Tom Ambrozewicz asked:


If you are going to put a lot of time, effort, and money into training, you might wish to show off the end results in a bodybuilding fitness competition. These contests are held throughout the country and world and showcase some of the most physically fit bodies known to humankind. There are many levels of competition, so don’t worry if you aren’t Mr. Universe just yet-you can find a competition that is right for you. Any sort of contest does, however, require a dedication to training, including a healthy diet and lots of exercise.

The first thing you should do when you decide to begin competitive bodybuilding is to find a coach. It will be much easier to break into the competition world if you have someone with a little experience under his or her belt guiding you. With your coach, decide on a training schedule and diet, and choose whether or not you want to take supplements. Natural training is, of course, always best, but you may wish to take vitamins or other supplements to make sure your body is getting the nutrients it needs even if you cut some foods out of your diet.

Next, research some of the events held near you. Local events are a good place to start if you live in a big city. If not, you may have to travel some distance to find events, so plan accordingly. Some competitions have an entry fee, and all have different rules of conduct. In most cases, you will have an orientation session the day or morning before the event, but you need to be well prepared before this to avoid looking like a novice in front of the judges. Before the competition, you should not only train, but also learn to flex while you pose and still look relaxed. You may also want to tan, remove hair, and take other measures to help your body look as lean and sculpted as possible. Your coach, if he or she has participated in competitive bodybuilding, should be able to give you advice in these areas.

After the competition, evaluate your performance, good or bad. Nobody is perfect, but by learning from past mistakes, you can do better at future competitions. Keep your eyes peeled in the staging area-what are other competitors doing to help their performance? As soon as the winners are announced and the applause has died, head to the judges’ table. They are the experts and can give you a quick verbal assessment of your body and give you advice for your next competition. Be humble and listen to everything they have to say, both positive and negative. In no time, it will be you in the winner’s circle, and you can give advice to the new competitive bodybuilders in your area.



Anne

Dane Fletcher asked:


A lot of people think in order to build muscle you have to abandon life outside of the gym by devoting hours upon hours like a monk.  Maybe the only way to chisel the body into hot form and physique is to give blood, sweat and tears every hour of every day of every year.

However, these sacrifices are not necessary, even though hard work is.  Going through extreme fitness does require someone to be somewhat of a slave to the iron bar.  Full body workouts can help you progress this easily and it will also fit into your schedule, whatever the schedule may be. This is extremely convenient for someone who is looking for progress and to achieve extreme fitness but has a hard time sticking to a single workout regimen.

When you are going for genuine full body workout, athletes are able to achieve this with the goal in mind that they want maximum muscle contraction.  By using heavy weights, this goal is attainable and also gives plenty of time for full muscle recovery, which in turn, helps the muscle grow faster and allows you to train harder.  This also prevents burnout, which eventually, will happen when you are excessively training.

This is the ins and outs of a full body workout.  This will, as I mentioned before, be a huge time saver.  The biggest benefit to doing a full body workout is that you will spend less time in the gym and go less frequently. I would suggest a full body workout two to three times per week.

The second advantage to doing a full body workout is that you are working all of your major muscle groups all at once instead of two or more hours of exercise per muscle group, you can spend one hour a day in the gym.  With full body workouts it is about the quality not the quantity, not even the amount of time per workout.

You will also notice and major difference that the full body workout gives to the cardio system.  You will need to give yourself plenty of time for two to four sets of each major muscle area in the one hour session.  The more you can exercise everything in the one hour session, the faster your heart muscle and circulatory system is going to be worked out as well. 

The following are some things you do not have to worry about with your full body workout.

Typically, body builders tend to wait until the end of their workout to jam the cardio in.  Not only is this completely unnecessary, it is also a waste of time since cramming this into the last five minutes or so, is really not beneficial, at least, not as beneficial as continuing the cardio throughout the entire workout.

You shouldn’t do too many sets of one thing, however heavy lifting is strongly advised.  Some body builders believe that some light training to conserve energy for the body parts that will come later in a routine.  The bottom line here is, if you are not consistently training heavy throughout your entire routine, you are not doing yourself any favors and you will not gain optimal progression.

Doing one exercise per muscle group is extremely key. This is easier to follow and very important.  If you do basic exercises that are intense will save you time from having to do multiple exercises for one muscle group. 

Resistance training is also very effective when trying to keep your natural hormones in check, which is also very important to muscle building.  You will boost your testosterone and also increases the catabolic cortisol which helps in the loss of fat.  Essentially, you are getting the best of both worlds.



Brenda

T J Madigan asked:


So you want to be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger? Or perhaps youre a Lenda Murray-wanna-be? Well, good for you! So heres the thing. To get the best bodybuilding shape, you need to keep a few bodybuilding fitness pointers in mind.

The first logical step to take for any bodybuilding beginner is goal-setting. Ask yourself the following questions: Why do I want to be a bodybuilder? Why do I want to have a fit body? Whatever your reason may be, whether you want to be healthy or want to look good, just make sure that you are doing this for yourself. A high percentage of bodybuilding fitness programs are successful mainly because its participants are looking to improve themselves.

You can also keep a logbook to record your progress and the goals you have set and achieved during the program. For instance, you can place an entry in your logbook that you want to do 10 reps today. Then later during the day, you can put in some comments on how you did, whether or not you have achieved the bodybuilding fitness goal you have set for yourself. A simple record-keeping can make a whole lot of difference for a bodybuilding success.

Below are a few more bodybuilding fitness tips to get you going:

1. To ensure success in your bodybuilding plan, make a commitment to yourself and make the effort to change your habits.

2. Accept the fact that to achieve the perfect muscled look might take a long time. Building muscles, loosing fat, reshaping your body, and learning how you respond to diets and supplements takes time. As a matter of fact, the best bodybuilding fitness plans continue on indefinitely.

3. Hold yourself up for a lot of hard work. Bodybuilding fitness means going to the gym on a regular basis, adapting strenuous exercise routines, and tearing up muscles here and there as a result. But all that pain and discomfort is what makes it work for you.

4. Change your diet. To get the best results out of your bodybuilding plan, you would have to eat three meals a day. Eat small but frequently. Increase your protein intake for better muscle growth and development. Drink more water to optimize muscle volume. Limit your salt intake. Take less sugar and alcohol. And most important of all, minimize fats in your diet.

5. Sleep. In bodybuilding, you strain your body to the limit and your best weapon to prevent it from breaking under the tension is sleep. So sleep.

6. Never ever forget your goal in taking up bodybuilding in the first place. Get that ideal muscled body youve always wanted. Dont let the hard work drag you down. Strive for success.



Carol

will asked:


so i bought the perfect pushup and if you have it or are a bodybuilding/fitness expert, tell me if it boosts your strength up alot. also how often should i use them because on the workout chart they give you, it says to do only 6-9 sets every other day. I understand you need time to let your muscles heal and everything but they are just a few sets of pushups done in a couple of minutes, its not a 90 minute workout you did at the gym.

Philip