BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO BODYBUILDING

MY FIRST STEPS IN BODYBUILDING: BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO BODYBUILDING

The practice of sport, fitness and bodybuilding is an increasingly growing trend in France. The numerous  awareness campaigns linked to obesity  and nutrition are helping to encourage the French to take up sporting activity. Bodybuilding, for its part, is the flagship activity of recent years with a meteoric increase in registrations in sports halls . Overview of this practice to get started and progress quickly!

How to get started with bodybuilding? This legitimate question is one of the first we ask ourselves when we want to join a gym or start strength training at home. Whether you are a man or a woman, you ask yourself a lot of questions: what bodybuilding exercises to do, how to build muscle quickly, what bodybuilding program to carry out, how many sets and the number of repetitions to do, the training frequency , what weight training machines should you use? So many questions that Fitness Park experts address through this article!

Before getting to the heart of the matter, it is important to first determine your motivation and your objective. Whether it is focused on gaining muscle mass, weight loss, fat loss, cardiovascular training, or simply getting back in shape, your goal must be achievable! The first thing to do is therefore to precisely determine your objective. Wanting to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or any other fitness model like Lazar Angelov, Jeff Seid or even Miss Bikini in 6 months is strictly impossible.

An achievable goal is the best source of progress for your training and allows you to maintain your motivation over time. In bodybuilding, self-sacrifice and regularity are the key words to succeed in sculpting the physique you want to achieve! For optimal progress, set yourself intermediate goals so as not to be discouraged. The choice of the gym is then an important criterion in order to evolve in the best conditions. Here, you will find a choice from more than  200 Fitness Park gyms  in France and overseas territories. In order to get started in the best conditions, it is important to understand a bodybuilding session as a whole. We have cut out the optimal session for you!

THE BODYWORK SESSION FOR BEGINNERS: THE PROCEDURE

How to choose your workout without jumping on the first program found on the internet? With the many resources on the web, it is easy to end up with a program that is unsuitable for beginners in bodybuilding. If your goal is to gain muscle quickly, you should choose a Full-Body program to work each muscle several times a week. We will come back to this program in detail in this article.

Each session begins with a program taking place in 3 phases:

• Warming up
• The bodybuilding session
• Stretching

WARM UP BEFORE STRENGTHENING

The first phase is very important, because it will condition your entire session. Indeed, it is important not to neglect warming up, it serves in particular to raise body temperature, reduce the risk of injury, increase muscular performance and prepare the cardiovascular system. The warm-up should be gradual and should last approximately 10-15 minutes. To do an effective warm-up, we advise you to start with a few minutes of rowing (around 4 to 5 minutes). This versatile exercise allows you to work all the muscle groups in your body as well as your cardio. To use the rowing machine properly, our coaches can explain how it works, don't hesitate to ask them!

Once the body has warmed up, it is now necessary to locally prepare the muscles which will be used during the weight training session . To do this, perform basic exercises, with a low volume of repetitions, and minimal loads. For example, to warm up the pectorals, you can do 15 to 20 push-ups, dips or even bench press  with a vacuum bar. Warming up with body weight is an optimal technique to prepare the muscle for exercise. The goal is to perform a few exercises for each muscle with very little weight.

THE DURATION AND FREQUENCY OF BODYBUILDING SESSIONS FOR BEGINNERS

Now that you are warmed up, you can start your weight training session depending on the goal you want to achieve! An effective bodybuilding session is not necessarily a session that lasts for hours, quite the contrary. The more time you spend training, the more you will burn out and therefore perform less well. Allow between 45 minutes and 1 hour for the session itself – that is, excluding the warm-up and stretching.

Your training frequency depends on many parameters (work, availability, etc.), which is why 2 to 4 sessions per week can be easily implemented and also ensure good recovery. When you start  bodybuilding, we advise you to carry out 3 sessions per week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, in order to have some recovery time between sessions and to allow the muscles to recover from the efforts undergone. You have to be in good shape to train, don't overexert yourself. Wanting to go too fast and overtraining is the best way to stop progressing, become demotivated and above all increase the risk of injury.

STRETCHING TO AVOID INJURIES

Just like warming up, stretching should not be neglected. They allow recovery, can reduce aches  and allow you to maintain joint mobility. In order to stretch properly after your weight training session, we have specifically written an article, entitled " Muscle stretching: why and when to do them? ". It will allow you to better understand the importance of stretching and its benefits in your progress in bodybuilding.

THE BODYBUILDING PROGRAM FOR BEGINNERS

Let's get to the heart of the matter, but again do you have several questions? You must have certainly heard about different types of training such as Full-Body, Half-Body or even Split-Routine? Do these techniques seem vague to you? We explain the differences of these programs and which one every beginner should choose!

• The Full-Body program: this involves training the entire body in each session (pectorals, triceps, legs, back, biceps, shoulders, etc.)
• The Half-Body program  : this technique is divided into two parts. The first is to train the muscles of the upper body (chests, back, biceps, triceps, shoulders), and the second is to work the lower body (hamstrings, quadriceps, calves). So, we alternate at each session. An upper body session, followed by a lower body session, etc.
• The Split-Routine program: this technique allows you to work a particular muscle each session. For example, Monday is reserved for the pectorals and triceps, then Tuesday is reserved for the legs, Wednesday for the back and shoulders, etc.

We can thus assign a level of practice to each program. For beginners, the Full-Body method is preferred, for intermediate practitioners the Half-Body technique is optimal and finally for experts, that of the Split-Routine.

THE FULL-BODY FOR A GOOD START IN BODYBUILDING

When you start bodybuilding, it is preferable to follow a so-called Full-Body program with 6 to 8 exercises maximum. It is a program that will train all of the muscles in your body in the same session. The goal is to have you repeat each gesture, each movement several times a week so that it is done well and safely. To do this, do not hesitate to first seek advice from a coach. Through repeated training of each muscle, you will increase your strength, endurance and endurance more quickly. In addition, the training volume of each muscle being greater, progression and muscle growth will therefore be faster. This is therefore the perfect technique for getting started in bodybuilding.

Once you are familiar with the Full-Body and in order to continue your progress, you can move on to the Half Body. It involves alternating an upper body session and a lower body session. The advantage will be to be able to perform more exercises per muscle for the same session time.

Then finally it will be time for the Split Routine, muscle group isolation spread over the entire week. The advantage is to allow a good separation of the different muscle groups and thus to be able to train them even more completely and intensively.

THE CHOICE OF EXERCISES

To start, prefer working on guided machines, for safer and more targeted movement. You can easily find these machines in over  200 Fitness Park rooms . They are located in an easily identifiable space. These machines allow perfect and controlled execution of the movements to be performed. This way, you avoid the risk of bad posture and injuries.

Focus on basic exercises such as the bench press (on a free bench if you have mastered this technique, machine or on a guided frame), pull-ups  (high pulley pull), squat (thigh press) or even dips . These are so-called poly-articular movements which have the advantage of working several muscle groups at the same time. A bench press will work the pectorals, but also the arms, the shoulders, unlike an isolation exercise like lying splits which will really aim to isolate the pectorals.

THE NUMBER OF SETS, REPETITIONS AND RECOVERY TIME

Always favor quality over quantity! There is no need to perform a large number of exercises, sets or even repetitions. As we mentioned a little earlier in this article, we advise you to perform 6 to 8 exercises during your session. For good progress, perform 2 to 3 exercises per muscle group, 3 to 4 sets and between 8 and 15 repetitions.

Recovery times will vary between 30 seconds to 2 minutes as a general rule. The more intensive the work, the longer the recovery will be. On a program oriented towards muscle mass, we will therefore favor exercises with a high work intensity with short series and long rest periods.

Example: Bench press of 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions with 2 minutes of recovery between each set.

On a program oriented towards weight loss or muscle definition, we will therefore favor exercises with a lower work intensity with long series and a short rest time.

Example: Bench press with 3 to 4 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions and 1 minute of recovery between each set.

THE BODYBUILDING PROGRAM (MEN AND WOMEN) TO START WELL

Now that you know how to train correctly, here is the program to follow that will allow you to effectively start bodybuilding and increase your muscle mass:

• Bench press (pectorals) – 4 sets of 12 repetitions – 1 minute 30 minutes of rest
• Guided machine horizontal pull-up (back) – 3 sets of 12 repetitions – 1 minute 30 minutes of rest
• Squat (legs) – 4 sets of 10 repetitions – 2 minutes rest
• Military press (shoulders) – 3 sets of 12 repetitions – 2 minutes of rest
• Guided machine curl (biceps) – 4 sets of 12 repetitions – 1 minute 30 minutes rest
• Triceps pulley extension (triceps) – 4 sets of 10 repetitions – 1 minute rest

Our coach Nassim Sahili has also developed a beginner bodybuilding program with a section specially linked to nutrition and dietetics. You can consult this article to go further: Bodybuilding and Nutrition Program .

Are you interested in bodybuilding, but don't dare take the plunge? Come meet us! We will guide you for your first session to explain each of the machines and the correct positions to adopt. You can also view our offers  and register directly online. All you have to do is come to your club and start your first training sessions.

TO CONCLUDE

What you need to remember: don't be in a hurry, as the proverb says: "all comes to those who wait", and this is what will allow you to progress in complete safety. The second key word is “intensity”. An easy session without intensity is an ineffective and counterproductive session which will only cause you to stagnate or even regress. Last but not least, do not neglect rest and recovery, space out your training and remember that it is during sleep that the body rebuilds itself.

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