Body building is about a lot more than simply turning yourself into the next (1980s version of) Arnold Scwarzenegger. The common thought on body building is that it is merely a way for you to pump your muscles up to outlandish proportions. The truth is that there is a lot more to body building like strengthening your muscles and then building their tone to create a healthy looking body. There is a lot more to it than "getting ripped." It is far more about health than anything else. If you are interested in starting your own body building routine, keep reading to find some useful tips! In body building you build your health first and get stacked second--don't ever forget that.
Learn how to breathe properly. Breathing right is important in body building. Holding your breath is not a good idea. Oxygen is important for keeping muscles healthy so you want to take in as much as you can. When you breathe you want to breathe from your diaphragm and not from your lungs. If you fill your lungs with air, your chest will expand and that makes it harder for you to work on the muscles in your chest. When you breathe from your diaphragm you get the same amount of oxygen without expanding your chest.
Set goals you know you can reach. Don't try to build your body too fast. Choose goals that are reachable while staying healthy. This will help you feel satisfied with the progress your making and keep your spirits up while you work.
Keep setting goals: set new ones as you achieve the ones you have in place. Step by step goal setting helps keep you focused and keeps you from trying anything stupid or trying to take shortcuts. Always remember: your muscles need to be strengthened before they can be built. It is easy to get discouraged when you don't see results very quickly but you need to go slowly so that you don't hurt yourself.
Always do a total body warm up before you start any exercise routine. Stretch out your muscles before you start lifting or doing other forms of exercise. It is harder to tear or injure your muscles if you warm them up before your workout. "Cold" muscles are also much harder to work than muscles that have been warmed up properly. Cold muscles are stiff and resistant to strain. Warm muscles are loose and better able to take the strain of exercise. You don't need to do a particularly long warm up, but you need to make sure that you stretch all of your muscles out. Body building is a perfectly legitimate way to work your muscles, build your strength and increase your health. Lots of people chalk body building up to nothing more than a hobby. It is actually a great way to build your muscle tone and strength while simultaneously working to be healthier. With the right approach, body building can be an incredibly rewarding way to strengthen your whole body.
