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Setting out on a new muscle building plan can be intimidating for beginners. The fitness industry is rife with rampant steroid usage, which creates an unrealistic standard that the new trainee would wish to emulate.
In reality, muscle building is a long and often tedious process, which requires consistency and discipline. Today, we will look at a few key tips that can aid you in your muscle building journey.
In this article, we will be focusing on exercise selection, periodization, and other key tips relating to beginners.
Six Muscle Building Tips for Beginners
1. Training Frequency
As a beginner, your muscles need very low stimulus to grow, especially in the first 3–6 months. This period is referred to as the "newbie gains" phase, during which one can substantially improve his muscularity. Therefore, the first few months should be focused on building proper form and understanding your body. More on that later.
To maintain an effective training frequency, a beginner can aim to train each muscle group 2 to 3 times a week, ensuring proper rest and recovery in between.
2. Choosing the Right Program and Sticking with It
Program-hopping will not help you build muscle or see strength gains consistently. Once you choose a program, make sure you stick with it for at least 8–12 weeks.
Here are some excellent muscle building programs for beginners:
Full body workout
Upper lower split
Stronglifts 5 × 5
Starting strength
ICF 5 × 5
For those struggling to find time, full body workouts done thrice a week are an excellent option to build muscle and gain strength.
3. Learning Proper Form
Although it may be tempting to start lifting heavy on the first day, understand that learning how to perform an exercise properly is key to a long, healthy lifting career.
The biggest mistake most beginners make is trying to lift heavy weights to impress others. This often results in injuries that are painful and long-lasting. A shoulder injury or rotator cuff tear can leave you in a bad situation for the rest of your life.
Hence, it is crucial to learn proper form with light weights. As a beginner, it is advisable to start with dumbbells and machines to build a baseline level of strength before moving to compound barbell lifts.
4. Compound Exercises Are Key
There is nothing that will put more mass on your physique than heavy compound movements. They recruit a ton of muscle mass and often require bigger rest periods between sets.
Here are a few important compound movements essential for muscle building:
Squat
Weighted carries
Pull-ups/chin-ups (weighted)
5. Considering Appropriate Rep Ranges
If your goal is hypertrophy, stick with an 8–15 rep range. For strength gains, stick to 3–5 reps. Well, what if you want both?
For a beginner, the key focus should be on gaining strength in compound lifts. After you learn proper form and establish a mind–muscle connection with machines/dumbbells, you can start performing the compound lifts mentioned above.
Perform your heavy compound lifts initially during the workout. Squats, bench presses, and deadlifts are 6generally done in the 3–8 rep range for increasing strength. As they employ heavy loads, they also build a ton of muscle mass.
Secondary exercises such as curls, tricep extensions, leg extensions, and dumbbell rows are generally done for higher reps with lighter weight.
6. Prioritising Rear Delts and Lower Back
Shoulder and lower back injuries are commonly seen among lifters. This is often due to the immense load they bear during compound lifts.
The solution to prevent such injuries is to work on your rear delts and lower back with a variety of exercises.
For rear delts, you can perform facepulls, rear delt flies, reverse pec dec flies, or cable flies. For the lower back, you can perform deadlifts, rows, hyperextensions, and good mornings.
A good rule of thumb would be to perform twice the amount of pulling exercise volume in comparison to your push volume.
Takeaway
Muscle building is a long-term project that demands constant effort and determination. To build a good physique, beginners should follow the above cardinal rules for longevity and better results.
