Beginner's Guide to Build Your Body

In the previous post, I've shared about how to gain weight ideally. In this post, I'm going to share about what you have to do when you want to build your body. By "build", I mean gaining some weight or losing some weight. Either way, they are quite the same, with some differences here and there.

image credit to smithalan00.hubpages.com

The Guide:
- measure your body - as in your biceps, chest, legs, all of them.
- train YOUR WHOLE BODY, including your legs even if you only want to show off your upper-body, because this will help you produce the growth hormone which will help you build ALL THE MUSCLES.
- you have to keep in mind that you can't get a six-pack while you're bulking (thickening your muscles)
- train your stomach, but you have to remember that you can get a six-pack after you attenuate the fat in your stomach with diets.
- it's ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to thicken your muscles (bulking, also known as gain weight) while losing some weight (cutting)
- when you want to bulk up, get a realistic goal. Gaining 0,5 - 1 lb per week of lean muscle mass is impressive already.

The Diet:
- find out your body type to determine your diet strategy.
- use the 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fat benchmark for your diet, while keeping your body's needs (everyone is different).
- for carbs, choose complex carbs instead of simple sugars.
- for fat, avoid saturated fat, and choose good fat such as flax seed, fish, peanut butter, and olive oil.
- drink as much water as you can (but don't get too bloated up).
- it's better to consume too many calorie than not get enough, especially for those with ectomorph type of body. You can adjust your calorie intake if it's too much when you can see some fat in your body when you take a look at yourself in the mirror :)

The Training:
- train you muscles at least once a week AS INTENSIVE AS YOU CAN, but not more than 1 hour.
- 45 to 55 minutes are your "developing window" to build your muscles. More than that, your body will go catabolic.
- never think that when your muscle pain is gone you can train it again the next day. You can see more about the recovery time here.
- never push yourself too hard (overtrain). TRAIN, EAT, REST, and you'll get your results :)
- take a week off every 8 weeks, and start training again with new routines.
- remember to stretch and warm up before workout or training to prevent injury.
- take about 90 to 120 seconds to rest between each set. Read more about this here.
- make sure you do the motions correctly. Doing it wrong can injure you, or doesn't give you the results you want.
- start with compound movement, and end with isolation movement.
- after 2 or 3 sets of warm up, start to GO HEAVY for a round, 3 sets to failure.
- take notes of your progress so you can track it down.

The Supplements
- multivitamin with enough vitamin C
- try Creatine, Glutamine, and ZMA
- Whey Protein is compulsory if you can get some, but make sure the protein from REAL FOOD is fulfilled.

The Weight You Have to Lift

We see often in gyms, where gym enthusiasts, rats, or gym freak - whatever you may call it - lift ginormous weights. They usually large in size (but not ripped), and lift weight like crazy. When gym noobs (newbies) enter the gym, there should be feelings of inferiority that makes sure that they can't lift weights like those gym enthusiasts.

image credit to dreamstime.com

"Well they've been training for years, and I just started."

This mindset is what make us lift weights that are "light enough" that don't necessarily embarrass us if, at some point, we can't lift it anymore. But are there any chance to know the ideal weight for our training?

Before we get to that, you have to remember that the first time you go to a gym, or just started going for a few times, you better get acquainted to all available equipment. The suggested reps is about 12 to 15 reps. Remember, this is so that you're accustomed to the equipment and know their functions.

After a few days of training and understanding the equipment, you will then know your strength. For example, in training your biceps, maybe 10 or 15 kg of weight is heavy enough for you, but in Bench Press you'll probably strong enough to lift 20 to 25 kg. Your understanding about your own ability is really important to monitor your training progress.

Now you know your strength, then what?

Next, you have to define your goal. I've said it before in my previous post about how long you have to rest between each set, that the weight you have to lift also depends on your goal. There are no rigid standards in defining your goal either, because it's more of an art than a science, since each body is different than the other.

For you who trains just for health reasons (or just to get fit), choose a weight, and lift it in 10 to 12 reps. Make sure you reach the failure in the 10th or 12th rep. If you can do more than 12 reps, it means your weight choice is not heavy enough. Choose the right weight for you using this guide.

Using the same guide, if you want to burn some fat, the suggested reps is about 8 to 10 reps per set, with the 8th or 10th rep as the failure point. Of course, at this point, the weight you have to lift is heavier than when you just want to get fit, right? The same thing also put into effect when you want to build your body and gain some weight. The suggested reps is about 6 to 8 per set.

The last category is for those who want to increase their muscle strength. For example, when you usually can  Bench Press with 25 kg in 10 reps, and want to lift more than 25 kg, then train with the heaviest weight you can lift with only 3 to 4 reps per set. With the heaviest weight possible, you can rest longer before starting another set.

Once again, this guide is the most basic guide, and every individual can adapt in their own way. For example, I usually choose the 8 to 10 reps to burn some fat, because I usually do some other training in one workout. Keep in mind that trained muscles help you burn some more fat :)

Beginner's Guide to Weight-Lifting

Finally, the post about workouts! To this point, I've posted a lot about healthy foods, and how to keep your health. This is because it's really important to know what food is good for you, before training your body.

For beginners in weight-lifting and bodybuilding (people usually call this as "fitness"), looking for workout programs on the internet, sports magazines, guidebooks, even asking the gym-instructors are the first things you have to do. Those experts and sources of information usually teach a lot of things, such as 4x10 bench press. But what does it mean? Does that mean 4 sets with 10 reps? It's not that simple.

Many people gives information that the right training is by lifting one weight in 4x10 count. But first, you have to know the goal of that training. To gain some muscle mass? To tone your body (usually women), or just a number to make us know an equipment and get used to use them before doing a more intensive training?

image credit to healthnutblogger.com

I will only give you one example, which is to gain some muscle mass. What you have to do is to reduce your reps from the 10 count, and making it 6 reps. In 6 reps, it means use the weight in which in the sixth rep you're unable to lift more. People stop at the sixth rep instead, when they usually can lift more. That means the weight you lift is not maximized for your muscle growth.

The weight you lift has to be as much as possible so that when you see 4x10, it means 4 sets, and with each set use the weight where in 10 reps you can't lift some more, instead of doing 4 sets and stops at the tenth rep. So, when your instructor tells you to lift 10 reps, it means you have to use the weight which you can't lift more on the tenth rep.

I repeated the explanation quite a lot, didn't I? It's because people still misunderstand on this. It's really important to understand before going further into your training.

For each training session, it's better if you don't train for more than an hour. Therefore, train intensively using the 6 reps knowledge that I told you about. The total set you have to do for each training is 9 to 12 sets, which means when you use 3 sets for each equipment, then that means it's better to just use 3 to 4 equipments.

It's also important to concentrate your training. It doesn't mean that when you want to gain some biceps mass you train it everyday. You won't get the results. You'll get the results outside of the gym, actually, especially when you sleep. In gyms, what we do is "destroying" our muscles. I will post more info about this

In conclusion, train as intensively as you can in the given time, go home, eat, and get some rest. I told you before, you can have the talk after the training, not in-between sets.

Good luck!