Do you want to build your muscles but not sure how to go about it?
When you’re a beginner to muscle building or anything in general, you’re likely to feel scared and nervous.
Starting a new exercise of any type can seem daunting at times, add to the fact that there are lots of various exercises in a weight training program, only intensifies what you’re feeling.
But keep your heads up, buddy! Educating yourself the basics and main points of muscle building are what’s important right now.
And so, without further ado, here are some tips to help you build those muscles.
1. Learn and maintain the proper form
First off, it is extremely important that you learn the proper form until you know it like the back of your hand, especially since you’re just starting out.
Starting with the wrong form will only result in improper habits, which will be more difficult to break over time.
So if you’re not sure on what exercises are best for you and your goal, or you need some guidance on what the proper form is for the exercise you want to perform, don’t hesitate to visit a personal trainer to help you on it.
Perfecting the proper form is the most important thing that you need to get right.
Otherwise, you’ll likely suffer from injuries and/or lack of good results.
2. Never forget to stretch
Amateurs or not, stretching is something that numerous people ignore or neglect to do.
Unbeknownst to them, leaving out stretching is a huge mistake as stretching helps reduce the amount of soreness you experience, and at the same time, boosts your range of motion so your body will benefit more from the lifts you’ve completed.
Before starting your workout, try to do stretching for at least 10 minutes, concentrating on all primary muscle groups.
You can also practice stretching outside your workout schedule, say, while watching TV, to further decrease the amount of soreness your body experiences.
3. Go with major lifts first
You’ll also want to focus first on major lifts during your muscle building workout.
Any exercise that makes use of more than one muscle group should come first before those that use a single muscle group.
That is because the latter is going to require much more energy to complete, thereby, you want to be feeling rejuvenated.
These major lift exercises include bench press, bent over row, chest press, deadlift, and leg press to name a few.
4. Eat before and after your workout
Eating the right kind of food before and after your workout plays a vital role in how well your muscle building workout will be and how your body quickly recovers afterward.
Although as a beginner, you’re likely not that meticulous on planning your food consumption, but making an effort to ensure that the foods you’re eating are filled with protein and carbs makes a world of difference in your workout and recovery journey.
Combine a handful of free weight exercises with weight machine exercises
Weight machine exercises are known to be inferior to free weight exercises in the fitness world, or at least when you look at it generally.
But for beginners, weight exercises are great to ease our body into the process of weight lifting, all the while maintaining the proper form.
In order to get the best of both worlds, combine some of the free weight exercises with weight machine exercises.
Many people find it very easy to do free weight exercises like tricep extensions and bicep curls, but using a chest press equipment before trying bench press, for instance, can let you gain a remarkable comfort level while having that machine guidance.