The human body is an incredible machine. It’s capable of amazing feats, including bodybuilding. There’s something truly astonishing and admirable about seeing someone master their physique.
In fact, that might be what inspired you to look into bodybuilding. However, becoming a legit bodybuilder takes time and commitment.
You can’t expect to get results overnight or have a fantastic physique after just a few months of training. If you’re getting into the bodybuilding game, you’re in it for the long haul.
We’re here to help. Keep reading for a beginner’s guide on how to start bodybuilding.
Understand Your Body Type
First, you must understand the three body types and which category you fall under. This will affect your overall physique and your ability to put on muscle mass and burn fat.
The three different body types (or somatotypes) are mesomorphs, ectomorphs, and endomorphs. Each body type has pros and cons in the world of bodybuilding.
Your body type will affect how you train, how you eat, and how your prepare for a bodybuilding show (if you decide to compete).
Mesomorph
If you’re a mesomorph, congratulations. Learning how to start bodybuilding is going to be much easier for you than for people with the other two body types.
Mesomorphs have a medium frame and find it easy to both gain muscle mass and drop weight. They can generally eat what they want without needing to face some of the steeper consequences like endomorphs do. However, they generally struggle to get as big and strong as endomorphs.
Ectomorph
Ectomorphs are lucky in their own way. These body types are naturally lean and have less body fat. When they put muscle on, it’s quite noticeable, as they are always cut and toned.
However, ectomorphs also have a hard time bulking. They typically must put in overtime to make sure they get enough calories to fuel their gains and get bigger. As such, one of the most important muscle-building tips for ectomorphs is to treat their diet like a job.
Endomorph
Finally, endomorphs are those who are naturally larger people. They find it all-too-easy to gain weight and have a hard time shedding fat. They rarely sit at a low enough body fat to keep them looking lean and cut, although it is possible.
On the plus side, endomorphs are some of the biggest and strongest bodybuilders in the game. They just need to be more careful with their diets. Endomorphs, naturally, make outstanding powerlifters and strongman competitors.
Learn How to Lift Weights Properly
One of the most important bodybuilding tips is learning how to focus on the long-game. If you’re like most people, once you have a goal or a new ambition, you can’t wait to get started. However, learning how to start bodybuilding is just as much about knowledge as it is effort.
Weight lifting injuries are common, particularly among the inexperienced. When you lift heavy weights repeatedly, you must use the proper body mechanics to ensure your health and safety.
Even if you don’t feel pain immediately while performing an exercise incorrectly, it could have consequences the next day, or even years down the road. For example, if you spend years squatting with poor form, you could develop chronic back, knee, or hip pain.
Bodybuilding Coaches
One of the most important tips for bodybuilding for beginners is to train with an experienced weightlifter or seasoned bodybuilder. If you’re not too shy, approach someone at your gym who knows what they’re doing and ask them to give you some pointers. You might even ask if you can work out with them.
However, the best thing you can do is hire a personal trainer or weightlifting coach, even if it’s just for a few months to help you get down the bodybuilding basics. They can teach you:
- What exercises work for each muscle group
- Proper form for each exercise
- How to pair muscle groups together during your workouts
- And more
The most important part of this is learning the proper form. Lifting correctly will help you achieve better results and avoid unnecessary injuries. If you can’t afford to hire a trainer, use YouTube to search for the correct lifting form of each exercise.
Focus on Strenght, Power, and Compound Movements
Learning how to start bodybuilding is all about putting on muscle (at least, in the beginning). You need to develop a foundation of muscle mass first and worry about getting trim later. This makes the initial steps of bodybuilding for beginners rather simple.
Focus on building your strength and power using compound bodybuilding exercises. Compound exercises are those that use multiple muscle groups and multip joints.
Also Read: 4 Diets for People with Typhoid Fever
For example, when you squat, you’re using both your hip and knee joints. You’re also using your quads, hamstrings, glutes, and core muscles.
These movements damnd the most amount of energy and power, calling on a maximum amount of muscle fibers. As such, putting an emphasis on these exercises will give you better results, faster.
The compound exercises you should focus on include:
- Barbell squats
- Barbell or hex bar deadlifts
- Barbell lunges
- Pullups/chinups
- Bench press (flat, decline, and incline)
- Military press
- Bent-over barbell rows
- Dips
Since these are the most demanding exercises, they also require the best form. This can be more difficult than you might think, as you are controlling multiple muscle groups and joints while bearing weight.
Find or Create a Bodybuilding Program
Now that we’ve covered some of the bodybuilding basics, let’s talk about your programming. Your bodybuilding workout program is essential for achieving results. While there are a lot of other factors that play a role, you’re not going anywhere without a good program.
Volume, Weight, and Intensity
When trying to build mass, one of the most important muscle-building tips is to train with intensity. Now, this doesn’t mean you need to sprint from one exercise to the next, grunt loudly, or slam weights around.
Lifting with intensity means challenging your body. For example, if you’re squatting with 100lbs for 3 sets of 10 but could have easily done sets of 15, you’re not challenging your body enough to promote growth. However, this also doesn’t mean putting more weight on the bar than you can handle.
Start with a relatively simple program without too much volume. Volume is the total number of sets and reps you do per workout. As a beginner, starting off with a high-volume program will make you so sore that you won’t be able to move the next day.
Additionally, though the intensity is important, you need to start slowly. Start with an intermediate weight that challenges you, but isn’t difficult to control. You should be feeling a deep burn near the end of your reps, but should not be forced to cheating your reps by using momentum.
We recommend starting with a basic 3×10 program with no more than six total bodybuilding exercises per workout (not counting ab exercises). Every program, no matter how complex or basic, must implement the progressive overload theory.
Progressive Overload Theory
Progressive overload theory is the art of forcing your body to adapt to new demands to become bigger and stronger. This training principle demands time and consistency. You’re not trying to add 100lbs onto your bench press in a couple of weeks.
Instead, progressive overload theory focuses on small, manageable increases in weight, volume, or both over time. This leads to massive growth and progress.
Using the bodybuilding program from above (the 3×10 program), we’ll give you an example. Let’s say during the first week of your program, you do 3 sets of 10 squats at 100lbs. Here’s how you can implement progressive overload theory.
- Week one – 3 sets of 10 squats at 100lbs
- Week two – 3 sets of 12 squats at 100lbs
- Week three – 3 sets of 14 squats at 100lbs
- Week four – 3 sets of 10 squats at 120 lbs
- Week five – 3 sets of 12 squats at 120lbs
- Week six – 3 sets of 14 squats at 120 lbs
As you can see, you’re increasing your strength each week by completing more reps. After week three, you revert back to 3 sets of 10, but add more weight and continue the same progression. However, you can also try:
- Week one – 3 sets of 10 at 100lbs
- Week two – 3 sets of 8 at 110lbs
- Week three – 3 sets of 6 at 120lbs
- Week four – 3 sets of 10 at 110lbs
- Week five – 3 sets of 8 at 120lbs
- Week six – 3 sets of 6 at 130lbs
In this example, you’re focusing on adding weight each week and performing slightly fewer reps. After week three, you go back to sets of 10 but use more for your starting weight.
Remember, these are basic examples, your numbers can change to match your progress. There are also countless other ways of implementing progressive overload theory.
Commit to a Bodybuilding Diet
One of the most important steps of learning how to start bodybuilding is learning how to fuel properly. We use the word fuel purposely here because that’s what your food is. The food you eat will dictate your energy, performance, gains, and downfalls.
For example, it may seem wise to eat a bunch of pizza after every workout. It’s got plenty of calories to help build muscle mass.
However, pizza is full of grease and fat and will most likely add to your overall body fat percentage. If you’re trying to remain cut or plan on cutting down in the future, this will make your life much more difficult.
This brings us to our next topic – macronutrients
Macronutrients
Paying attention to your macronutrients is one of the most important bodybuilding tips for any beginner or veteran lifter. Macronutrients include fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.
To build muscle, you must consume plenty of carbs and proteins. It’s also important to keep healthy fats in your diet, which will lubricate your joints, protect your organs, provide energy, and support cell growth.
As a bodybuilder, you should aim for 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% fats while in the bulking phase. When it comes time to cut down, you’ll want to drop your carbs to a lower percentage and raise your fats and proteins.
Calorie Deficit Vs Calorie Surplus
Since we’re on the topic, let’s talk about one of the most essential bodybuilding basics – cutting vs bulking. When you’re trying to put on muscle, you must consume a surplus of calories. Otherwise, your body won’t have enough energy and fuel to build more muscle tissue.
If you’re already starting off with more weight (body fat) than you want, you might be tempted to try to cut fat while trying to build muscle. Do not do this by putting yourself in a calorie deficit. Essentially, you would be trying to pull your body in opposite directions.
However, that’s not to say you can’t build muscle mass and lose fat simultaneously. The more muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolism is. You will naturally burn more fat by lifting weights and gaining muscle.
However, there are other dieting tips you can use to ensure you’re getting the fuel you need to make progress while burning unwanted fat. For example, try carb-cycling or intermittent fasting.
Invest in Quality Supplements
Finding the right supplements for your body type and goals is one of the most important tips on how to start bodybuilding. As noted earlier, the various phases of bodybuilding are more difficult for different people based on their body types. The right bodybuilding supplements can be incredibly helpful.
To help build muscle mass, look into:
- Protein powder
- Mass gainer (protein and carbs)
- Creatine monohydrate
For more intense supplements, you can also find SARMs for sale, testosterone boosters, and more.
For performance and recovery, look into BCAAs (help with recovery) and pre-workout (for energy and focus). And if you’re looking for help shedding extra fat before a competition, there are fat-burners and thermogenic supplements.
Before investing in a supplement, find reviews from other bodybuilders to gauge their efficacy, quality, and safety.
Looking for More Inspiration and Tips on How to Start Bodybuilding?
As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into learning how to start bodybuilding. Clearly, you’re not going to achieve great results by accident. Unfortunately, the world of bodybuilding doesn’t work that way.
To be successful in this demanding hobby will take time, effort, consistency, and dedication. However, we know you can do it and can’t wait to see how you transform yourself in the months to come. Kali Muscle is one of the most successful and bodybuilders from the Americas, he earns much name and fame through bodybuilding, you may want to know Kali Muscle net worth.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for more muscle-building tips, health advice, or any other information, stick around for a while. Read through some of our other blog articles to find all the information you need to be successful.
