Welcome fellow Warriors! Are you fed up with being a blob or being a talking pencil? I was in that position myself at a young age. When I was 12 years old, I was 5 foot 4 and only 90 pounds. I was bullied a lot and I wanted to do something about it. So I looked to bodybuilding and I am amazed with the progress I’ve made over the years. Now at 26 years old, I am 6 foot 2 and weigh 230 pounds.
Bodybuilding has been around since the early 1900s. We saw Mr. Olympia champions like Ronnie Coleman and Arnold Schwarzenegger achieve phenomenal success. Back in the beginnings of bodybuilding, athletes would be judged based on physique and strength. That and using performance-enhancing drugs like steroids were allowed during the Arnold Schwarzenegger days of bodybuilding. Today, bodybuilders are judged only on physique, and PED’s have been banned. Some people want to get in the best shape of their lives by bodybuilding. Some do it to become professionals and compete in bodybuilding competitions. Others do it only for fitness purposes so they can basically look good and feel good with no shirt on.
If you’re serious about wanting to use bodybuilding or weight training as a way to get in shape, here’s some key points that you should remember.
- ASK YOURSELF, IS THIS WHAT I WANT TO DO?
- MAKE A SCHEDULE
- TAKE “BEFORE” AND “AFTER” PICTURES OF YOURSELF
- CALCULATE YOUR MEASUREMENTS (BODY WEIGHT AND BODY FAT %)
- CALCULATE YOUR MACROS (CALORIES, FAT, CARBS, AND PROTEIN
- CHALLENGE YOURSELF
- REMEMBER TO MAINTAIN PROPER FORM
- KNOW THE STAGES OF BODYBUILDING
- KNOW WHAT TO DO IF YOU MISS A DAY
- HAVE THE RIGHT ATTITUDE
- KEEP AN OPEN MIND
Today, I will talk about how you can get started with bodybuilding in no time flat if you’re in your 20’s. I can speak from experience on this, I have been training for many years. I’m not an expert, but I’m not a beginner either. I’m at the intermediate level.
Ask Yourself: Is this What I Want to Do?
Remember, bodybuilding isn’t for everybody. If it is something you want t0 do with your future and you are committed to it, then go to it! It will be the experience of a lifetime and it will change your life forever.
I first got my foot in the door with bodybuilding at the age of 14. My mom had a friend who was a personal trainer and a professional bodybuilder. His name was Doc. He and I met once a week so he could train me, and he helped me develop the mindset that would ultimately make me successful.
We trained for the rest of the summer until I got into high school, where I was in marching band. Marching band ate up a lot of my time, so I kind of put bodybuilding in the back burner. It was when I got into college that I made a full-on commitment to make the ultimate physique transformation. Like I said, attitude plays a huge role in bodybuilding, which I’ll explain below.
Make a Schedule
Making a schedule can either be easy or difficult depending on your situation. If you want to make the most out of your workout in the gym or at home, I would recommend you give yourself anywhere between a 30 and 90 minute window for gym time.
I would also recommend you work out whenever you feel you’re wide awake. If you’re an early bird, then I would recommend working out first thing in the morning. If you’re a night owl, then working out at night is the better option. Sometimes getting your workout over with first thing in the morning before school or before work is the better way to go, so you can have the rest of the day to yourself.
It took me quite some time to come up with a schedule for myself, as I had a habit of “looking at the big picture,” so to speak. But now that I’m older and have graduated from college, I find it easier to make my own schedule instead of having one be made for me by someone else.
Take “Before” and “After” Pictures of Yourself
This step is one of the most important steps to follow in bodybuilding. You want to take before and after pictures of yourself to show your progress of your transformation. Whether you’re following a program for 30 days, 90 days, or 180 days, or even a full year, you want to make sure you take the before and after shots.
By taking pictures of yourself before you start your bodybuilding adventure and after you complete your final workout, people will recognize that you worked your butt off and it will feel very rewarding.
Calculate Your Measurements (Body Weight and Body Fat %)
In addition to taking before and after pictures of yourself, you also want to calculate your body weight and your body fat %. I would recommend you also calculate them before and after you endure a workout program.
Calculating your body weight is easy, just stand on a weight scale and it will tell you your weight in pounds. To find your body fat %, it is a little more complex. I would recommend you have a scale that can calculate just about everything about you (Body weight, body fat %, Body mass index [BMI]).
The scale that I would recommend to you for that is the RENPHO Body Fat Scale Smart BMI Scale Digital Bathroom Wireless Weight Scale, Body Composition Analyzer with Smartphone App sync with Bluetooth, 396 lbs – Black. It is the scale that I use to calculate accurate measurements.
Calculate Your Macros (Calories, Fat, Carbs, Protein)
One of the most important things about bodybuilding is diet. Diet takes up about 80% of transformation of your physique. I followed 2 different methods on how to calculate your macros depending on whether you’re trying to bulk or shred. You can find them here: Ultimate Diet Hack: The Easiest Way to Calculate Your Own Macros
How To Build Muscle (5 EASY STEPS!)
Remember, bodybuilding comes in 3 stages, each one will determine whether you should eat more calories or less calories. I’ll talk more about the stages of bodybuilding below.
Challenge Yourself
You always want to challenge yourself with whatever you do, so that you can level up and get stronger. One phrase I learned in high school is to “make today’s best tomorrow’s worst.” which means that you need to be getting better at what you do in the gym every single day.
If you’re lifting weights in the gym and you think you can lift more weight, then add on an extra 5 or 10 pounds. Maybe add more reps. But remember to do the exercises with proper form, which I’ll explain more about below.
Remember to Maintain Proper Form
If you’re going to be lifting weights in the weight room, even if you’re just doing body weight exercises like push-ups or planks, it is never about how much you can lift. It is more about doing the exercise right. That is what is going to get you the results you want.
If you’re using weights like dumbbells, plates, or barbells, you can’t just be swinging the weights around. That’s just going to get you injured. If you can’t do the exercise properly, you should review how to do it properly before attempting it again. The same thing applies if you’re doing bodyweight exercises where you use your own bodyweight for resistance.
Know the Stages of Bodybuilding
Bodybuilding comes in 3 stages, that are 4 months in length each.
- BULKING (OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, DECEMBER, JANUARY)
- SHREDDING (FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL, MAY)
- MAINTENANCE (JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER)
Notice that the stages of bodybuilding are in sync with different times of the year. For example, bulking is the time when you’re going to be building, adding more size and weight to your physique. How do you do that? You have to eat. A LOT. When is the time that people like to stuff their faces the most? It’s during the holiday season! You have holidays with excessive amounts of eating, like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. There’s giant meals that are served for those special days. On Halloween, it’s mostly junk food and candy.
Shredding is the time when you’re melting off all the extra unwanted weight that you gained during bulking season. Basically, now that you got the size, now it’s time to get the cuts! The muscle definition! So you can be ready for summer! You’ll want to eat a lot less, and eat little to no carbs. Mostly protein and fat.
Finally, maintenance is the time when you’re just trying to maintain all the hard earned work you put into bulking and shredding, so that when you go to the beach or the pool and you take your shirt off, you will not only look good, but you’ll FEEL good. Knowing that you worked your butt off and you earned it. But beware, don’t think that just because you’ve reached your peak should you stop there. You have to maintain your physique. Otherwise, it’ll slowly go away. And then in October, you start bulking once again and the whole cycle goes full circle.
What to Do if You Miss a Day
Sometimes bad things happen and there’s nothing you can do about it. Like if you get sick or if you get injured. If you miss a day in your training routine, don’t panic. It happens. Just remember to jump right back in the next day.
I learned this the hard way. If you end up falling off your routine, it can be really difficult to get back on track. It’s happened to me many times before. I have been involved in the world of bodybuilding for about 12 years now, and there were times where I would fall off the wagon and then get back on again, only to fall off again. Now, I haven’t fallen off at all thanks to my new schedule and routine. But now that I have a routine that I can follow, I don’t see myself falling off the wagon any time in the foreseeable future.
Have the Right Attitude
I said this almost on a frequent basis in my posts from before, but having the right attitude will be the ultimate game changer. I heard a quote somewhere, and I forgot who said it, but the quote said, “Those who say they can and those who say they can’t are usually right.” which is completely true. If you believe that you can do something and you put your mind to it, you’re going to do everything in your power to do it, right? Right.
On the other hand, if you throw your hands up and say “I can’t do it” then you won’t even bother with it again. The same thing applies with starting bodybuilding. Even if you’re making mistakes in your form, or if something doesn’t go according to plan and you miss a day, do not beat yourself up over it. If you do, you might not ever show your face at the gym again. Now, if you’re just going around doing bonehead things that you don’t need to be doing, that’s another story.
Keep an Open Mind
Remember, regardless of what your fitness level may be, you could be a beginner, an intermediate (like me), or you could be advanced. Know that there is ALWAYS more to learn. Everything in this world is changing faster than the speed of light before your eyes.
I have been in the bodybuilding world for about 12 years now, and I am still learning new things every day. I have wanted to change my physique for a long time, and I learned a lot over the years. Let’s face it, if there was nothing left to learn, then you’d probably get bored, right? So you never stop learning, and you always have an open mind on what there is to learn about. So never stop learning. Ever.
Closing Words
I hope my experiences and my words of wisdom helped you learn some new things today! Ready to go on the journey of a lifetime? Then join me on my journey, and together, we will GO INTO BATTLE!