Why Warm Up Before Exercise?

Why Warm Up Before Exercise?  As anyone who knows anything about exercise is aware, in order to be effective and in order for you not to injure yourself, your fitness program should include three distinct stages: warm up, exercise and cool down. 

Why Warm Up

The function of the first stage is to get your body ready.  You don’t start by running from a standing start.  If you do, you’re more likely to pull a muscle or do yourself some damage.  Like a musical instrument, your body needs to be warmed up gradually.  It needs to be prepared for activity.  It’s neither sensible nor beneficial to go straight to the big weights and the sprint.  Do not let yourself be encouraged to do too much by those around you.  They are probably more experienced and more able than you.  It is not in your interest to impress them.  Work at your own pace and do not overdo things.

When your body is warmed up, your muscles prepared and your heart rate has increased, only then are you ready for the more rigorous workout.  And when you’ve finished be sure to give your body time to cool down gradually.  Most exercise regimes finish with simple stretches to prevent saw muscles and cramp. 

Each stage of your workout is as important as the next.  Sticking to such a routine will make injuries less likely and your workout more efficient.  In the early stages it is especially important that you have a gradual warm up period and a cooling down session.  Look after your body and it will develop properly and be less likely to sustain injuries. 

Take a Break from Your Muscle Mass Workout Programme

For many bodybuilders, getting into the gym and working up a sweat can be the highlight of the week. Your time in the gym gives you time to clear your mind, a time to re-focus on the important things, an opportunity to forget about work and all it entails.   However, you do need to take a break from your muscle mass workout programme every so often.

Your weightlifting exercises are doing your body good; you’re using up fat, you’re building up muscle mass and you’re making your body into a more efficient working machine.  To be effective, however, you must consider pacing yourself properly.  It’s easy to overdo it, and if you don’t take proper breaks and rest periods, your exercise workout will be inefficient and you will not be building muscle mass as quickly as you would like. 

The benefits of regular exercise are obvious.  You feel better, you look better, your body works more efficiently and you live longer, but it is important to make sure that your exercise regime includes time to have a break and relax.  Working flat out can be very detrimental to your health, especially at the outset of a training programme.  You can ‘burn yourself out’, both physically and mentally, so be prepared to be aware of how your body feels and make sure that you have regular relaxation breaks to allow your body to recover.  Overdoing exercise can do you more harm than not exercising at all. 

If you make the mistake of letting your exercise take over your life, you are missing out on all the other things that you need to be happy and healthy.  It’s like having a balanced diet.  We all get a lot of pleasure out of eating fatty foods, but you can’t live off them for a long time without them having an adverse effect. 

When the body is relaxed and happy it releases chemicals which help to maintain a good mental balance.  Without this mental wellbeing, an exercise regime will do you no good.  If you feel mentally unsettled, frustrated or angry, you won’t feel the benefit.  It’s to do with thinking of the body and mind as a whole.  They both need to be working efficiently for you to feel good and to enjoy life.

Bodybuilding Beginners-Body Building Tips for Beginners

Start with Small Weights

You’re one of the many bodybuilding beginners who are looking for body building tips for beginners.  You’ve read all the books and watched all the videos and spent way too much time looking at pictures of muscle men.  You’ve finally decide to go down to the gym and get stuck in.  What’s the first thing you see?  The place is full of big, bronzed men doing serious pumping.  You can’t help but be intimidated.  They may not even notice you.  You long to be one of them.  You want to chat about bench-pressing three hundred pounds.  You want to be accepted.  However, you must take small steps and start with small weights.

It takes time, dedication, knowledge and skill to build muscle mass.  If you go off half-cocked and start overdoing things at the beginning of your training. you’ll injure yourself and may be put off body building into the bargain.  These men may have been at it for years.  You must be patient.  Take your time and start small.   So, start with the smaller weights.  They all did.  Work for shorter stints than the others.  Give yourself longer rest periods.  Don’t let yourself get dragged into any competition.  You’ll end up making a fool of yourself and doing yourself an injury.  Use your common sense.

These experienced bodybuilders all started off by taking small steps and using small weights.  They’ve probably been at it for years, and they know the mistakes a body building beginner can make.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  A tip from an experienced body builder can prevent serious injury.  Listen to them.  They know what they’re talking about. 

In the early days you may consider employing a trainer.  He will get you off to a good start and make sure that you adopt good habits at the outset.  He can advise you about warming up, set sensible targets for you, recommend the right kind of food and make sure that you don’t do yourself serious injury.  Alternatively, you could buy one of the courses recommended by us; it will certainly be a lot cheaper than a personal trainer, which will help when you’re first getting started. My preference would be No Nonsense Muscle Building but Turbulence Training is also very good and slightly cheaper.

Whatever you do, make sure that you seek good advice about muscle mass workouts.  One of the most important body building tips for beginners is that bodybuilding beginners should start small, i.e. use small weights, don’t do too many repetitions and take frequent breaks.  It will stop you getting discouraged, help to prevent injuring and allow you to enjoy your exercise sessions.

How to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle–Vary Your Muscle Mass Workouts

You’re concentrating on how to lose fat and gain muscle fast.  So you’ve got into a good, steady routine with your muscle mass workouts.  You feel good.  You look fitter and you’re starting to believe that all your hard work is making a difference.  All of a sudden you start to feel weak. You find yourself putting on weight.  Don’t be concerned.  It happens to all of us. 

This happens because people rarely change their muscle mass workout exercises.  You’ve got into a rhythm and you don’t want to change your exercise regime.  You do the same exercises, the same number of times and for the same amount of time.  You need to shake things up and introduce some variety into your sessions. 

So, what can you change and keep your weight gain to a minimum and your muscle building and fat loss to a maximum? 

There are a host of aspects that you can change and vary in your bodybuilding workout:

1)    The sequence in which you do your exercises
2)    Do your exercises as part of a circuit; put them into sets, etc.
3)    The type, e.g. multi-joint, single-joint, machine-based, free weight
4)    The number of exercises per workout
5)    The amount of resistance
6)    The time under tension
7)    The stability: stand, sit, one-legged, etc.
8)    The volume of work
9)    The rest periods between sets
10) The range of motion
11)  The angle: flat, declined, bent over
12)  Frequency per workout or per week

With all these variables under your control you really can begin to take the predictable trudge out of your body building workout.

Here’s a series of variables you may like to include to add a creative side to your muscle mass workout routine:

• 10 sets of 3, with only 20 seconds rest between sets.
• use heavier weight and complete 6 sets of 6 reps, doing a 3 minute treadmill sprint between each weight lifting set.
• use a near maximum weight and do 10 sets of 1 rep, with 30 seconds rest between sets.
• using a lighter than normal weight and do 1 set of 50 reps for each exercise
• a workout based on only one full body exercise, such as barbell clean and presses or dumbbell squat and presses, and do nothing but that exercise for an intense 20 minutes.
• a workout based on all bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, dips, bodyweight squats, lunges, etc.
• a circuit of 12 different exercises covering the entire body without any rest between exercises.
• the same 12 exercise circuit on your subsequent workout, but do the entire circuit in the reverse order.
• try your usual exercises at a faster repetition speed on one workout and then at a super-slow speed on your next workout.
• try completing five 30 minute workouts one week, followed by three 1-hour workouts the next week.
• try doing drop sets of all of your exercises, where you drop the weight between each set and keep doing repetitions without any rest until complete muscular fatigue (usually about 5-6 sets in a row).

Always vary your muscle mass workout routines and you will lose fat and gain muscle most effectively.  In this way you will get the most from every exercise session and gain the maximum benefit for your effort.