Body Building Workout Routine

Body Building Workout Routine

Any body building workout routine should be approached with the understanding of your specific goals for the time you spend working out. A workout routine for a 22 year old former college football player will be vastly different from a 42 year old former high school football player not to mention those of us who never spent any time on the gridiron.

If you are significantly overweight, extra emphasis should be placed on fat-burning aerobic exercise such as bicycle riding, walking, jogging or running, Nordic track skiing or even rowing. These exercises are excellent for getting your heart rate up to around 65% of your maximum capacity which is generally understood to be the perfect level for burning fat.

The formula for maximum heart rate is 220- your age. A 40 year old's maximum heart rate would be 220-40 or 180 beats per minute.

Modern gym equipment can be programmed to maintain your heart rate by varying the resistance while you exercise, making this an almost no-brainer. Just plug in your age, weight, duration of workout and the machine will keep you going.

That being said, larger muscles burn more calories, so, muscle gain should not be ignored.

A completely different body building workout routine would be more appropriate for someone with only a few pounds to shed (or even pounds to gain) and would focus more on resistance training or weight lifting.

For those of you who wish to bulk up, add muscle mass to your body, you would want a body building workout routine that utilizes heavier weights and fewer repetitions, gradually adding weight over time as you become bigger and stronger.

People who wish to tone up their bodies without increasing the size of their muscles should follow a workout routine that focuses on higher repetitions of lower weights, adding more repetitions as you become leaner and stronger.

Two important components of any body building workout routines that cannot be ignored are proper rest and proper nutrition. Proper rest between exercises for the same muscle group, [two days would be the minimum I would recommend (others may differ)] will allow your muscles to repair themselves and reduce the occurrence and duration of soreness.

 Nutrition is vitally important in supplying your body with the proper ratio of nutrients necessary to fuel your workouts and build your muscles in addition to reducing your subcutaneous layer of fat so that you can see and admire (and show off) your new grown muscles.