Getting Shredded- The Basics

TRAINING PRINCIPLES:

Rule #1: Anytime you spend in the gym must be done with the utmost intensity if you want to develop the physique you’ve always dreamed of. Make your time in the gym the most effective and efficient use of time.  Go from set to set to set with minimal rest in between sets. Supersets and giant sets are wonderful tools to help you get shredded.

Rule #2: While you are in the gym, make sure you do isolation exercises, but more importantly, the main focus of your workout should be of the incorporation of compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, power cleans, hang cleans, clean and jerks, dumbbell lunges, bench presses, etc. Those that require multiple muscle groups will activate your entire body and torch body fat. You burn a tremendous amount of calories stabilizing both yourself and the weight, and considering that these exercises are where you are strongest, you will be supporting that much more weight than your own bodyweight. Additionally, your core is activated at all times when you do these movements.  Bodybuilders rarely train their abs during the offseason, mainly because they have been worked so hard during these compound exercises that there is no immediate need to bring out any more detail than what they develop from these moves.

Rule #3: Anytime there is an option between choosing an exercise with a machine or free weights, choose the free weights. Activation of your stabilizer muscles will take effect, including your core, and there will be a significant increase in the amount of calories expended throughout the exercise. Also, rather than sit when doing an exercise, make sure you stand. So instead of doing seated dumbbell curls, perform standing dumbbell curls. You burn a tremendous amount of more calories stabilizing yourself when standing upright than when seated. You are supporting your own weight plus the weights you are holding, whereas when you sit, the bench is absorbing that extra poundage. Think critically when you are working out and really analyze the situation presented before you. Think to yourself: “Which exercises are going to provide the most benefit in terms of stimulation to my muscles and which are going to burn the most calories?”.  

Rule #4: Do not shy away from heavy weights. Deviate from the high rep “ripped” theory. It is a falsity and a common misconception. Lifting heavy weights that you can handle will activate more muscles and is more likely going to burn more calories than lifting light weights will. When you lift heavy weights, your body;’s metabolism skyrockets far after the workout is over, and your body’s elevated metabolic rate will force your body to continue to burn calories and fat far after the exercise is over. The lower the intensity, the less calories you will burn when the workout is over. Keep that in mind. You should be incorporating heavy weights and moderate weights throughout your entire workout.

Rule #5: Remember to add intensity sets like drop sets, strip sets, supersets, burnouts, forced reps, and such to elevate your muscle building and fat burning efforts.

Rule #6: Don't overtrain. Make sure your work outs are spread out enough so you don't hit the same muscle group within a 72 hour period. It needs time to repair and then some. Shoot to work out around 5 days a week. You don't want to be living in the gym because then you’ll be counterproductive, not allowing your body to properly recover and shed its fatty tissue. Furthermore, every 6 weeks or so take a week off from the gym completely. That means don't do anything. Give your body a break. Moreover, sleep a lot. Shoot for 8-9 hours a night. Listen to your body and it will respond positively to your attentiveness.

Rule #7: Do 3-4 cardio sessions a week.  Your heart is a muscle as well. The better trained your heart, the more efficient it works and can effectively do its job. The better trained the heart is, the better it is at carrying out its job of passing oxygen through blood to help you through those high-intensity workouts to bang out more sets and more reps (which equals more total work and total volume during each bout).  These cardio sessions should consist of around 30 minute sessions of interval training (i.e.- sprint, jog, sprint, jog). Stairs are awesome for building ripped tree trunks of legs as well. You want to be able to see every striation throughout your body so Cardio bouts help shred that body fat while maintaining lean muscle mass. If you perform cardio right, it actually facilitates muscle building. Performing cardio in terms of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), where you combine high intensity sprints with lower intensity runs, allows you to torch the body fat during and well beyond the workout is over while promoting lean muscle tissue gains.

Rule #8: Develop a mind-muscle connection. Take it from "Governator" Schwarzenegger.  Arnold used to train his back a certain way.  He used to envision that there was a nut/acorn in the small of his back and that every time he did a rep he envisioned cracking that nut/acorn by squeezing his back muscles together.  This gave him a sense of what muscles he was using during the exercise and to concentrate only on using those muscles when performing the repetition. You want the muscle you’re training to do the work. Not to use momentum and to complete a full range of motion. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. Exercise the proper way and you’ll shred off the body fat. 

NUTRITION PRINCIPLES:

#1- Think about your nutritional program 24/7

The more you think about it, the easier everything will fall into place. You need to plan your meals in advance and especially in the beginning. You should always be aware of what you are eating and what you should be eating for every meal. From now on your life will naturally revolve around food because that is going to be the basis of your desired six pack goals.

#2-Be aware of your body

You need to treat your body as a whole new element than you're used to. You need to talk to it and have it talk to you. You need to see how your body responds to every little thing you do. Change your lifestyle to accommodate this new way of thinking. Find out what works and what doesn't. Find out how it reacts to every kind of food you eat and how it responds to the exercises that you do.

#3-The mirror is your gauge

Stop concentrating on the scale and your weight. The best gauge is a mirror. If you look great, the mirror will show no matter how much weight you lost/gained. If you don't look great, the mirror will show. If you are incorporating the proper nutritional regimen and training routine, you may be the same weight, but could gain muscle and lose fat. So use the mirror and look at it often (mu1ltiple times a day and after every meal and after every workout).  This isn't narcissism. This is so you can see what works and what doesn't. The more you look at yourself, the more you notice how your body responds to everything you do. If you look at yourself in the mirror throughout the day, you can properly gauge your progress and it will help you develop the body you want based upon the tweaks you make from learning about how your body responds to certain meals and workouts.

#4- Change your lifestyle

"Rome was not built in a day". Great things don't happen overnight. You need to be consistent. Diets are fads. They don't work because they are too restrictive. Change the way you live forever and you will feel and look much better. You need to implement a lifestyle change, that revolves around eating and working out a certain way.

#5-Eat 6-8 meals a day

Male or female, you need to eat close to every 2 hours. When you do this, your metabolism skyrockets and when your body knows food is coming, it can use the food you eat as readily available energy opposed to storing it as bodyfat for energy later. The 3 meal mantra is done and outdated. When you only eat 3 meals you overcompensate for what you really need (Your body says to you "I'm starving, I haven't eaten in forever, I need to eat a lot of food now.") This is a bad approach. When your body goes more than 4 hours of not eating, it catabolizes your muscle mass to use as energy. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. Therefore, the more frequent your meals are, the more likely your body will develop into a furnace that will burn that food up.

#6-Think of your body as a trash bag

Every time you put something in, you need to think of it as putting food in the trash. When it gets overfilled without taking it out, you have a disaster. You need to apply the same analogy here. Every time, you put something into your body, you need to make sure you "take out the trash when it gets filled up" meaning to expend that energy in any way you can either by taking in only those calories you will expend through daily activities like walking, resting, reading, etc. and through exercising. This is a balancing act that needs to be followed properly.

#7-Cut the junk food out immediately
Any kind of junk food you eat, consider it empty calories with no nutritional value that goes straight to bodyfat stores. Cut out the chips, the fatty salad dressings, the soda, donuts, cakes, pastries, etc. If you can't do it all at once. Pick 1 thing and eliminate it from your diet. Then another. And then another. Trust me, in due time you won't miss these things.

#8-Eat whole foods

I’m sure you have a pretty basic knowledge of what is healthy and what is not without digging too deep. Foods that are fried like chicken parmigiana or those with lots of sugar or trans fats like cakes are obviously physique killer. Natural foods are clearly going to be better for you than stuff processed in a lab. Eat those natural foods like poultry, red meat, fish, whole grains, beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, etc. These types of foods should constitute the basis of your meals.

#9-Protein should constitute your foundation for every meal

At every meal, you must consume a protein source as the main part of your meal and everything else you have along with it should be secondary. Things like fish, meat, poultry, etc. If your meal doesn't have protein in it, don't have it. Things that are high in protein are generally very lean and have a lot nutritional value. Having protein with your carbs slows down carbohydrate absorption, making it less likely for the carbs to be stored as body fat.

#10-Never eat carbs alone

Eating carbs by their lonesome is a sure way to put on body fat. They create an insulin spike that goes to one of two ways: muscle-growth or fat-growth. Obviously, we want the first and not the second. There are 2 times in the day that are opportune times for the former and not the latter- directly in the morning upon waking and before and after your workout. However, even at these times you want to have protein in conjunction with those carbs.

#11-Do not Over-eat and Do not Under-eat

This may sound like a no-brainer but too many times does it occur. Eat until you are satisfied but not full and never go hungry. It is a balancing act but it is manageable.

Weigh yourself every day. Record everything you eat and make sure you aren't overeating or under-eating. Determine how many calories you need through the day and adjust it according to your goals. 3500 calories=1 pound. If you cut your calories by 500 from either cutting your food intake or by expending it through exercise, or a combination of both, from its normal daily maintenance , then you will lose 1 pound per week. That does not mean that if you cut your calories by thousands of calories a day will it come quicker. Just because something occurs at a given rate does not mean it stays that way throughout. If you go too under your caloric intake, your body will go into starvation mode and just shut down fat-burning stores (It thinks you won't get enough food to last you through the day so it will hold onto whatever you give it and expend the least amount of energy possible. This is not something you want. You want your body to be a fat-burning machine.)

#12-Certain foods should be eaten before others

Drink your water first. A lot of people think they are hungry, when they are actually thirsty. Subsequently, move onto your salad and vegetables. This will allow you to get a lot of nutrients like vitamins and minerals before you got to any calorie-dense foods. Then move onto your protein source, which usually contains the least amount of calories per ounce. Then go to your carbohydrates (4 calories per gram), which doesn’t fill you up as much as protein, meaning you will most likely consume more calories if consumed before the protein.

#13-Cut your carbs off at night

When you eat carbs late at night, your body does not use them efficiently. When you are not active such as late at night, you don't burn those carbs efficiently, which are used for long bouts of energy. You can eat protein as a late-night snack like cottage cheese, plain unsweetened yogurt, or peanut butter.

#14-Have healthy snacks throughout the day

Like aforementioned, eat every 2 hours. Obviously, not all of those meals are going to constitute sitting down and eating a hefty meal but rather you will have meals and smaller snacks throughout the day. You need to keep your metabolism chugging and supply your muscles with food so you stay anabolic (muscle-building) and preventing catabolism (muscle-wasting). Have things like nuts, fruits, milk, etc. to keep your metabolism running so it can act like a furnace and use all the food you provide it as readily available energy.

#15-Drink lots of water

You should be drinking close to a gallon of cold water a day. The more water you drink, the better you will look. Nutrients like carbohydrates and water store water and it could be stored in the form of subcutaneous tissue. Your body is composed of layers. You have your muscle and then you have the fat cells over it. The more fat you have, the more flab you see and the less muscle you get to see. Over the fat layer, subcutaneous fluid can build up, providing that “bloated” look that gives the appearance of fat. The more water you drink, the more subcutaneous water will be flushed out of your system. Cold water will also burn more calories because your body has to heat the cold water up to your normal body temperature, requiring energy. Water also helps your body function more efficiently transporting nutrients to your cells, which will in turn, provide you with more energy, more muscle tissue, and less fat.

#16-Learn the powers of everyday movement

Moving around around a lot throughout the day works wonders for your body, opening up your arteries, burning extra calories, and providing you with more self-worth. Measures you should take on a daily basis to keep you active are parking far away from the store, doing lots of walking, doing laundry, cleaning the house, etc.. Stop being lazy. One guy I knew cut a remote control out of his life and helped him shed a lot of pounds. He had to get up every time he wanted to change the channel or volume, but it worked and the end result was worth it. It's those kinds of sacrifices you need to make throughout the day on a continual basis that will help you in any way.

#17-Have lots of vegetables and fruit

Have as many vegetables as you want. They are low in calories and are nutritionally packed with vitamins and minerals. Fruit is awesome and although they have sugar, it is absorbed very slowly into the system and provide a lot of nutritional value. Grapefruits, especially, help torch the bodyfat.

#18-Don't fall victim to the supplement gimmicks

Some supplements are beneficial for you. Whey protein, Creatine monohydrate, caffeine, multivitamin, fish oil are essentials. However, often people use supplements as a crutch. They are a supplement and should never be used as a crutch. They are an additive to hard work but there is no replacement for diligence and persistence.

#19-You need to exercise

Exercising is a must. If you think you can lose weight and keep it off without training, you’re flat out fooling yourself. Your body treats calories differently when you exercise opposed to when you don't. The calories you eat immediately go towards repair and refueling. When you exercise, your body needs to use the calories you intake to provide energy while in the gym, repair your muscle tissue outside of the gym, all while still being able to give you energy to do all the simple tasks throughout the day. Furthermore, the more muscle you have, the more fat your burn. Also, the more calories you expend in the gym, the more calories you can get away with eating without it going towards body fat gain. You’d be foolish not to hit the gym.

#20-Eat for fuel, not for taste

Things can taste good, but you shouldn't be concerned about how something tastes. Get into the mindset and habit of eating as a source of fuel and not to satisfy your taste buds. Everything you put in your body is crucial to the success and development of how you look and feel. There are plenty of healthy options that taste wonderful.

#21-Incorporate some cheat meals

If you are eating properly, which should be 6-8 meals a day, you should be taking a generous amount of meals per week. Let’s say that you have 45 meals a week. You should cheat on 3 or 4 of them. Eat what you want during those meals, but stay away from the junk. Also, your cheat meals should include some kind of protein in it. Not only does a cheat meal help your morale, but also your fat-burning efforts as well, as it throws your body for a loop thinking it is out of its "low-carb state".

#22-Proper carb intake

Carbohydrates, when not burned, get stored as glycogen or as bodyfat. When glycogen stores, become full, they turn into bodyfat. There are two times during the day in which your body is generally inefficient at storing carbohydrates as bodyfat due to low stores of glycogen: morning and right around a workout. Breakfast should constitute the bulk of your carbs with each successive meal after that being less in calories from carbs. Decrease your carb intake gradually throughout the day and keep total carb intake throughout the day generally low (when looking to stay lean, 150-200 g carbs for a 180 lb. male). Right around your workout is another time when you need to intake a lot of carbs. Before your workout it is a good idea to have some carbs and right after your workout, generally a lot along with your protein (30 g carbs to stay lean) Additionally, every 5-6 days, incorporate a carb-cheat day. Let's say your carb intake is at around 150 g of carbs, spike it up to 500 g of carbs this day. This will signal your body that it is out of a "low carb-diet" and that you can resume fat burning.

#23-Pre & Post-Workout

You need carbs and protein within an hour of your weight workout (preferably 30 minutes after your resistance training workout). You need just protein right after your cardio workout.

On days you don't workout, don't eat as much. You aren't burning as many calories, so eat a little less that day. Take in more protein and less carbs, as you don't need that much energy to get you through the day on non-workout days.

#24-Breakfast is the most important meal of the day

Eat within 30 minutes of waking up. The bulk of your carbs should come during this meal. Those who eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up are generally leaner than those who don't. Eat a healthful and plentiful breakfast with protein, and carbohydrates like eggs, coffee (black with no sugar), fruit, and oatmeal.

#25-Catch Your ZZZ's

Research shows that getting 8-9 hours of sleep at night is the most beneficial for your health. These hours will provide you with the perfect amount of energy and attentiveness to get you through your day. Never underestimate the importance of sleep. Anything under 6 hours or over 9 hours is actually harmful to your health.