A Beginner’s Muscle Building Routine
January 21, 2010
Are you tired of looking at skin and bones on your body? Want to replace your skinny physique with muscle? The first step you took was to join a gym. Now, you need to know the proper way to add muscle to your diminutive frame. This article will outline a muscle building plan that any beginner can follow.The First Step
Before you begin any workout routine, you need to first make sure that you are healthy and well rested. If you have health problems or do not receive an adequate amount of sleep each night, your body will not be able to endure a workout routine. Not only that, fatigue can also cause injury. Your body will need plenty of energy each day to go through all of the exercises.
In the beginning, it is a long journey. You may have to go through 20 sessions before you even see results. So, before you get started you have to ask yourself if your body can handle the commitment and strenuous activity for the next 12 weeks.
The Second Step
Once you have decided that you are healthy enough to start exercising, you need to create a workout plan. You can’t just walk into a gym and start swinging weights around. You need to have a goal and understand what exercises will help you reach that goal. You can meet with a personal fitness trainer to design a training program that will work the different muscles groups, help you understand what you are doing and why you are performing these exercises. This workout program will also tell you which days to work each muscle group, so that you can avoid muscle fatigue and give your body adequate rest in between workouts.
The Third Step
Building muscle is not just about lifting weights. It also means following a specific diet. Your muscles cannot grow without proper nutrition. Muscle buildup doesn’t happen solely by lifting heavy weights. It comes from a combination of diet and exercise. Your diet should include protein, first and foremost. Protein is the building block for muscles. You can get your protein from lean meats, poultry, fish, legumes, and egg whites. You can also choose to add a protein supplement to your diet plan. Protein will help your muscles repair after each workout.
The Fourth Step
You have a goal, you have an exercise plan and now you know how to eat. Now comes the tough part – working out. It is now time to follow through with the exercises that you and your trainer put together. These exercises probably include bench presses and squats. Each one of these exercises will cause microtrauma to your muscles. Don’t worry; this is what you want to happen. When your muscles undergo trauma it allows the muscle fibers to reconnect over scar tissue which in turn, makes them bigger. This process is known as hypertrophy.
The Fifth Step
You have the workout down pat and you are following a muscle building diet. But there is one more step. You must let your muscles rest. The resting period is when all of your hard work pays off. This is when your muscles actually rebuild. If you do not let your muscles rest, they will never grow.
The Sixth Step
Eventually your muscles will become acclimated to your exercise routine. When you are able to perform the exercises without strain, it is time to take them to the next level by increasing the intensity. This is known as “the progressive overload principle”. By doing this you will never reach a plateau in your workout.
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