Written by Menswear Style in Health & Fitness on the 28th July 2021

Are you looking to get started in bodybuilding? Are you interested in the idea but want to learn more about it? The following will explore some basic tips for bodybuilding beginners.

What Is Bodybuilding? 

Bodybuilding is an activity done for personal interest or competitions that involves building up muscle and sculpting a particular physique. It is important to note that while building muscle does contribute to strength; bodybuilding isn’t as much focused on strength-building exercises as some other fitness cultures are. In bodybuilding, the look is what people are often working towards.

Full-Body Workouts 

If you’re truly interested in bodybuilding, you might be shocked to learn how critical it is to work out each part of your body. There are different regimes that target things in different orders; some people focus on one body part per day, whereas others focus on specific parts more often, depending on how their body reacts to the standard regimes. Some bodybuilders also focus on hitting each muscle group twice a week, alternating between pushing and pulling-based workouts. 

The Food-Workout Dichotomy 

Food and exercise have a symbiotic relationship that cannot be ignored if you’re interested in bodybuilding. Exercise alone or diet alone won’t create the sculpted shape you want; you need both of these things to achieve your desired results. You can tackle your approach to food by researching the connection between supplements or dietary changes and specific features you want to enhance or minimise, like vascularity, for instance. You also need to be ensuring that you’re giving your body what it needs to build muscle and hold your desired shape. This means likely eating more calories than you’re used to but of a different nature than you’re used to. It also means getting all the protein, vitamins, and minerals your body needs to build muscle.

Think About Your Skin And Joints 

When people talk of bodybuilding, skin and joints aren’t mentioned nearly enough. As you gain muscle and change shape, your skin is going to be under stress as it stretches around your new form. Your joints are also going to be strained when you’re lifting weights and when you begin to weigh more from the extra muscle you’ve put on. Foods like bone broth can help support these parts of your body as they change to meet the new demands you have for them. If you don’t take the time to care for these parts of your body, you might experience itching, soreness, stretch marks, joint pain, or even serious injury. 

A Note For Those Who Identify As Women 

Women can absolutely be bodybuilders and be happy and healthy while they do it. This being said, endocrinologists often recommend that women who are intending on working out hard on a regular basis learn a little about their hormone cycle and the impact that working out has on this cycle. There are points in the 28-day cycle where a disruption (say, high levels of cortisol from a super intense workout) can have a detrimental effect on hormonal balance and, therefore, health. Cortisol can also mess with men’s hormones (remember cortisol is a hormone itself), but men’s cycles refresh every 24 hours, so the impact is not as long-lasting. Impacting hormones on certain days in a woman’s cycle can result in hormones being out of whack for the entire following month.

Use your period as a guide to inform you whether or not your body is pleased with the hormonal balance it has. A missing period, a painful period, or an unusual period all indicate that your body is struggling on a hormonal level. These symptoms should never be ignored as imbalanced hormones impact the quality of your sleep, your skin, your appetite, weight gain, mood, your body’s ability to handle stress, and your body’s ability to handle toxins in addition to all the standard things we associate hormones with like fertility. If you’re using hormonal birth control, your ability to sense hormone problems is greatly diminished as your hormones are kept at artificial levels, so you might want to check in with a doctor or holistic healthcare practitioner to gain a better understanding of what is happening hormonally within your body. Again, if you start missing your period, this is your body’s way of telling you that your hormones are not balanced. 

The above information should set you up right when it comes to beginning your bodybuilding journey. Full-body workouts and diet alterations are the first steps in bodybuilding. Caring for your skin, joints, and hormones is also a crucial part of the process.

Full-Body Workouts, Food-Workout Dichotomy, and Skin and Joints are discussed in this guide to Simple Bodybuilding Tips for Absolute Beginners.