General Bodybuilding Info!

General, and basic information you should know when venturing into the fitness, weight training, or bodybuilding world!

The information written here is for people who are new to weight lifting, bodybuilding, or for people who just want to get into shape, and transform their physique. The information below will give you the basic information you need on how to start, and how to achieve your goals. This is a general outline to get you started in the right direction. You can't climb the corporate ladder without starting somewhere can you? No, and that is the same way with trying to change your physique, health, diet, and mind. You have to start at the bottom, and work your way up to the top. And whenever you don't feel motivated, pick up a fitness magazine, and flip through the pages, and look at the pictures. If wanting to look like people in these magazines won't motivate you, nothing will. Now that we have that out of the way, lets get started, and move on to the good stuff.

1. Get your diet in place. Your Diet, and food intake is very very important. Hey, I can do that, it's easy.

• Breakfast- bacon, sausage, toaster struddle
• Snack- hot fries, a can of pop, a snickers
• Lunch- McDonalds
• Snack-chips
• Dinner- Pizza, and a can of pop
• Dessert- A bowl of ice cream, with choc syrup, and whipped cream.

NO NO NO, You can't eat stuff like this unless you want to get FAT. You have to eat healthy foods, which will help you get gains, and not kill you, and clog your arteries. Change the above meal, and make it something like this. If you are looking to bulk up you need to adjust the diet below, by adding a lot more calories. The diet below is for the average person looking to get fit. Not for a person who wants to gain weight, and get big (lean muscle mass). If you are serious about bulking up, and are a body builder, you need between 2500-5000cal a day, depending on your weight. An example might be, if you weigh between 100-140lbs, you would need 2,000-2,800 calories. If you weigh between 150-200lbs, you would need 3,550-4,500 calories a day to bulk up, and gain weight. This is a rough estimate.

• Breakfast- 5 egg whites, 8oz of water, and half a bagel.
• Snack- an apple, and 16oz of water
• Lunch- Turkey sandwich, fruit cup and 16oz of water
• Snack- 1 scoop of protein
• Dinner- Chicken breast w/ rice, and steamed veggies 16oz of water
• Snack- 2 scoops of protein powder
• Dessert- strawberries, and 14oz of water

Now were talking. Foods like this will fuel your body with good carbs, proteins, and a little fat. This isn't everyone's meal, it is just an example. Also make sure you drink 64oz of water through out the day, or more, so you don't get dehydrated. Now, being the health freak that you are now, you should be eating foods like; potatoes, tuna, fish, pasta, salads, eggs, fruit, veggies, chicken, rice, peanut butter, yogurt, cottage cheese. For the drinks, water, and milk, and juices. Not POP, except on occasion. Now that you have both of these in place, that's all; right? Wrong!

2. Next you need to get a lot of sleep. Try to shoot for 7-10hrs if possible. You don't think your muscles grow when you lift do you? No, they grow when you are sleeping, and during non-training days. I can't stress enough sleep, and also make sure you give each group of muscles at least 24hrs to recover, if not 48. If you have a good routine, one or two muscle groups will be worked 3-4 days a week, for 30 minutes to 1 hour, and you won't have to work them again until the next week. One more important note: don't train 7 days a week. You might think more is better, right? Hey the more you eat, the bigger you get, and the more you study, the smarter you get right? But with lifting, more isn't better. It puts too much stress on you muscles, and it doesn't give them any time to grow, and repair themselves. What was mentioned up above is VERY important in trying to develop the growth of new muscles.

4. Using Supplements while you weight train. Everybody needs to understand that supplements are exactly that. They aren't magic pills; they supplement your every day nutrition, and HELP you achieve gains. Taking them by themselves will do you no good if you don't have everything else I mentioned up above in place. I am not going to ramble on about supplements, because you can find great info on this site under the message boards, and some of the articles on the site. Like I mentioned up above. This information is just general information, and basic stuff. It gets much more complicated then this depending on what your goals are, but this will get you pointed in the right direction.