Bodybuilding Tips for Complete Beginners

First of all, kudos to you for making the first step to improving your health and overall lifestyle. Let us tell you at the beginning; it’s also the most important. Because truly wanting to make a change is what counts the most and what’s going to motivate you to keep working out. However, starting to lift weights for the first time can be pretty confusing. There are numerous good and bad online tips, but not knowing where to start and what exactly you need to do can be demotivating. This is why we’ve written a guide with bodybuilding tips for complete beginners, so you will know exactly where to start and how to make your new lifestyle sustainable.

Learn about the benefits of bodybuilding?

In one word – numerous. Many of the people who started exercising regularly and in a healthy way by following bodybuilding tips testified that activating their bodies helped with improving their mood, energy levels, health, libido, and overall quality of life. Physical activity is also often used in addiction treatment since exercise is a great way to get a natural high from releasing hormones like endorphins.

Bodybuilding can improve your mental and physical health, reduce anxiety, and help you create a much healthier lifestyle.

Set goals when beginning your bodybuilding journey

Before starting your fitness journey, think about your goals. What is the result you want to achieve? Is it to be stronger and build more muscle, or do you want to lose fat, tone up, and get in the best shape of your life? Because weightlifting can help you do both. The bodybuilding term for gaining muscle is “bulking,” while “cutting” is used for weight loss and toning up. However, the process for each goal would be different because, unfortunately, you can’t build muscle and lose fat simultaneously. If you want to do both at some point, follow the best of the bodybuilding tips that say you must do one first and the other later.

Choose your goal wisely

The big question is, which one to do first? But the answer isn’t black and white. Although some experts favor one above the other, many agree that it really doesn’t matter. It all depends on you and your goals. Cutting and bulking are entirely different processes and require different actions. However, there are cases when it’s recommended to do one before the other.

Bodybuilding can help you both gain muscle and lose weight to tone up.

Depending on your age, height, and current weight, you may be underweight, average built, or overweight. And simply, for those underweight and average built, it would be recommended to bulk – gain muscle & fat – first, while for people who are overweight, it would be best to cut. The excellent news for complete bodybuilding beginners who are overweight is that it will be easier for you to gain muscle because your body already has stored fat that can fuel muscle growth. However, the actual fuel for muscle growth comes from nutrition.

Pay attention to nutrition when bodybuilding

Bodybuilding is a process that requires a change of lifestyle, and you will need to commit to it. That might be scary at first, but we assure you, it is pretty worth it. After all, there is no point in bodybuilding in an unhealthy way because it isn’t long-lasting and damages your overall health. That’s why the wisest of bodybuilding tips you can implement is to start with minor changes.. Incorporate one change at a time. If you try to change everything at once, it can lead to you feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, which will make you abandon your fitness goals. However, one of the essential bodybuilding tips is adjusting your nutrition to your goals.

One of the best bodybuilding tips is to incorporate a protein-rich diet into your lifestyle.

Therefore, if you want to gain muscle, you should be eating in a calorie surplus, while for losing weight, you should eat in a calorie deficit. But, most importantly, you should have a protein-rich diet, whatever your goal is. Protein is the primary source that muscles feed on. While you are gaining muscle, it will help the growth. And while you’re losing weight, protein will ensure you only lose fat and not your muscle mass. So, you might want to incorporate one of these protein-rich foods into your diet:

Eggs
Dairy products – milk, yogurt (especially Greek), cheese
Meat – chicken, turkey, beef, pork, etc.
Fish – especially shrimp and salmon
Chickpeas
Tofu cheese
Peas & beans
Seeds and nuts – almonds, walnuts, etc.

There are many more protein food options, whatever your diet preference is. But be careful; there are also foods that you should avoid when building muscle.

Learn what progressive overload is, and why it’s important for a bodybuilding beginner

One of the crucial bodybuilding tips you have to remember is that nothing comes overnight. If you want to grow your muscles healthily, prepare to be patient. Remember, time and recovery are your best friends. There is no better way of building muscle than to build sustainably. This means that you will have to resist the urge to lift heavy as soon as you set foot at the gym for the first time and incorporate something called progressive overload. Progressive overload is key to bodybuilding. It means adding weight to your lifting gradually over time.

a man lifting weights and implementing the best bodybuilding tips for complete beginners

Remember that progressive overload is key when it comes to building muscle.

The muscle needs to be challenged to grow, but adding too much weight too fast can cause severe injuries and prevent you from entering the gym again. That’s why it’s essential to be smart with bodybuilding. The weight doesn’t really matter; the only important thing is that your muscle is challenged and that you rest from time to time. Because the muscle doesn’t grow during the lifting period, it grows during the resting period. Exercising causes small tears in the muscle, which are repaired when you rest. And when the body repairs the muscle, it makes it bigger and more endurable.