Natural Bodybuilding Routines: In For the Long Haul

Some people do yoga, some Pilates and some people find their physical and spiritual harmony in bodybuilding.  For yoga and bodybuilders, it’s not just about the right exercise routine to make you fit and calm.  It’s a whole lifestyle overhaul.

Natural bodybuilding routines – which don’t use hormones or steroids or the latest gizmo – are not for the weekend exerciser.  They are for those people who are seriously committed to making the best body they can with what they have, much as in the way a sculptor chisels a work of art from a block of marble.

Remember The Tortoise

You may be in a hurry to build your muscles to their limit, but it is going to take time. Steer clear of any program which says it will give you instant results. Bodybuilding is a process and it can take some time to reach your goals. You are changing your habits and adopting an entirely new lifestyle.

It may be the case that a few years are needed to build up your muscles to the point you’d like. Even once you have reached your initial goals, you may still not be prepared for the world of competitive bodybuilding. Remember what Aesop said about the tortoise and the hare: “slow and steady wins the race”.

Think safety

Before you take up any of the natural body building routines, be sure you get cleared by your doctor to do so.  Your body is going to go through a lot of changes.  You could do more harm than good to yourself is your body just isn’t capable of bodybuilding.  If you are passed, time to ease into your new life.

Don’t lift weights every day.  Your body needs a chance to rest and adjust to the strain of weightlifting by making muscle.  Do other exercises instead.  You could join a gym, hire a personal trainer or follow DVD’s and books of natural bodybuilding routines.

Also check out community college course catalogues and YMCA classes, which can offer fun and supervised classes which are usually cheaper than hiring a personal trainer.

Natural bodybuilding routines will include plenty of stretching and aerobic moves before your body is ready for the weights.  Resist the temptation to over exercise – your body will burn up any muscle mass to give you the energy for the exercises.

At the beginning, keep your natural bodybuilding routines very short – a few minutes as most. As you become stronger, you can extend the length of your weightlifting routine as your body adjusts.

The Post Workout Window Of opportunity

Many folks new to working out and weight lifting routines are not aware that your muscles do not grow while you're in the gym. If you're still struggling to grow, chances are all you're doing is hitting the gym and not paying enough attention to nutrition and recuperation. I guarantee you bigger and better results if you just take advantage of the post-workout window of opportunity and feed your muscles exactly what they want to grow.

First things first you have to realize that your muscles do not grow in the gym. What you're actually doing when you push and pull weights is stratching and tearing the muscles underneath your skin. That's why you get a pump when you're really hitting your muscles hard... it's your body reacting by rushing blood to the "injured" muscles. So if you don't grow while you're working out in the gym when do you grow?

After you put down the last weight and you finish your last rep... that's when your muscles start growing! Matter of fact your muscles have an opportunity to start growing right after you leave the gym if you supply them with some crucial nutrients that they're in desperate need of.

Protein and carbohydrates are the two critical nutrients you need to consume immediately following a workout. If you're going to consume sugar this is the best time of the day to do it. Immediately following a workout your body is literally looking for something to burn as fuel because if you worked out the way you're supposed to then you should have burned all the food you've consumed throughout the day and now your body is runing on empty and your muscles desperately need to start repairing themselves.If you want to start rebuilding your muscle and also give your body the critical nutrients it needs to survive then you want to make sure you consume three things!

Sugar or a simple carb is the first of three nutrients you need to take immediately following a workout. Your muscles are made of water and protein but protein are the "building blocks" of muscle. Since simple carbohydrates are normally broken down within 30 minutes you also want to make sure to consume some type of complex carbohydrates for long term energy. Drinking a protein shake is the best and fastest way to feed your msucles immediately following a workout. Post workout protein shakes are a dime a dozen and you're sure to find many at your local supplement shop.

If real growth is your ultimate goal then you'll also want to eat a solid meal within two hours of your gym session. Make sure both protein and carbohydrates are both present in your meal. Any type of red meat, chicken, turkey or fish will do for the protein and rice or potatoes are my favorites for the complex carbohydrate side. Once you realize that growing bigger muscles is more then just working out in the gym and going through your current bodybuilding workout program, you'll be on the fast track to getting huge and reaping the full benefits of your workouts. This is probably the single biggest change you can make today that will have the biggest impact on your growth.

Basic Steps to Building Mass

Many thousands of fitness fanatics that frequently attend a gym in order to gain lean muscle size. They strive for a much improved body shape but all too often they do not accomplish their goals.

As the months pass by they become ever more frustrated with their absence of muscle mass gains.

This can be a regular problem for someone wishing to develop their body shape, which is why many people quit, thinking that they are in some way unable to increase muscle mass.

So why does this happen to so many people and what can you do about it?

From my experience, the people who do not make good muscle mass increases at the gym make similar errors over and over again.  Read on below to see if you are making these general errors, with solutions for every problem.

1.    Some people opt for the incorrect bodybuilding routines to reach their goals, often following specialized workout programs from bodybuilding magazines.

This is no use for the typical man or woman, and in particular for hardgainers.

To increase muscle mass you must train for approximately forty five minutes with weights, performing 2-3 sets per exercise. Keep your sets at between 8-15 sets per weight training visit.

There is no benefit doing 25 sets and sacrificing many hours at the gym.

2.    Doing the same body building program week after week, even though they haven't made any reasonable body mass gains.

To be able to build solid body mass you must completely alter your routine every 12 weeks maximum. Your body has a sort of muscle memory so it quickly gets used to the same weight program you do again and again every week.

You have got to shock your muscles by changing your body building programs regularly.

3.    Not taking any time off from bodybuilding.

I take 1 week off half way through each bodybuilding workout program.

This gives my body time off to recover and revitalize.  I've done this for many years now and I haven't had a bad injury while doing so..

Another advantage is that I often experience increased strength after I've taken days off.

4.    Bodybuilding training on successive days.

Doing bodybuilding programs that involve lifting heavy weights places a lot of strain on your muscles. It can even take up to 24 hours to restore your glycogen energy reserves. Therefore, try to train no more than 2 days in a row. This will make sure your body can replenish itself, resulting in optimal energy when you workout at the gym.

5.    You rely on body building supplements to make up for a meagre diet.

Many muscle building supplements are not anything more than high priced marketing gimmicks. They drain your bank account of hard earned money and do zilch to increase muscle mass. Even if you spend $75 a week on body building supplements, it would make no more than 10% difference to your lean muscle mass gains.

All body building programs should be prepared around a well balanced nutritional plan.

You have got to ensure that you nourish your body with the nutrients it needs in order to grow solid body mass.

What to do next

In order to gain muscle mass faster than you have ever achieved previously, you must ignore the conventional body building methods that you have picked up in the past from well known bodybuilders in muscle magazines.
Hardgainers in particular should adapt their bodybuilding workouts and stop repeating the frequent errors I've outlined above. Do this and you may well see some significant results!

Discover how to gain amazing increases in muscle mass at Adding Muscle Mass, the home of great muscle program articles and free workout guides.

Muscle Weight Gain the Old-Fashioned Way

Most people aren't aware that you don't need fancy gym equipment to build muscle -- in fact, simple bodyweight exercises like pushups can be effectively used to build muscle up.

Frankly, it's easy to underestimate just how effective pushups can be at building your chest, shoulders, back, and arms. Pushups might appear plain and boring at a glance: up down, up down, up down -- that's it. And that's true to an extent. But most people outside of the fitness circles are only familiar with the standard pushups that they were taught in their high school gym classes.

There are many kinds of pushups that you can use to isolate different muscle groups, but we're going to focus on five types in this article. These might not be the best five for all people, but they will make you aware of the variety available in basic functional exercises.

Military pushups: military pushups are similar to standard pushups, except that you move your hands underneath your shoulders and tuck your elbows tightly to your side. This variation works the triceps more than the chest.

Fist pushups: Sometimes referred to as "knuckle" pushups, require the use of your fists, instead of the palms of your hands, to bear your body weight during the pushup. Fist pushups are beneficial because they target different areas of your body than traditional pushups, and may actually increase the effectiveness of your workout.

Fly pushups: adding another layer to wide pushups, fly pushups require you to begin the pushup with your hands a normal width apart at the top position. When lowering your body to the ground, you should slide your right hand out roughly 12 inches, and then slide it back to normal width on the up rep. On the next repetition, you would perform this motion with your left hand. Hint: place your hand on a towel, piece of cardboard, or similar item to assist with the slide, or "hop" your hands in and out.

Decline pushups: Instead of placing your feet on the floor, or using your knees, place your feet on a platform so that your head is lower than your feet.  You can use a chair, a stepstool, or a bench -- pretty much anything that will allow you to raise your feet up so that they are higher than your head. These types of pushups work your upper chest muscles.

Stacked pushups: with stacked pushups, one arm is spread wide to the side as in wide pushups, and the other is tucked in tight like military pushups. After 5 repetitions, the hand positions are switched.

Here is a more comprehensive list of pushup variations to achieve muscle weight gain: wide, fly, military, diamond, fist, yogi, decline, incline, stacked, deep, inchworm, and prison cell pushups.

Tips to increase the effectiveness of your pushup workouts: add some weight once the pushups begin to get easy. You don't want to push out 50 easy reps. Rather, struggle with 20 or 30. Also be sure to add variety by varying your hand position for each of the above types of pushups.

Push ups are a great way to strengthen your upper body and exercise, build muscle at the same time. If you keep it interesting by mixing up your hand positions and trying a few different styles of pushups you can increase the effectiveness of your at-home exercising and relieve the boredom!