Sometimes captivating because of their physical prowess, bodybuilders have always been liked yet common people have typically stayed away from aspiring to be like them. The popularity of bodybuilding has gone through a dramatic change as more people realize how it is helpful in not only keeping you healthy but helping you keep off the extra pounds. To be successful at bodybuilding, you need to read and understand the following tips so that you can make the right choices and avoid making the wrong ones.

Your bodybuilding routine is very important, but most beginning bodybuilders don’t realize that their diet may be even more critical to their success. Actually, whether you are in the “cutting” phase – looking for lean muscle definition – or in the “bulk up” phase – putting on weight – the results you want will elude you if the specific diet for each phase isn’t followed. If you are thinking about trying to gain weight to add muscle mass at the same time as eating to get lean muscle definition, you won’t succeed. The two phases, getting ripped and bulking up, are just the opposite. The first thing you want to do is “bulk up.” This is where you eat a lot to build muscle mass – about 15-20 calories for each pound of body weight. You also eat many more carbohydrates than during the cutting stage. The ideal macronutrient split, per pound of body weight, would be 2.5 – 3.5 grams of carbohydrate, .3 – .49 grams of “good” fat, and 1 gram of protein. Next would come the cutting phase, where you eat less and your carbohydrates, protein, and fat would be in different proportions than during the bulk up stage. Your bulking up regimen needs to be comprised of healthy foods, not junk food. Don’t think that just because you can eat a lot means you can have pizza and donuts every day. Concentrate on high-quality foods – the best you can find. This should include the lean cuts of protein, assorted vegetables – the more colorful the better- and a good assortment of complex carbohydrates. Stay away from simple carbohydrates such as sugar and white flour. If you weigh 240 pounds, a good method for figuring out how much protein you need is to figure 1 gram per pound of body weight or, in this case, 240 grams of protein.

You should totally forget about alcohol if you want to get lean. While it doesn’t actually get stored as fat, it is metabolized much like carbohydrates, becoming the body’s primary source for fuel. This means that your body must use up the energy from the alcohol before it can attempt to burn off any fat from your body. Two additional reasons for steering clear of alcohol are that firstly it has been shown to lower your libido and secondly it has been shown to reduce muscle strength. Is it really worth a weekend of being drunk for wasting all of your hard work? You will simply ditch the alcohol if you’re totally serious about losing weight and getting ripped.

Your muscle will grow bigger providing you make things harder each time you workout, so you’ll need to lift heavier weights. If you continue to lift the same weights every session your muscles will get stronger however you will eventually hit a plateau when you’re strong enough to keep lifting the same weight. For beginning bodybuilders it’s a good idea to use a weight that you can only do a maximum of 6 reps with. To put it another way, when you get to your 6th rep you’ll feel like you want to just drop the weight and collapse. It’s recommended that you carry on using the same weight until you can do ten reps. Rinse and repeat the process of increasing the weight so you can only do six reps and then add more once you reach 11 again. This is the most efficient way of increasing muscle mass and progressing in bodybuilding. Your first steps into the big world of bodybuilding should be easier when you consider the above information. You may find some of it a bit worrying but just remember bodybuilding has many great benefits and that initial doubt is certainly well worth it.

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