Bodybuilding for Beginners, By: Lee Hayward

I'm a complete beginner to weight training. I'd like to make gains as fast as possible, but when I ask people how I should go about it all I keep getting different answers. Please help me, I need advice on all areas: diet, routine, exercises, supplements, etc.

This is one of the most common questions that I am asked. And for those who are just getting started it can be very confusing. I understand what you are going through because I went through the samething when I began bodybuilding.
We all have to start somewhere and it can be overwhelming at times because people often make things more complicated then they really are. When you put aside all of the hype you can see that building muscle and losing fat is not very complex.

What I am going to do is outline a good weight training, nutrition, and supplementation program that you can follow. You do not need to have much exercise equipment. In fact you can make great gains by training in a small home gym. But I would recommend that you workout in a commercial gym. Besides having more exercise equipment to choose from. There is a lot more energy in a commercial gym and there is a feeling of friendly competition. This will help motivate you to work hard and make improvements.

For a beginner I would suggest that you workout 3 days per week or every other day. By doing this you will give your body plenty of time for recuperation and muscle growth. Muscles do not grow while you are working out; they grow while you are resting. Working out will stress and damage the muscles slightly. Then your body reacts by building up the muscles in order to handle the extra work and stress. So by gradually increasing the workload you put on your muscles your body will become bigger and stronger.

Once you workout you have to give your body time to repair and build the muscles through rest. Then you repeat the process of working out and rest. A common mistake that people make is thinking that they will get better results if they workout for several hours everyday. This is not true because what happens is the muscles get stressed and damaged but they don’t get a chance to recover and build up. This is what is called “over training”. When you over train your body can’t build muscle and you may even lose some of the muscle you have now.

We can shorten the period it takes the body to recover from a workout through proper nutrition and supplements. By eating lots of nutritious foods you provide the body with the raw material it needs for muscle growth. We take supplements to help us get extra nutrients. Supplements are not designed to replace real food, but to be taken in addition to real food. For example if you ate the typical 3 meals a day and then had a protein shake in between each meal this would be a great way to “supplement” your diet with extra protein.

For your nutrition you should eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. For protein eat foods such as beef, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, milk, protein shakes, etc. Eat plenty of carbohydrates such as bread, rice, cereals, potatoes, pasta, fruit, vegetables, etc. Try to limit your fat intake, you don’t eliminate fat entirely just avoid eating excess fried foods and “junk-foods”. Eat a small meal every 2-3 hours. A protein and carbohydrate shake can be considered a meal. Drink at least 1 gallon of water per day and get 8 hours of sleep each night.

For supplements take a multivitamin and extra vitamin C with your breakfast and evening meal. And have a protein shake between meals and after your workouts.

For lunch at school or work you could:

Cook foods such as chicken, beef, turkey, rice, pasta, etc. ahead of time and put them in a Tupperware container to reheat in the microwave.
Make sandwiches such as tuna, roast beef, turkey, etc.
Mix a protein shake and take it with you in a thermos or shaker bottle.
Take fruits and vegetables i.e. apples, bananas, carrots, etc.
Eating right is not that difficult it just takes a bit of planning ahead.

The biggest factor to your success is being consistent with your workouts and proper nutrition. You can follow several different workout routines and make good progress, just make sure to work all of the major muscle groups.

Here is a good workout routine that you can follow. With this routine you split up your workouts by exercising half of your body one workout and then exercising the other half the next.

Day 1: (Workout A)
Bench press 4 sets of 10 reps (for the chest) Pull downs 4 sets of 10 reps (for the back) Military press 4 sets of 10 reps (for the shoulders) Crunches 4 sets of 25-50 reps (for the abdominals)

Day 2:
REST

Day 3: (Workout B)
Squats or Leg press 4 sets of 15 reps (for the thighs) Barbell curls 4 sets of 10 reps (for the biceps) Triceps push downs 4 sets of 10 reps (for the triceps) Standing calve raises 4 sets of 15 reps (for the calves)

Day 4:
REST

Day 5:
Repeat Workout A

Day 6:
REST

Day 7:
Repeat Workout B

Workout every-other-day and alternate the two workout routines. The weight that you lift for the first couple of weeks should be light enough so you can complete the repetitions with ease. At the beginning, you must learn to perform the exercises correctly. Then gradually, over time increase the amount of weight that you are lifting. For the first set of each exercise, use a light weight to warm up the muscles and prevent injury. For the other sets, increase the weight so that you have to work hard to complete the required repetitions.

At this stage it is best not to complicate things, keep your routine simple and be consistent with your eating and training. The biggest factor with success in bodybuilding is to just stick with it and focus on making small improvements overtime.

“inch by inch life is a synch, yard by yard life is hard”