4 Bodybuilding Exercise Tips To Really Pump You Up

You only need two types of bodybuilding exercises to craft a really effective routine. Efficiency is a thing of beauty, unless you actually prefer to spend half your life at the gym, breathing sweaty air, and getting frustrated when you don't get results. Use your brain before your brawn, and you'll work smarter and see success sooner.

Bodybuilding Exercise Tip #1:

Know your muscles. This doesn't mean giving them cute little nicknames, this means knowing the size and function of each muscle. What kind of bodybuilding exercise will work each muscle? You want to create a physique of evenly developed muscles, and still be able to put your arms down by your sides.

Bodybuilding Exercise Tip #2:

OK - pop quiz. What will give out first, your triceps or your chest?

When you're doing bench presses, what starts to hurt first? Your poor little triceps! By the time you can bench enough to exhaust your chest, your triceps are shot.

The solution? Use isolation bodybuilding exercises first. These, by definition, isolate individual muscles and work them hard. If you isolate a larger muscle and work it thoroughly, it evens the playing field when you move on to a bodybuilding exercise that uses a group of muscles.

Bodybuilding Exercise Tip #3:

After you've put your larger muscles through the paces, it's time to let the smaller fellas join in. Bring in the compound bodybuilding exercises, the ones that use groups of muscles. Take the simple push-up for example: Wrist, forearm, biceps, shoulders, core, and chest all working together. Since some of the muscles involved are smaller than others, they normally fatigue more quickly. If you've isolated the larger muscles first, the push-up becomes a much more efficient bodybuilding exercise, because your whole body gets exhausted at about the same time.

Bodybuilding Exercise Tip #4:

Let it rest! The two sides of the coin are smart exercises and rest. They're both necessary to getting the results you want.

Using efficient isolation and compound bodybuilding exercises, you've got the work side covered. You'll get a more valuable workout in less time. But, it's all in vain if you don't allow for sufficient rest for your muscles afterward. Since muscle growth takes place during the recovery period, as your body knits itself back together, you can't interrupt that process by working those muscles again too soon. Give your muscle groups a full week to recover.

Half the battle in bodybuilding is having good information. Good info lets you create a good plan for your diet, bodybuilding exercises, and rest periods. Follow a good plan, and you'll get the results you want.

The "Muscle Nerd", Jeff Anderson, is a world-renowned fitness consultant and author, most noted for his cutting edge research in natural bodybuilding and fat loss. Discover the secrets to transforming YOUR body today at: http://www.musclenerdfitness.com

Exposing the Dangers of Bodybuilding: Five Mistakes to Avoid

Beginner bodybuilders can get caught up in the dream of obtaining their perfect body with pounds of rock solid muscle mass and impressive strength. If that is you, don?t rush your bodybuilding training. Doing so will cause injuries and delay your progress. Instead, take the time to learn these five dangers of bodybuilding so you can avoid them and become a successful bodybuilder.

One mistake you can make is eating in the wrong way. If one protein shake a day is good, then three a day will get you the results three times faster, right? Wrong. There is nothing wrong with your protein shakes, but the majority of your diet should be healthy, whole foods. Your body is working hard and needs proper nutrition to do its best, and don?t think you can trick it with shortcuts.

You need the right amount of protein, but don?t think that you can get that protein from a fast food joint and expect your body to be satisfied. Be sure to include nutrition dense fruits and vegetables with your meals.

Perhaps the biggest mistake made by novice bodybuilders (and unfortunately some who have been training for a while) is overtraining. Your muscles will not grow without rest, and you will end up causing damage if you train too often. If you do injure yourself while training, don?t think that you can work through the pain. Know your limits and stop if you do get injured and see a professional. Take the time to heal. Although it might be hard to stop training for a couple of weeks, not taking the time to recover might leave you benched for an even longer period of time.

Not warming up is such an easy mistake to avoid that it?s surprising people still expose themselves to injury by ignoring this danger. If you spend twenty minutes warming up before each workout, you?ll significantly decrease the danger of injury. Start with about five minutes of cardiovascular exercise to get your heart pumping. Then move on to four or five warm up sets.

The fourth mistake that beginners can make is not paying attention to form. Form is vital if you want to avoid injuries and sculpt the body that you want. The first step, of course, is to know what good form looks like. Study good form before you try to do any of the routines yourself. When you do start the routines, watch yourself in the mirror to make sure you are doing the exercises correctly. If you get too tired to hold the correct form, quit. Four reps in correct form is far more effective than eight reps in poor form.

The final danger of bodybuilding that you want to avoid comes from steroid use. It?s true that steroids will increase your size and your strength. But they are not necessary. You can create the body that you want without steroids. All you need is the proper training, diet, and rest. Steroid use can lead to headaches, increased blood pressure, altered thyroid function, and worse.

Bodybuilding, if done right, can be an excellent way to increase your strength and overall health. The dangers of bodybuilding can be minimized by those who take the time to gain the needed knowledge and train properly.

Take the action necessary to get the body you want today. Visit How To Start Bodybuilding to get your free copy of 8 Things You Must Do To Build Maximum Muscle Mass.

Finding Great Inexpensive Sources For Bodybuilding Supplements Online

In today's society, many people are conscious about how they look. It is a fact that having a muscular body means that you will be more attractive to look at and will have more self confidence. Having a body that you can be proud of can build self-confidence and people will be intimidated with your body. Besides, having a muscular body is better than having a thin and puny looking body. It is also better than having those extra padding in your body that many people call as "love handles" or "beer belly".

A muscular body also means a healthy body and with today's health conscious society, you have to consider getting a great looking body and also a healthy heart. So, if you want to have a great looking and muscular body that looks like WWE's superstar John Cena, or a body like those of Hollywood star Vin Diesel's, you should turn off that TV, get off your La-Z-Boy and visit the gym or, if you can afford it, purchase body building equipments to build a personal home gym.

Building that body you want will require you to have great discipline in terms of workout routines and diet. It will also require you taking dietary body building supplements in order to achieve your maximum performance in your body building routines. Today, there are quite a lot of body building supplements available in the market. You have to consider that body building requires intensive workout routines and will cause significant injuries in your muscles. This is why you should know how to do proper workout by hiring a professional body building fitness trainer to assist you in your routines.

Body building supplements is also recommended in order for you to achieve maximum performance for your body. These supplements work by aiding your body and muscles to reach its maximum potential and help repair injured or damaged muscle tissues faster. You have to know that body building supplements cannot work on its own. It doesn?t mean that you can take body building supplements and simply relax and watch your favorite TV show in your comfortable recliner and wait for your muscles to grow. This is not how body building supplements work. You still need to workout hard. As mentioned before, the body supplements you will take will only help your body reach its maximum potential.

However, you have to consider that some body building supplements can be hard to find. Thanks to the advancement in communications technology, you will have access to different kinds of legal body building supplements available in the market today. Body building supplements manufacturers are now making their products available online where you can choose from a wide variety of body building supplements at a very affordable cost.

You have to consider that retailers tend to increase the price of body building supplements because of its growing demand. By ordering it online, you will be able to get the body building supplements you need at a very affordable cost.

However, before you just purchase any body building supplements you see, you have to consult your professional body building fitness trainers about what particular body building supplement you should purchase and what effective brand is available.

These are the things you have to know about body building supplements. By knowing what kind of brand to purchase and also what kind of body building supplements, you will be able to achieve great and visible results in your body at a very short time.

For more great information and resources check out Body Building Routines and Supplements here. Check out our Free Body Building Routines Guide

How to Avoid Using Your Home Gym as a Clothes Rack

So heres the situation

You have a home gym, treadmill, elliptical trainer, or some other piece of home fitness equipment. But its sitting in the corner of the room being used as a clothes rack. You havent gotten any use out of it for months, and you might be thinking of selling it off.

Theres a reason why you initially bought this piece of equipment, and I can bet that it wasnt meant to hang your clothes on (there are much cheaper alternatives than that).

It was probably along the lines of toning up or losing weight or getting fit and so on and so forth.

You know its probably a good idea to start exercising again, but you might be thinking:

1. Im too busy with (insert your reasons here), and I just dont have the time right now.

2. Ill do it later.

3. Im not too sure what exercises to do.

4. I just dont have any motivation right now. Maybe in the future when I get fired up Ill start again.

5. Im feeling pretty tired these days with everything going on. Ill get to it once I have some energy.

But what were the reasons that made you buy this machine? How long did you actually use this machine? Why did you stop? And why arent you using it now?

What youll do is examine your reasons why, and give you an actionable guide to get you off your couch, take the clothes off your home gym and start using it the way it was meant to be used (and start achieving your goals!)



Here is a Solution

You need to set some goals, and you need to set a plan to get to those goals. Thats right, just like what all the self help guru preaches, this is what you need to do. The reason why you need to set goals is that then youll have something to work towards.

And Im not talking about some up-in-the-air, vague goals like, I want to look toned, or I want to lose weight.

Im talking about detailed, specific goals. Something along the lines of, I will lose 10 pounds of fat in 60 days.

Also, along with setting goals, you need to write down your reasons why you want to achieve this goal. Losing 10 pounds of fat in 60 days is fine and dandy, but youll be way more motivated to exercise if youre constantly reminded that your wedding is in 60 days!


Heres an acronym that will help you set and attain your fitness goals:

S.M.A.R.T-R (pronounced smarter)

SMART-R stands for:

S-Specific

M-Measurable

A-Action oriented

R-Reasonable

T-Timed

R-Reasons why

Lets go into details of each point:


Specific

The more specific and measurable your goal, the more quickly you will be able to identify, locate, create, and implement the use of the necessary resources for its achievement. -Charles J. Givens

"I want to lose weight" is different from "I want to lose 10lbs of fat and gain muscle mass by doing 3-5 cardio workouts and 3-5 resistance training workouts per week at the gym over the course of the next 3 months."

Your fitness goals should be detailed, clearly defined, and stress exactly what youre going to do and you want to achieve.

For example, instead of setting a goal to lose weight, set a specific goal to lose 3 inches off your waist, lost 5% body fat, or lose 3 pounds of fat.


Measurable

"Make measurable progress in reasonable time." -Jim Rohn

If youre not keeping score, you dont know whether youre winning or losing! And keeping score is all done with numbers. Do you want to lose 3 inches off your waist? Do you want to drop down from 20% to 12% body fat? Do you want to lose 10 pounds?

Whatever goal you choose, make sure that you can measure it. You need to do this so you can see and measure the progress over time. For example, losing 1 pound per week would be a goal that is measurable over time.

Also, the things that you cant measure (happiness, etc.) will come along with achieving your goals.

Action-Oriented

You'll always achieve more through movement than meditation -Gary Halbert

Virtually no goals can be attained unless theres some action taken. If you plan to lose 10 pounds of body fat, you have to figure out the action that you need to take the attain this goal. What resistance training exercises are you going to do? What cardiovascular exercises are you going to do? How often should you do them? In this step its helpful to recruit the assistance of a fitness professional who can provide you with their expertise and advice to help you reach your goal.


Reasonable

"Every noble work is bound to face problems and obstacles. It is important to check your goal and motivation thoroughly. One should be very truthful, honest, and reasonable. One's actions should be good for others, and for oneself as well. Once a positive goal is chosen, you should decide to pursue it all the way to the end. Even if it is not realized, at least there will be no regret." -Dalai Lama

Now that you might have started to think of some goals, you have to remember to keep them reasonable. Losing 30 pounds in one month is not reasonable! In fact, this could be potentially dangerous to your health and be detrimental in the long term. In this case, you would probably be losing water weight and muscle mass, and in the long run, you would gain all that weight back, and have less muscle mass (its your muscles that burn fatthe more of it you have, the more fat you can burn. But the less you have, youll be burning less body fat).

Keep your goals reasonable or you might find that youll be putting your health at risk, or at the very least, youll be disappointed.


Timed

"A goal is a dream with a deadline." -Napoleon Hill

Set a deadline. Deadlines move us to action.

Theres nothing worst than having a goal, working towards it, but never finishing it! Its almost like a major school project thats assigned to you. Imagine if this project didnt have a deadline, and youre asked to complete it whenever you want.

Do you think youll complete it soon?

Probably not! If theres no deadline, theres no pressure to finish a task.

Its the same with exercise and fitness. If you set a goal to lose 10 pounds of body fat, but you dont set a deadline, youll probably be trying to lose 10 pounds of body fat forever!

Set a deadline for your fitness goal, and try to achieve it. Once the deadline passes and youve reached your goals, set a new one and a new deadline, and strive to achieve that!


Reasons Why

"Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to; all they need is one reason why they can" -Willis Whitney

This is probably the most important step in the goal setting process. Not only is your reason why the motivation for you to achieve any goals, but its probably the reason that caused you to buy a home gym or home exercise equipment in the first place!

You must define your reasons for wanting to achieve a goal. If you lack clear reasons why for doing so, all the goal setting and planning might just go to waste (if you dont have a reason to do something, why would you do it?)

Spend some time and give some serious thought to this step. The more compelling your reasons are for exercising, the greater your odds will be for meeting your goals.

Every person has a different reason for exercising. Some people just want to lose a few inches off their waist because of an upcoming event (such as a wedding, a high school reunion, a day at the beach to impress members of the opposite sex), but for others, exercising could mean the difference between life and death.

Whatever your reasons why may be, make sure that theyre compelling, and accurately represent your reasons for your desire to achieve your goals.

Some Tips To Keep On Top of Your Fitness Goals

Grab a pen, a few pieces of paper, and prepare to do some writing.


Use this formula to form your goals:

I, _________ (name) WILL __________________________ (specific, reasonable, and measurable goal) by doing _______________________ (action oriented) by ______________ (timed-date).

I will achieve this goal because ___________________________ (insert your reason why)

Signature: _________________ (your name) Todays date: _____________

Write this down and make photocopies if you want to. Now, post your goals everywhere (bathroom mirrors, in your home gym, in front of your toiletanywhere that is highly visible), and read it everyday. The more often you come across seeing your goals in writing, the more likely its going to be in your daily thoughts, and the more likely youre achieve your fitness goals.

Remember, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. So, if youve been leaving your home gym equipment to collect dust or to hang your clothes on, start with the single step of writing down your goals by following the methods above. Trust me, you wont regret it.

John Phung is a Certified Personal Training and successful writer for http://www.homegymsonline.info/providing valuable tips and advice about free weight exercise equipment, home gym equipment, cardiovascular training equipment and more.