Compound Movements

Rather than focus on isolating exercises which target just one muscle group, it’s best to work on compound movements. These are bodybuilding exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, pull ups. An isolating movement is an exercise like a barbell curl or leg curl, which just works on one specific muscle. Compound moves will work out multiple muscle groups at once. It’s like getting more value for each repetition you put out. Rather than doing two exercises to target quads and hamstrings, squats will do both.

Increase your weights

The only way to see bodybuilding progress, besides looking at your body, is to see if you can lift more weight over time. If you are truly exercising and dieting properly you should be able to bump up your weights every few months. If not, then there is room for improvement in your workout.

If you hit a plateau, you should start playing with tweaking your routine and diet, even possibly adding supplements in need be.

Blast through the plateau

As we just mentioned, hitting the plateau can be a struggle. It’s easy to get frustrated when you don’t experience a change in the amount of weights you can lift after a certain amount of time. If you hit a period of time where you don’t seem to be improving, you may need to start changing some things. This could be mixing up your exercises, resting more or less, using supplements, or changing your diet.

Allow your muscles to rest

Although you may want to hit the gym 7 days a week, it’s not always the best move for your body. But going more often will help me get bigger more quickly, right? Not necessarily. One key thing to remember is that muscles don’t grow in the gym. Yes, the gym is a crucial component of building muscle, but so is recovery. Once you stop exercising, that is when your muscles will begin to grow. It’s important to rest before heading back to the gym. If you head back to soon, your muscles can break down even more, leaving them weaker. There’s not a set amount of time to recover. Try to allow a day of recovery between each lifting workout. At a minimum you should rest at least 2 full days.

Optimize your diet

Going to the gym every day won’t help if you are eating poorly. You need to be getting in at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight if you are bodybuilding. This could be through foods like egg whites, fish, chicken, turkey, lean red meat. It could also be through protein supplements. Your body also requires amino acids to synthesize protein to create new muscle mass. Make sure you get in enough protein before and after you start a bodybuilding workout in order to prevent muscle loss.

There you have it! Five simple bodybuilding tips anyone can start to incorporate into their fitness routine. Not everything stated here will be exactly the same for everyone. So it is a good idea to test out and optimize these tips to fit your bodybuilding goals.