Step by Step Plan to Building Your Dream Physique
I find myself visiting this topic very often. With that being said, I want to use this post today as a simple How to Guide that will be pretty fool proof for all the folks who want to know the answer to this question: “How can I lose fat and keep muscle mass?” Pay attention. If you follow these steps very closely, you will be able to do just that.
I get it and trust me I understand. The chiseled physique is the ultimate goal for many people. It is in front of us every day as the dream body. We see it on television with movie stars and on social media with models. Let me show you how you can get that body too!
First, lets set the record straight. Excessive amounts of cardio and Interval Training will not give you this physique. This is a very common misconception. If your goal is to retain dense muscle mass, do not make this mistake!
So what will give you that rock hard physique? It is a simple combination of a low body fat percentage and strong, dense, functional muscle. The low body fat is indicative of a high metabolism which will keep you constantly burning calories in a fat burning state.
How do you go about building dense muscle? That is easy. Get stronger my friend! You probably already know the two types on resistance training for muscle growth. Strength training and hypertrophy training. With strength training, your muscle fibers become tightly packed and strong. Because they become so tightly packed and dense, your muscles will look harder.
Basic hypertrophy training focuses more on time under tension, lighter weights, and short rest intervals. This type of training builds stamina and bloats the muscle with blood. Thats the pump you feel during the high rep sets.
If you want the lean, aesthetic, and ripped muscle look, you have to train strength more often the hypertrophy. Lift heavier weights with longer rest intervals 70% of the time. The other 30% can be reserved for hypertrophy training the secondary muscle groups and “burning out” your primary muscles.
What are the major movements you should be going heavy on? Movements that recoup multiple muscle groups at once. These are called compound movements. The best ones for building out a great physique include Squats, Deadlifts, Incline Bench Presses, Dips, Pull Ups, any Olympic lifts, and Overhead Presses. Olympic lifts are fantastic but are very specialized and take time to develop the correct movement patterns. I recommend having a coach before doing any of these.
Now you know what you have to do and some important movements to focus on… lets dive into eating!
Start fasting!
I am a huge proponent of intermittent fasting. At the end of the day, if you are cutting that fat mass down, you will never get to your goal physique. In order to cut the weight, there is no way around the fact that you must consume less calories than you burn. Not an excessive calorie deficit, but enough where you can slowly bleed away the extra pounds of fat mass without effecting your strength and size.
Why fasting is right for you!
The best way to manage your food intake on a daily basis while also keeping your body in a steady fat burning environment is to fast! This is more simple to achieve than you may believe. The end goal for a successful fast during intermittent fasting is to go 16-18 hours without eating. This leaves you with a 6-8 hour window in which you will consume all of your calories.
This may sound like a long time but here is what is can look like for you. Fasting hours: 8PM-12PM ; Eating hours: 12:01PM-7:59PM. If you want to fast a little longer in order to help with insulin resistance then I recommend fasting between 8PM-2PM and eating at 2:01PM-7:59PM. As you can see, many of your fasting hours will be spent sleeping! I recommend using the first 16 hour fast approach until you get comfortable with the process.
Intermittent fasting has been shown to accelerate in muscle growth by boosting natural testosterone levels, improve quality of sleep, increase your metabolism, help prevent chronic diseases and inflammation, and much more. Intermittent fasting is great for your overall health!
“How much should I eat?”
This will depend on your activity level. If you are doing my Burn program here on Newave Fitness, I recommend eating a minimum of 11 calories per pound of body weight and at most 13 calories per pound of body weight during the first Two Phases. So for the sake of easy math here… if you weigh 200lbs. You should be eating anywhere from 2,200 to 2,600 calories daily. Starving yourself will not give you the body you want. I can promise you that.
Sample Day on fasting:
Wake-12PM: coffee, zero calorie energy drink, vitamins, or whole greens supplement. 0-50 cal
12:01PM- 6oz Chicken Breast, 1/2 cup rice, 1 cup veggies, 1 fruit of choice. 600-800 cal
3:00PM- 6oz white fish, 1/2 cup rice, 1 cup veggies, 1/2 cup fruit of choice. 500-550 cal
6:00PM- 6oz Chicken Breast, 1 cup sweet potato, 1 cup veggies. 550-600 cal
7:59PM- Protein Shake, 2 Rice cakes. 280-360 cal
As you can see, intermittent fasting doesn’t give you a free pass to eat whatever you want. Fasting simply changes when you eat, not what.
Training Split
You can tweak this to fit your life style but I recommend resistance training atlas 4 times a week to build muscle and burn fat. If you follow the “Burn Program” here, your workouts and splits will be taken care of for you. It is a 6 day training split. I understand that is a lot. With that said, building your dream body isn’t just going to come to you. You are going to have to work your butt off or just don’t try. The plan only works if you do.
Sample Training Split (4 days):
Monday: Lower body focus
Barbell Squat: 4 sets; 8 reps each set; 45 sec - 1 min rest between sets
Bulgarian Split Squat: 4 sets; 8 reps each leg each set; 45 second rest between sets
Romanian Barbell Deadlift: 4 sets; 6 to 8 reps each set; 1 min rest between sets
Barbell or Dumbbell Front Squat: 4 sets; 10 reps each set; 30 second rest between sets
Weighted Lunges: 4 sets; 10 reps each leg each set; 30 second rest between sets
Bodyweight Squat Jump: 3 sets; 30 seconds; 30 second rest between sets
Tuesday: Pressing focus
Incline Barbell Bench Press: 4 sets; 8 reps each set; 45 second rest between sets
Flat Dumbbell Bench Press: 4 sets; 10 reps each set; 45 second rest between sets
Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press: 4 sets; 6-8 reps each set; 1 min rest between sets
Dips: 4 sets; 8-10 reps (add weight if possible); 1 min rest between sets
Incline Chest Fly: 4 sets; 12 reps each set; 30 second rest between sets
Decline Cable Chest Fly + Plyometric Push up: 3 Super Sets; 10-12 reps; 30 second rest between
Thursday: Pulling Focus
Traditional Conventional Deadlift: 5 sets; 6-8 reps each set; 90 second rest between sets
Barbell Bent Over Row: 4 sets; 8 reps each set; 45 second rest between sets
Pull-Up: 4 sets; 6-10 reps (add weight if possible); 45 second rest between sets
Barbell Upright Row: 4 sets; 10 reps each set; 30 second rest between sets
Wide Lat Pulldown + DB Bent Over Row: 4 super sets; 10 reps each set; 30 second rest between
Friday: Core/Functional
Barbell Clean: 4 sets; 6-8 reps each set; 1 min rest between sets
Overhead Walking Lunges: 4 sets; 8-10 reps each leg each set; 30 second rest between sets
Renegade Row + Mountain Climber: 4 super sets; 10 reps + 30 seconds; 30 second rest between
Standing Barbell Overhead Press + Dumbbell lateral Raise: 4 super sets; 10 reps, 30 sec. rest
Ab Wheel + Leg Raise + Plank: 4 rounds; 30 seconds each set; 30 sec rest at the end of the round
NOTE: You should perform 2-3 warm up sets before the first 2 exercises on each day and warm up sets before any major movements such as squats and deadlifts.
There you go! Simple 4 day split that will get you going as well as a new approach to your eating regimen and calorie goals. If you are not currently on the BURN PROGRAM please click HERE to start today! Completely free for a LIMITED TIME!
Stay discipled my friends! If you can really focus in on your diet paired with a solid workout regimen that focuses on strength with hypertrophy training, you will get amazing results! If you need support or if you have questions, please comment below or shoot me a DM on my social media outlets. Thank you for reading guys and remember… BE THE BETTER YOU! Have an awesome day!
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