As the immortal words “No pain, no gain” spell out, bodybuilding is a tough, demanding sport. The more seriously you train, the truer those words become. The flip side, though, is that you can really learn to love it – even the pain part. The smart bodybuilder trains strategically to build new muscle efficiently. Others sweat-it day-in, day-out without seeing any results. More often than not, the reason for failure is that certain basic facts about how the body works have not been understood.

Warming-Up

Warm-ups are a crucial part of your workout. Why? Because stretching and warming your muscles before heavy exercise minimises your risk of injury. “Cold” muscle is not ready for hard strain. You therefore need to spend at least 5-10 minutes e.g. on an exercise bike or crosstrainer before getting into your first set. A rowing machine is also great for warm-ups. Another popular option nowadays are kettlebells, which are ideal for pre-workout warm-ups.

In addition to your pre-workout warm-up, the first two or three sets of each exercise should also be treated as warm-up sets, aiming to get your muscles used to the movements you will be focussing on, while at the same time getting the body properly warm-up for the full session.
Using the right technique
The single most important thing for the beginner to learn is to perform the exercises correctly. The best way to do this is to ask an experienced trainer or co-trainer to run through exercises with you so that you get the proper technique. This helps avoid injury, time-wasting and ineffective training due to wrong or poor technique.

Training Programmes

Beginners in particular should follow a set training programme to make sure that their workouts are properly planned and effective. If you plan to train several days a week, different muscle groups should be trained on different days. This gives each muscle group time to recover and repair itself. It also guarantees you the most efficient growth.

The training programme should be designed to allow each muscle group as much recovery as possible. This means, for instance, not training biceps and back on consecutive days, because almost all back exercises also work the biceps, so your biceps will not be getting maximum recovery from your previous day’s workout. Instead, the workouts for these two muscle groups can be scheduled for the same day. This gives them proper time to recover.

Three-day Programme:

Mon: back, biceps and abs
Tue: rest
Wed: legs (hip flexors/extensors and calves)
Thu: rest
Fri: chest, triceps and shoulders
Sat: rest
Sun: rest

Four-day Programme:

Mon: biceps and abs
Tue: legs (hip flexors/extensors and calves)
Wed: rest
Thu: triceps
Fri: shoulders, back
Sat: rest
Sun: rest

Training Amount

While professional bodybuilders frequently train up to six times per week, such an intense programme is not recommended at the novice or intermediate levels due to the risk of overtraining. Symptoms of overtraining include a high resting pulse rate, poor sleep quality, restlessness and hyperexcitability, poor workout performance, and reduced immunity to infection. The recommended number of weekly workouts is from three to five. Training five times a week requires proper nutritional input, in terms of both quality and quantity, to ensure sufficient and effective recovery and to avoid  overtraining symptoms. The ideal workout length is about one hour.

Make sure your weaker muscle groups also get enough attention. Men often get upper body tunnel vision and forget to work on their legs. Women often do the opposite – focus on buttocks and legs, giving little attention to the biceps.

Stretching

Stretching is an essential part of your bodybuilding routine. As muscle grows, the muscle membrane surrounding it can become tight and restrict muscle growth – stretching helps to keep this membrane supple.[tässä akup. teksti hieman epäselvä: [Kun lihas kasvaa, sen ympärillä oleva lihaskalvo saattaa tulla ahtaaksi ja omalta osaltaan estää lihaskasvua.] i) Miten venyttely auttaa ko. lihaskalvoa? (käännöksessä: “– stretching helps to keep this membrane supple” lisätty (ei alkup. versiossa) –onko ok?; ii) Onko tässä kyse lihaksen vai lihassolun ympärillä oleva kalvo (ns ‘sarcolemma’ – muscle fibre membrane)?] Stretching is also good for improving blood circulation in the muscles and for loosening up muscle and joint movement, and also helps loose-up any residual muscle tension from your last workout. A light stretching routine is also good to run through both before and between sets. In addition, you will really benefit from running though some thorough stretching exercises on your workout-free days.

Aerobic Sports

If you want to maintain your bulk, aerobic sports should be kept at a sensible level. Doing aerobic sports as well as bodybuilding increases your risk of overtraining and reduces  muscle gain. On the other hand, aerobic exercise will keep your overall fitness level up. The ideal solution is to follow the golden middle path and strike a sensible balance between the two.