Whether it's a buff, competition-ready physique you're after, or simply a toned and strengthened body, bodybuilding training will be a significant component of your workout program. There's a right and a wrong way to begin bodybuilding. Train too little and you will not achieve the desired results. Train too much and you risk causing damage to your body. In this article, we will highlight some bodybuilding basics and guide you toward a program that is safe and effective for you.
Muscle Warm Up
You've heard it before, but it bears repeating: all safe exercise programs begins with a muscle warm-up. This crucial first step is particularly important in bodybuilding training, where the muscles are worked hard. Warm-ups do not need to be complex, just several minutes of moderate exercise, even walking, prepares muscles for the work that lies ahead. A warm-up also improves the efficiency of your workout, and provides for a quicker recovery.
Build Up Slowly
Do not try to rush the process of bodybuilding by trying to take on too much, too fast. Effective workouts start with low weights and a few repetitions. By working up slowly to a more vigorous workout, you are allowing your body the time to adjust, build strength, and build muscle mass over a safe period of time. If you are trying to build mass, lower your repetitions while slowly adding to the weights. On the other hand, if your aim is to tone and strengthen, keep the weights low and work at increasing your repetitions over time.
Rest and Recovery
Make sure to give your muscles sufficient recovery time after each workout, or you risk undoing all your hard work quickly, and probably not painlessly. Muscle groups should be worked on alternative days, never on two consecutive days. Always schedule a day in between muscle group workouts to allow them time to recover. Such scheduled rest time not only ensures that your muscles do not become fatigued, it will protect them from becoming vulnerable to injury. The recovery is the critical time during which muscle mass building occurs. If you deny your body recovery time, you may never achieve the bodybuilding goals you have set for yourself.
Supplements for Best Results
Some bodybuilders firmly believe in using supplements to achieve the best results from their workouts, while others stick to natural bodybuilding training programs that exclude supplements. One product that very few bodybuilders live without is a protein supplement, which will nourish the muscle during recovery time. High protein food sources, powdered protein mixes and shakes, and even protein bars can easily fulfill the protein requirements for athletes of both schools of supplement thought.
Roy Forchet has been writing articles for almost 3 years. Come and visit his latest website at [http://www.hypno-therapy.org/] which helps people to stop smoking with the help of quit smoking hypnosis cds [http://www.hypno-therapy.org/quit-smoking-hypnosis/quit-smoking-hypnosis-cds-no-willpower-necessary/] when they are ready to kick the habit.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3604627
