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The Basics of Bodybuilding
Be sure to take it very easy at first. Bodybuilding is a long-term activity and not a quick fix solution for building muscle mass.
If you do it right you should start to see results in just a few short weeks.
As you progress you will learn more about specific exercises.
No doubt want to incorporate some specialist sets into your routines to target specific body parts.
Sometimes particular muscle groups will need extra attention as some muscle will respond to exercise better than others. This is not set and is individual fro each person.
You will quickly learn how your own body responds to your exercises as you gain experience training and which muscle groups respond quickly and need a break (or less of a workout) and which are the troublesome areas that need an added workout.
Sometimes it is necessary to incorporate extra exercises into your sets or you may need to isolate a particular muscle in order to work it harder. This is often necessary when you want to keep a uniformed physique or even want a bigger look in a particular muscle group (like your biceps for example).
Sets & Reps
If you are merely looking to tone your muscles and do want an extra thickness or girth then 1 or 2 sets of exercises for each muscle group is more than enough to tone up.
However, if you wish to increase your muscle mass then you must incorporate multiple sets into your training routines.
As a rule of thumb you should aim to perform 15 repetitions of any one exercise in your first set. The weight lifted should be heavy enough to work out the muscle but not so heavy that you risk injury.
The only way you can know how heavy a weight should be is to experiment with it – even a personal trainer will have you do this. To avoid injury always start off with reasonably light weights. Do not try to lift a weight that feels too heavy when you are a beginner as this can lead to serious injury.
You should be able to lift a weight for 15 reps before your muscle gives up in the beginning. This will be your first rep.
Rest the muscle for 30 seconds to 1 minute before performing a second set of 12 reps.
rest again and then perform a final set of 10 reps.
By this time you should be feeling the “burn” n your muscles as you rip them.
Advancing Sets & Reps
When you get to a stage where it is easy to perform the three sets (usually after a few weeks), you must increase the weight you lift if you wish to continue gaining in size.
There are other specific exercise technique you can use to gain size quickly, such as forced reps and multiple forced reps, but these are beyond the scope of this article and will be covered in later sections.
