A proper body building program is to be followed in order to tone our body muscles. In general a good body building program will consists of a series of workouts. The workouts are as follows: The first workout involves concentrating on the chest and triceps. The second workout involves performing any of the hamstring and quad exercises. Normally a day break is taken after these two workouts. The third workout involves performing any of the calves and shoulder exercises. The final workout is for the back and biceps. After this workout a full day’s break is taken.

Along with these workouts a good body building diet should also be followed.

In general a good body building diet program should be supplemented by a combination of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. The approximate amounts of these components should be about 20% of fats, 40% of carbohydrates and 40% of proteins. This diet pattern should be followed mainly by body builders who would like to increase their muscles by reducing their body fat. Your body building diet program should contain carbohydrates from various different complex sources.
The complex sources should be extracted from brown rice and oat meal. Proteins maybe obtained from lean sources. Lean sources maybe obtained from food items such as red meat and tuna. Fats are obtained from unsaturated food sources. These maybe obtained from flax seed oils and olive oil.

Before starting a body building diet program you must be well aware of your regular calorific intake. It is normally advisable to increase the calorific intake in the body when a person is trying to build there body. Dramatically increasing the intake of calories for periodic days will help increasing the muscles in a better way. In general while doing cardio it is advisable to increase and decrease the speed with which the exercises are done.

The same procedure can be performed to increase the muscles in the body, by increasing and decreasing the amount of food. While in a program periodic rests are advisable. Certain body builders are very busy training all the time that they forget to take rest. Taking a couple of days off when in a program will restore the glycogen, increase the anabolism and also restore the hormonal indexes to optimal levels.

In general there is no good muscle building program’s that suits everybody. There are different kinds of programs that suit different people. In America certain Body Building firms follow Aerobics as a part of there body building program. During body building light aerobics is the only form of aerobics that should be followed. All the exercises are performed towards complete failure. Failure may be absolute, complete or just failure. Failure in the sense a point where the body is unable to perform any more of the particular set in a proper, complete manner.

The keys to gaining muscle mass include eating a balanced diet, a healthy lifestyle, enough sleep, and regular and proper weight training exercise.

DIET

You need enough protein for your muscles to develop. The more protein, the better. Lean red meat should always be a part of your diet. Lean meats contain just about the right amount of nutrients to help muscles grow. As a rule, you should take in at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. This can be easily done by properly spacing your meals into six small servings a day. The proper combination of high protein diet and the proper kind of workout will help you gain the right amount of mass for your muscles. However, as a word of caution, you must integrate all the food groups into your diet daily since a protein-only diet cannot sustain a healthy body.

LIFESTYLE

Avoid smoking and excessive drinking. Smoking can cause cancer, as well as a host of other medical conditions. Taking in too much alcohol can also have a bad effect on the health. The key here is moderation.

It is also a good idea to keep the mind sharp. Activities like reading or a hobby can promote good mental health. While the brain technically isn’t a muscle, it still needs to be exercised as an integral part of your body.

SLEEP

Your body grows and heals itself when you are asleep. You must get enough sleep all the time to promote optimum muscle development. You shouldn’t sleep too late or wake up too late either. 6 to 8 hours of sleep every night is just about right to maximize your growth potential. Also, rest at least 24 hours between trips to the gym.

PROPER WEIGHT TRAINING

It is wiser to use free weights when bulking up. Dumbbells and barbells are more effective than machines in building muscle mass. Free weights tend to make your ancillary muscles work as well, since you need to balance the dumbbells when you lift them. The greater range of motion afforded by free weights simply increases the number of muscles utilized in the training and so results are better.

Here are a few additional tips in gaining muscle mass:

- When lifting free weights, it is advisable to do 12-16 sets per exercise. Find a weight that causes muscle failure (when the muscles can’t handle any more repetitions) within 8-12 repetitions per set. You may need to pace yourself when only starting out, then gradually work your way up to this setup.

- Pay attention to muscles that are less developed and work on them more to achieve a balanced physique.

- Exercise only two or three muscle groups in a day. It’s advisable to work out your shoulders, triceps, and chest on the same day, and your biceps and back on the next gym session.