I was in the gym the other day and a bodybuilder in there was stripping down and posing in front of the mirror.
Absolutely NO SHAME – I have to say I admire that to some extent.
He is doing his first competition in May and he is insanely lean – veins everywhere!
I speak to him every now and again and he is very honest about his steroid use, which is more than can be said for most people out there.
Whilst he was posing, there was a guy I see regularly running on the treadmill – sweat everywhere with an Ironman Lanzarote T-shirt on.
He is late forties and he competes regularly.
He is NOT fat but in comparison to the body builder he was probably 15% ish higher body fat.
Now obviously the Triathlete isn’t training for exceptional leanesss, more his performance but should he really have that much more fat?
I estimate the bodybuilder was somewhere around 6-8% to the Triathletes 21-23%.
How do I know?
I’ve measured an awful lot of people over the years and you get a good idea.
So why the difference?
- The bodybuilder uses drugs
- The bodybuilder probably has better genetics
- The bodybuilder is mid to late twenties
- The bodybuilder is also very knowledgeable and anal about his nutrition
- The Triathlete trains only his aerobic system
- The Triathlete doesn’t do any resistance training
- The Triathlete consumes large amounts of energy drinks, gels and convenience “bars”
- The Triathlete thinks he can outrain a bad diet – He can’t!
What bothers me here, is that the triathlete is fitter and a better performer athletically but he doesn’t look like it.
He looks weak and a little podgy but he can run forever.
Can we not have both?
Can we perform like an athlete and look like one?
Definitely but how?
- Be vigilant with your nutrition
- Train your aerobic system
- Train with weights
- Recover well
Get all those things right and you can perform like an athlete and look like one.
If you haven’t got the first idea what to do with resistance training or your nutrition, it is worth looking at this:
The Total Triathlete – http://www.nutri-tri.com/the-total-triathlete/
The next issue of the online magazine goes out on Sunday and has tips on strength and conditioning as well as workouts.
It has nutritional advice and coaching help form Kelly, a 2 hour 45 marathoner.
You can also get me to review your nutrition on the private Facebook group.
It’s £10 ($14 approx) a month and in the first month you get a copy of my book – The Triathlete Nutrition Code for FREE.
You can easily unsubscribe anytime.
http://www.nutri-tri.com/the-total-triathlete/
Jamie “veins everywhere” Leighton.