Body Fat Percentage
Health & Fitness → Exercise & Meditation
- Author Daniel Green
- Published May 1, 2016
- Word count 808
They used to call it definition; today we use a different term, body fat percentage. There is an undeniable movement towards ultimate definition these days, at least around show time. After a contest, things change. Most bodybuilders gain 10 pounds after a contest. Most others gain20, 30, or even 40. Usually, this does not manifest itself as roll of fat, but as increased overall size and so-called thicker skin. It would be fair to say that you do yourself no good by gaining more than 10 pounds after a show, and if you start to get rolls of fat, you will be in trouble.
When you reduce your fat percentage to less than 7 percent, your body takes on a whole new appearance. Not only do veins show up in minute detail, but cross-striations of the muscles become apparent, so you'll look like an anatomy chart, a picture of muscles with the skin stripped away. That's a condition which has led to a good deal of controversy. With today’s champions, unlike those of yesteryear, the body fat percentage often fluctuates according to the stage of their training. It is not uncommon for a competitive bodybuilder to cut their body fat by two thirds before a contest.
Incidentally, some of the ancient Grecian statues that presumably represented the Greek ideal of male perfection have also been scrutinized with regard to their body fat. The famous Farnese Hercules is estimated to have 11.96 percent, the Apollo Belvedere, 11.76, and Myron’s Discobolus 12.06. If these statues were real men, they would probably not do well in the Olympic contest, where the top six men have averaged a body fat count of fewer than 5 percent.
Why does current fashion seem to be pushing the bodybuilding ideal towards being almost fat-free? One reason is that it enables us to see muscles that we never knew we had. Few physique champions of the distant past could show shapely, delineated serratus muscles and incredibly separate thigh muscles. Today it would be very difficult to win any contest unless all your muscles are diamond sharp. That includes the muscles of the upper thigh and lowers back, two areas from which it is difficult to eliminate all fat. Today, fat free bodies are a must. Maybe styles will once again return to the 11 percentile ideal. Who knows, for the moment, however, low fat and cross-striations are the order of the day.
So how do bodybuilders bring their fat down to a very low percentage? One could give an oversimplified answer: they eat less. True enough, but it goes deeper than that! Most successful body men eat fairly normally when they are not preparing for a contest. That is not to say they eat junk foods. A few do. Most of them don't, so it is advisable for the food you eat to be as near to its natural state as possible. Foods with natural fibre keep you leaner and fitter than dense calorie foods. Have whole-grain bread, cereals, fruit, vegetables, fish, cheese, organic and white meats, and milk. Stay away from the processed, chemically treated, artificially flavored, brilliantly coloured garbage that your local supermarket offers as food.
Weight training may be unparalleled in its potential for building up the skeletal muscles of body, but is not a particularly good fat burning activity. Aerobic exercise should be included in the program of any bodybuilder interested in staying lean. Typical exercises such as stationary bike riding, road cycling, slow jogging, swimming, and walking, burns calories through prolonged, low intensity effort. Weight training is not aerobic but anaerobic exercise, high-intensity effort which does not result in a steady need for oxygen and considerably stepped-up heart rate.
Aerobic exercise stimulates the production of enzymes that convert fat to energy. The more fat-burning enzymes you have, the better you can use up or burn excess flab. Not only does aerobic activity burn calories better than anything else, it also increases the body's capacity for burning fat. A long-distance or marathon runner is a veritable fat-burning machine. The reason this is a veritable fat-burning machine. The reason this is so is that the aerobic activity keeps the heart-pulse rate below 80 percent of your maximum. To estimate your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220.
Unlike weight training, which can temporarily boost your heart rate to near maximum, walking keeps your heart rate well under 80 percent of your maximum. Needless to say, aerobic exercise should be limited if you are urgently trying to gain weight, and even during regular maintenance training you should not overdo this form of exercise, since it can detract from your bodybuilding gains. Some degree of common sense has to be used so as to balance muscular development with aerobic fitness. If you are fit and well-muscled, you really have a double advantage, extra fat burring enzymes to help you stay lean, and extra muscle mass.
The concept of Smartphysicalworkout was developed by Daniel Green who has been involved with the Health and Fitness industry since 1999, providing health and fitness products, services to both the local and online community.
After a slow start, the Smartphysicalworkout.com has grown into a well received site for the Health and Fitness community and the team strive to offer the best quality products available, customer service and satisfaction will always be the key to their success.
Article source: https://articlebiz.comRate article
Article comments
There are no posted comments.
Related articles
- The Ultimate Guide to Athleisure Leggings: Comfort Meets Style 2024 and Beyond
- The Impact of Salesforce Life Sciences Supply Chain and Logistics
- The Science Of Music And Exercise: How The Right Playlist Can Boost Your Performance
- The Benefits of Meditation Yoga in Melbourne
- When Does the Brain Quit Growing? Insights on Lifelong Brain Health
- Unlock the Health Benefits of Yoga: A Comprehensive Guide"
- How to deal with peroneal tendonitis in athletes?
- The Benefits of Outdoor Training
- Advanced Rolfing Fort Worth Dallas & Power Yoga
- 5 Powerful Benefits Of Certified Advanced Rolfing In Fort Worth: Discover A New Level Of Well Being
- 7 Life Changing Benefits of Advanced Rolfing Fort Worth Dallas You Need to Experience
- Advanced Rolfing Fort Worth Dallas & Advanced Rolf Movement
- Advanced Rolfing Fort Worth Dallas & Rolf Movement Integration
- Advanced Rolfing Fort Worth Dallas - Advanced Rolf Movement As Treatment
- Advanced Rolfing Fort Worth Dallas - Rolfing Ethics
- Advanced Rolfing™ Fort Worth Dallas - Advanced Rolf Movement™ Session
- Advanced Rolfing Fort Worth - Treatment 7
- Unlocking Mental Focus
- How To Activate Your Pineal Gland Fast?
- Cultivating Healthy Habits for a Positive Lifestyles for Wellness
- Debunking Myths: Separating Fact From Fiction in Shockwave Therapy
- Hypnosis for Sleep - How can hypnotherapy help?
- Elevate Your Sweat Game: Smart Fitness Tech Unleashed!
- Are You Looking For a Knee Specialist in Boston?
- Transcendental Meditation Meaning: Understanding the Benefits and Techniques
- Healing Touch: 10 Health Benefits of a Massage
- The power of breath: A therapists guide to harnessing deep breathing for stress relief
- Unlocking the Secrets to Optimal Health and Wellness
- Are Pre-workout Supplements Important for Active Individuals?
- Accelerating Injury Recovery in Baseball Players: The Power of Electric Muscle Stimulation