Bodybuilding tips for beginners

1. Don't skip the warm-up

We recommend a warm-up in 3 phases:

• Articular: classic warm-up = > movements / rotations of your joints
• Increased heart rate: Do 5min rowing, apartment bike, rope jumped, knee climbs etc. depending on what you have at your disposal
• Warm-up series: During each session, run 3 sets with lighter weights than exercise weights before performing the exercises. For example for the pumps session, it is possible to run 3 sets of pumps on the knees or standing leaning against a wall. Be careful, do not load too heavy, and do not carry out a large number of series without heating, you risk injury (tendonitis, muscle tear, ...) and having to stop training for several weeks.

"Bonus" tip to avoid injuries

Perform working exercises of the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder before each session. These exercises are essential to maintain a strong shoulder over the long term.

2. Choose the right weights

The choice of weights to handle in each exercise depends on the abilities of each. To generate muscle mass it is necessary that at the tenth repetition of each series you are almost at your maximum. The charges may be increased as and when necessary.

If the musculature of the upper body becomes voluminous, it will be necessary to perform strength training exercises of the lower body (legs) to maintain a good overall harmony of the musculature and avoid muscle imbalances.

Also note that doing exercises with very heavy loads can be harmful to the joints in the long term (after several years).

3. Increase weights gradually

Tendons grow half as fast as muscles, so be careful not to increase weight too quickly, you may injure yourself (tendonitis, tendon tear).

Indeed, your muscles will grow quickly and will allow you to lift heavy loads, but your tendons will not be strong enough to withstand such loads. The progression of weights must be done in stages, i.e. it is necessary to stay several weeks in each weight level before practicing with heavier weights.

4. Series, number of repetitions and rest between each one

series

Perform between 3 and 5 sets for each exercise, and count between 15 and 20 sets in total during a training session that will last 1h – 1h15 warm-up included.

Rehearsals

The number of repetitions to perform in each series of an exercise depends on your personal goals. To gain muscle mass (i.e. to enlarge the muscles), the number of repetitions should be less than 12 and the exercise should be performed with fairly heavy loads.

A repetition number greater than 15 will rather tend to develop the endurance capabilities of the muscles, the muscles will not grow but will rather remain thin and drawn.

rest

Respect a rest period of 1 minute to 2 minutes between each repetition, depending on the difficulty of the exercise.