What Does a Great Bodybuilding Routine Look Like?

You are ready to take that step to begin losing weight and gaining muscle.  But what should you do.  Knowing what a great bodybuilding workout should look like is difficult if you do not have someone training you or you aren't a seasoned bodybuilding veteran.  But any great bodybuilding workout should have a few common characteristics.

The first characteristic is that the workout should be short.

You should aim for about sixty minutes.  Make sure the workout is no less the forty-five minutes, and no more the seventy-five minutes.  The reason you do not want to go less than forty minutes is because your body has just gotten to it peak during the workout for fat loss and muscle gain.  Quitting now will defeat the point of the workout.  If you go longer than seventy-five minutes, the hormones that cause you to burn fat and build muscle will decrease and the workout will no longer be effective.

The second key thing to remember about your workout is that you do not need to rest for long periods of time.

The longer you rest, the more your heart rate will drop, which will take you out of your fat burning zone.  In order to keep you heart rate up you should rest for no more the ninety seconds between set and exercises.  Another reason to not spend too much time resting is because you want to pack as much into your workout in those seventy-five minutes as you can, if you are wasting precious time sitting around, you will not be getting anything out of your workout time.

Something else you should remember is that while you should consume a lot of water during your workout.  But don't drink too much water all at once.  Take just a few sips between sets and exercises to keep yourself going.  If you chug half your bottle of water while you are working out, it will just sit in your stomach.  It cannot be absorbed that fast, especially while you are in a workout.  Drink small amounts at a time, so as to avoid any discomfort.

If you are trying to gain muscle mass you want to do heavy weights for about five to ten repetitions.  If you are trying to lose weight and look sculpted then you should use a lighter weight and do about twelve to twenty-five repetitions each time.  Choose a weight that you can control throughout all of the reps. If you start having to throw your body into it just so you can lift the weight, then go down some.  The key is to have slow and controlled movements, allowing the muscles to achieve their best potential.

The final characteristic that all great bodybuilding workouts should have is keeping your workouts varied and cycled.

If you do the same routine over and over, not only will you get bored and lose all enthusiasm that you had, your body will learn the routine, and it will not have any effect.  Try different exercises, working out in different places, using more or less weight, and having more intensity or less.  Putting some variation in your workouts will keep the results coming and will keep you interested.