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7 Bodybuilding Tips To Help You Forge A Physique Of Steel

7 Bodybuilding Tips I Wish I Knew When I Started Lifting

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The following 7 pieces of advice are often forgotten yet make a massive difference.
It's only after research and trial and error that I've come to find these 7 bodybuilding tips... fitness magazines and supplement companies won't give you these as they're about increasing their bottom-line profit - not getting you results unfortunately!

Apply these 7 bodybuilding tips and get yourself the results you've aspiring for.

Perform Mobility Drills

Increased flexibility, range of motion and injury prevention are all a result of focusing on your mobility.

Before each workout instead of jumping straight into your first exercise spend 5 - 10 minutes foam rolling, performing dynamic stretches and using resistance bands to ensure you're mobile and get the targeted muscle group warmed up.

Perform shoulder dislocations and light rotator cuff exercises before any workout targeting the upper body.

Perform hip flexor stretches, work on your ankle dorsiflexion and foam roll your quads, hamstrings, calfs and ITB before performing any lower body workouts.

Do this and your range of motion and fluidity of movement will improve over time, most people don't realize how quickly they can improve their squat depth once their hip flexors and ankles have received a bit of love!

See also
5 Reasons Why You Can't See Your Abs

Make Your Own Supplements (Save Money!)

The supplement industry is shady at best.

Mass gainers and pre workout supplements are two of the most expensive supplements you'll find on the shelves... yet when made yourself they're astronomically cheaper and actually more effective because we know the exact dosages of key ingredients we're using!

Check out my guide to make your own pre workout supplement here.

Check out my guide to make your own mass gainer for skinny guys here.

When Shredding, Caloric Intake IS Everything

When you understand this one you'll find getting shredded effortless, there'll no longer be any guesswork whatsoever.

Getting shredded comes down to manipulating your caloric intake to ensure your body is in a deficit (consuming fewer calories than it needs to maintain it's current condition on a 24 hour basis).

Fat burner supplements, cardio workouts, low carbohydrate meals... these are all tools in your arsenal to place your body into that caloric deficit.

Supplements aren't necessary for fat loss, cardio isn't necessary for fat loss...

The only thing necessary for fat loss is a caloric deficit and there are a number of ways to induce this.

Sometimes Form Must Be Broken

In order to build both muscle and strength we must apply progressive overload.

See also
4 Inner Back Exercises To Stack On Back Thickness And Mass

In short, progressive overload is based upon placing increased tension on our muscles by increasing the weight or the repetitions we're lifting workout after workout.

To continue to progress occasionally form must be broken.

A slight decrease in range of motion, utilizing momentum from the bottom of the movement, changing your positioning on the bench...

Whatever it takes.

Keep in mind this is for advanced gym-goers only. Newbies should NEVER be swinging a barbell to perform cheat curls in an Arnold Schwarzenegger style.

Free Weights Are King

The echelon of exercises for strength and mass building are the squat, bench press, overhead press and deadlift.

All of these exercises are performed with barbells, with a dumbbell variation also being a possibility.

None of these exercises are performed with machines....

Machines are no where near as affective as free weights, with a locked range of motion, no stabilizer engagement and strength that does not transfer over to other exercises machines will always be second best to free weights.

Hit your free weight compound exercises, and if you insist only then can you perform some machine based isolation. If you're serious about results machine training should never take priority over the old school iron barbell.

The Pump Is Not The Answer (For Naturals Gym-Goers)

First of all, what is the “pump?” The pump is the tight feeling caused by blood rushing to the targeted muscle in the body part you are training after performing multiple sets. The pump alone does not indicate that you are making progress or that your muscles are growing – a high repetition set of pushups can be used to obtain a pump, meanwhile dumbbell bench pressing 130lb dumbbells for 5 reps may not give you a pump even though this lift and weight is far more beneficial towards growth.

See also
Kick Shield Drills: Increase Your Conditioning & Power

Steroid users make gains and will benefit from stimulation of the muscle in the form of high repetitions (which produces an immense pump). Howeever, the natural gym-goer should focus on that progressive overload via heavy, heavy weight.

Train Fasted

Some people love it, some people hate it.

Give it a try and see if it works for you.

Training fasted in the early hours of the morning is one of the best changing to my training regime I've made.

I feel light, energetic and fresh which alwauys results in me crushing my workout.

When I used to follow the typical pre workout nutrition consist of a moderate protein, moderate carbohydrate meal an hour or so before training I would find myself hitting the gym feeling lethargic, bloated and not particularly energetic.

Some love it, some hate it.

I swear by fasted training but it's time for you to give it a go and make up your mind.

What's Your #1 Bodybuilding Tip? Let Me Know In The Comments Below!

Scott J.
Scott J.https://ignorelimits.com
I’m SJ. I’m a fitness enthusiast and published author. I transformed my body from a skinny fat 135lbs with 18% body fat to a solid 192lbs at 8% body fat. I became qualified in a field I was passionate about. I founded several online businesses that allow me to pursue ideas and projects in my life that I am passionate about without having to constantly worry about money. I published several eBooks explaining the training and dieting techniques I used to achieve the body I have today. I learnt a plethora of new information on dieting and fitness by reading and applying what I read, to find out what does work and what doesn’t work, because as I’m sure you’ve noticed the health and fitness industry is full of non-sense claims and BS. I found out what was true and what worked for me and applied that knowledge. And you bet I had fun during the whole process.

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