If you are starting a bodybuilding program one of the best things you can do is to study what the professionals do. You can discover many tips and techniques from professionals that will enhance your workout. They have done it, know what works and have the great bodies to prove it, so why not copy them? You really don’t have to go it alone.

The following bodybuilding tips have been taken from experts and cover areas that they say many bodybuilders tend to ignore or overlook in their bodybuilding program.

1 – Keep it all in proportion.

If you are trying for a truly sculpted look, proportion is really important.  One area that is often overlooked is the calf muscles because they are relatively small to begin with and are difficult to build. Just because they are difficult to work with doesn’t mean they are not important. The calves are just as important as any other muscle in your body and can make you look totally out of balance if they are ignored. Besides working them with specific routines, using both wide and narrow stances when lifting will help to hone the calf muscles.

2 – Get a training partner.

This has been proven many times but is still ignored by many bodybuilders. A training partner will help keep you motivated and even share a few tips and advice now and then. And there is nothing that stimulates you during a workout like a little friendly competition that keeps you centered on your goals. Just don’t go overboard and end up with an injury because you let the partner push you a little too much.

3 – Don’t lean over backwards

when working the deltoids. The deltoids get a lot of work by most bodybuilders because they are one of the most prominent muscle groups in the body and respond very well to workouts. Good delts make you look proportionally fit and trim. Lateral raises can pump up your delts to new heights, but do these raises leaning slightly forward. Many people builders have a tendency to lean slightly backwards when doing lateral raises but the delts will not be getting a full workout if you do this.

4 – Proper nutrition is important.

A bodybuilder’s best friend is what he/she puts into his body. Get or develop a well-balanced diet and stick with it. Eat 5 or 6 smaller meals during the day rather than the traditional 3 larger meals. Maintain a good balance of proteins and carbohydrates in your diet. A bodybuilder needs both. Carbs will give you the quick energy and the protein builds the muscle providing long-term sustained energy. And stay hydrated. Water is critical to your metabolic process.

5 – Supplements are important

in building muscle mass. The problem is that some bodybuilders want to cheat nature and use a lot of chemical supplements. You do not need to do this. The best nutrient you can put into your body to help grow muscle mass is protein – not something from a drug lab. So look to protein supplements. They will not only help pack on muscles but they bring up your energy level so you will be able to do your routines with more ease and feel a better sense of well being during your rest periods.

6 – Keep an open mind.

Always be open to new advice and tips. This does not mean to jump from one program to another but we can always use a little fresh insight now and then. Most bodybuilders love to share what they have learned. Body building tips are everywhere. Ask the buff guy at your gym for the one most important tip he can offer. If you are sincere, you will end up getting many tips on bodybuilding.

Technorati Tags: body building, bodybuilding tips, muscle_building

One of the most effective weapons you can have if you want to achieve maximum potential in bodybuilding is your diet. In planning your bodybuilding diet you need to insure that it provides the nutrients you need to maintain a healthy lifestyle as well as supplying the body with the energy needed to complete your desired exercise program.Protein is at the head of the list required in a good bodybuilding diet. It is critical not only for building muscle but also for losing fat and for contributing to the overall health of our tissues and organs. Your diet should include 1 gram of protein for each pound of your body weight. Active bodybuilders should increase that amount to a gram and a half per day. Meat, fish, and milk are all good sources of protein.

A good bodybuilding diet will also include large quantities of carbohydrates which are a major source of the fuel that our body uses for activity. Complex carbohydrates should be included in your diet through starches and fiber. Complex carbs include pasta, whole grain rice, and whole grain breads as well as potatoes.

Don’t leave out the fats! They are an important part of a good bodybuilding diet. We need fats to function correctly and efficiently. They are an energy source for the body and regulate most of our bodily processes.

The key here is to include good fats and try your best to minimize the bad fats. By “good fats”, we are talking about unsaturated ones found in olive oil or flaxseed oil. A good rule to look for is that unsaturated fats are ones that remain liquid at room temperature. Saturated fats that solidify at room temperature tend to clog your arteries and lead to health problems. They should be avoided as much as possible. Animal lard and butter are examples of saturated fats.

Fiber is another key ingredient in a good bodybuilding diet. Fiber helps your body flush out impurities on a regular basis and helps contribute to weight loss. Good sources of fiber include whole grains as well as nuts and seeds.

It would be hard to include too many vegetables in your diet. They contain essential vitamins and nutrients that your body needs to operate efficiently. Fruits may be a good source of fibre and certain nutrients but should be consumed in moderation. Some fruits have a tendency to cause water retention and contribute a larger amount of sugars than you would need.

A good bodybuilding diet is one that is balanced and nutritious with the majority of your protein and carbohydrates consumed in the morning. Rather than eating the traditional three large meals per day, eat five or six small meals daily to spread the benefits throughout your active day. Remember, a proper diet is just as important to effective bodybuilding as is the correct program.

Technorati Tags: bodybuilding, Diet, muscle_building

In any sport, or in any business for that matter, there are people who have a healthy competitive drive to be the best. This is good. Healthy competition keeps society as whole advancing into new frontiers. Unfortunately, there are also those people who want to win at any cost. Those are the types that use steroids for bodybuilding.

It is a fact that using steroids for bodybuilding can create massive muscles in a shorter period of time. This has been proven over and over again. Synthetic hormones do make muscle tissue grow quickly. In the overall process though steroid use for bodybuilding can do much more harm than good.

And the harm they cause is not just to your physical body.

The simple truth is that steroids, although the will build muscle mass, will harm your body more than it will help it. What will steroids do to you? Consider the following:

Steroids will bring you problems that you never wanted to have, such as…

• Steroids will make you more aggressive
• Steroids lower sperm count and lessen your possibility of having a child
• Steroids will eventually cause you to become sterile

You really have to stop and ask yourself if these risks of doing your body harm are something you want to take on. Especially considering that there are way more bad things that can happen from using steroids for bodybuilding than any good that you could ever receive from them. Yes, they will help you build your body to new proportions, but what is the ultimate cost?

Women don’t escape the negative effects either. If you are female and one of your life goals is to walk, talk, and look like a man, then using steroids for bodybuilding is for you.

The negatives of using steroids definitely outweigh any short term advantages. In my minds’ eye, I always picture “building” as constructing something that lasts. Something strong, something enduring. I do not see temporary structures as “building”.

Steroids, on the other hand not only cause serious health concerns as mentioned, but are actually counter-productive and make the anabolic environment less favorable to serious muscle building. When your muscles get used to a dose of synthetic hormones, they keep expecting it and need it in larger doses all of the time. These long term negative effects of steroid use far outweigh any short term muscle gain you may experience.

Look at the careers of some of our top athletes that took a dive because of steroid use. Is this the legacy you want to leave? Is this the type of role model you want to pick for your children, assuming you can have children? Do you want to hide your face in shame, or stand proud and tall in the gym or on the podium knowing that you did it on your own, the right way?

The best and proven method of serious massive muscle building involves using natures help – not the help of a chemist. Focus on your diet to give you the nutrients you need to make well-toned muscles and concentrate on proper workout routines to build muscle. You will be way better off in the long run.

Forget about using steroids for bodybuilding. Intense training, power lifting and squats can flood your muscles with testosterone naturally. You really don’t need anything more, do you?

Technorati Tags: anabolic steroids, body building, Muscle Building

This will be a fairly short post today. Like most of the online world, I have been sort of caught up in the video craze. Not to a great extent,but a little. I have no idea how to put a video together. I have a Canon digital camera that takes stills as well as short video clips and I have made a short clip with it, but that is as far as it goes.

But I do enjoy watching them now and again.

A major problem I have with them is that so many of the videos posted online, and there must be thousands of new ones each day, really aren’t worth the time to watch. Some are too gross, too profane or too stupid to spend the time on.

But I would still sometimes like to take a breather and enjoy a short clip or two.

So I have added a section to my site that pulls in some of the YouTube videos about body building. Several I watched are actually funny and I thought I would like to share them with with. You can see them at Muscle-Building-Reviews.com/videos/.

Watch some if you like but please don’t complain to me about the content. I have no control over it at all.

Anyway, watch and (I hope) enjoy.

Technorati Tags: body building videos, bodybuilding videos

This really cool chart just came across my desk (my screen?) and I couldn’t wait to share it with you.

Many times we read about how to do an exercise and might even be shown a picture or to to demonstrate it. And then we try to do it and it simply does not seem right. So we read the explanation again and hopefully it makes sense so we can start to benefit from it.

Well, if you have had that problem with abs routines, your worries are over.

On the chart you can see the standard pictures of the proper positions – but it doesn’t stop there. The figures are animated and show you exactly how to do the exercise. I don’t know how they do this. It is beyond my capabilities.

You will also notice spaces for you to track your performance. Download it, use it and get those abs a little tighter. You no longer have any excuse to put it off.

Keep in mind that six pack abs also need the correct diet. They simply will not show up if they are buried in a roll of belly fat.

I have added this neat item as a bonus for anyone that signs up for my free newsletter and Bonehead Bodybuilding Blunders course. To get yours, just sign up and then download your personal copy 26 Killer Core/Abs Exercises.

As I said, I think this is pretty cool, but let me know what you think!

P.S. I am also adding Training & Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean-Body. You no longer have any excuse not to have a great bod!

Technorati Tags: Abs Exercises, lose belly fat