It’s long been said in bodybuilding circles that the most intense guys become the greatest bodybuilders. This is both true and false. Sure, when you watch the training DVDs of top bodybuilding pros, a common theme is that they all train with a level of intensity you don’t see in most gyms. However, there are also many professionals who train with less fire, who still see very good results, who don’t make DVDs. Just as there are probably people in your gym who weigh a solid 175 pounds who likely train just as hard as Ronnie Coleman. Intensity is great when it can take place over the long term. Coincidentally, this ends up defining bodybuilding consistency for success.
Consistency is important in a number of avenues. Consistent training involves making it to the gym for all of your training day (whether it be 4 or 5 days per week) about fifty weeks each year. Consistent training involves staying at the gym for 45 to 75 minutes, 99% of these workouts. You can’t just add 20 minutes of benching or curls in your home gym during commercials and expect the same results you would see from actually showing up at the gym every day. Intensity is important, but intense training 1 or 2 days a week will be trumped by lesser training five days per week. Diet is an area where people often incorrectly believe intensity is more important than consistency. Some bodybuilders will eat perfectly two days per week, and then just eat whatever is lying around the other 5 days. They won’t see the same level of results as the bodybuilder who eats solid (but not perfectly) seven days per week.
It should also be noted that you must consistently do things RIGHT if you want to see results. You might be in the gym 5 days per week religiously. But if you’re heaving around the weights and letting your joints and tendons do the work all that time, you aren’t going to see the results you should be seeing. Work with a trainer and ask the experts what you’re doing wrong, so that you can continuously make improvements.
Finally, part of smart consistency is knowing when to back off the intensity. You might be recovering from an injury or just facing the rigors of aging. Nobody can train with the same intensity at age 50 as they could at 30, no matter what bodybuilding supplements they are on, or what their rest and nutrition schedules are like. Consistently ramping down your training intensity when nature and age require it is the final part of the consistency puzzle.
If you want the best results of all, train and eat intensely on a consistent basis. This strategy is the one that makes a bodybuilder unbeatable. When he or she is able to employ hyper-intense training, along with smart dieting and adequate rest, over a number of weeks, months, and years, intense consistency is achieved. Finding this unique combination of factors should be your goal in the gym if you want to reach your bodybuilding potential.