Important Components of Bodybuilding Training

Body building is a sport and a practice that borrows some important components of other sports and practices. Today, bodybuilding has been enriched with the inclusion of breathing exercise, stretching exercises, track activities, postures, attitude modification and other elements, all of which have been borrowed from the sisters of body building. Just as other sports like soccer, basket ball, athletics, swimming, biking and others, have benefited by using key bodybuilding exercises to train their athletes, so too has body building benefited from these sports.

The first of the bodybuilding sisters is yoga. Yoga is an ancient art of the Indians that used body posture and precise movements to master control of the body and then channel it to a harmonious balance of mind, soul and the body. Yoga teaches individuals to be masters of their bodies and to have control over what one thinks or does at all times. From yoga, body builders have learned to control their posture during key exercises, how to master concentration and focus during workouts and how to control or regulate their desires and urges towards food and substance abuse. Yoga teaches some founder mental techniques that when incorporated into body building, dieting, weight management, muscle mass accumulation and muscle and general body coordination is harnessed to perfection.

Many a body builders today attend several yoga sessions in a week for these reasons. Others however, attend aerobic sessions, and with reasons. Aerobics is the other sister of bodybuilding. Of all the things that aerobics are good at, it is amplifying the body flexibility, regulating breathing, enabling weight control and harmonizing general body coordination. Aerobics have actually been incorporated as part of body building exercises mainly as warm up exercises.

Of special interest in aerobics is regulating breathing. Breathing is very essential during weight exercises and a body builder must perfect the technique of breathing deep, rhythmically and according to the body's need for oxygen. Controlled breathing amplifies the gains accrued from weight exercises. Also deserving special mention is flexibility through stretching. Stretching exercises are part of every body builder's workout, specifically used as warm, exercises before and after weight exercises. Stretching muscles prevents injuries my making the stout muscles agile, supple and flexible. Despite being muscles it is a requirement that a body builder be physically flexible during workouts.

The other sister of bodybuilding is athletics. Athletic exercises such as running, jogging, swimming, cycling have been incorporated as part of body building exercises. Today we have stationary bikes and other bodybuilding equipments fashioned out to enable such exercises as running and jogging to be done inside the gym. Body builders usually enrich the variety of their exercising routines by including as many exercises as possible and most of these are borrowed from athletics.

In essence therefore, body building is not a sport in isolation. Rather it borrows and lends some of its components from and to, Respectivel6y, other sports and practices. This enriches not only bodybuilding but other sports as well as all athletes.

Dane Fletcher is the world's most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more BodybuildingToday.com bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit BodybuildingToday.com BodybuildingToday.com, the bodybuilding and fitness authority site with hundreds of articles available FREE to help you meet your goals.