Working out - Where do I begin?

Many people out there start off working out by building the most visible muscles on the human body which they think have the best aesthetic qualities, meaning the muscles that look best when they are dressed in a shirt.

Don’t do that.

Those bulging upper arm muscles that you see on professional body builders, heck even average guys, are most commonly known as the biceps. They are responsible for the upward bending movement of the forearm against gravity, hence they tend to build up very quickly as you are using them all the time.

If you’ve been reading my other guides, you would have known that muscles only contract and relax in one direction. Therefore in order for your arm to move back to its original position, there must be another muscle contracting in the opposite direction. On the upper arm, the muscles that work in the opposite direction are the triceps.

The triceps act with gravity to pull the arm downwards, hence it is by nature smaller and less obvious than the biceps. Together, this pair of muscles help to produce the range of movement associated with the forearm.

Why am I telling you all these? Simply put, you need to balance out muscle building and not concentrate all your efforts on one area.

Firstly, you will probably end up looking like one ugly ogre. Secondly, imagine this scenario where two boys are playing tug of war using a rope. If the two boys are evenly matched, there would be a stalemate and the rope will not move towards any side. If one of the boys is stronger, he will pull the rope with a much greater force as compared to the weaker boy and win the game.

Now imagine if that rope is your bone. Your muscles are attached to your bone. What if one of the pair of muscles that naturally work together becomes much stronger than the other? The other weaker muscle is going to have a hard time evening out the stress produced by the imbalance, and is going to tire out much, much faster.

So Now What?

One of the most important rules of working out is this: Start off with the biggest muscle group first before moving on to the smaller groups.

This can be applied to the body in general, or specific targeted areas of the body. Here are some tips to start you off if you’re feeling a little lost.

Start out with the biggest muscle groups in the body

• Chest Muscles
• Back Muscles
• Abdominal Muscles (aka your abs)
• Calf Muscles
• Thigh Muscles

For many body building skinny guys, it is very easy to fall into the trap of focusing on the most aesthetically pleasing set of muscles that seem to have the fastest results such as the biceps. Instead of going after immediate results, aim to achieve a balanced workout and give equal recognition to the muscles that do much of the work to support your body.