Finding The Right Body Building Routines
Every person will respond differently to exercise and body building routines. Some of the major aspects that will affect muscle growth are your current strength level, ability to heal or recover, body type and genetics. If you are just starting out or even intermediate you should never model your workout after an advanced or pro bodybuilder. If you jump right into a program consisting of advanced body building routines, you may risk overtraining and injuries, which could leave you wanting to give up entirely.
Body Building Tips
You should set your goal and objective for body building to be reasonable and realistic. You will experience the fastest results and body changes during the first couple of months after beginning to work out. But when you reach intermediate level your advances will begin to slow down. To keep progressing you need to follow a stricter diet and well designed body building routines.
In order to avoid overtraining you should keep your body building routines short but intense, lasting no more than 30 to 45 minutes for each session. You should have no more that 3 or 4 workout days each week, allowing you one recovery day between each wokout day. Giving your body enough time to rest is just as important as working out for muscle building.
Focus on Compound Movements
Compound movements are defined as exercises that target different muscle groups at the same time. These are different from the isolation exercises that intermediate and advanced body builders include in their workouts to bring out more definition.
Most experts recommend that beginners start out with light free weights to gain a sense of balance and proper execution of the exercises. The core of your workouts should consist of dumbbell and barbell exercises.
Recommended exercises
The squat is one of the most important exercises for beginners as well as advanced body builders. I can do wonders for your body and is completely safe if done right. The muscles targeted involves the abdominals, lower back, core muscles, traps, quads, glutes, hamstrings and calves. 2 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions is a good starting point.
The bench press is another important compound exercise to have in your body building routines. It effectively hits the chest, shoulders or deltoids, triceps and some parts of the forearms and rib cage. Do 2 sets of 10 – 12 repetitions.
Then there is the bent over row that is easiest to execute using a barbell, this exercise targets most of the back, biceps, rear deltoids, and part of the forearms. Also do 2 sets of 10 to 12 repetitions.
Other significant exercises are the barbell or dumbbell curl, lying triceps extension and the military press. For each of these 3 exercises, again do 2 sets with 10 – 12 repetitions.
You may want add 2 sets of ab crunches for 12 to 15 repetitions to the above exercises.
Additional Tips
Do some warm-up exercises for 5 to 10 minutes before doing any lifting. A short jog on the threadmill is sufficient. To prepare the muscles and get the feel for the movement of an exercise, you should do a light warm-up set before each exercise. At the end of your workout do some stretching for 5 – 10 minutes.
You should never use wieghts that are heavier than you can easily complete every set with correct form. If you use bad form or weights that are to heavy, this can easily cause overtraining or injuries. In addition to your body building routines, you should keep a training journal to keep track of your progress. You can gradually add more weight to each exercise as your strength develops.
