We will discuss some common mistakes in bodybuilding concerning diet. We will discuss what to do about these mistakes.

Not giving one diet enough time – Don’t expect to change your diet and then make great gains in a matter of a week. It can take 3 weeks for your body to get used to your new diet. Think of your diet as helping your bodybuilding workouts, not a means to an end in itself. Meaning, if you have a perfect diet, that alone won’t do it. The laws of muscle building still apply. You will have to lift weight and recover before your muscles will grow. And this takes time. So don’t keep changing your diet because you are not getting quick results.

Not counting calories – This applies most to those competing in bodybuilding. If this is your full time job or you just want to be the best you can be when competing, then you must track everything. This includes tracking your food intake. Carbs, fats and proteins. You might not be meeting your bodybuilding goals because you are not eating the right amount of carbs, fat or protein.

Relying on supplements too much – Supplements are just that. They supplement your diet and it is your diet and training with rest, which will give you your success for packing on muscle.

Inconsistent eating – You need to be consistent in how often and how much you eat. Stick to your plan and don’t alter it. Missing meals is going to hurt your goal of muscle growth. You made the plan for a reason, now stick with it.

Judging success by your Scale – If you are trying to trim down your fat, don’t just rely on the scale. Scales are deceiving as you can lose muscle and think you are on the right track or gain muscle mass and think you did not lose fat.

When starting out in your muscle building workouts, you will want to find a good routine fit for you. So what will work best for you? Lets look at ways you can tell if a routine will work and work for you.

First, you want to make sure that whatever routine you might follow, it has gotten results for those that have subscribed to its teachings.

You need a routine that is progressive in its training advice. Meaning, you want to keep progressively overloading your muscles with heavier weight as you get stronger.

Recovering between workouts is something that is very important and should not be pushed aside. Your body needs to recover so it can be ready to lift heavy for the next workout. The routine you are looking at should mention rest as a necessary factor of gaining muscle. Your muscles actually grow when they are resting.

Is the routine right for you specifically? Maybe because of health reasons a routine that is considered high intensity might be too much for you to handle. If you are someone that does not want to go to the max in your training, then high intensity training might not be for you.

Although high intensity training is the fastest way for muscle mass building, you might not be willing to take your mind to the limit and go to failure at each workout. It might be too much stress for you. The good thing though, is that you can go to the gym less often with high intensity training.

There are routines that call for more volume in their training program. These routines have you lifting lighter weights for more sets and reps. Now someone else might find this taxing on them as they have to concentrate for longer periods of time in their training. So find what works best for you, not only physically but mentally.

Did you know that you can carry out more than a normal Chin-Up with your Chin Up Bar? This will mean you can get more use out of your Chin Up bar, training a greater number of muscle groups and giving you a far better overall toned an muscular look.

Chin Up

Chin ups should be carried out by griping the ChinUp Bar with palms facing inwards (this is called a supinated grip). You should pull yourself up until your chin is raised above the bar, prefrebly until you can touch the bar with your upper chest. If you can’t do this at first you can try out negative chin ups where you use a chair to put yourself in the completed position and lower yourself down. You can do assisted chin ups; where a pilates band, step or training partnet helps you with the last small push to the top.  Finally you could try kip chin ups; where a swaying of the lower body can be used to assist you in the motion. Once you can do chin ups you can start adding weight to make the exercise more difficult.

Muscles: Latissimus dorsi

Pull Ups

Pull ups should be completed in an identical way as chin ups however with the hands facing away from you (pronated grip). By modifying your hand position, and the movements this restricts you to less emphasis is placed on utilising the bicep muscles which will force the other muscle groups to be exercised more.

Muscles: Latissimus dorsi

Hanging Leg Raises

Leg raises are completed by hanging from the Chin Up bar and bringing up the lower body up in a straight line to make an L shape or 90 degree angle.

Muscles Used: Stomach Muscles

Incline Press Ups

We all know that a press up is a poor man’s bench press, but when don’t have time to get to the gym a push up is better than chest workout.

With some of the next generation over the door Chin-Up bars such as the P90X Chin Up Bar these can be lay on the floor and the bar used for conducting incline press ups, instead of just doing standard press ups. By conducting the exercise on an incline greater focus is placed on the upper pectoral muscles which will give a fuller and better look throughout the body instead of just focusing on the lower pec muscles.

Targets: Chest Muscles

Decline Press Ups

In an identical way as you have just used the bar to carry out incline push ups you can also put your feet on the bar to perform decline press ups; which will focus on the lower chest area instead of the upper.

Muscles Used: Chest Muscles

Eating appropriately is the most vital part of your bodybuilding meal plan.

In my eyes, it is tougher to eat appropriately, than it is to go to the gym and work a 2 hour weight training session. Most people have experienced that. I was advised to eat appropriately. I took the advice and acted on it. My size and muscle mass increased my large margins.
Most people think that feeding themselves with massive protein food and less of other food will help them build mass. If that’s what you do, you could have some serious malnutrition problems arise, as you wont be getting all that you need to function. There’s no reason to build muscle and in the process getting weak physically.
What you really want is to have the right proportion of protein in your diet, especially when your body is ready for it. My muscle mass diet starts as soon as I get up. Breakfast every morning is scientifically proved to be the best to fire up your digestive system and muscles; it also gets your body prepared for the entire protein intake during the rest of the day.
It is good, if you can include lots of complex carbohydrates and fibers in your breakfast. Whole grain bread and porridge is an ideal breakfast. Essential to good digestive health, fibre and vitamins prepares you for more protein intake, your body will react on it after a few hours.
Beef and chicken are not food that can be easily digested early in the day. Proteins that are not easily digested should be taken later in the day.
At about 10 in the morning, you should be ready for another protein intake. At this time, it is recommended that you eat broccoli, cottage cheese and brown rice. If you have a sweet tooth, low fat and sugar yogurt with banana and some whole meal bread is a good alternative to include in your bodybuilding diet plan
The next hour for food is around mid day or lunch time. Eat food that contains fiber and protein, tuna or chicken salad with whole meal bread will be good. Alternatively, you may eat low fat quality sausages or chicken breast meat.
Anytime after 3pm, try a light cottage cheese if you haven’t had it today yet. Having some vegetables which are high in iron will  keep your energy levels up and your mind active. Silver beet or steamed spinach or potatoes can be included as well, as part of a balanced bodybuilding diet.
If you plan to start training at around 7 in the evening, you are advised to drink some protein shake 30 minutes before you start training. If you have a really heavy shake before the training, you may experience cramps, so keep it light, 250ml of milk mixed with 2 scoops of whey protein will be ideal.
After you train, consume a good size protein shake.g. 400ml of milk mixed with 3 or 4 scoops of whey, some eggs and banana. It is vital to the bodybuilding diet to drink your post-training shake. At about 9pm, have your tea. Tea should contain 300gms of protein which is equivalent to a chicken breast meat or beef or fish around . Have tea with some brown rice, fresh vegetables and beans, and wash it down with lots of water or fresh fruit juice.
Sticking to muscle building foods like this, will help you net awesome muscle gain results, fast.

When you’re at the gym, take a minute and watch all the people working out their biceps. Do you fit in with these kind of people? Do you workout your biceps every time you go to the gym? I’m going to show you some tips on how you can build bigger biceps beyond anything you could imagine.

You can’t get bigger biceps by only exercising your biceps, and ignoring the rest of your body. Instead, you need a good muscle building routine that will encourage muscle growth everywhere. Be sure the work out program you follow includes fundamental exercises that work out the entire body, and keep isolation exercises to a minimum. Exercises such as the squat and the dead lift are two primary examples of exercises that encourage solid muscle growth throughout your whole body. When you find a good overall routine which includes these exercises you will be laying the foundation to get bigger arms.

When it comes to bodybuilding, often less is more. There are some people that think the more sets you do the bigger your biceps will get. Unfortunately, this is not true. Work on keeping your sets to a minimum, and try to increase your weight each workout. If you work out your arms too much they will not have the time to properly recuperate, and you’ll be doing more harm than good.

If you want to build bigger biceps you need to incorporate these 2 basic exercises. If you want bigger arms you must include barbell curls and dumbbell curls. Talk to anyone who has big arms, and I guarantee they incorporate these 2 basic exercises in their biceps routine. Focus on slowly increasing your reps and the amount of weight you use, and you will see your biceps grow over time.

If you want bigger biceps than proper form is critical. To most people this is obvious, but it’s surprising at the amount of people who ignore proper form when their working their biceps. Very often ego is the reason. A lot of people try to exercise with way too much weight, either to impress themselves or the people around them. Workout hard and don’t forget good form equals good results.

Follow a solid muscle building program in combination these tips and I guarantee you will see impressive results. For more information visit Muscle Building Program.