Millions of people are in search of ways to improve muscle and fitness
in this health conscious world we live in. It doesn't have to be
complicated, painful or difficult. Let's talk about 5 simple but
effective methods which can help improve fitness and build muscle.
1. Assess Your State of Bodybuilding
Unless you know where you stand today, it will be difficult to chart out a plan to take you forward to your bodybuilding goals. It is easy to take stock. Measure your weight and muscle bulk using regular bathroom scales and a measuring tape. This will give you the baseline value before you start working out. It will also help you track your progress as you continue through your muscle gaining program.
Knowing where you are right now, you will be able to set goals that are reasonable and measure your progress towards them at a steady pace. Not only will this keep you on track, it will also give you encouragement and a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment as you notice your muscles growing and becoming stronger. And even if you don't hit your targets, if your overall muscle and fitness improves, then that's really a successful result. When you notice a significant improvement in your health and fitness as a consequence of your workouts, you will be even more motivated to keep going on.
2. Set Bodybuilding Goals That Are Appropriate
Having long term goals - and keeping them written down - is a major determinant in your bodybuilding success. You should have specific goals set out for a week, a month and for the next six months. How many kilograms will you put on? How much will your biceps circumference increase? How much will your waist measure? All these are targets that can motivate you to stick with your exercise program.
Challenging yourself to reach a goal can be a great motivating factor, helping you try just a little bit harder or go a bit further with your exercise. If you also have 1 year and 5 year goals, it can keep you on track over the long run. But more important in the earlier stages are short term goals which will let you see a marked and immediate change.
3. Maintain a Workout Log
Whatever exercise routine you adopt for building muscle and fitness, keep a record of it in a log book. You may do it digitally using a computer, tablet or smart phone. Or you might prefer to jot down numbers and dates in a notebook. Whatever you use for documentation, be sure that your diary is accessible easily and review it from time to time for inspiration.
What should you record? Quite a few things, like the exercises you did, the weight you lifted, the reps and set count, and more. You may not realize how important this is when you're beginning. But as you gain muscle and grow stronger, you'll look back and see just where you began - and that will powerfully motivate you to keep going on to higher things.
4. Keep a Cardio Exercise Log
You can club this together with your workout log, or separate it in a different book. The reason for tracking cardio exercises separately is that it burns off fat and helps build up endurance. The workouts you do with weights is designed to bulk you up with muscle. While both are important, they deal with different aspects of developing muscle and fitness.
Items to track include what activities you are doing, how long you exercise, and any problems or difficulties you notice. Using the record of your recent activity, you can make intelligent decisions about changing things and ramping up your level of activity to a comfortable level.
5. Devise Your Own Muscle and Fitness Program
The biggest difference between dreamers and achievers when it comes to bodybuilding is that the few who accomplish their goals have built in their exercise regime into a complete program that they follow strictly. They don't just visit the gym on a whim and fancy, but have a timetable or blueprint that they stick to every day.
Only if you outline a regular program and then stick with it consistently can you develop muscle and fitness levels you aim for. It often takes a few months or years to reach this point, which is why a systematic approach is so important. There are several guides and experts who can help you devise a fitness program based on scientific principles. It is well worth studying these programs and adopting their lessons into your own system.
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Unless you know where you stand today, it will be difficult to chart out a plan to take you forward to your bodybuilding goals. It is easy to take stock. Measure your weight and muscle bulk using regular bathroom scales and a measuring tape. This will give you the baseline value before you start working out. It will also help you track your progress as you continue through your muscle gaining program.
Knowing where you are right now, you will be able to set goals that are reasonable and measure your progress towards them at a steady pace. Not only will this keep you on track, it will also give you encouragement and a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment as you notice your muscles growing and becoming stronger. And even if you don't hit your targets, if your overall muscle and fitness improves, then that's really a successful result. When you notice a significant improvement in your health and fitness as a consequence of your workouts, you will be even more motivated to keep going on.
2. Set Bodybuilding Goals That Are Appropriate
Having long term goals - and keeping them written down - is a major determinant in your bodybuilding success. You should have specific goals set out for a week, a month and for the next six months. How many kilograms will you put on? How much will your biceps circumference increase? How much will your waist measure? All these are targets that can motivate you to stick with your exercise program.
Challenging yourself to reach a goal can be a great motivating factor, helping you try just a little bit harder or go a bit further with your exercise. If you also have 1 year and 5 year goals, it can keep you on track over the long run. But more important in the earlier stages are short term goals which will let you see a marked and immediate change.
3. Maintain a Workout Log
Whatever exercise routine you adopt for building muscle and fitness, keep a record of it in a log book. You may do it digitally using a computer, tablet or smart phone. Or you might prefer to jot down numbers and dates in a notebook. Whatever you use for documentation, be sure that your diary is accessible easily and review it from time to time for inspiration.
What should you record? Quite a few things, like the exercises you did, the weight you lifted, the reps and set count, and more. You may not realize how important this is when you're beginning. But as you gain muscle and grow stronger, you'll look back and see just where you began - and that will powerfully motivate you to keep going on to higher things.
4. Keep a Cardio Exercise Log
You can club this together with your workout log, or separate it in a different book. The reason for tracking cardio exercises separately is that it burns off fat and helps build up endurance. The workouts you do with weights is designed to bulk you up with muscle. While both are important, they deal with different aspects of developing muscle and fitness.
Items to track include what activities you are doing, how long you exercise, and any problems or difficulties you notice. Using the record of your recent activity, you can make intelligent decisions about changing things and ramping up your level of activity to a comfortable level.
5. Devise Your Own Muscle and Fitness Program
The biggest difference between dreamers and achievers when it comes to bodybuilding is that the few who accomplish their goals have built in their exercise regime into a complete program that they follow strictly. They don't just visit the gym on a whim and fancy, but have a timetable or blueprint that they stick to every day.
Only if you outline a regular program and then stick with it consistently can you develop muscle and fitness levels you aim for. It often takes a few months or years to reach this point, which is why a systematic approach is so important. There are several guides and experts who can help you devise a fitness program based on scientific principles. It is well worth studying these programs and adopting their lessons into your own system.