A sedentary person who jumps into training makes the most common mistake. He or she overdoes it. When you work out too hard too early, muscle soreness creeps up with each workout until the discomfort subverts your enthusiasm. Learning how to train is akin to learning mathematics. One must absorb it in small increments until it assumes a very definite and workable structure. Fatigue is an ever present threat to the beginner.

Adjustments to the new variables must be made. If you drop out instead, you face the worst of both worlds: the initial energy drain without the longer term energy gain. For example, you can't give up two hours of sleep a night to fit an early morning workout into your daily work schedule. If you exercise and try to get by on five or six hours of sleep a night, the eventual accumulation of fatigue will overwhelm you.

The rise in alertness for an hour or two following a workout is a deception of sorts, especially for the ex couch potato. It may take a couple of months for your body to undergo the physiological changes that infuse you with an overall boost in energy.

It takes time for your body to increase the mitochondria, those microscopic energy producing factories in your muscle cells. Studies show that you can more than double that number in six months or working out. As these power plants increase in strength and number, they burn more fat than carbohydrate to supply energy to your muscles. Roughly, if you are 20 pounds over weight, you have about 70,000 calories stored as fat, a supply of energy that might take months of training to burn up.

On the other hand, you may have only a 2000 calorie reserve of stored carbohydrate, which may be consumed by one intense workout. When you are out of shape, your body grabs for the easier form of energy, carbohydrate. Metabolizing fat is delayed until you are in shape for it. Left unattended, beginners often overdo their exercise session, thinking no pain, no gain. That may satisfy their demons, but wreak havoc with their physiologies.

Rest is as important as sweat. You must give yourself permission to take days off from your training. Often fewer and easier workouts yield greater results. As a bodybuilder, you must start out slowly to avoid injury and burnout. You work at a manageable pace, slowly increasing the volume and intensity of your training. Unlike so many other forms of exercise, bodybuilding does not have excessive repetitions that undermine the body's ability to adapt and improve. There's no chance for boredom, the main reason most people stop exercising. Monotony kills motivation.

People want some control over their lives. Bodybuilding gives you a workout related vigor that develops a greater self esteem, a sense of accomplishment and a positive outlook that make all the worldly problems less likely to slow you down.