There are three bodybuilding basics all beginners must learn to master, training, nutrition, and rest. Let’s start with training. TRAINING is what we must do to build muscle. We can eat and sleep maximally, but only training will actually stimulate growth, and even incorrect training will make one grow.
However, everyone wants to maximize their gains, so correct training is a must. Here are a few points to remember about training, which are pretty obvious, but it’s surprising how many people forget them.
BodyBuilding Basics – Training
- Firstly overtraining is always the great enemy. One should train as little as necessary and never as much as possible. ” you can train hard, you can train long, but you can’t do both – and it takes hard training to build muscle! Intensity comes from within, not from endless sets and reps.
- You must use strict form, at least for the first ten reps of a set. Advanced men may employ judicious use of cheap reps, but it is a very imprecise way of training past failure. Don’t go for that old-school ego trip of lifting too much weight – this leads to cheating. If you simply want to lift as much as possible, become a powerlifter, not a bodybuilder – muscle only grows through a breakdown of the fibers combined with an increased blood flow within the muscle – a product of moderate to high reps.
- Beginners should stick with the basics – Squats, benches, rows, deadlifts, dips, and presses. These exercises will build a good foundation to build on. Intermediate and advanced guys can add isolation exercises to increase shape and definition, but even then, they must remember the basics every now and then.
- Skinny guys ( Ectomorphs, should train on brief routines like squats, bench presses, and bent over rows, but hard enough to stimulate growth.
- Fat guys Endomorphs should go for mild, high rep workouts coupled with aerobic exercise to boost their metabolism and burn that fat.
- However, tempting doesn’t work hardest on your strongest body parts. Work your weak parts first in your routine – and hardest. Proportion is very important in competition.
Nutrition
Nutrition is as important as training because it provides the body with fuel. It used to be a simple concept. Bodybuilders used to eat normally and well, supplementing their diets with vitamins, desiccated liver tablets, and a protein drink. But in this new “technical age, in attempting to simplify life, scientists have made things complicated behind belief. We now have amino acids, anabolic packs, glandulars, strolls, fat mobilizers – nothing is simple anymore.
The best advice is to stick with the basics when you are a beginner and explore different supplements as you become more advanced. But first, let’s look at the basics.
Basics often forgotten by many, even advanced guys. We should eat only wholesome unprocessed foods. We should eat fats and carbohydrates for energy and protein for tissue repair. Its recommended 55% carbs, 35% protein and 5% fat. Others recommend 50% protein, 25% carbs, and 25% fat. You will give to experiment to find the percentages that work best for you. The Ectomorph will need more carbs and calories than the more sluggish endomorph.
The best Protein foods are skimmed milk, lean meat, eggs, fish, and poultry.
The best Carbohydrate foods are potatoes, whole grains, fruit, and vegetables.
If you take enough of these foods, your fat ratios should work themselves out, but if you want to add some weight quickly, you could try some of the more fatty foods like pork, beef, cheese, and whole milk.
Eat more calories than you use up and should gain weight. Eat fewer calories than you use up, and you should lose weight (simple?) There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat, so adjust your intake up and down by 3,500 calories a week to gain or lose a pound a week. That’s the basics. If you want to learn more, there are many books on the subject and, of course, many articles online.
Rest
Rest it may be the easiest, but it’s just as important as the other two. When you train, you are tearing the muscle tissue down; bench press 100lb 10 times, and you have lifted 1000lb in a matter of seconds. After training of this intensity, you will need rest.
Without adequate rest, your muscles will not be able to recover between workouts and may actually start to shrink. Some experts advocate a 72-hour recovery period between training sessions (training each body part twice a week). Others recommend 48 hours (training each body part 3 times a week). Ectomorphs will need more rest than endomorphs. Beginners should train three times a week, doing the whole body with a rest between each training session. Intermediates should go for a four or six-day split routine, training each body part only twice a week to counter the extra sets you will be performing.
If you need more rest, try relaxing after meals or training. Walk instead of run, sit instead of stand. In other words, rest when you can. Try to get 8-10 hours of sleep most nights.
Training and rest are 60% for beginners and nutrition 40%. For the advanced, it is more 50/50, but the mind is the glue that holds the whole structure together. Without the use of the mind, training, rest, and nutrition, all approaches are 0%.
Concentrate on every exercise session, every set, and every rep!
References and Excerpts
Russell Southern Article: The Eternal Bodybuilding Triangle. Bodybuilding monthly
