How long have you been going through men’s bodybuilding websites and wished you could sculpt your body and get ripped? Too long that you’ve finally decided to start? If you’re like most people, you have no idea where to start as a beginner bodybuilder and are not sure if you can actually pull it off.
Truth be told, committing to fitness is hard. Creating and sticking to a routine requires self-discipline and commitment, so if you want to be a bodybuilder, these are some of the many things you’ll need. Now that you finally want to start your journey, it’s understandable if you’re excited, worried, and self-conscious at the same time.
It’s for these reasons that we’ve put together this comprehensive beginner’s guide for men’s bodybuilding. If you’re looking to start your bodybuilding journey and create a new, shredded you, then keep reading this in-depth guide for all the info you’ve been looking for.
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Where to Start for Men’s Bodybuilding
The first thing you have to understand about bodybuilding is that you can only start from the ground up. You can’t rush bodybuilding because it’ll take a toll on your body. One of the gravest mistakes a lot of beginner bodybuilders make is trying to bulk up or get ripped right away.
It’s vital for you to make progress a gradual thing, so avoid lifting heavy right off the bat. You risk tearing your muscles, something that will set you back a few months and derail your bodybuilding goals. So, where does the smart bodybuilding journey begin?
Strength Train to Build Muscle and Lift Progressively Heavier Weights
It is by far the most important thing you can do to increase your lean mass and get a toned body. It’s important for you to burn fat, but the more muscle you have, the more shredded you’ll look. Beyond that, muscle is a major fat burner and will drive your BMR more than anything else.
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Now, as a beginner bodybuilder, understand that the fundamental requirement for you to increase in size is to increase the amount of weight you lift from one session to the other. Increasing the weights will increase the intensity and see to it that your muscles receive sufficient stress. As your workouts progress, you’ll start to notice the results you’re looking for.
Now, getting ripped will take some time, so your first aim is to try out a number of repetitions with a certain weight. For instance, you can opt for the 50 kg weights and do 10 repetitions on the bench press for a week.
A week later, you can try to add about 2kgs, and so on. The secret to smart bodybuilding is to progressively subject your muscles to greater levels of intensity on a continual basis.
This is known as progressive resistance training. The thing is, you may cause a plateau if you apply the same intensity to your muscles every day. A plateau is bound to hold your progress and will only diminish results.
If it feels impossible for you to increase weight training, it may be because you are overtraining, which you’ll need to address before you make further gains.
Cut Calories to Lose Weight
Whether you intend to bulk fast then cut or work out to change the whole body composition, it’s vital for you to control your calorie intake. You see, calories provide 100% of the energy your body requires. If you eat more calories than your body needs, it stores them as reserve energy, which is technically fat.
If you eat fewer calories than your body needs, then it taps into those reserves and burns more body fat. This means that in your bodybuilding journey, you need to cut calories to effectively lose body fat consistently. Now, as much as you want to get ahead in your bodybuilding journey, it’s important that you don’t cut your calories too low to maintain optimal health.
While it may temporarily speed up your process, you’re going to lose lean mass as well. Besides, starving yourself is not the way to men’s bodybuilding because it’ll affect your appetite, mood, energy levels, and overall health and wellness. Figure out how many calories you need to lose, then track your daily intake.
Tracking is an essential part of bodybuilding, so it’s about time you get used to it. Go the extra mile and get a body fat test to estimate your calorie needs accurately and precisely.
Make Protein Your Best Friend
Any bodybuilder, or athlete for that matter, will tell you that protein is one of the most important nutritional components of smart bodybuilding.
Protein is essential in building muscle, but protein synthesis will only sufficiently occur if you take an adequate amount of protein every day. Protein synthesis is the process of converting amino acids to proteins to repair and rebuild your muscles.
Now, given that as a bodybuilder, you’ll be subjecting your muscles to higher stress than the average person, you need to consume a larger percentage of protein in your diet. As a beginner, a great starting point for your protein intake would be at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight. More protein is always better, and most bodybuilders take a double of this.
Consuming protein is the second most essential variable only after training intensity when bodybuilding. Some of the protein-rich foods you can consume include eggs, chicken, milk, and red meat. Make an effort to consume about 40 grams of protein about seven times per day.
If you notice that you’re not gaining size during your bodybuilding journey, it could be because you’re not consuming enough protein. Go the extra mile and add supplements that can help you in this regard. Find an excellent whey protein like Wilson Supplements, which are some of the most effective in bodybuilding.
Get Enough Sleep
Adequate sleep is an essential part of your bodybuilding journey because it’ll help with protein synthesis. It’ll also recharge you mentally, and you get to rest at the same time. Furthermore, sleep assists in the manufacture of the growth hormone and testosterone.
The one thing you have to keep in mind is that sleeping means going a few hours without food. For a bodybuilder, this could result in muscle breakdown in order to supply glycogen to the brain.
As a bodybuilder, it’s crucial for you to eat a high-protein meal before going to bed and immediately after waking up. If possible, sleep for about eight hours every night to get adequate sleep.
Develop a Positive Attitude and Manage Stress
Bodybuilding is as much mental as it is physical, and a positive attitude will help you in your journey. If you approach your workout sessions with confidence and a positive mental attitude, they’ll work a lot better for you. Negative feelings will ruin your mood and negatively impact your overall training, health, and wellness.
Additionally, negative stress can be the single most destructive thing you could encounter in your bodybuilding journey. Negative stress will undermine any attempt to relax and negatively impact any growth opportunities. Strive to eliminate depression and things like excessive negative thinking, insistent arguing, excessive drinking, smoking, and lack of sleep.
The thing is, all these things can result in a high amount of cortisol, which is a dangerous stress hormone. The release of cortisol could cause you a wide array of problems, such as high blood pressure and constricted arteries. Cortisol will also consume protein tissue and enhance the deposition of fat, which will negatively impact your bodybuilding efforts.
Eat Healthy Fats
Eating fat won’t necessarily make you fat unless you consume too many calories. Still, a lot of research implies that some people are more susceptible to changes after fat intake. That said, healthier and unsaturated fats are unlikely to be stored as fat in your body, so be sure to include some healthy fats in your diet.
Bodybuilders are recommended to take the essential fatty acids such as omega-3 and omega-6. While you may not be able to avoid saturated fats entirely, you can include them in smaller amounts.
Avoid Overtraining
One of the most significant problems affecting over-enthusiastic bodybuilders is overtraining. As a beginner, it’s understandable that getting ripped as soon as possible is exciting, but this is not the way to go. Overtraining will destroy your motivation, tear up your muscles, and leave you feeling too drained to continue.
You’ll rob yourself of any possibility of continued growth and get regression instead. Rest is an essential part of your training routine, especially when it comes to intense training. The symptoms of overtraining will be both physical and psychological so expect things like tiredness, chronic fatigue, injuries, loss of appetite, and dehydration.
Stay Consistent
While overtraining can be dangerous, inconsistency is worse. Men’s bodybuilding requires sticking to the steps above and to your routine. Through consistency, you are bound to achieve your bodybuilding goals and achieve desired results in time.
Educate Yourself
There’s a lot more to bodybuilding than lifting weights and sticking to the right routine. It’s important for you to keep educating yourself on men’s bodybuilding to achieve continual progress. Do more research on bodybuilding to achieve physical greatness without hurting yourself.
Men’s Bodybuilding: The Only Guide You Need
If you’re looking to get into bodybuilding, this men’s bodybuilding guide will help you start your journey. Go through it and learn as much as possible before you embark on your journey to avoid hurting yourself.
Once you start, remember to stay consistent but avoid overtraining as well. Please head over to our blog for more informative content, where we have so many more valuable articles.
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