Learning to lift weights correctly and safely can be an enjoyable experience. You will begin to enjoy your workouts and see fantastic benefits. Before you do anything else, you need to learn which exercises best fit your needs, and the following tips will help you do that.
Reward Yourself
If you are having problems staying motivated, you may find it helpful to establish short-terms goals for yourself. Once you have met your goals, reward yourself. Building muscle needs a true commitment that lasts a while, so it is critical to constantly motivate yourself. Make your rewards coincide with your goal to gain muscle. For instance, reward yourself with a massage, it can improve blood flow and help your recovery.
Your body can benefit from a varied routine. As you repeat any particular workout routine, it could become boring, which can prevent you from working out. Add variety to the exercises you perform, and try to focus on different muscle groups with each gym visit. When you change your workouts, you will always be engaged, and you will be more likely to stick with it for the long run.
When you are planning to build muscles on a certain day, eat good. Consume a few extra calories about 60 minutes before you begin your workout. Don’t overeat on workout days, but eat more than days that you aren’t planning on weight training.
Compound exercises are essential to achieving optimal muscle growth. These exercises use various muscles at once. Bench presses, for example, work the chest, shoulders and triceps at once.
Keep every one of your workouts to less than 60 minutes, maximum. Once passing the 60 minute mark, the body starts making more cortisol, which is the stress hormone. This cortisol will block testosterone – wasting all the work you are putting into your bodybuilding. Shorter workouts will help you to get greater results in a smaller timeline.
Train opposing muscles when you are in the midst of a workout; try doing the chest and back together, or the hamstrings with quads. By doing this, one muscle can relax as another one works. You can increase the intensity of your workout to make up for spending less time in the gym.
Make sure you are eating enough calories in a day. There are many calculators available, some even online. They can help you to determine what your intake should be based on your muscle mass goals. Use one of these calculators, and adjust your diet to include adequate amounts of protein, carbs, and other nutrients to bulk up your muscles.
Cheating a bit when lifting can help you maximize your workout. If you need to use a bit of your body to get those last couple of reps in, it’s okay. In fact, this is a great way to increase your workout volume. Having said that, you should never cheat in excessive amounts. Make sure that you keep your rep speed controlled. Do not compromise your form under any circumstance.
The goal of any workout where muscle development is the focus is to create stronger muscles. The stronger you get, the heavier the weight you will be able to manage during your training. If you are new to weight lifting, you should see an increase of approximately 5% in the weight you can lift every other workout session. Carefully analyze what you might be doing wrong if you are not seeing this type of progress. If you find that you feel somewhat weaker than you did in a previous session, maybe your muscles have not fully recovered.
A good solution for muscles that may limit some of your exercises would be pre-exhaust. For example, your biceps may tire faster than your lats when you are doing row exercises. The way to get around this is to isolate the problem by doing an exercise that targets the problem muscle group. In this case, you can isolate the lats by doing lat pulldowns. If your lats are pre-exhausted, your biceps won’t be limiting you when you go to do your rows.
One of the beat ways to feel better is by exercising, and one of the best ways to feel strong and confident is by building muscle mass. When put together with cardiovascular routines, weight training can get you the results you want in less time than just cardio workouts. Do workouts that incorporate both types of exercise on a regular basis and you’ll notice results very quickly.