44 Natural Bodybuilding Tips about Training and Nutrition

Here’s a cluster of bodybuilding tips, tricks and hacks I’ve learned over the years.

You are bound to find at least one valuable tip that you can apply to your training routine immediately.

Rather your goal is to build muscle, burn fat and get ripped, spice up your workouts, or eat to get lean – apply these tips and you will get results.

#1. Train with Intensity

Intensity get results. There are one million and one workout schemes out there. They all work if you train with enough intensity.

Intensity is the common denominator for all workouts. All workouts claim to be the best. The one thing every good workout has in common is INTENSITY.

Go hard or go home.

#2. Balanced Training Splits

Use a training split that incorporates your whole body. Make sure you are training each muscle group with equal frequency and intensity.

#3. Full-Body Workouts

Stimulate more muscle fibers to release growth hormone. Vince GiRonda’s 6×6 Workout is a fantastic full body workout routine.

Benefits of full-body workouts include Balanced, symmetrical, and proportionate muscle development, overall jacked-ness, tight sleeves and increased attention from females.

#4. Train Your Legs

For the love of God, train your legs.

Leg training is good for 3 reasons:

#1. You legs are your largest muscle group, therefore training legs burns mucho calories.

#2. Strong legs = a strong body. You cannot have a good physique without strong legs. Period.

#3. Anabolic benefit. Squats train every muscle in your body feet to forehead (not kidding just try keeping a straight face while squatting heavy). Training legs literally makes every other muscle on your body grow bigger and stronger. Squat at least 1-2 times each week. Intense leg workouts produces a lot of growth hormone.

Squat at least once a week, ATG (Ass to Grass) to engage all muscles and train hip mobility. (super important since most people sit all day).

Don’t look like a yard bird with chicken legs.

#4. Dynamic Progression is Key to Continuous Gains

You need to increase intensity by increasing at least one variable of your workout: Weight, sets, reps, time under tension, reduced rest periods.

You need to do something more each workout to grow. If you bench press the same weight the same amount of times each workout you will not improve.

You need to add an extra rep or more weight. Or slower tempo to increase time under tension, and intensity otherwise you will not get results

#5. Simplify Your Training Routine

Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Body weight training and compound movements with barbells and dumbbells should make up 80% of your routine. 100% of your routine if you’re a beginner.

Simple workouts attacked with ferocious intensity trump any other program.

#6. Train Using the 80/20 Rule

80% of your results will come from 20% of exercises you perform. Exercises that get the most results are compound barbell lifts and good old fashioned bodyweight exercises.

Everything else will result in diminishing returns.

#7. Train Heavy

Train heavy to build muscle. This is necessary for beginners. Heavy training ensures intensity, and intensity ensures growth.

Heavy training recruit maximum muscle fibers and elicits growth hormone production.

A linear strength program like Starting Strength is the perfect routine for increasing strength and power.

#8. Track Your Workouts

Do a set, write it down. Note your weight used and reputations for each set.

Everything that measures grows. you need data to know if you’re getting better. Track your workouts with a spreadsheet app or notebook.

Every set, rep, weight used and exercise. Jot down notes at reminders to yourself. Small adjustments in technique should be noted for future reference. Don’t leave it to memory. These notes are valuable. and ensure you experiment, analyze and improve your training methods.

#9 Quality Over Quantity

Focus on quality over quantity. 10 quality reps are worth more than 1000 sloppy reps.

Slow, controlled curls held at maximum contraction vs. swinging his arms one after the other swaying his body like Gumby.

Quality Reps build quality muscle. Bad reps waste time at best. At worst, poor reps set you back with injury and discouragement.

#10 Master the Mind-Muscle Connection

Focus on flexing the muscle While at the bottom (eccentric) part of the lift, flex the muscle you are training to move the weight.

Mind-Muscle connection builds muscle size, density and definition. A.K.A. Mind-Muscle Connection is How You get Cut.

#11 Hold Maximum Muscle Contraction

Muscle contraction means muscle tension, and the intensity of muscle tension = hypertrophy. Flex your muscle as hard as possible throughout the entire range of motion and hold your muscles in the ‘top’ position during maximum contraction. This creates muscle density and increases muscle size.

#12 Chase the Pump

The pump is when your muscles fill with blood. The muscles grow large and you feel the skin around them gets tight. The pump means your muscles are being pushed to their limit. Good. Push your limits to expand your limits. The pump indicates that you’re getting stronger.

#13. Go Slow to Grow

Slow down lifting tempo to keep tension on muscles. Lifting too fast creates momentum, and momentum kills tension.

Take your time with each rep. count in your head “one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi” while raising and lowering the weight. Laser focus on the muscles you’re training.

#14. Safety is #1 (ironically)

Stay healthy or you defeat the purpose of training (unless you’re a ‘roid user with bigorexia). Use safety catches and a spotter for heavy weight. Don’t leave it to chance. Take measures to protect yourself and ensure a lifelong lifting ‘career’.

#15 Take a Rest Day

Deloading Phase or Recovery Day to let your bones, joints, ligaments and muscles fully recover. Weeks of heavy training puts tremendous demand on your body. A day of rest allows time to recover , re energize and come back stronger.

“Team No Days off” should rebrand “Team No More Cartilage on my Joints”. Take a day off once in a while, or take the elevator instead of the stairs when your 40.

Even God took a rest day. You’re not better than God. (Even you, Kanye.)

Bodybuilding Workout Tips and Techniques

#16. Super Charge Your Workout with “Super Sets”

Supersets allow you to train more muscle in less time while keeping your heart rate high for added cardio and fat burning.

#17. Train Beyond Failure with “Forced Reps”

Push beyond failure to train muscles to the maximum. Forced reps are when you have a partner help you push out 3 or 4 more reps at the end of your set when you can no longer do it yourself.

#18. Finish with Drop-set (A.K.A. Burn sets)

Burn sets are the gym equivalent to Scorched Earth strategy. Leave no muscle fiber unscathed.

immediately after finishing your last working set, grab a slightly lighter weight and perform as many reps as possible. Then grab an even lighter weight and do as many reps as possible. Do this one more time until you can’t lift any more. Burn set complete.

#19. Train with Pyramid Sets

Pyramid sets are a fun way to shake the old routine.

#20. Shock your Muscles every once in a while

Try an intense 1000-rep workout or bodyweight circuit.

#21. High-Intensity Training (HIT Workouts)

Mike Mentzer’s ‘Heavy Duty’ Training is a good place to start.

#22. Train to Failure

Train muscles to failure to ensure maximum muscle fiber stimulation. Then there’s no question that you’ll get results.

#23. Train with a Partner

Someone who motivates you and pushes you to improve. Training with a partner allows you to train to failure and beyond safely.

#24. Do 6-8 Reps per Set

This is the optimal rep range for building muscle. Aim to get as strong as possible within this rep range.

#25. Train at least 4 days a week

Consistency is key. Get in the gym 4 days a week for an hour each time.

#26. Never Miss a Monday

Start the week strong

#27. Leg Day before Upper body

Train legs on Monday. The squat rack will be open because everyone else will be celebrating International Chest Day. Training legs before upper body ensure that you will actually train your legs.

Natural BodyBuilding Diet and Nutrition Tips

You don’t eat right and you won’t grow. Don’t eat right for your physique goals, and you won’t reach your goals. You need to eat according to your objective: health, bulking, getting ripped, or otherwise.

#28. Learn How to Cook

If you can’t cook you can forget about getting lean and being healthy. If you can’t cook you by processed food or go out to eat. Both will make you fat.

Alternative option is to by freshly prepared, prepped meals. There are many companies that do this. Google it.

#29. Only Eat Food You Cook Yourself

The best food you can eat is food you prepare and cook yourself. It’s the only way to guarantee you reach your fitness goals. Restaurant food is 99% garbage and makes you fat. Frozen meals are junk.

Cook your own food with whole, natural ingredient to get lean and for optimal health.

#30. Earn Your Carbs

The Great Strength Sensi, Charles Palanquin, advises to earn your carbs. that means only eat carbs if you exert energy though physical activity. If you train hard and heavy, break a rolling sweat and your limbs shake after a workout. You have earned your carbs.

Remember, everything you eat and don’t use stores as fat.

#31. Simplify Your Diet

Eat the same thing every day like Steak and Eggs. You will eat less and ensure you get all the nutrients needed to build muscle and be heathly. And none of the shit that makes you bloat.

#32. Eat Clean

Eating clean means eating all natural, fresh, whole foods. Nothing fried, frozen, or processed.

#33. Eat Kosher

Kosher is the cleanest way to eat. In a bastardized food industry, kosher is the last stronghold for pure foods. Kosher laws are strict and to be Kosher means food must be prepared according to high standards. Look for the kosher mark on the foods you eat and you know it’s better than it’s non-kosher counterpart.

#34. Body fat Percentage is More Important than Weight

Forget the number on the scale. What matters is how you look in the mirror. And how you look in the mirror, either fat or lean, depends on your body fat percentage. Have 15% body fat you’re lean, 10% body fat you’re ripped

#35. Drink Water (a LOT of Water)

Drink over a gallon of water a day. I drink over two gallons of fresh water every day. I take my nalgene water bottle with me everywhere to ensure I’m hydrated at all times.

#36. Don’t Drink Your Calories

Liquor beer and wine are empty calories. limit to 1 drink a day.

No Pop, Soda or Flavored Coffee. It’s poisonous fat-serum.

Do not drink your calories. Unless your drinking meal replacement shakes.

#37. Fitness Starts at the Grocery Store

Don’t buy food made for fatso’s and you won’t eat it. Buy it, and you will eat it. Don’t kid yourself saying you’ll only eat 1 a day. That doesn’t work.

Don’t buy anything with an ingredient on the package that you couldn’t grow in a garden. Especially avoid hydrogenated oils, soy, maltodextrose and High fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup comes from, you guessed it, corn. The same corn used to fatten up livestock.

#38. Eat a Lot of Everything to Gain weight

If you want to gain weight, eat everything in sight. also called the “See Food” diet. When you see food, you eat it. Or try old school weight gain techniques like drinking heavy creme mixed with ginger ale.

#39. Try Intermittent Fasting to Lose Fat Fast

If you’re 300 pounds and want to by 200 pounds. you need to eat like a 200 pound person.

If your 90 pounds and want to be 185 pounds, then eat like an 185 pound person.

#40. Avoid Refined Carbohydrates like the Plague

Overeating refined carbs is the main reason America is so fat. Refined carbs are found in bread, pasta, candy and sugar.

#41. Get One Gram of Protein Per Pound of Body Weight

Protein builds muscle. You need a lot of protein to build a lot of muscle. Supplement your protein intake with protein shakes.

#42. Meal Prep

Meal prep is a God send for people who want to transform their body. Cook a week’s worth of meals on Sunday afternoon and enjoy them throughout the week. Cook meals based on your objective. DO this long enough and you’ll get where you want to be eventually.

#42. Go Low-Carb or No-Carb to get ripped. Eat Steak and eggs to get ripped

If you have body fat you want to get rid of fat. Your body burns fat when no carbs are available.

#43. Supplement Smart

Protein powder, liver tabs and BCAAs. Use the best quality or you’re throwing money down the toilette.

#44. Stay Natural

Play the Long game. Train Smart and release bodybuilding for health and wellbeing is an endurance sport. If you want to be jacked in your 40’s, 50’s and beyond, training smart to avoid injury is critical. Also realize there are no short cuts. Look at the previous great body builders. With the exception of Frank Zane, their physiques all went to hell. A result of no more steroid use and lifestyle changes I speculate.

There you have it. Use these tips and you’ll be on you’re way to your dream body in no time.