bodybuilding

Bodybuilding Exercises Sculpt Body Without Supplements

Many bodybuilders firmly believe they can add muscles and tone to their bodies without the need for illegal substances. While some may opt for certain legal supplements, others strictly use bodybuilding exercises to sculpt their body, whether they are attempting to gain admittance for competition or simply to make their body look better.

One of the natural exercises used for bicep strengthening is dumbbell curls. The bodybuilder stands straight with the dumbbells in their hands, palms facing inward. In one slow, fluid motion the dumbbells are raised towards the chest with the elbows remaining in a position close to the body. As the arms rise up, they rotate so that when the hands reach the chest they are facing inwards. Reversing bodybuilding exercises on the way back down will help strengthen the biceps.

Hammer curls, another of the bodybuilding exercises for bicep strength is essentially the same as dumbbell curls, except when the hands reach the level of the chest they are in the same position as they were when starting. There is no rotation to the curl. For alternate curls, the weights are lifted from the standing position and the hand rotates 90 degrees to face the chest when it reaches the top. The difference is, the curls are done one arm at a time, and hence the name alternating curls.

Leg Squats The Most Versatile Of The Bodybuilding Exercises

Perhaps the most common of the bodybuilding exercises is the squat, during which a person stands with their feet shoulder-width apart or slightly further and squats down towards the floor. Once reaching the lowest point, simply stand back up. This exercise will work the leg muscles and slight variations to the stance will work different muscles. For example, standing with the toes pointed slightly out, it will work the muscles of the inner thigh. Conversely, if the toes point inwards, the outer thigh muscles get the workout.

There are a couple of common tips when it comes to bodybuilding exercises and the first is to know the muscles that will be worked. Not just the names of the muscles, but also their primary function and what will need to be done to give them strength. Understand what bodybuilding exercises will give it strength and makes all the muscles in that group are worked for an even distribution of strength. Working one arm more than the other could make the appearance seem lopsided.

The rules of thumb for bodybuilding exercises is to workout hard and then rest hard. Muscles will rarely grow faster if the exercises never end. The body needs rest as much as it needs activity.

The Two Spheres Of Body Building Exercises

When it comes to body building, many people erroneously assume that all one needs to do is haphazardly do any type of exercises without any rhyme, reason or logic. This is not a wise move because there are very specific purposes for body building exercises designed to provide two goals of either increased mass or increased definition. By understanding that there are differences between mass building exercises and those exercises that are designed for more definition the ability to arrive at one's goals will be greater facilitated. After all, if you are exercising then you have a certain set of goals in mind and you will want the proper exercises that will be required to reach those goals.

Mass

The most common body building exercises people perform are compound exercises. When you are performing compound body building exercises you are primarily working on mass. That is, compound exercises mean that more than one body part is used to lift the weight. Bench presses, while generally considered chest exercises, also provide secondary stress to the biceps, triceps and shoulders. So, these other muscles grow as well as the chest although not to the same degree. Other common body building exercises that perform compound exercises include squats and military presses. Now, these exercises are not necessarily designed to make the person's muscle mass huge (although they certainly can be used for this purpose) these exercises can be used in a lesser capacity so as not to massively pack on muscle.

Definition

The second type of body building exercises that are employed are those exercises that are isolation exercises. These exercises do not involve more than one muscle group and are designed to specially develop the muscles of a particular area. These exercises can be employed with high repetitions to burn fat and usually follow a cycle of mass building so as to create the definition that mass requires for aesthetic looks. Please note, contrary to popular belief these exercises cannot spot reduce fat in a particular area. Yes, fat will be burned, but it will be burned evenly throughout the body as opposed to any specific or particular area.

Of course, there are other areas that need to be taken into consideration as well such as diet, cardio etc, but the areas of mass building and definition generally cover the basics that one would need in order to achieve a baseline level of success and to reach his or her goals.