Build Muscle and Break the Plateau for Beginners

Five times a week, two hours each visit. You've been more faithful to your gym routine than you've ever been to any of your girlfriends. And for a while, it paid off: your muscles started rippling and girls started paying attention to you.

But then, like a bad dream you wake up from, your muscles don't grow like they used to. Your muscles no longer respond to your intensive training, no matter how intense it is.


Keywords :
build muscle, lose weight fast, lose fat fast, gain muscle, weight loss, fat loss, fitness tips


Five times a week, two hours each visit. You've been more loyal to your gym routine than you've ever been to any girlfriend you've had. And for a while, it paid off: your muscles started rippling and girls started paying attention to you.

But then, like a bad dream you wake up from, your muscles don't grow like they used to. Your muscles no longer respond to your efforts, regardless of the intensity of your training. So you said to yourself, “I’m going to train harder.” You now spend three hours per session and even though you have increased your gym dose, horror of horrors, your muscles are shrinking.

Ahhhhhh, the gym board. We all suffer from it and few of us survive. In fact, most people don't even know they've reached the dreaded plateau and believe their muscles can't grow any further due to inherent genetic factors. Don't worry though, if you read the following fitness tips and follow them to the end, I can assure you that your muscles will start growing again and become bigger than before.

Here are your free fitness tips.

#1 Fitness Tip
Take a break

This advice is easy for most of us to follow, but very difficult for some gym rats. Just take a break from your workout. Do not enter the gym or do any workouts for two weeks. It's time to let your body recover from the punishment you inflict on your muscles. Some bodybuilders may find this difficult to do because the workout is addictive. You produce endorphins when you exercise and endorphins are also known as happy hormones. These are the same hormones you produce when you have sex.

Professional bodybuilders take a break every 4 to 5 months from intensive training and when they return to the gym, their well-rested but complacent muscles begin to bulk up again.

Fitness Tip #2
Do you train too often?

If your exercises are intense enough, you only need to train each muscle group once or twice a week. Your training program should not repeat muscle groups in the same week. Every time you exercise, you damage your muscles. Muscles need time to repair themselves, which they do after training, when you rest. This means that if you lift weights for several days in a row, the body does not have enough time to recover. Try to have a day of rest between each day of strength training.

If your routine requires intensive strength training, consider extending your gym time to no more than an hour. Indeed, your level of cortisol, a muscle-eating hormone, will be high and will therefore work against your efforts. It eats your muscles.

But above all, you must sleep! Eight o'clock or, better yet, ten o'clock. Muscles don't grow in a gym, they grow when you sleep. When you sleep, you secrete growth hormones for many bodily functions and one of those functions is to build muscle. That’s why we call it beauty sleep!

Fitness Tip #3
Are you using the correct weightlifting techniques?

If your technique or form is incorrect, not only is your workout set back, but you also risk injury. Do not laugh. But when you exercise, you need to think and concentrate. Instead of mindlessly repeating movements, take note of how you perform each exercise and repetition. Do this with deliberation and at the beginning and end of each movement, pause and tense the muscles you are exercising. The mind and the muscles must be connected! Never use momentum to lift the weights and let gravity pull the weight down. This is why you should lift slowly and lower slowly, feeling the tension in your muscles and resisting the load all the time.

For the muscles to want to develop, you must use them as much as possible, and then more. Do enough repetitions until you feel you can't go any further with the proper form. You must then increase either the weight or the number of repetitions in the next session. This is called progressive overload, and progressive overload is what forces your muscles to grow. As a general rule of thumb, if you can lift more than 12 reps, the weight is probably too light, and it's too heavy if your muscles fail in less than 5 reps. You can consult your fitness trainer for the correct form and technique for each exercise.

Fitness Tip #4
Do you use free weights?

Most machines don't use as many synergistic muscles (supporting muscles) as free weights. And, therefore, do not develop as much muscle mass. Synergistic muscles are the small muscles that help the main muscles find balance and strength in each movement. Machines have their uses, but for beginners and to break up plateaus, use free weights.

Fitness Tip #5
Do Compound Exercises

Compound exercises are exercises that involve 2 or more joint movements and therefore use larger, more synergistic muscles. The bench press, deadlift, squats, and dumbbell curls, among others, are fantastic compound exercises. For example, when you squat, all the muscles in your lower body are used, which alone represents about 60% of your overall musculature. The squat also works your back and abs. Using more muscles at once provides a better overall workout. Best of all, due to the massive use of your muscles, you will pant, puff and sweat more. This means that your program also has a cardio effect and you will burn calories even hours after leaving the gym.

Fitness Tip #6
Do you work your legs?

Your body is programmed to grow proportionally with only slight variations. If you don't train your legs, your upper body mass will stop growing before it becomes significant. You've probably heard of chicken legs! Just because the leg workout can be brutal doesn't mean you have to hide your legs in your pants. To get that superhero figure, add squats to your routine. A word of warning though: compound exercises such as deadlifts, squats and bench presses must be performed in excellent form and using a spotter is highly recommended. This is where your physical trainer will be of great help to you. Otherwise, you risk injuring yourself and being kicked out of the gym permanently.

Fitness Tip #7
What do you eat ?

Building muscle requires protein – the more, the better. Meat, particularly red meats and fish, are the best source. It is from your diet that your body will draw nutrients, strength and fats necessary to protect joints and organs.

To have massive muscle gain and help with muscle preservation, you need about 2 to 3 grams of good protein per kilogram of your body weight. If you want to take your muscles seriously, you may need to supplement them with protein shakes. Eating a meal and having a protein shake immediately after your workout also maximizes the window for rapid nutrient absorption. This is important because you need to nourish the muscles now that you have damaged them. You should also eat 6 small meals per day so that your muscles are constantly nourished throughout the day. This will help kick-start your metabolism to burn fat as well. This will help you immensely in your muscle building and weight loss program. Don't forget to take your protein shake half an hour before your workout.

Fitness tip#8
What about carbohydrates?

Glycogen is the main source of energy for any bodybuilding exercise. The body stores the carbohydrates you eat as glycogen, and the muscles use it to give you energy during your workout. After an intense workout, immediately consume carbohydrates to replace the glycogen used. You can even indulge in high-glycemic carbs, like ice cream and white bread, as they will convert into insulin and quickly transport nutrients, like protein, to muscle cells.

Fitness tip #9
What about fats?

Yes, your body needs fats. But try to avoid saturated fats such as animal fats or worse, trans fats which are artificial fats found in baked goods, confectionery and canned goods. Consume healthy unsaturated fats like olive oil, canola oil, fish oils and flaxseed oil.

Fitness tip #10
The water. Water is essential.

Water is essential. It is the most underestimated macronutrient. You need at least eight glasses of water a day, but when you exercise, you lose even more water through sweating. So drink before, during and after your workout. Weigh yourself before and after exercise, and make up for the loss by drinking at least 16 ounces of fluid for every pound you lose.

Fitness Tip #11
Creatine

While meats are the best source of creatine, a nutrient that accelerates muscle gain and gives you power during workouts, those who don't get enough of it in their regular diet should supplement. Creatine bulks up your muscle cells and gives you that muscle pump. This makes your muscles tighter, appear larger and give the general illusion of superb musculature. It also helps prevent muscle breakdown.

Fitness tip #12
Glutamine

When supplemented, it can help bodybuilders reduce the amount of muscle that is broken down or used for energy. It also helps with muscle recovery.

Fitness Tip #13
Are you changing your routine?

The human body has a fantastic capacity for adaptation. So whatever routine you follow, your body will get used to it. So change your routine every 6 to 8 weeks. For example, instead of working your chest muscles at the start of your workout, work your back muscles instead. You can reverse your entire routine or change variations of your exercises or add new ones and remove old ones. By changing your routines, you not only shock your muscles into new growth, but you also avoid getting bored by doing the same thing over and over.