{"id":238,"date":"2009-12-17T02:22:32","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T06:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leehayward.com\/blog\/?p=238"},"modified":"2011-01-04T17:11:50","modified_gmt":"2011-01-04T21:11:50","slug":"bodybuilding-for-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leehayward.com\/blog\/bodybuilding-for-beginners\/","title":{"rendered":"Bodybuilding for Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m a complete beginner to weight training. I’d like to make gains as fast as possible, but when I ask people how I should go about it all I keep getting different answers. Please help me, I need advice on all areas: diet, routine, exercises, supplements, etc. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This is one of the most common questions that I am asked. And for those who are just getting started it can be very confusing. I understand what you are going through because I went through the samething when I began bodybuilding.<\/p>\n

We all have to start somewhere and it can be overwhelming at times because people often make things more complicated then they really are. When you put aside all of the hype you can see that building muscle and losing fat is not very complex.<\/p>\n

What I am going to do is outline a good weight training, nutrition, and supplementation program that you can follow. You do not need to have much exercise equipment. In fact you can make great gains by training in a small home gym. But I would recommend that you workout in a commercial gym. Besides having more exercise equipment to choose from. There is a lot more energy in a commercial gym and there is a feeling of friendly competition. This will help motivate you to work hard and make improvements.<\/p>\n

For a beginner I would suggest that you workout 3 days per week or every other day. By doing this you will give your body plenty of time for recuperation and muscle growth. Muscles do not grow while you are working out; they grow while you are resting. Working out will stress and damage the muscles slightly. Then your body reacts by building up the muscles in order to handle the extra work and stress. So by gradually increasing the workload you put on your muscles your body will become bigger and stronger.<\/p>\n

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Once you workout you have to give your body time to repair and build the muscles through rest. Then you repeat the process of working out and rest. A common mistake that people make is thinking that they will get better results if they workout for several hours everyday. This is not true because what happens is the muscles get stressed and damaged but they don\u2019t get a chance to recover and build up. This is what is called \u201cover training\u201d. When you over train your body can\u2019t build muscle and you may even lose some of the muscle you have now.<\/p>\n

We can shorten the period it takes the body to recover from a workout through proper nutrition and supplements. By eating lots of nutritious foods you provide the body with the raw material it needs for muscle growth. Nutritional supplements can help provide extra nutrients. Supplements are not designed to replace real food, but to be taken in addition to real food. For example if you ate the typical 3 meals a day and then had a protein shake in between each meal this would be a great way to \u201csupplement\u201d your diet with extra protein.<\/p>\n

For your nutrition you should eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. For protein eat foods such as beef, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, milk, protein shakes, etc. Eat plenty of carbohydrates such as rice, potatoes, yams, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, oatmeal, fruit, vegetables, etc. Try to limit your fat intake, you don\u2019t eliminate fat entirely just avoid eating excess fried foods and \u201cjunk-foods\u201d. Eat a small meal every 2-3 hours. A protein drink or protein bar can be considered a meal. Strive to drink approx. 1 gallon of water per day and get 8 hours of sleep each night.<\/p>\n

For supplements take a multivitamin and fish oil capsules with your breakfast and evening meal. You can have a protein shake between meals and after your workouts or any other time that you are unable to get a complete high protein food meal. For example, in the morning I\u2019ll often have a big bowl of oatmeal and mix in 2 scoops of vanilla whey protein. This is a great way to have a quick high protein breakfast.<\/p>\n

For lunch at school or work you could:<\/p>\n