After all the sacrifice what do you have? A better you. I'm content with all my seemingly bad decisions because they are what forged this form.[/caption]

By Todd Lee M.D.

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Reflections 

How strange. It’s 2016 and now, just 6 years after my first show, and Bodybuilding is popular! Not long ago Bodybuilding was considered not cool: People would walk up to you and insult you, complete strangers. I’m not kidding. It was weird. How and why the complete turn around? Bikini division.

WATCH THIS!!!

Bodybuilding as a Philosophy

To us, no one has ever seen us unless they see us naked on stage. With the lights and tan and oil the flesh melts away. Only the decades of pain and suffering remain. Unlike a hipster's tattoos, these scars tell the truth. Of an unrelenting need to harden ones mind and body to be better adapted to survive the pressures of reality. And get girls.[/caption]

One of the most interesting things about this subject is that it isn't one subject. Unlike any other sport, Bodybuilding has elements of dance in the form of choreographed posing, and it is artistic in how you choose to sculpt your physique. It’s a science in how you select exercises and design workouts to program your bodies construction. And it’s nutrition and planning is far more advanced than seen with anything else in the world.

So let’s try to really understand what the term means since many people knew 2 or 3 of those many facets of this lifestyle. To build a body; That to me is body building. Simple, but accurate. It implies to add mass and sculpt or shape a body.

Body sculpting is to me, to rearrange not add to. So women who don't want to add mass, in theory, are interested in body sculpting, not bodybuilding per se.

Who is a Bodybuilder?

Although she has a feminine bikini body, I consider her a 'Bodybuilder' she may not have the BIGGEST muscles but she has sculpted a phenomenal body

A Bodybuilder is someone who currently steps on stage and competes in bodybuilding division. Men’s physique division competitors who claim to be “bodybuilders” are met with a lot of ridicule. We learned real quick who does and who does not get to use that term now. Prior to men’s physique’s inception in 2011, anyone who lifted weights for the purpose of changing their appearance and or gain size was a bodybuilder. There were Recreational Bodybuilders and Competitive Bodybuilders. Now, it seems there are no recreational bodybuilders anymore, they and the men’s physique guys are lumped in as “fitness enthusiasts” despite some of the men’s physique guys being bigger than I am.

Men’s Physique?

I tried Men's Physique at the Michigan State Championship and I placed 4th, my first show in Open. Against guys literally half my age

For those who are unaware, men’s physique was a new division created to mirror the success of the Bikini division. Remember how I mentioned body sculpting not body building? Well in 2009 Bikini division was created to have a more mainstream look for the face of the NPC. These bikini models looked more like the feminine ideal as presented by Sports Illustrated, Maxim, Hollywood, Playboy etc. This made the sport cool for attractive women to compete in it (lots of bartenders, hairdressers and waitresses, women who make a living looking good).

2 years later the men’s physique division was created to draw in all the guys who were attractive but not scary big;  And the guys who don't train legs. Which is most guys. This made the sport insanely popular. Now if you weren't at a show to see a hot girl in a bikini you're there because one of the guys at the gym is competing. Instead of one person in 20 competing it could be one in four in a gym competing if it's an elite training center.

Bodybuilding the Art

Size matters, but what you did with that mass, how you put it on, how you sculpt your flesh... that is what really matters  in this sport

Bodybuilding as an art is the sculpting of the flesh. It's transmogrification from your raw potential to your full manifestation. One way to look at it is like an avatar: an ideal self. Take your avatar and envision that image all the time, like a psychic shell for your flesh to grow into and fill the theoretical mold. The balance of the body parts and symmetry of lines creates music for the eyes like golden ratio chords behind fibonacci sequence melodies. Individual genetics, lifting styles, body fat distributions and personal preference leaves a myriad of “perfect forms” many of which share no single detail incommon save absolutely breathtaking to behold.  Then when you put it all in motion to music you can integrate the senses and express the music through the sinuous motion of liquid rock and molten steel under your skin.

Bodybuilding Nutrition

The bricks and mortar of your adamantium shit house is the food and you choose; exactly what ingredients to use when constructing your masterpiece. From the exact amounts of calories to determine the rate of growth, to the macro nutrient partitioning to determine the ratio of maximum muscle to fat acquisition, and fat to muscle eradication, no stone is left unturned or gram unaccounted for. Last and most important is the amounts and timing of these brick and mortar components to modulate your hormones which permits control of the nanoscopic actions of your body like a Rainman Magneto puppeting a clockwork sentinel with a billion gears.

Some opt for intermittent fasting, others approximate it with carb back loading, tricking the body into thinking ists fasting. Others go straight Keto while others use the Bodyopus and do 5 days keto, 2 days carb loading.

Many others use less scientific systems utilizing carbs at breakfast and trying to maintain latent insulin levels all day with this approach.

Bodybuilding the Sport

The actual physical elements of bodybuilding isn't just the posing that's done at the night routine, or a choreographed artistic display of the artist's expression of themselves to their personal music but also an exhibition of their work of art.

In fact the sport of bodybuilding is the other 364 days a year you spend lifting weights. Unlike Powerlifting which does super heavy weights one to three times, Bodybuilding is a sport of pushing yourself to the limits of manageable volume with slightly unmanageable weight.

Take a weight a little to heavy for you to control, and rep the shit out of it till you can’t do it any more. Wait till you can breath and do it again. Keep doing that till you puke. If you get over 12 reps on any set it’s to light.

That is the part of the sport 99% of people miss; the basic point of how to lift. Assuming you got that part down then pay attention to exact exercises and angles and total volume, and strength months. But in the end if that's all you do and you're eating right you'll grow. Now an encyclopedia could be filled with all the right and wrong ways to do each and every machine and lift for each and every medical condition, body type, age, and goal. But if you're not busting your ass you're wasting your time and you're just in the way.

Bodybuilding as a Lifestyle

You design not your training around your life, but your life around your training. You choose jobs which allow you to get in the food you need and when, and allows your to train when you need to, and nap when you need to. You have time to make enough money to pay for the bare essentials: food, utilities, supplements, rent.

Many of us live with our parents or sleep on the gym floor at night, monks dedicated to an ascetic lifestyle befitting a spartan warrior or a lunatic. Most of us are a little of both. There is no money in this craft, and for years no glory. Only one in a thousand make it to the ranks of the pros, and even then only a fraction make a living at it. Some lucky few find a living in a correlated industry, Usually making ends meet personal training or coaching less experienced athletes.

This is a hard life and a rewarding one. Even when bodybuilders were pariahs 5 short years ago the very few who understood the 24 hour a day 365 day a year commitment that we make were quite impressed. You might be hated by the masses but your worshiped by all that appreciate the virtues of fortitude, prudence, temperance, wisdom, charity and perseverance. The inner game and discipline that go into being a champion are awesome, and never cease to impress those motivated for self improvement.

Bodybuilding Supplements

Enter a Berserker Frenzy with Fenris' Fury!!

This is an area of the fastest growth in the industry. The basics are a quality protein powder with no spiking.  A solid pre workout is one which causes a massive surge in Nitric Oxide.  Most on the market are just as corrupt as the protein powders; lacking any active ingredients.  Fenris’ Fury and ToddLeeMD.com Pre Workout are the 2 pre workouts I designed to give the best pump imaginable.  They are the same formula just different flavors

In regards to anabolics, I offer a legal alternative: Thor’s Hammer Combo Pack. This is in my opinion the best natural test booster/anti-estrogen on the market. Why? I put my integrity on the line, so I deliver. That simple

Bodybuilding in 2016

Now it’s cool to be a bodybuilder. With the popularity of men's physique and bikini a whole new generation of people are introduced to a sport they never knew existed. I foresee this fitness craze and the pioneers of this craze, the bodybuilders, leading the way in the spotlight instead of the shadows they were relegated to 30 years prior due to false claims by the media and a public witch hunt.

The epitome of perfection. Prince of precision. Sultan of Sublime Symmetry. Bodybuilding Jesus: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Writer of the "Bodybuilding Bible" and inspiration of the Classic Physique Division after he shared his disdain for current judging standards at the 2015 Arnold.

Now there is a new division: Classic Physique. This is the middle of the road between the male divisions and represents the 70’s style perfection the sport is missing. It came out a year too late for me, but I'm going to love it just the same!

Disclaimer

Nothing in this article or on this site should be considered medical advice or as an endorsement to violate any law of the country in which you reside.  The information given is for fun and entertainment purposes only.  All statements are 100% dependent upon proper diet and exercise.  Please consult a medical practitioner prior to any diet and exercise program.