Natural bodybuilding is a great way to keep your body in shape. Moreover, when you train your muscles regularly you become stronger. Also worth noting is that bodybuilding recruits your health, and prolongs your youth and life.
But if you think that natural bodybuilding is easy, I have to burst your bubble. As my favorite band AC/DC sings “It’s a long way to the top…”.
Athletes on Instagram show their shredded bodies. But we almost never know at what cost they achieved this. I mean that many athletes choose steroids bodybuilding even though they still claim they’re “all-natural”.
This is because progress in natural bodybuilding is very slow. Moreover, the older you are, the slower the results come. Many guys simply do not have enough willpower to train doggedly for years and stand their ground.
I vowed 4 years to natural bodybuilding, and can’t say that I got great success. But I laid an excellent foundation for my athleticism, learned how to train correctly, draw up a training program, follow a regime and build a diet.
Most importantly, now I know what you should face up to if want to twist your fortune with natural bodybuilding.
- Bodybuilding is a lifetime process
- Huge muscles are not end in itself
- Your progress won’t be endless
- Forget about your bad habits
- Train smarter and rest enough
- Our age is the main limiter
1. Natural bodybuilding is for life with you
It is impossible to achieve results without effort. And the higher the result, the more effort you need to undertake. Natural bodybuilding involved a huge amount of work that you need to do day after day, month after month, and year after year. And I’m not talking only about the gym workout, but also about your diet and regimen. Remember: there is no moment after which you can say “Stop”. If you want to stay fit and strong, you should be ready to work on yourself lifetime. Therefore, you should stock up on patience and great motivation. Because the path to the body of your dreams is very long and difficult.
2. You’ll never be a huge muscled rock like steroid athletes
Why do many bodybuilders some day or other turn to steroids bodybuilding? Because they see huge guys on the stage of Olympia and dream to be just like them. But, the bitter truth is that natural bodybuilding, even with perfect nutrition, will never make you like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Phil Heath. Steroids allow you to shift your genetic limit and build on pounds of muscle. But you just consider the following, do you really need it? Are you ready to sacrifice your health and even life for the sake of a picture on social networks? If you think I’m a dull beggar, just wonder how often professional bodybuilders die at a young age. And you will be shocked.
3. Your muscle growth will stop at some unforeseen point
Don’t think that you’ll be able to build muscles constantly. As I said above, each of us has its genetic limit. And if you go about natural bodybuilding, you will not be able to step over this limit. Somewhere along the line, your muscle growth will stop. But this does not mean that you won’t be able to progress and improve the quality of your body. You can always work on the relief and muscle depth, on the weak sister muscle groups, and on strength and endurance. So, don’t make muscle mass your main goal.
4. You must dramatically change your way of life and habits… for ages!
Bad habits die hard. Perhaps I know this even better than anyone else. Because in 2015 I came into fitness with a serious problem with alcohol. The first post on my site is dedicated to this story. Read it. So, your success in natural bodybuilding will only be possible if you do away with your weakness. First of all, I mean alcohol, junk food, and a chaotic regime. From my own experience, I have deduced a very specific formula for body transformation. 50% of success is training, everything else is nutrition and regimen. So get ready to fight your addictions. By the way, steroids bodybuilding partly forgives the love of alcohol and junk food. But that’s not our way, right?
5. Heavy weight training is always associated with injuries
Human isn’t a machine. Therefore, you can’t train hard constantly. Firstly, it will lead to overtraining and you will catch a plateau. Secondly, stretched thin training day by day increases the risk of injury. And I’m not exaggerating. There was once a time when I trained almost without rest to accelerate body transformation. Fortunately, I didn’t have serious injuries. But I had problems with my lower back and also with my left forearm. And this is another difference between natural bodybuilding and steroids bodybuilding. Pharmacology partly forgives your mistakes in training and even allows you to bear overloads. If you’re in natural bodybuilding, you need to pay more attention to rest, periodization, and train smarter. That is, you shouldn’t chase big weights. After all, the number of plates on the barbell doesn’t determine your progress and results in bodybuilding.
6. The older you get, the harder it to train like billy-ho and keep fit
Don’t overestimate your abilities. The older we get, the more attentive we should be to our health and bodies. It’s stupid to train at 40-50 years in the same way as young 25 years’ guys which sweat their guts out in the gym. Over the years, your workouts change. And you have to wake up to the fact that you will train less intensively and it will be increasingly difficult to maintain the same strength, functionality, and muscle mass through the years. However, you will be able to continue doing natural bodybuilding until old age. As proof, I have a page dedicated to adult athletes on my blog. Everybody can age beautifully, and lead an active and healthy lifestyle. This is what we are striving for. Is not it so?
