Been focusing on this for quite a while now, looking to share the wealth.

Exercise: lift heavy fucking weights. Focus on the big 3 compound lifts: Bench press, dead lift, squat. Google A push pull legs routine if you need a template and don’t know what to do.

Decent starter goals are: Bench: 225 Deadlift: 405 Squat: 315

But teach I want to be toned, have abs, and for my delts to pop. I don’t want to get too big. Shut the fuck up and get strong at the big 3. If you get strong everything else will come.

A key concept is progressive overload. Your body likes to be as lazy as possible and adapts to whatever you put it through. You should be continually increasing weight or reps within your rep range each week. On the big 3 try to do 2.5 or 5 more lbs each week for your 5x5. For accessory lifts try to do one more rep than last time, once you can do 12 or 11 reps in your sets it’s time to go up in weight. Keep pushing your body to do just a little bit better and you will be rewarded with compounding gains.

Volume: you should try to hit each muscle group (chest, bicep, tricep, back, legs, shoulders) two to three times a week for optimal growth. So that means if you do PPL routine you should try to get in 5x-6x per week or if you do full body you should do 2x-3x per week.

Rep ranges: for the big 3 go for 5 reps for 5 sets. For accessory lifts (the helper ones that aren’t the big 3) got for 3 sets 8-12 reps.

Nutrition: Two pieces to nutrition, macros & calories.

Macros are protein, carbs, and fats

Aim for 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight and it’s okay if this varies 10% up or down on the day just aim for that figure. Carbs should be 30%-40% of your intake, fats should be around 20%-30%. As you increase your calories you can keep protein at the same level so it’s really just increasing carbs and fats at that point.

Calories are how much you stuff into your face.

Go find a free activity adjusted TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculator. This will tell you to stay exactly as you are how many calories you need to eat. A pound of body fat is 3500 calories.

If you want to gain weight: eat 250-750 calories above your TDEE. Aim for .5lbs to 1.5 lbs per week depending on how big you are and how lean you want to be as you gain. Slower you gain the more muscle and less fat but you are also gaining slower.

If you want to lose weight: 250 - 750 calorie deficit below TDEE same concept as above, slow with high protein maximizes muscle retention.

Sleep: recovery is just as important as exercise. Get 8-10 hours of sleep a night and you will do better at lifting and at life. Prioritize your own health over other things. Hustlers who advocate that they sleep 6 hours a night are idiots and liars who want to sell you something.

Reminder: LIFT HEAVY FUCKING WEIGHTS

Additional notes: do not ego lift, start slightly lighter than you think you should and slowly progress with good form. If you increase weight 2.5-5 lbs per week you will very quickly be up to whatever your lift goal is. Injury only inhibits your progress, don’t be a fucking idiot. Ask for that spotter, push yourself safely.

Try to keep your lifts in the 70%-85% range of your 1 rep max. You don’t have to do a 1RM in real life to get a gauge of that, go to strength level.com and it will calculate that for you. In this range you are pushing yourself and IT WILL BE HARD. Do this consistently and you will be rewarded with gains.

You should want to gain strength and muscle, the exact same amount of fat covering a larger amount of muscle will look like less fat because it is spread out over a larger area. The order of operations should be: get strong —> get big —> get lean.

You should track your activity, track your food, track your lifts, you can’t lie when it is recorded. We live in an information era, use it to your advantage.

I use hevy for lifting tracking, loseit for food tracking, strength level for 1RM % calculation, and various things for TDEE calculation.

TL:DR

Eat healthy with lots of protein, sleep 8-10 hours a night, lift heavy fucking compound weights 3-6 times a week.