Don’t Stretch Your Routine

While you will be told by many that bodybuilding involves spending rigorous hours of training at the gym, it actually is not quite true. An hour a day is just about fine. Your bodybuilding workout routine should fall anywhere between 45 and 75 minutes. You can start with a shorter routine but work your way up over time. However, you should understand that the amount of time you put in the gym is not directly proportional to the amount of lean muscle mass that you gather. When we exercise our bodies release muscle building and fat burning hormones such as testosterone. However the level of such hormones being released in our body sharply reduces after around 75 minutes. Pushing your body beyond that time would only mean that you are risking yourself to injury and not much else.

Don’t Relax

To many of you, 60 or 75 minutes of workout might sound a bit too little. But you must remember that you can gain significant time by cutting down on the rest you take between two sets of exercises. In fact, you should try to keep the rest period down to 90 seconds between two sets. There are quite a few positives if you do so. First of all, it allows you to have more time to finish your entire workout within the stipulated 60 or 75 minutes. Secondly, cutting down on the rest break improves your cardiovascular system greatly. It learns to handle more pressure and you make significant gains on your stamina. Thirdly, it has also been suggested that a training with very short rest breaks helps in stimulating the output of our growth hormones, crucial to build lean muscle mass.

Keep Things Under Control

Once you know for sure exactly what you are looking for through your bodybuilding workout routine you will decide on the number of repetitions that you need to do for each set. The general wisdom is that you should do at least 8-15 repetitions if you are only looking at gaining muscle mass. However, if you want that perfect body with every part of your body being exactly what it should be, then you will need to do anywhere between 15 and 25 repetitions of each set. There are quite a few advantages in doing repetitions of each set.

First of all, when you undertake to do so many repetitions it is obvious that you will be working with weights that you can handle. The result is that there is a far lesser chance of getting injured this way. With too heavy a weight you will not be able to do so many repetitions.

Secondly, with these numbers of repetitions you allow your muscles to receive the maximum amount of blood. When you are exercising the cardiovascular system springs into action and makes sure that there is enough blood reaching the parts which are under the most stress. Blood is sent to these parts to carry nutrients that are vital to nourish the muscle cells. The nutrients help the muscle cells to recover and aid them to grow bigger.

Thirdly, research has shown that performing bodybuilding exercises in these repetition ranges allows for the maximum fat loss and gain in muscle mass, the most important criteria for bodybuilding.

Add Variety

However good your bodybuilding workout routine is, you must add variations to it as otherwise not only will you get bored of it and lose focus, but it will also not help you in gaining muscle. With no muscle growth, the purpose of exercising is lost. So it is suggested that you change your routine after every 3-4 weeks. This way you will stay focused and will also gain on muscles.