The Three Main Components of Muscle Building

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OK, you've made the excellent decision to get in shape by taking up recreational bodybuilding, so what happens next? You need to plan out what you're going to do, to get the absolute best results from your efforts, which means planning out an intelligent routine.

Essentially, bodybuilding can be broken down into three main areas;

1. Programme design - the exercises you do and when you do them
2. Nutrition - you want to eat the right foods in the right quantities to make muscle gains
3. Recovery - you need to have enough rest so the body can recover and build muscle

These three areas are all of vital importance - if one of these pieces of the puzzle is missing, then you won't achieve the results your hard work deserves.

Let me quickly qualify the last remark. Bodybuilding can be hard work, especially when you're lifting heavy weights - but it doesn't have to be a lot of hard work. The really good news here is that muscles grow when they're at rest.

This means that you don't want to be working out more than three times a week - absolute maximum. The plan is that you work hard enough on the right exercises, then get out of the gym and rest.

This is just one reason why bodybuilding is a terrific hobby - unless you're competition standard, which 95% plus of us won't be, you shouldn't become a slave in the gym - it will not help you gain more muscle - in fact it will hinder your progress!

Let bodybuilding become a part of your life - it comes with all sorts of rewards and health benefits - but it should only be a part of your life.

Doing the right movements only three or even better two times a week can really transform your body in a few months, or even faster. That means that you have four or five days when you're not training. If you have normal genetics, ie you're in the 97% majority of us, then you won't be able to make muscle gains if you workout more than three times a week, If you're working hard when you do train.

The reason I'm putting so much emphasis on training frequency is because I believe it to be one of the main reasons why so few people make decent muscle building gains - in gyms all over the world people are training too often on the wrong exercises, and not working hard enough at the same time.

Too many workouts on the wrong movements equals zero results apart from frustration. Don't fall into this trap!

For more information, Ged McCabe has complied a complimentary 75 minute video report, "Bodybuilding Basics" and a 23 page report, "A proven, step by step guide to successful bodybuilding."

To download the video and the report instantly, visit; http://www.bodybuildingalert.com

Would you like to know how to design your own training programs? For a complimentary 2 hour video presentation, "The 15 things you need to know about designing your own bodybuilding routines", visit; http://www.bodybuildingthatworks.com

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How to Plan Out Your Muscle Building Routines

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Some people will tell you that diet is the most important part of bodybuilding - this is nonsense. The most important part by far is program design, or in other words the exercises that you do, and when you do them.

Here's why;

You can have the worlds best diet, and you can be getting tons of rest, but if you're not stimulating muscle gains it all means nothing. Yes, diet and rest are important, but the bottom line is that if you're not stimulating muscle gains nothing will happen.

That said, the most important thing is to choose the exercises that stimulate the largest amount of muscle. This is the most efficient way to train, because you can train your major muscle groups faster, and therefore your entire body faster.

This is another area where so many people in gyms all over the world go wrong. They spend four or more days a week in the gym doing things like bicep curls, and tricep kickbacks.

Did you know that over two thirds of your muscle mass is contained in your legs and back?

In theory then, this means that if you gained 10lbs muscle, 6.6lb at least would go onto your legs and back. Therefore the most important exercises to do are the ones that affect your legs and back.

Golden rule of bodybuilding number one is to build the largest muscles in the body first - I wish someone had carved this on my forehead thirty years ago when I started hitting the weights - I reckon I'd be a lot bigger now!

A welcome side effect of doing this is that it makes it easier to build the smaller muscle groups - a bit like dropping a stone into a pond - the larger the stone, the more ripples it causes.

This is also known as "indirect effect" - but please note it doesn't work the other way around - if you build the smaller muscles first, it doesn't make it easier to build the larger muscles.

This is why you often hear that "Compound exercises are king".

For that, read dead lift, squat, chin, dip, bench press, overhead press - in that order.

Now it could well be that if you're starting out, you're not strong enough to squat with any weight on the bar, or to dead lift with any weight on the bar.

This doesn't matter - if you have to, start doing those movements with the bar only. Then very gradually add small amounts of weight to the bar each workout you do.

If you're just starting out (regardless of age - and I assume you've got doctor's clearance if it was needed.), you could do three workouts a week, with just one set of ten reps for each exercise.

The most important thing is to get started, and once you've started, to stick with it!

As you get more experience, you'll also get stronger, so you can add more weight to the bar. Then, you could look at doing say two work sets per movement, and cutting your workouts back to two a week.

The idea is to give work to the large leg muscles in the thighs, plus the back muscles - and the squat and dead lift are the absolute two best exercises to do this.

So when you plan your routines, make sure that you have plenty of compound movements in them - this is proven to be the fastest way to build your body up, regardless of your age and level of fitness now.

For more information, Ged McCabe has complied a complimentary 75 minute video report, "Bodybuilding Basics" and a 23 page report, "A proven, step by step guide to successful bodybuilding."

To download the video and the report instantly, visit; http://www.bodybuildingalert.com

Would you like to know how to design your own training programs? For a complimentary 2 hour video presentation, "The 15 things you need to know about designing your own bodybuilding routines", visit; http://www.bodybuildingthatworks.com

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert

View the Original article