December 28th, 2017 | Updated on July 8th, 2022
If you’re a beginner just getting started on a muscle-building plan, you’re likely feeling slightly intimidated. Starting a new activity of any type can seem a bit scary at times, and since there are so many different exercises to perform in a weight training program, this only adds to the intensity that you’re feeling.
If you are also in the same league, here we bring to you 21 ways which will help you get those muscles and body.
1. Meet your doctor
Performing rigorous workout can lead to health complication if you have any existing health condition. So before you start gymming or bodybuilding you should consult your doctor and know if you physically fit for carrying the workout that you are planning ahead.
2. Choose an idol to stay motivated
Sometimes you want to do a lot but somehow that motivation is not coming. The best way to get that motivation and stay motivated is by choosing an idol. Choose whom you want to be like. By doing so even if you get lost somewhere in between your idol will always keep you motivated.
3. Act Like an Athlete
Try to have a healthy lifestyle and avoid as much as possible smoking, alcohol and other unhealthy vices.
4. Rest and Recover
Your muscles don’t grow when you work out but when you sleep. So make sure you get enough sleep each night (about 8-9 hours).
5. Consume Fruits and Vegetables.
Besides macronutrients (proteins, carbs and fats) your body also needs micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). So make sure you consume lots of fruits and vegetables each day!
6. Eat More Often.
Have 4-5 meals per day and eat every 3-4 hours. Avoid being hungry!
7. Avoid Junk Food
It’s true that you want to gain some weight, but you want that weight to be muscle mass and not fat! Consume quality food like lean proteins, complex carbs and healthy fats and stay away from junk food, lots of sweets and fatty foods. The only time when you should consume fast absorbing carbohydrates is right after your workout.
8. Eat a Lot of Protein
Protein is essential when it comes to building muscle and can be found in chicken, fish, eggs, milk, dairy products and some nuts and vegetables. Most experts recommend at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight for the best results. If consuming enough protein each day becomes difficult, add a protein shake as well.
9. Learn the Correct Form of Each Exercise
While you may be tempted to see how much you can lift, you need to start with lower weights and learn the right form of each exercise.
10. Train Each Muscle Group Every Week
While too many days in the gym won’t help you get bigger, too few workouts are not good either. You need to work each muscle group at least once every week.
11. Use a rep range between eight to twelve
As far as rep ranges go, beginners would be best advised to perform somewhere between eight and twelve reps. Since you likely aren’t going to be using an extremely heavy load, this will enable you to work in a slightly higher rep range while still seeing significant strength and muscular size and definition improvements.
12. Focus on major lifts first
You’ll want to focus on major lifts first during the workout. Any exercise that works more than one muscle group needs to come ahead of those that work on a single group. The reason for this being that those exercises are going to take much more energy to complete, therefore you want to be feeling fresh.
These include the exercises of bench press, squat, deadlift, shoulder press, and bent over row. If you’re using machines, they will likely be called leg press, chest press, seated shoulder press, horizontal row, and lateral pull-down.
13. Strengthen your muscles
You need strong muscles to lift heavy weights. Do not ever do this mistake of lifting heavy weight right from the beginning. Doing so will only leave you injured. You should start with strength training and then do the bodybuilding. That is why it is said to choose the right guidance otherwise these types of mistakes can cause you injuries for a lifetime.
14. Choose a partner for better results
Sometimes you need someone to push when you do not want to leave the bed and go to the gym, this is when you need a training partner. Training partner not only motivates you but also helps you in many ways. This also leads to a healthy competition which leads to healthy progress.
15. Warming up and stretching is important
We all know warming up before a workout is as essential as the workout itself. Same way stretching after a workout is also important. Stretching decreases the swelling, maintains flexibility and reduce the chances of post-workout injury. Stretching is an important post-workout activity.
16. Take deep breaths
Deep breathing has important benefits. Proper breathing is very important while practising bodybuilding. The technique that one should follow is to exhale when you lift the weight and inhale when you lift down the weight. Breathing deep provides the muscle cells with sufficient oxygen and leads to contraction of muscles.
17. Sleep well
Sleeping is as important as eating well or exercising. Sleeping is the time when your body re-energises for the day coming ahead. Proper sleep is very important to stay active and perform efficiently. And if you know muscles grow and recover when you sleep. So, if you haven’t been sleeping nicely do that from now.
18. Practice variation
Practicing the same type of exercise every day leads to boredom. So, to make your workout session interesting add variations. Variations not only kill the boredom but also help you to train yourself better.
19. Take time to recover and pay attention to injuries
You cannot workout for 7 days of the week. Take rest for one day. Or may be you can take an off session where you don’t work out for a week and give yourself time to recover. Come back after this rest session is bang on. This process is called as train-overreach-recover-adapt-repeat.
20. Set achievable goals
Setting goals that you cannot achieve only lead to demotivation and frustration. The best way is to get small goals and go step by step. Small goals are easy to achieve which makes you happy and feel motivated to do more. Unachievable goals are nothing but just a form of demotivation. The process is not easy and takes months and years to be completed and achieved.
21. Be Cautious
When you get to the point of using big weights, use a safety belt for lower back protection. You may not have back problems right now, but you don’t want to have them in the future either.
