Did you know that less than 5% of adults do 30 minutes of physical activity each day?
If you want to know how to get buff, know that you must discipline yourself. This means eating right and doing the proper exercises to bulk up. However, without prior fitness experience, you’ll feel like it’s an impossible feat.
With this guide, you’ll learn some great bodybuilding tips. That way, you’ll know what to do once you start getting fit. Read on and find out more:
1. Keep Challenging Your Muscles
Many beginners and aspiring fitness enthusiasts get into training ruts sometimes. They use the same weights and the same exercises with the same reps. Because of this, their muscles are less likely to grow and see progress.
To prevent this muscle-building pitfall, use progressive overload. This means challenging your muscles and increasing your load.
Lift more weights as time progresses. Try doing more reps and faster lifts. You may also incorporate reduced rest times and get tougher exercise variations.
2. Do Multiple Sets
Doing an all-out set instead of multiple ones saves a lot of time for most fitness enthusiasts. The good news is that it’s effective in building your muscle mass. However, when you compare someone doing a single set to someone performing three, know that the latter gains more muscle mass.
3. Aim to Do More Than the Hypertrophy Rep Range
The hypertrophy rep range is 8-12 reps per set. Studies show that by training your body with good form, your body gets bigger and stronger. It’s because you’ll hit your type II muscle fibers – these are the muscles with the highest growth potential.
Exercising with lighter weights while maintaining higher reps also helps build muscle fibers. These also have great growth potential. To make the most out of it, use a wide variety of rep ranges in your strength training program.
4. Do Both Split and Full-Body Training
Many may argue the better technique between full-body workouts or split training. The former aims to build more muscle by working them more. The latter focuses on certain body parts in each weekly workouts by working them hard and then letting them recover.
However, the best strategy is to use both approaches and alternate between them. For example, spend a few weeks on split training then follow the succeeding ones with full-body workouts. If you want to complement your training with other fitness tips, go to https://lyf.fit/ to learn more.
5. Rest More
Most fitness veterans know that 60 seconds is the ideal amount of time to rest between sets. If you’re doing both isolation exercises and compound moves, 2-3 minutes of rest time is optimal. Studies show that longer rest periods are more effective in gaining size and strength.
Shorter rest periods have their niche, especially if you aim to improve fat loss and muscle endurance. However, with longer rests, you’ll perform more reps on your next sets. As you progress, this will lead you to gain more muscle.
6. Avoid Lifting to Absolute Failure
If you train to absolute failure, you’re putting unnecessary strain on your body. The worst part is that this isn’t a requirement for you to increase your muscle strength and mass. It’s also dangerous to your health.
You’re likely to get injured when you do exercises to this point. Lifting to either volitional or technical failure is a better strategy. Doing the right exercises and knowing how to execute them will lead to bigger muscle mass.
7. Experiment
It’s crucial to note that everyone has a different strategy for building muscle. Each body is different, so there is no single combo that would work best for you. That’s why you must find something that works best for your current situation.
Start by focusing less on single-joint movements and start with more multi-joint ones. It means doing any of the following exercises:
- Bench press
- Bent-over row
- Deadlift
- Overhead press
- Power clean
- Squats
These are solid multi-joint exercises because it needs several muscle groups to coordinate. These exercises could form your training plan’s foundation. But as always, customize as you see fit from here.
8. Use Heavy Weights for Low Reps
Choosing the proper load is as important as picking the right exercises. Always start with a few warm-ups and up the weight as you go from one set to the next. Ensure that the load will induce volitional failure as you progress to your target reps.
With most movements, you must ensure that you’re doing at least six reps per set. If you’re striving toward volitional failure, you can stay within 12 reps instead if you’re using heavy weights. That way, you won’t end up getting injured.
9. Prioritize Your Weaknesses
Having a specific body goal can be a great motivation if you’re only first starting out. However, if you do this, you might find that other parts of your body aren’t as robust as your pecs. You’re likely sacrificing your calves when you’re honing your upper body physique.
When this happens, don’t hide your glaring weakness and look at it whenever you can. Doing this can help you remind yourself of your weakness and feel more motivated. This ensures you’ll exert more effort to build them up.
Train your weakest parts more but never neglect your other muscle groups. This will ensure your body has optimal muscle growth over time.
Now You Know Some Great Bodybuilding Tips
Are you looking to build muscle mass and achieve your fitness goal? Here are some great bodybuilding tips for bodybuilding enthusiasts of any level. Use these along with bodybuilding supplements to ensure your steady muscle growth.
Did this guide help you learn how to get stronger? You don’t have to stop here! Consider reading our other posts to learn more valuable tips and tricks to improve your fitness.