How-to-bodybuilding
 The four principles of bodybuilding explained
in an easy to understand format.

Set yourself on F.I.R.E,

The four principles of bodybuilding

Fail

To encourage the body to build stronger bigger muscles by Hypertrophy lift enough weight to ensure that your muscles fail between 8-12 repetitions per set for exercises involving the upper body and between 12-15 reps per set for the lower body.

By fail I mean no matter how hard you try you cannot lift even one more rep. Train to failure on each of 4 or 5 sets.

This does not mean working up a bit of a sweat it means an eye popping, knuckles bleeding, chest busting “Gerrrrrr” type of hard!

Sorry I got carried away it’s not quite like that but near enough! Just train hard, very hard but stop short of causing injury (and your eyes popping out) 

For muscles to get stronger and bigger you must break them down to force them to repair themselves.

To break your muscle down you must train until your muscle fails to lift anymore.

Failure means that you absolutely cannot lift one more rep at the end of the set. Do not stop just because you reach the required number of reps if you can do one more do one more.

Increase

The word progressive should always precede the words weight training as in Progressive Weight Training. To get stronger and bigger you must progressively add greater loads each session. This increases the intensity of the load on the muscle each time you train it. In turn causing more tears, more repairs and the adding of more size and strength to the fibres.

You must
 ALWAYS ADD
 SOME EXTRA WEIGHT
each session or do extra reps.

This is why your training log is so important it is a reminder of what you did last time and the motivator to coax you to do more than that this time.

Each session should always be your personal best.

Pin this statement inside your locker.

"Was that really your personal best?"

The stronger you become the more intensity of exercise will be required to make a difference to the muscles.

Note: This is why you should not follow the routines of the elite athletes in the magazines. Their routines are super intense to break down their already well trained muscles. Their genetics have endowed them with a disposition that will allow them to train at this very high level.

Rest

Rest builds muscle not training.

Allow plenty of rest time for your muscles to repair and recuperate for at least one day between sessions.

Train one body part per week.

Rest with the same enthusiasm as when you train.         

The all important repair process takes place when you are resting.

You must always remember muscles get bigger when resting not when you are training.

Rest with the same enthusiasm as when you train. This is so important I have said it twice!
 

Eat

Eat protein, lots of it. This can be as hard as the training. You need to consume loads of the stuff (and wash it down with plenty of water).

It sounds a bit unpleasant but for bodybuilding and strength training you must consume more protein than your body will excrete. This keeps your body in a positve nitrogen balance. Along with getting plenty of rest this promotes an optimal state for muscle repair and recovery.

I have found the most quoted quantity of protein for body building as 1.8 multiplied by your body weight giving the grams of protein you must eat over the course of the day. More accurately you should ensure that between 1.4 and 1.8 times your body weight is consumed depending upon your activity level during the day.

Around 15%of the total calories you consume should come from high quality protein food sources such as:

• Chicken and Turkey Breast
• Fish
• Lean Red Meat
• Low or non fat dairy products
• Eggs but mostly egg whites for example a omelette with 1 whole egg and 3 egg whites.
• Protein supplements such as Whey. Important to remember it is a supplement only as most of the protein must come from the above mentioned sources.

Split the amount of protein into 5 or 6 meals of at least 20 grams to be consumed over the course of the day.

Taking a good quality protein shake directly after training seems to be universally recommended to help replenish the nutrients lost during a hard F.I.R.E session.   

The same principal would apply to drinking the water. Drink plenty with each meal and before and during your body building workout.

The British Dietetic Association recommends a water intake of least 1.5 litres per day. Add at least another litre if you are working out. Add even more in hot weather.

The reasons it is important to body building is it helps you train longer and harder by allowing excess heat generated by your body during exercise to be dispersed via sweat.

It also helps the blood remove harmful toxins. Important note, do not wait until you feel thirsty before drinking.

If you are thirsty your body is already being stressed by the lack of water and loosing its ability to train hard.

Just like eating that elephant of protein break drinking water down into manageable chunks through out the day and make sure to take extra while training. 

Thats really it all it takes

No matter how it gets dress up in the magazines, books or latest fancy routine that is all there is to it.
To be fair the only thing missing would be the exercises. For Bodybuilding success your Progressive Weight Training should be predominantly done with Compound Exercises. 

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