How To Start A Muscle Building Program

Beginning a muscle building program can be a little confusing,
since there’s so much information out there. There are so many
opinions floating around and most of them come from people who
are not even qualified to give you advice.

So if you’re just starting out yourself, you really want to take
the time to learn how to weight train and work out correctly. If
not, you’ll have to “undo” alot of stuff you’ve done. So, no
matter what you do, learn correctly the first time.

I feel that one of the main factors people don’t stick with
their muscle building routine is a lack of guidance in the
beginning. They have no idea where to begin, so they get
discouraged before they give themselves a chance to see results.

You need to have some basic understandings about how to work out
and build muscle in general. This will make your time in the gym
more productive and enjoyable.

In order to build muscle and lose fat, you need a combination of
weight training, nutritional planning, and cardio.

Let’s take a look at the role each of these plays in your
physique development.

Weight Training

Weight training is the stimulus for building muscle. By
overloading the muscle with resistance, you send a signal to
your muscle to get bigger and stronger to handle the load that’s
been placed on it.

When you lift a heavier weight, over time, your body adapts to
this by increasing the amount of muscle mass you have.

But weight training is only the first step you need to complete
to maximize your results.

Proper nutrition

Good nutrition is extremely important when getting started on a
workout program. You can have the most intense muscle building
workouts you’ve ever had, but if you don’t have good nutrition,
you’ll only see a fraction of the results.

You need to supply your body with the fuel it needs to respond
and grow from weight training. You need protein and carbs in
order to refuel your muscles after training. You also need
quality, healthy fats for cell regeneration and organ protection.

Cardio

Cardio is important for getting lean as well as for your overall
health. Cardio helps in reducing body fat because it helps you
expend more calories than you consume.

Your body burns excess fat to be used as energy throughout the
day. So, by eating clean and doing cardio, you create a calorie
shortage in which fat is burned.

Start your muscle building program by working out 3 days per
week and training each muscle group 1 time per week. It isn’t a
good idea to start a weight training program by going to the gym
7 days a week. This can lead to overtraining and stopping all
your chances of building muscle.

Use higher reps and lighter weights so you get accustomed to the
exercises and the weight you should be using. Start slow and
build a strong foundation here.

If you’re doing the exercises wrong, you’re going to have to
change a lot later on, so start with light weight and learn how
to do each exercise correctly. You can always add more weight
later.

There’s no need to kill yourself in the gym right now, you’ll
have plenty of time to increase the weight and intensity as you
continue.

Before you perform your first exercises, you need to warm up by
doing 3 or 4 warm ups where you use a heavier weight but don’t
tire the muscle. Once you feel ready, do 2 heavy sets with as
much weight as you can comfortably handle for 8 to 10 reps.

Again, you want to start your program with lighter weights, so
you can learn the form. From here, you can increase the weight
over time.

Only train 2 muscle groups each time, doing 2 to 3 exercises for
each muscle group. Your total time spent on your muscle building
program each workout should be under 1 hour. Don’t think that
more time spent is better. It’s the quality of the time that
matters.

This is how you want to set up your muscle building program to
start. From here, your main goal is to get stronger on each
exercise. Increase the amount of weight and intensity you use
and you’ll soon start building more muscle than you ever thought
possible.

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