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Setting goals for your weight training is essential if you want to be motivated and disciplined. This is something that will help you to make sure that doing your workouts become a habit and something that becomes part of your normal behavior. Without goals you will not be able to be as willing to continue with the program if you don't have something to work for and to look forward to.

When getting started you should first figure out which of the different fitness activities that are of any real interest to you. If you don't like something that you are doing it's going to be hard to keep the goals that you may have in mind for yourself. You can do this by looking at fitness magazines, going to sites online and even visiting your local gym.

Once you have done your research you can sit down and make a more specific list of what your overall goals are going to be with the training routine that you might be thinking of doing. Your training program can focus on losing weight, your endurance, weight training or a combination of any of those things. Your long term goals should be reached by progressing through your training. You can set something like losing 40 pounds or your goal could be running for an hour or bench pressing 200 pounds. To get there you need a program that will get you there one step at a time and not all at once.

You also should make a list of short term goals as well. These can be goals that you set up on a daily, weekly or even on a monthly basis. A daily goal could be to add 10 more minutes to your running. You weekly goal might be to lose 2 pounds or to increase your endurance doing something from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.

You should write a contract for yourself that stipulates what your long term goal is and what you need to do to achieve that goal and you need to sign it and commit to yourself that you will stick to it. You should post this contract with yourself in a place in your home where you see it on a daily basis. This could be where you workout or on your refrigerator.

You should set up a timetable of when you want to try and achieve your different goals and put down certain dates at which you would like to achieve your goal or goals. You need to be realistic however, don't expect more than your body really can achieve. You will only set yourself up for failure by doing that.

Each time you reach a goal you need to give yourself a reward. If this means that you take off 10 minutes early from a workout one day, do so. However, don't be afraid to reward yourself even more by maybe treating yourself to a night out or whatever it is that really makes you happy or is fun.

It's a fact that it is a lot harder to gain muscle than it is for us to gain fat. So in order to gain some good muscle mass the body is going to have to give up some of it's fat in order to do so. This is going to help you look better as well as feel better. However it is something you need to realize will need to have goals, commitment and a lot of hard work in order to succeed.

First thing you need to do is to set up your goals for yourself. You need lots of self-discipline and commitment as well as some lifestyle changes in order for you to get through this. You need to be fair with yourself though, make sure that the goals you set for yourself are realistic. Don't look at all the body building magazines and make one of those pictures your goal. That's not realistic, especially if you are a novice.

The goals that you set need to be able to match the kind of body that you have. There are three different kinds of body types:

• Ectomorph – This means the the body is lean and has a very fast metabolism.
• Mesophorph – Is a body type that is fairly muscular with a medium metabolism.
• Endomorph – This is the body type that easily stores fat and has a very slow metabolism.

If you know exactly what kind of body type you have is going to be easier for you to set your goals as well as make a workout plan that is going to work for you and not disappoint you.

After you are done with this you need to go ahead and start up your weight lifting program. You need to start off very slowly, no matter what kind of body type that you might have. You need to start any heavy duty workout regime slowly. You should probably keep it to three sessions each week with the sessions lasting anywhere from 45 minutes to no more than 75 minutes at a time. You will definitely need to take one day off between each of your workout days. This will help your body rest and allow your muscles to have time to start to grow. You should also just start with three sets for each exercise when you are first starting and make each set contain 10 reps. You should also make sure to rest about three minutes between the different sets so the body can get enough energy to do the next set.

Make sure that the weights that you pick are comfortable for you when you are first starting. You don't want to end up getting discouraged and wanting to quit just because you didn't pick the right weights. It's also a good idea to just work out one set of muscles per session each week. This will give all the parts of your body plenty of time for rest.

It's important that you also make sure to maintain a well balanced diet and one that will cover all of the different food groups. Make sure to replace the simple carbs, which are sugary foods to more complex carbs which are things like brown rice and whole grains. You need a nice amount of protein as well and some good sources would be eggs, fish, lean red meats as well as chicken.

Make sure that after you are done with your workout that you go and relax and get plenty of sleep for your next day. This will also keep you from getting burnt out and not want to continue with your workout on a regular basis.

It's always very important that before you go off adding any type of new supplement to your regular diet that you do your research on whatever it is that you are considering. It doesn't matter if it claims to be the safest thing in the world, it does not mean there aren't side affects and you should be away of them. That is no different with whey protein. If you are planning to add this to your diet to help you to build more muscle, you need to know that there are side affects.

Number one thing you should know about whey protein and that it is not good for those who are lactose intolerant. If you are wanting to use this protein you will need to make sure that you get whey protein isolate and not just whey protein. This is because the isolate will contain less than 1% lactose, which is the sugar in milk. Regular whey has about 6%, which may not be too much for some but if used in large doses it could bother someone who is lactose intolerant.

Another important thing to note is that no matter what kind of protein that you are considering adding to your diet it is not good for your body to absorb an over abundance of it. If you have too much protein in your body your kidneys will not be able to hand it and there are two things that could happen if your kidneys are unable to process too much protein.

1. Too much protein and the inability for your kidneys to process it can cause your blood to become acidic. Your blood should never be above the 7.0 range on the pH scale. So, when this happens your body tries to correct this by releasing calcium into the blood so the calcium can pick up the byproducts of the protein in your blood turning the blood pH back to neutral where it should be. This all sounds fine and dandy until you realize that you now a bunch of little pieces of calcium floating around in your blood that needs to be gotten rid of. And where does that go? Right back to the kidneys and suddenly you have, you guessed it, kidney stones.

2. The other thing that can happen if you have too much whey protein is that you can go into what is called ketosis. No matter what you have heard about ketosis, know this, it is really bad on your kidneys. Your body will burn off fat to use as energy but you end up starving your body for the carbohydrates it needs. People also cause more problems when they add protein shakes to the mix and cause the body to become confused and doesn't know what to do anymore. Your body will begin to get confused about whether to take care of carbs or fats.

Just remember that it is simply very important for you to check with your doctor and do research before you add any kind of supplements to your diet. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

No matter what your are trying to do when you start a bodybuilding regime, whether it's to build more bulk, become more lean and strong, you still are going to want to lose the fat so you can build the muscle and continue to have a high energy level. A lot of this can be achieved by working out and eating the proper foods, however, for some there is the need for supplements. Especially for those who seem to be avid bodybuilders. Some of the supplements that many use are listed below.

The omega acids are vitally important to many who are trying to bulk up. They are important during the bulking and cutting phases of ones bodybuilding regime. These fatty acids are very important. These acids can't be found in enough supply through natural foods and this is why it is important to try and get them in supplement form. Omega 3 will help to decrease any inflammation that could happen during a training session and is also great for restoration of joints. They also are able to burn fat and help with muscle regeneration. Omega 3 can however be found in some foods like salmon, cod as well as walnuts. Men should have an intake of 1.6g of Omega 3 and women should have 1.1g on a daily basis.

There is also Omega 6 that can be found in soy and sunflower oil and can also be found in a supplement form since there are very few items in their natural form that this can be found. Most adults, men and women should take about 3000 mg of this one each day. The amount of exercise and diet recommendations may change the amount though. It's probably best to consult a doctor about the Omega 6 before taking it.

A lot of bodybuilders also want to incorporate fat burners into their regime. One of those would be L-carnitine which is an amino acid and it can be found as a supplement and it will help metabolize the triglycerides in your body. It is recommended to take anywhere from 500 mg to about 3 g each day.

Choline is another that will help to convert lipids or fats into good energy that is needed for the body. This is sold in supplements as well and can be bought in 250 or 500 mg capsules and there are no recommendations on how much to take.

Another fat burner is called chromium picolinate and is used by a lot of bodybuilders to get ripped. It will help to suppress your appetite and will help in burning fat due to the fact that you will be taking in less calories. They usually recommend that you only take 5 to 30 g each day.