, so that's 300 grams of protein daily for a 200 pound bodybuilder. Likewise a 140 pound bodybuilder would only need 210 grams of protein daily. Now you see what I mean about how everyone's body has different needs.

So our theoretical 200 pound bodybuilder. oh lets just call him big tasty for the sake of it shall we! needs 200 grams of protein daily. So big tasty would want to spread this protein intake evenly over his day so that he has a constant supply of protein in his blood stream. To do this big tasty will divide his protein requirements into 6 smaller meals. This means he will consume around 35 grams of protein with every meal, simple isn't it.

Now let's take a look at where you can get your much needed muscle building protein then shall we.

The best sources of protein will come from a variety of foods so you get a wide variety of amino acids. The best protein foods are: red meat, chicken, turkey, eggs, nuts, cheese, salmon, tuna and of course from your protein shakes. I will discuss protein shakes in the supplements section.

It is important that you know that every gram of protein has 4 calories in it. So by eating 200 grams of protein big tasty has consumed 800 calories.

... to be continued.