Whether you’re 17 or 70, you can improve your health through bodybuilding. The information you will find below includes excellent tips on how to optimize your bodybuilding workouts. Keep reading the following paragraphs to educate yourself.

Proper warm ups are critical if you want to build muscle mass. As muscles grow stronger, they are more stressed and prone to injury. Warming the muscles up prior to exerting them is a key factor in avoiding injury. Don’t do any heavy lifting until after you’ve done some light exercising for five or ten minutes, followed by a few light to moderate sets to get warmed up.

Keep the “big three” in mind and incorporate them in your exercise routine. These body-building exercises include dead-lifts, bench presses and squats. These compound exercises can make you stronger and improve your muscle tone as well as increasing your muscle mass. For best results, include these exercises in each day’s workout.

Creatine supplements are popular in the muscle building community. However, they must be treated with caution. These supplements should not be used if you have kidney problems. Also, they have been implicated in causing heart arrhythmia’s, muscle compartment syndrome, and muscle cramps. Adolescents are particularly at risk. More is not better, do not exceed the recommended safe dosages.

Don’t try to bulk up when doing extensive cardio training or preparing for a marathon. Cardio is helpful to keep in shape, but a lot of it can slow down your efforts to improve muscle mass. Focus on a healthy balance between cardio exercise and weight training.

When training, try to do as many sets and reps as possible. Fifteen lifts is a good number, with no more than a minute break between sets. This can stimulate your lactic acids, which can help you build muscle. If you do this a couple of times each session, you will see great results.

Stretch well after each workout, so your muscles can repair and grow. If you’re under the age of 40, hold each stretch for thirty seconds or more. Anyone over the age of forty should hold stretches for sixty seconds at the minimum. Stretching properly protects you from injuries related to working out.

No matter what your age is, it’s never too late to get into shape and improve your fitness. Thanks, in part, to the advice you have found above, you should be well on your way to a healthier, more impressive body.