Summary:

"Championships aren’t won in the theatre of the arena. They are won in the thousands of hours of training and the 5 AM runs in the rain when everyone else is sleeping. That’s where it’s won. The heart of a champion is a light switch that’s always on – it doesn’t go on and off when someone’s watching – it’s constant. It’s how you look at something if your name is attached to it – that you do it right – every single time" - Greg Plitt

 

Body:

"Lift."™. If you have been here for a while you have probably heard this and there is a good reason why "Lift"™ is given out as advice for so many problems. If you are to learn one thing from this sub - make it be lifting.

 

Why lift?

Let's face it, you were, or still are, a loser. You are probably flabby all over. But that's ok brother. You are here to learn and improve, which is why we want you to lift. Lifting is the first step in reclaiming your masculinity.

 

So what should you do? There is no other topic that has more conflicting advice than bodybuilding. The fact of the matter is that everybody is different and everybody's body respond to stimulus differently so you might have to do a bit of trial and error to find out what works for you and what doesn't.

 

If you are more than 12% body fat you need to cut down all that fat you are carrying around. If you are skinny af then you need to go on a bulk. As a rule of thumb, it is very difficult to stay at sub-10% body fat for a natty. Honestly, even if you are around 11-13% BF with reasonable muscle mass, you'll have a nice physique. But that doesn't mean to stop once you reach 11%. Always keep improving.

 

Three maxims that you need to keep in mind are:

1) Calorie surplus = Weight gain and Calorie Deficit = Weight Loss

You can do all the fasted morning cardio you want. All the arguments about Low intensity or HIIT won't get you shredded unless you are in a calorie deficit.

 

2) Lifting + Diet + Rest = Gains

Like a bar stool, gains require all three pillars to happen

 

3) Consistency

You can't overturn decades of shit diet and no exercise in a few months. Shit doesn't happen overnight.

 

Let's begin:

Your workout will stay the same regardless of whether you are bulking or cutting. You will strive to lift as heavy as possible regardless if you are bulking or cutting. When you are trying to lose weight you want to shed body fat, not muscle, and thus the lifting will minimise muscle loss. And no high reps with lower weights do not 'tone' muscle.

 

You should be working out AT LEAST 3x/week preferably doing chest, back and shoulder+legs. If you can do more days without impacting your recovery go for it. But don't forget there IS such a thing as over doing it. Doing TOO MUCH training will cause you to LOSE muscle. I will add a video to test if you are overtraining at the end.

 

Your main focus will be on heavy compound movements. Do you want bigger biceps? Do rows and pullups. Do you want bigger triceps? Do bench press and military press. Compound movements work a variety of muscles compared to isolation exercises that work an isolated muscle.

 

When starting out, don't go balls to the walls and hurt yourself. Learn the movement and then work on increasing the weight. The most important thing is your form [how you do the exercise], your speed and last is the weight. Keep your ego at the door. Nobody gives a shit how much you lift. Nobody cares. You aren't that significant. If you have to start off with an empty bar then so be it. Own it. Remember every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.

 

What is the goal that you are working towards? Your goal should be to hit 225lbs on your bench press, 315lbs on your squat and 405lbs on your deadlifts.

 

I try to keep my sets between 12-15 per workout, that's the max I can do without impacting my recovery. This is one of those things that you have to figure out what works best for you. Many muscle magazines workout plans advise 6 days a week with 20 sets per workout - That for most people is way too much. Do a bit of experimentation to see what works best for YOU.

 

If you are just starting out look up the 5x5 program and do that for a few months while you get a feel of the exercise. After you are decently strong [aka doing 135lbs on the bench and pumping out 7-10 pullups] move on to hypertrophy training.

 

Here is a sample workout:

Try to do at least 8 reps per set - and if you can do 12 reps then bump up the weight.

 

Monday: Back

Warm up using pull-ups

3 sets of working deadlifts [2 sets of warm up prior to working sets]

3 sets of Barbell Rows

3 sets of lat pull downs

3 sets of seated cable rows or T-bar rows

 

Wednesday: Chest + Front delts

Warm up using pushups

3 sets of Incline Bench [2 sets of warm up prior to working sets]

3 sets of Flat bench

2 sets of Incline one handed dumbbell press

1 sets of flat one handed dumbbell press

3 sets of Overhead shoulder press

 

Friday: Legs + Middle and Rear Delts

Warm up using lunges and squats [bodyweight]

3 sets of squats [2 sets of warm up prior to working sets]

3 sets of lunges

3 sets of stiff legged deadlifts

3 sets of Side lateral raises

3 sets of face pulls

 

Sunday:

Cardio for 40 minutes preferably fasted first thing in the morning with Abs, calves and forearms.

 

You might be gasping that I didn't do a single curl. Calm your man-tits. I have great bicep/triceps genetics and don't need to do shit for them to grow. Again, adapt to YOUR body type. If you have a back that grows like crazy then cut back your back work in favour of a body part that may be lacking. Maybe you have great back width and shit thickness then chill on the pull downs and go heavy on the rows.

 

Diet:

Probably the more difficult part of getting in shape. Working out is fun. Lifting heavy weights and feeling that pump feels great but sacrificing pizza and chocolate is a little hard. Eat real, unprocessed food. No more fast-food or junk food and stay away from soda/pop and other high-calorie beverages. If it comes in a packaged box then you shouldn't eat it. The bulk of your food should be meats, brown carbohydrates, and healthy fats [Eat the fucking yolk].

 

Focus on your diet! You are in the gym for 5 hours a week, which leaves 163 hours outside the gym that you can fuck shit up if you have a crappy diet.

 

If you want to lose body fat then you need to eat 500 calories lower than your TDEE every day and you will lose around 1lbs/week. If you want to build muscle eat around 200-500 calories more than your TDEE. Look up Total Daily Energy Expenditure calculators online. Try out a few of them to get a reasonable number and work around that.

 

For those of you who are cutting, I know it is hard to eat less when we are so used to constantly grazing. If it were easy everybody would be shredded. But if you use Intermittent fasting, you could make life much easier during your transformation. IF is basically eating your needed calories in an 8-hour eating window and then fasting for the rest 16 [of which you will probably be sleeping for 7 hours]. For example:

 

You can have those 8 or 16 hours however you want. You basically push your first meal later into the day and use coffee to suppress your appetite for a while. You can be flexible with this plan that's the whole point.

 

If you 8-hour window is from noon to 8pm - and your TDEE is 2200 calories then you need to consume 1700 calories within those 8 hours. Now you can have that in one meal or ten, doesn't matter. Of course, you will be much more satiated if you eat 130 calories of chicken rather than 130 calories of skittles. I don't want to go into super detail on IF as there is a shit tonne of material on IF online.

 

Rest:

It's when you are actually resting [sleeping] that your muscles grow. In the gym, you break them down and in your sleep, they repair to be stronger and bigger. Make sure you get at least 8 hours of quality sleep every night. Skip the underwear when you go to sleep.

 

Consistency:

Listen man, whatever transformation you want to happen will take 6 months to a year if not more. I want you to accept, embrace and love that fact. Shit does not happen overnight. You cannot get abs in 7 days by doing ab king pro. It will take 3 months for you to see changes on the scale, 6 months for you to see changes in the mirror and 1 year before other people start noticing your physique. Don't let anyone Bullshit you into thinking that a certain workout plan, diet scheme, or a supplement will give you results in 4 weeks. They are out to get your money. So keep at it. And slowly and surely you will get the physique that you want.

 

Supplements:

For your first year lifting, just have a whey protein shake after your workout. You don't need a 'stack'. AFTER your first year, sure you can add creatine and casein. But remember there is a lot of garbage out there that doesn't do jack shit. Fat-burners/CLA/Garcinia Cambogia - and all that shit is just that, shit. I would highly recommend getting multivitamins + Omega 3 and Calcium with Vitamin D3 and taking them daily.

 

Make sure the multivitamins has an adequate amount of zinc and magnesium. Zinc and magnesium help with testosterone production.

 

One final thing before we finish for today:

Listen up slick, go to the gym for yourself. Go to the gym because you are a man. Go the gym because you want to be healthier, stronger, and shredded. Do it to improve yourself. Do it to become a beast. Do it because you want because you want to be in the 1000lbs club. Do it because you want to be a greek god.

 

Don't do it for the girl that got away. Don't do it because you think getting shredded will show her what she missed out.

 

Congratulations John, you’ve spent countless hours in the gym getting stronger so Sally will see what she missed out on when decided to take a spin on Chad’s cock. The only problem is, you’ve been thinking about her the entire time you’ve been breaking your back lifting heavy things, for what? Do you think she’s thinking about you when she’s sucking Chad off? The answer is no. Take a good hard look in the mirror and understand that you’ve fooled the person looking back at you, you’re a fool.

 

The day your love for bodybuilding transcends your need to get back at the girl is the day you will make all kinds of gains. All Kinds.

 

Further readings:

1) Radu Antoniu

2) Intermittent Fasting

3) Elliot Hulse

4) Are you overtraining?

5) Visual Body Fat Estimate

6) Jonah Hill weight loss image

7) Motivation

8) Feminism. Not even once.

9) How strong I want you to get

10) Yesterday's post [slash R slash TheRedPill]comments/4p1nu3/on_the_first_day_he_learned_how_to_dress/