For anyone who is Bodybuilding, it’s Important to have a Detox Diet Program no matter if you’re weightlifting to gain muscle mass or getting ripped. Many people do not detox because they don’t understand how important it is and what the benefits are.

Detox While Getting Ripped

For getting ripped, you will noticed the fat starting to melt away faster then if you didn’t detox. This is because the detox not only cleanses your small and large intestine, but also cleanse the chemicals and filth in your fat cells.

These chemicals from the foods you eat are stored in your fat. That is because the body has a hard time digesting them. Plus, it is the easiest and most convenient place for those certain chemicals to be stored. Once you clean out the chemicals in your fat cells, you will notice while doing your cardiovascular exercise or weight lifting that the fat will be burned off more effectively.

You will also lose weight when you detox because of the build up of bad food choices sticking to the edge of the intestine walls.

Detox When You Lift to Gain Muscle Mass

For gaining muscle mass, detoxing will aid in the transportation of nutrients and protein to your muscles. These nutrients and proteins travel through your small and large intestine and in your blood stream. Once you clean out those areas, nutrients will be transported faster and more effectively.

You will have to make up your mind on how long you want to detox. I usually do a 2 week or a 14 day detox. I do this twice a year. Because after a while, everyone drifts from their diet and gets side track. So in order to keep in line with my diet, I like to get back on track twice a year.

Once you go through your detox diet program, you will feel better about the choices you will eat afterwards. You will also feel compelled to stick to your diet to continue this healthy feeling.

There are plenty of different methods for detoxing and different liquids you can use. In future articles, I will go more into detail.

Rest Times for Maximum Muscle Growth is very important in Bodybuilding. When done incorrectly, it might be the number one reason why beginners never see results. There are different times you need to rest when building muscle. Knowledge of how long and when is very important to the growth of your muscles.

The Time Periods you need to rest are…

• Between Sets
• Days Between Workouts
• Length of your Workout
• Rest Time Between Sets in Circuit Training

Between Sets

The time between sets is very important and changes depending on whether you want to Build Muscles or Tone Your Muscles, also referred to as Getting Ripped.

Building Muscle Mass

When building muscle mass, your rest time between sets should be between 60 to 90 seconds. You don’t want to go past 90 seconds because the muscle will recover too much and will already be starting to heal. On the other hand, below 60 seconds will not allow the muscle to recover enough to push out the energy required to break down the cells.

Getting Ripped

When you want to get ripped which is lifting weights to burn calories to reduce the fat layer between the muscle and skin, a good rest time is 30 seconds. This is ideal because you do allow the muscle to recover enough so it isn’t completely fatigue and you don’t allow your body to fully recover giving you a more of an aerobic exercise.

Days Between Workouts

The rest interval between days is also important. Some people are so gun ho that they workout every day and work the same muscle groups day after day. This is the worst thing you can do because you will shrink your muscles instead of growing them.

When you work your muscles to the maximum, your muscles need time to recover. After a good workout, you have teared down the muscle cells and actually split the cells in two. When you rest, the two new cells grow from the protein in your body and become bigger.

If you do not give the muscle enough time to fully recover, you cease the growth progress. That is how your muscle will shrink.

It’s always good to give about 48 hours of rest between muscle groups. You can even go 72 hours when you’re first starting out. It’s better to rest more rather rushing into your next workout.

Length of your Workout

Since we are talking about Time Periods as well as Rest Periods, the total time of your workout plays a roll. You should not workout more then an hour straight when lifting weights. This is because you will start to lose the necessary energy that you need to push those weights to your max. When you are not pushing as hard as you can, you are not getting the full benefit of your workout.

Rest Time Between Sets in Circuit Training

When you are doing circuit training, you will need a little bit more time of rest between the sets. Since you are doing between 5 to 9 exercises back to back without any rest within a set, you need to extend your rest period. I usually like to keep my rest period around two minutes between each of the circuit sets. This will give you the benefit of an aerobic exercise with the benefit of muscle growth.

Warming up is very important to do before any strenuous activity including Bodybuilding. Whether it is playing a sport or lifting weights, you have to warm up properly so you will not cause any injuries. By loosening up the joints and promoting more circulation to the body, you will be able to undergo more stress without an altercation. A lot of people even do warm up exercises before they stretch. Warming up implies that you increasing your heart rate a little bit, but not so much to the point of the actually activity.

A good way to warm up is to workout the core. This will activate the blood flow and start to get oxygen and nutrients to the other muscles.

Another great way to warm up before lifting weights is to do the exercise with very light weights. This will activate the muscles and prepare them for the heavy weights that is about to follow. Make sure you lift in the same way as the actual exercise. This light weight warm up will stretch and loosen up the muscles.

This principle works for all other aspects too. Like for instance, if you wanted to go running, a light jog before the run would get the leg muscles warmed up and the blood starting to flow.

There are four different stages to the correct warm up…

• General Warm Up
• Static Stretching
• Sport Specific Warm Up
• Dynamic Stretching

General Warm Up

The first stage is the general warm up. This stage consist of a light cardio workout. It might be walking, swimming or biking. Either way, make sure it is light and do not put your all into it.

Static Stretching

The second stage is static stretching. This is where the major muscles are stretched under tension. This is a safe mode of stretching and is very important for the warm up.

Sport Specific Warm Up

The third stage is sport specific warm up. This is a more strenuous form of warming up and when the first two stages are done right, this will really get you prepared for the activity. At this stage you will duplicate the activity you are about to perform but with less intensity.

Dynamic Stretching

The final stage is called dynamic stretching. This is more dangerous then static stretching and should be done under professional supervision. In this stage you will stretch by controlled and soft bouncing of the muscle so that the muscle is stretched even further.

Switching over to a Competition Diet while Bodybuilding to get Ripped is for people who have already put on the muscle mass and want to remove as much fat from between their muscle and skin to show muscle definition. The following are key points to consider.

Sugar

The first thing you need to do is cut out all your sugar intake. This will be the hardest part of your diet because sugar is found in almost everything you eat. The main reason to cut out sugar from your diet is that it will slow down your fat burning process. Here is a short list of what not to consume…

• All candies and cakes should be off limits
• Do not drink store bought juices like orange juice or apple juice
• Foods that are processed and packaged
• Fast Foods

Read before you eat. Look at the labels of all take you are planning to eat. You may be surprised.

Carbohydrates

You should lessen your carbohydrate intake. Carbohydrates should only be consumed in the morning or in the afternoon, never at night. This will help your body burn calories during the night after you have done your workout in the evening.

When dieting like this, you want to make sure your calorie intake isn’t to low because you will not get enough nutrients to your muscles and you will lose your muscle mass when you lift weights. But at the same time, you want to consume less calories then you did during building muscle mass, so you will be burning fat. This will get you in competition shape in a few months, depending on where you are with your body fat percentage.

Types of Foods to Eat

You should be eating foods that are high in protein but are low in fat and carbohydrates. This way you can keep the muscles you just built and lose the fat around the muscles.

Water

Water is also a must when trying to get ripped. It will help flush out the toxic in you system. Also, water has useful minerals which your body needs. This may seem to be a complicated process but if you pay attention to what you eat and your calorie count, you will see incredible results.

Rest and Recovery is Crucial for Muscle Growth in Bodybuilding

Rest and Muscle Recovery is very important in Bodybuilding in order to build the most Muscle Growth possible. When done incorrectly, it might be the number one reason why beginners never see any results. There are key times you have to rest when building muscle. Knowledge of how long and when is very important to the growth of your muscles.

The Times you need to Rest are…

• Rest Time Between Sets
• Rest Time Between Workouts - Days
• The Length of your Workout
• Rest Time Between Sets in Circuit Training

Rest Time Between Sets

The time between sets is very important and changes depending on whether you want to build muscle or tone your muscle.

When building Muscle Mass, your rest time between sets should be between 60 to 90 seconds. You don’t want to go past 90 seconds cause the muscle will recover too much and will already be starting to heal. Below 60 seconds will not allow the muscle to recover enough to push out the energy required to break down the cells.

When you want to tone your muscles or want to lift to burn calories, a good rest time is 30 seconds. This is ideal because you will allow the muscle to recover enough so it isn’t completely fatigue and you don’t allow your body to fully recover giving you a more of an aerobic exercise.

Rest Time Between Workouts - Days

The rest interval between days is also important. A lot of people are so gun ho that they workout everyday and do the same muscle groups day after day. This is the worst thing you can do because you will shrink your muscles instead of growing them.

When you work your muscles to the maximum, your muscles need time to recover. After you workout, you have teared down the muscle cells and actually split the cells in two. When you rest, the two new cells grow from the protein in your body and become bigger. If you do not give the muscle enough time to fully recover, you cease the growth progress and the two new cells remain small. That’s how your muscle will shrink. It’s always good to give about 48 hours of rest between muscle groups. You can even go up to 72 hours when you are first starting out. It is always better to rest more then to rush into your next workout.

The Length of your Workout

Since we are talking about time periods as well as rest periods, the total time of your workout plays a roll. You should not workout more then an hour straight when lifting weights. This is because you will start to lose the necessary energy that you need to push those weights to your max. When you are not pushing as hard as you can, you are not getting the full benefit of your workout.

Rest Time Between Sets in Circuit Training

When you are doing circuit training, you will need a little bit more time of rest between the sets. Since you are doing between 5 to 9 exercises back to back without any rest for a set, you need to extend your rest period. I usually like to keep my rest period around two minutes between sets. This will give you the benefit of an aerobic exercise with the benefit of muscle growth.