How I’m Building My Body With These 5 Tenets

Be better.

if you haven't, check out the 5 mistakes I made when building my body here.

I care about people’s health and wellness and also know that some people like to work on their bodies to achieve a certain look.

I am one of those people too and I feel it is necessary to share these 5 tenets that gave me an edge when working on myself physically.

Feel free to come back to this article and use it as a checker to see how you are doing.

Fats

You’d think I'd talk about protein. You thought wrong.

Everyone knows the 0.8–1g ratio so just stick with it.

The interesting part is that some people use junk food as an excuse and say that they work out so I'm ok with eating all this rubbish.

Especially so when they are in a phase of ‘bulking’, where you are trying to put on as much weight as possible, and at the same time putting on a considerable amount of muscle.

You however need to realize that the fats in junk food or low-natural foods are either high in trans fat, or saturated fat.

Saturated fat isn’t a bad thing but too much of it will cause problems. It's also important to realize that more often than not, these kinds of food are also high in carbs.

Sure you are exercising and burning off the calories but the junk remains in the body.

My dad used to eat whatever he liked from a young age and only recently started getting into running (he runs a casual half marathon on the weekend). He’s seen such significant health improvements and his health markers are great as well. But then he realised that he had a huge amount of calcium deposits in his arteries and had to get stents in to fix this.

The doctors were shocked as well because they knew about his healthy lifestyle.

What I'm trying to say here is that what u eat now WILL affect u in the future, no matter if you decide to start being healthy after a while.

Instead, opt for healthy fats. You can check out this article about the importance of healthy fats.

Focus on monounsaturated fat sources like using olive oil as dressing for your salads or meats and even the occasional nuts and avocados. In a nutshell, they help to act as vessels to deliver vitamins and minerals around the body. This also helps with recovery and performance in the gym too.

As for carbs, be careful not to have too much sugar or an overconsumption of carbs.

The way I like to look at it, carbs' main role is to replace your glycogen fuel. So a small amount should be enough. I usually aim between 100–150g of carbs per day, and less on rest days since you won't be needing them.

If you’re just starting, it's a great idea to track your calories, just to know how much you are consuming before getting intuitive about it.

We don't want to load our liver all the time or spike our insulin levels leading to insulin insensitivity.

Trust me when I say your food choices NOW go a long way.

Track

This may seem like a no-brainer but the number of times that I see people just heading into the gym or workout corner and not knowing how many reps and sets do to scares me.

Track. Your. Workouts.

Sure you might just want to keep the usual number of sets and reps but this article is about progress in your journey.

By simply tracking your workouts, you are in tune with what you are going to be doing in your next session.

Feel like you can progress with another rep next time around? Write it down so that you know. And update it as you go.

And the best part is seeing your progress over time as you continually track all your workouts. Seeing how far you’ve come feeds that hunger even more.

This was one thing that helped me in the gym and something that I continually use till today.

I use an app called Hevy and I talked about it here.

Move

The biggest misconception that people have is that if they’re going to the gym, and working out, it means that that’s enough. Especially people who are looking to gain muscle.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

No matter what, whether u looking to put on weight or lose it, moving is important.

Think of it logically.

You’re only in the gym say 1 hour or 2 at maximum. There are still another 15 hours in the day (assuming u sleep for 8) and if you’re not moving most of the time, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of your goals?

You sit down.

You don't move.

Carbs turn into stored fat.

Inflammation occurs.

No good comes out of it.

So always move your body.

It can be as simple as just walking 5–10k steps a day or having a beeper to remind u to move now and then.

Cardio is also known to have good effects when it comes to lifting weights, making you more efficient.

And of course, let’s not forget that you burn calories when moving if you’re looking to cut. and if you're bulking, BULK RESPONSIBLY.

Rest

I know some of you like to go heavy in the gym. And that’s completely fair.

When you do go heavy, say doing a big compound exercise like deadlifts, you’re putting not just load on your muscles but on your Central nervous system as well.

This affects your core and overall fatigue.

The reason for bringing this example up is that if you’re going to the gym every single day, you might want to be careful.

Fatigue might cause you not to be able to perform at your fullest level each time. Accumulated fatigue over time might lead to serious injuries too.

Recovery is part of training.

As motivated as you might feel, remember to split up your workouts.

But rest does not mean not doing anything.

Focus on active resting.

Still, move about. Do some stretches if your muscle feels tight. Go for a short jog. Things that won't make you too fatigued again.

Needless to say, you’ll need to split up your workouts nicely and I’ve got a nice article for that to get started on a plan.

I also want to emphasize that stress will also lead to fatigue.

So if you’re feeling stressed, or anxious because of other commitments you have outside of fitness, be careful about pushing yourself and doing too much, and reduce the number of sessions as necessary.

Remember that this is your journey, and the most important thing is to stay consistent, no matter if you’re only going once a week.

Sustain

A good workout is one that you can sustain for the longest time.

People come up with all sorts of exercises nowadays and it's hard to keep track of the latest fad.

Instead of doing that, find something that you enjoy doing.

Something that makes you go harder each time u step into the gym. Heck if you're more into calisthenics, do that instead.

We’re all on a different road, but it all leads to the same destination. Just remember to stay consistent with that.

But that’s also to say you should be working what you need to as well. I.e most of your body parts to reap all the benefits.

I hope these pillars help you as you move along in your fitness journey. Remember to block out the noise and focus on the important things.

Our health matters and it's important to ensure you are doing everything in a non-detrimental and sustainable manner.

Keep going and thank you for reading if you've made it this far!