Ever fantasized over a poster of any bodybuilder and secretly prayed to have the same body contour as him. The task of working on your body may sound fancy at the start, but it’s actually very challenging. Bodies don’t develop overnight. It is the outcome of months of dedication and grit. But more importantly, it is the end product of a perfect start!
An insightful start into any journey can make the process absolutely worthwhile before leading to the actual destination. Our mission is to make your ride to a better body rewarding. So, here are the 10 things to imprint in your mind before you take off!
1. Follow A Proper Training Split
When you join the gym for the first time, you’re excited and very enthusiastic about it; more like impatient, and want to have those big arms in no time. But this is not how you should be setting your goal. Training one muscle daily or three times a week would not give you long-term results. You need to focus on each muscle and divide the days for every muscle.
Giving muscle the time to recover and grow is always a good idea since the body works like a machine, and machines need rest. Do not feel that you're missing out on your muscle growth; your muscle will be more toned and strong if it is well-rested.
2. Train With The Correct Form
Training with the correct form has to be the most important part of working out. You cannot achieve your desired results if you’re training with the wrong form. It doubles your chances of injuries and muscle damage. Initially, you would be inclined towards going heavier and heavier in the gym but do you know what would happen if you keep on doing that and don’t focus on your form?
You would end up injuring your muscles and neglect activation completely. The muscle that needs to be activated should be trained properly and effectively. The key to correcting your form is to start with light weights and master the form. Increase the weight gradually, so it doesn't stress your muscle, and your form is not affected either.
3. Focus On Squeeze And Contraction Of The Muscle
Whenever you're training a muscle, squeeze and contract as hard as you can, because the more you do that, the more blood circulation and more muscle fibers you’re going to rip. Squeezing and contracting properly is going to give you so much more muscle growth and allow you to retain those gains for a longer time.
4. Don’t Forget The Negative Rep
You will often find people in the gym who lift the weight and drop it down just like that, effortlessly and without control. This is wrong! They’re missing the most important part, which is the negative rep (the part where you’re lowering the weight down to its starting position).
You will be surprised to know that there are more muscle fibers ripped during the negative rep. It would be best if you focused on controlled and focused negative reps to achieve the body of your dreams, especially arms and chest.
5. Try To Switch Exercises
The concept of versatility is important. You must have observed that you can't eat the same food every day. Similarly, you can't, and you shouldn't do the same exercise every day. If your body gets immune to a certain type of exercise or a workout routine, it gets hard to achieve results, and you hit a plateau sooner than expected (when your weight is stuck and the fat won’t burn either).
Always mix up your exercises and try to engage different muscles; this is the key to greater gains. Performing various exercises will help you apply different types of stress and tension to different muscles, which will ultimately lead to progress.
6. Have Enough Time To Rest And Recover
It's about time we stop believing in the myth that rest mode or recovery results in slow progress. Many of us believe that we make muscles in the gym, whereas the truth is, muscle grows when you’re in recovery after hitting the muscle in the gym. So train each muscle once a week and let it rest for the whole week. Your muscle needs time to recover and adapt. Remember, more is not always better!
7. Follow A Structured Meal Plan
Meals/diet plans are one of the most important components of working out. If you’re not following a proper meal plan along with your workouts, there’s a high chance that you’re not fueling your body with the proper calories you need.
You need a balanced percentage of proteins, fat, and carbohydrates to get optimum gains and retain them. Make sure you follow a structured meal plan that is carefully designed to focus on your protein, fat, and carbohydrates requirements.
8. There's No Need To Avoid Any Foods
One of the biggest mistakes people make when they join a gym is limiting their food intake to protein and less carbohydrate only, also avoiding dietary fat. Little do they know that dietary fat is important for your gains.
Let’s take a simple example; people avoid whole eggs, which is a big mistake. Whole eggs are often associated with high cholesterol, and people avoid them thinking that having whole eggs will ruin their diet. Whereas; cholesterol is an important agent in testosterone production, which is the main hormone in building muscle.
Plus, dietary fat is important for brain function, hormone regulation, and most importantly, dietary fat is an essential macronutrient that you require for muscle gain. So stop avoiding and start eating!
9. Drink Plenty Of Water
An average human body consists of 60% water. This is enough reason for a person to start working on his/her water intake. But for someone who works out, water is important because it helps with muscle protein synthesis, which means water helps you build muscle.
A well-hydrated muscle is less likely to get injured (e.g., get a muscle tear) and flushing out all the toxins out of the body. So drink lots of water and hydrate those muscles well!
10. Take Health Supplements
No matter how good your diet is, no matter how good you’re eating, always take health supplements when working out. You’re probably not getting the optimum amount of vitamins with your food, so the supplements are there to compensate for that deficiency. There are three major supplements that you need to take:
- Multivitamins
- Omega Three Fatty Acids
- Glucosamine
Multivitamins are good for your body and have zero side-effects. So take these days to enhance health and reach your goals sooner than later!
Omega 3 fatty acids are essential for muscle growth and your own body as a whole and This, is super important for your joints, tendons, and ligaments. So make sure you don’t skip those as well!
Glucosamine is an essential supplement for you If you want to train hard and for long. It will keep your energy levels up and make your workouts much better!
