What we’ve put together for you here is a complete resource for everything you need to take your bodybuilding to the next level. It’s packed full of excellent bodybuilding tips and information that will benefit advanced, intermediate, and beginner bodybuilders alike. let’s dive right into a few bodybuilding tips you can start to use right now, today. I call this my Bodybuilding Tips ‘Crash Course’
Bodybuilding Tips
1. Diet is Everything
Alright, don’t throw your workout routine out the window just yet, but if you really want to get magazine-cover ripped, you need to pay super-close attention to your diet. Don’t be that guy that kills it in the gym 5 days a week only to go out and fuel your body with garbage. Water is key here, drink often and always have a bottle of water on hand. In the car, at your office, you get the picture. What you eat makes up to 80% of the results you will see, so eat well.
This means tons of lean protein (lean beef, chicken, pork loin) and digestible carbohydrates like oatmeal. You can also get plenty of good protein and Omega-3 fatty acids from eating tuna and salmon. Get on a good bodybuilding diet regime and you’ll lose your cravings for crap food in about a week. Be sure to fuel your body with good food before and after your workouts.
2. Mix it Up
No matter how good your routine is, it’s only going to really help you for a short period of time. Your body will quickly get used to a predictable routine, and you will plateau. This means that the effectiveness of your workout wears off, so you need to have a wide variety of different exercises incorporated into your bodybuilding workouts. To continue your gains and progress towards your goals, you must continually change up your routine to ‘confuse’ your body into building bigger muscles faster.
There are many bodybuilding tips you can use to create a program that changes enough to keep seeing progressive, positive results – map out several months of workout routines ahead of time. Here’s a good rule of thumb – don’t ever go more than two weeks without changing up your routine.
3. Sleep
While counterintuitive, your body is not building muscle while you work out. During your workouts, your muscles are being torn down. You may look ‘swoll up’ during your workouts because of all the blood flow to your muscles, but the reals gains come while you’re asleep and dreaming about Jessica Biel (God she is smokin’ hot).
While the ‘get enough sleep’ mantra is a cliche, don’t be one of those guys that forgets it and suffers because of it. Sleep is the necessary counterpart to all the work you do in the gym or with your home workout setup. This is one of the more simple bodybuilding tips, but one of the more crucial too.
4. Working Out (Almost) to Failure
The trick here is to go one or two reps short of failure. If you’re working out to complete muscle failure on every set, your central nervous system will quickly get drained and your workouts will suffer as a result. By working out just shy of failure, you’re still getting the type of intensity you need to see results while also maintaining the energy needed to put in your best on every workout. This is one of the bodybuilding tips where less can actually be more.
5. Lift More Over Time
If I had to sum up this whole website in 4 words it would be lift more over time. The entire goal of bodybuilding is to increase the amount of weight you’re lifting as time goes on. If you’re not doing this, you might as well forget all the other stuff I talk about here. There are no complicated math formulas involved, just the basics. Make certain that whatever routines you’ve got going on involve the steady increase of weight over time. It should be the absolute top priority of your muscle-building program to be able to lift heavier and heavier amounts.
6. Track Your Progress
Don’t be one of those guys that put all their energy into the gym and then forget to track their progress. Use a little brain matter here, folks. What can measure gets managed, ok? Print out some sheets, get an app for your phone, or get a pen and pad – do whatever it takes to make sure you’re tracking your progress. This can be motivating, but it also makes sure you’re staying on track and you can correct course if necessary.
7. Correct Form
Nothing puts a damper on your routine and fitness goals like an injury. If you’re not watching your form, you may end up with 6 days to 6 months of downtime, and while you do need rest to build muscle, you sure as hell don’t want *that* much rest tough guy. I know I sound like your Dad here but watch your form. Don’t crane your neck around in the gym to look at Bambi Sunshine’s new outfit while you’re in the middle of the set – save that for your break. Better yet, go up and talk to her after your workout when you look all swoll up.
All kidding aside, this is one of those critical bodybuilding tips to remember: learn (and execute!) the form right and save yourself from having to be ‘benched’ for too long. If you get injured you’re going to lose one of your most precious assets: Momentum.
8. Warm Ups
This is one of those bodybuilding tips that’s easy to forget, but take 3 to 5 minutes out to do this every single workout. Use a little aerobic exercise first thing and you’ll notice that you’re getting better workouts.
