The Best Muscle Building split: The Push Pull Legs Split.

In the last blog we talked about the full body split , its basics , its pros , its cons and why it is more then a beginner’s split.

In this blog however we will be talking about a split who happen to make a huge comeback in recent years . You see since the 80s bodybuilders all over planet , both professional , amateurs and even regular joes have been using the body part split exclusively, and don’t get me wrong it delivered awesome results but in this blog we are focused on natural trainees who might not get as much results from that split , why? Recent scientific literature by brad schoelfield indicates that for optimal  muscle building results  , each body part must be hit at least twice per week which is not doable within the body part split. Also, a lot of fitness gurus like famous coach Christian Thibeaudeau’s believed in the importance of training frequency for natural trainees from longtime ago before the scientific studies , and if you don’t know coach Thib , he is one of the strongest most jacked natural athletes on the planet , probably the smartest as well.

Also I am sure if you have been around youtube lately you will notice that most of the famous fitness youtube influencers use the push pull legs split , am talking about guys like Jeff Nippard ,Mike Thurston , Vitruvian physique , Christian Guzman and many more . And you know what is the most common thing between this dudes beside being famous , they are natural, exactly right?

And why are they doing the push pull leg split , because in my humble opinion is one of the best if not the best split for natural trainees looking too build strength and muscle and even lose fat.

A push pull leg split is simply a split where on the first  day you will do your pushing muscles which are chest , shoulders and triceps , on the second day you hit your pulling muscles means your back, rear delts and biceps.

Then third day is everyone favourite day , leg day , this the day to work on all your lower body muscles , your quadriceps , your hamstrings , your glutes and your calves. That is one cycle , usually you rest one day and repeat again.

The beauty about this split is that it optimises both recovery and frequency , for instance your pushing muscles would be rested for more 72 hours before you hit them again , also they get the benefit of being stretched during the back workout which is reported to enhance recovery and reduce DOMS , am speaking about that sweet pain in your chest muscles after some series benching , yes it is satisfying but trust me having DOMS for more than one day is no fun walk, and here where an opposite muscles workout comes in handy.

Also , in the third day all of your upper body will be rested  so when you hit again in the next cycle it is fresh and ready.

Now let’s do a quick review of pros and cons of this split before moving to the program design part , the one that everyone loves.

Pros:

- It allow to an optimised frequency of training of two times per week for each muscle group

- It enhances recovery and avoid local fatigue in certain muscle parts

- It is very promising in terms of muscle gain and hypertrophy and it is the favourite for many researchers and experts

- It allow the use of a slightly more volume which means the possibility of working the muscles from different angles.

Cons

-None but for the reasons of courtesy I would say it is kind of boring , I mean you can’t have an arm day right , and we as bodybuilding enthusiasts love our arm pump, just as Arnold said in pumping iron “ it feels like cummi**”.

Now on how to design your own push pull split workout , first of all I highly recommend you change the exercises from the first cycle so you are able to hit as many muscle fibers as possible.

Another important part is that since you will be hitting each muscle twice a week you need to reduce the overall volumes for each session, also , each muscle group require a certain amount of volume , for instance you won’t need as much volume for your triceps as you would for your back.

So the first step is to dial in your weekly volume target , here is a quick guideline for the best weekly volume for each individual body part.

Body part	Weekly volume	Notes
Chest	16 sets	-Try to include both presses and flyes
Shoulders	20 sets	-Building a 3D Delts require the use of many angles so we will use a slightly higher volume
Triceps	9 sets	-Try to include at least one exercise for the long head
Back /rear delts	30 sets	-Focus one day on vertical pulling(pull ups) and the other on horizontal pulling(rows)
Biceps	9 sets	-Make sure to hit both the biceps brachii and brachialis
Quadriceps	16 sets	-Make sure to include at least a big basic movement like squat for your quads and I would encourage the inclusion unilateral exercises.
Hamstrings	16 sets	-Include a leg curl variation and a hip hinge variation like stiff leg deadlift or romanian deadlift.
Calves	24 sets	-Since they have a dominance of  slow twitch muscle fibers , calves require higher amounts of volume to  adequately stimulate hypertrophy.
Abdominals	24-30 sets	-Hit your abs often, 3 times a week at least because abs respond very well to high frequency training.

- The amount of volume listed above will certainly vary depending on several factors like your training status since obviously experienced lifters may need more volume and absolute might not be ready yet to handle such amount of volume. Also , thing like your recovery , nutrition and stress levels may affect how much you volume you can handle.

-Small body parts like biceps and triceps may benefit from increased volume if they are especially lagging, but generally they shouldn’t require lots of isolation work since they will be stimulated often in the big compound exercises.

However , more volume doesn’t always equal better gains since there is a pointing of diminishing returns where volume might lead to a lot of fatigue and eventually overtraining. Here is the curve of the volume response in hypertrophy so you get  a visual feeling of the matter :

So next time you want an 18” arms don’t hit your biceps every day with few hundred curls because it will only make you weaker and derail your progress.

Tomorrow, I will share with you a sample workout routine to use next time you want to give this split a try.

See you later.

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Muscle Building Foods

As we saw in the last blog when came to muscle building diet is as important as exercise because without the proper diet and calorie intake your already muscle building potential would be limited a,d that is bad news my friend. Just picture yourself grinding through a 90 days muscle building trainer  working hard day in and day out just to discover that after those 90 day you gain very little muscle mass because you weren’ eating the right foods for your goal .

So in this article we will run through the best muscle building foods you can add to your arsenal the next time you are trying to build slabs of lean meat on your physique.

1- Eggs:

Nature greatest gift, those little protein packed with balls that would require little to no time to prepare and be ready on your plate. Eggs contain about 80 calories per egg with about 6 grams of protein and 5 grams of healthy fat. Egg’s protein is one of the highest quality proteins that there is with a net utilisation of 94 , which is the highest among all natural sources.

Also they contain a load of l vitamins like vitamin a, vitamin b12 and selenium which all happen to be very essential for immune system functioning. 

So in summary eggs :

-have a high amount of high quality protein

-rich with healthy fats

-contain essential vitamin and mineral

-they are a calorie dense food , I mean eating a 6 whole eggs omelet will give you about 500 calories of muscle building calories.

2- Lean Beef:

"Wanna get buff , then you gotta eat beef" , that is what my gym trainer used to tell us when we first started working out , and even though I doubt that he have any nutritional knowledge back then he definitely was right.

Beef is naturally loaded with muscle building creatine and notorious amounts of zinc which happen to be the mineral responsible for your testosterone levels optimisation and it is no wonder that back in the day legendary bodybuilders like Arnold Schwarzenegger ate a lot of beef during their mass gaining phases.

A 100 gram of lean beef offers about 250 calories with 26 grams of protein and around 15 grams of fat , while its higher calorie high fat profile may be inconvenient during cutting phases it is just what you needed during your mass gaining phase . Personally I like to have at least one beef containing meal per day and it does work for muscle building so go cook some meat.

3- Oats:

Oats have been a staple in bodybuilders diet right from the beginning and it is for a good reason, they are a gluten free whole grain and they are packed with fibers , minerals , vitamins and antioxidants. Each half a cup (around 78 grams for my non American friends) cover 190% from your manganese rdi, 41% of your phosphorus RDI, 34% or your magnesium RDI and 20% from both your zinc and iron RDI. Oh for those of you wondering about what the fuc* is this RDI is the recommended daily intake of a certain micronutrient.

Also oats contain a special kind of fiber called beta-glucan that is known to reduce LDL (bad cholesterol) ,reduce blood sugar and insulin response which is essential to maintain a high insulin sensitivity,increase the feeling of fullness and increase the growth of good bacteria in the gut which is great for your digestive health which as we discussed in the muscle building keys article is very essential for muscle building.

Each cup of oats contain about 303 calories , 51 gram of carbs , 1” grams of proteins , 5 grams of fats and a whole 8 gram of fibers. I mean common isn’t like the perfect food composition , now add in some egg withes to this mix and you will have one of the best muscle building meals you can possibly have and if you are not about that egg withes in oats hardcore bodybuilder stuff and you want something a little bit more tasty than all you need is to add one scoop of flavoured whey protein and voila , a tasty sweet muscle building healthy meal.

4- Fish:

Fish is among the planet’s healthiest foods and it should be among your shopping list next time you go to the market . Why ? Because it is amazing , it is loaded with vitamin d , which most people happen to have a deficiency in that vitamin , also it is one of the richest sources of the infamous omega 3s fatty acids.

You see if you want to build muscle and keep fat gain at bay you need omega 3s end of story  because they help fight inflammation and improve your insulin sensitivity, because when you are inflamed and insulin resistant good luck in trying to build lean muscle mass without the fat gain. So here we are left with two choices , either you buy a fish oil supplement or simply eat more fish , I ‘ll go with the later.

Also , fish are packed with protein and healthy fats , they generally contain about 22-24 grams of protein per 100 gram and about 8-12 grams of fat depending on the fish species. I would recommend you to get fish that are lower in the food chain like : salmon , sardines and trout.

5- With Rice:

With rice and chicken breast, what a typical bodybuilding meal, and why is that? Because withe rice is your natural healthier mass gainer , I mean like really it is a cheaper and healthier version of your typical mass gainer , it is rich with carbohydrates , easy to digest and it has a very high glycemic index which make it perfect in post workout meals or whenever you want a quick instant energy.

A 100 gram of uncooked rice contain about 358 calories, 79 grams of carbohydrates , 0.5 gram of fat and 6.5 grams of protein. Mix that with few ounces of chicken breast and you have a meal with over 500 calories loaded with carbs and protein .

6- Nuts and Seeds:

Nuts and seeds are really under appreciated in the bodybuilding world , but those snacky little bastards are an easy tasty way to add lots of nutritious calories to your diet without the need to meal prep, I mean 2 ounces of almonds (50 grams) contain roughly 288 calories ,10 grams of protein and 6 grams of fibers.

Some good nuts to consume are :

-walnuts : very rich in omega 3s and protein

-almonds: very rich in important vitamin and minerals

-pumpkin seeds : a natural source for important minerals like magnesium and zinc

-sunflower seeds : very rich in healthy fats and they are really cheap

7- Dried Fruits:

If you are a skinny guy who always have a trouble gaining muscle you should stock on those , dried fruits like dried grapes ( aka raisins) , dried apricots and oh my favourite fruit the dried figs , those foods are delicious and nutritious , they are very high in both calories and carbs , for instance a serving of 4 of dried figs is about 84 calories and I doubt that you will eat only 4 of those I mean common they are dried figs nature’s most delicious food.

Also , dried fruits conserve all the vitamins and minerals that fresh fruits have so you get more calories for less volume of food and you don’t go short on your vitamins , that is what they call a double win situation, also here is a trick I use whenever I need to get in high amounts of calories : I like to take a little plastic bag in my pocket and I will fill it with dried fruits , nuts and some dark chocolate, this will give you roughly a pain free 500 calories to snack on if you are trapped outside and cant get to the kitchen to prep something healthy.

8- Milk:

Okey I know I will get lots of objections on that because people in the bodybuilding industry seems to dislike milk , they say it cause digestion problem and result in water gain. While that may be true for people with lactose intolerance , it is completely fine for other people with enough tolerance.

1 cup of milk is about 120 calories and 7.5 grams of protein , which mean 1 litre , which is if you are like me a one time sip , is about 480 calories and around 30-32 grams of protein, want to make more of it , make your own chocolate milk with unsweetened cocoa and plain sugar , that way you will have a cheaper healthier version than the commercial one.

Also chocolate milk is an amazing food post workout , it will provide you with protein , fast digesting carbs and electrolytes to rehydrate your body and replenish your electrolytes stores.

9- Chicken Breast:

Of course you saw that one coming didn’t’t you , I mean it is obviously that chicken breasts are a staple in both muscle building and fat burning diets because you couldn’t be asking for more than what chicken and turkey breasts can offer you : they are rich protein (around 24 grams per 100 gram), low in calories (only 110 calories for 100 gram) and they taste good .

I personally like to grill my chicken breasts on a tablespoon of coconut oil when I am bulking to get some extra calories and I also like to use spices and it will make a world of difference in the taste.

10- Sweat Potatoes:

In its both varieties , orange and with skinned sweat potatoes offer a ton of health benefits , they are rich in beta-carotene which will be turned into vitamin a inside the body. Sweat potatoes support the immune system and eye health and they promote proper cell growth (including new muscle tissue).

And while they are not as rich in calories and carbs like previous foods , sweat potatoes still offer enough calories  to assist in the muscle growth process with about 160 calories in an average sized potato. Also whenever I included sweat potatoes in my diet I tend to store less water weight and maintain somewhat drier look , don’t really know the reason but it is something that I discovered with me and since then I always make sure to include this sweetheart food into my lean muscle building diet.

Here you have it guys , those are the top 10 foods to assist you in your muscle building endeavour and give you the best results possible. Also don’t forget to check my muscle building keys article because without nailing all of those keys it is hard to make some serious gains.

If you want to know about the keys of muscle building check  Muscle Building Keys

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Full Body Workouts for Strength , Muscle Gain and Fat Loss

Ok I know that in the last blog I bored the hell out of you with all those informations about the Full Body Workout split so as I promise here are some full body workouts that will take your physique to the next level.

Ps: they are really hard workouts so buckle up and get ready to do some work.
Each workout will be better suited to certain goals even though they are all good workouts for all goals . First , let’s start with strength oriented plan that I am sure most of you heard of :

Strength Gain: The 5×5 Workout

An old but gold strength and muscle building staple , very suitable for both beginners and experiences lifters and it will add weights to the bar very quick:

Monday: Workout 1

A- Barbell squat: 5 sets of 5 reps

2 min rest between sets

B- Bench press:: 5 sets of 5 reps

2 min rest between sets

C- Barbell deadlift : 5 sets of 5

2 min rest between sets

D- Pull ups(do the  weighted if you can do more then 6 reps with your bodyweight): 5 sets of 5 reps

2 min rest between sets

E- Barbell curl : 5 sets of 5 reps

2 min rest between sets

Wednesday: Workout 2

A-Barbell front squat: 5 sets of 5 reps

2 min rest between sets

B-Military press: 5 sets of 5 reps

2 min rest between sets

C-Barbell romanian deadlift : 5 sets of 5

2 min rest between sets

D-Bent over barbell row: 5 sets of 5 reps

2 min rest between sets

E-Close grip bench press: 5 sets of 5

2 min rest between sets

Friday: Workout 3

A-Barbell front squat: 5 sets of 5 reps

2 min rest between sets

B-Military press: 5 sets of 5 reps

2 min rest between sets

C-Barbell romanian deadlift : 5 sets of 5

2 min rest between sets

D-Bent over barbell row: 5 sets of 5 reps

2 min rest between sets

E-Close grip bench press: 5 sets of 5

2 min rest between sets

2- Muscle Building: Arnold’s Golden Six

Okey here is an inspired workout from everyone’s favourite bodybuilder mr arnold schwareneger , this a workout that arnold used to do before coming to america :

A-Barbell squat: 4 sets of 10 reps

B-Wide-grip barbell bench press: 3 sets of 10 reps

C-Chin-up:   3 sets of amap ( as many as possible)

D-Behind-the-neck overhead press: 4 sets of 10 reps

E-Barbell curl: 3 sets of 10 reps

F-Bent knee sit-up: 4 sets until failure

Now you will repeat this workout 2 more times during the week and watch out for some old school muscle gain.

3-  Fat Loss: the Calorie Frying Whole Body Workout

Here is a one you are going to hate but will love its results , it is a workout I designed based on the scheme of the german body comp workout by legendary coach mr charles poliquin, the idea is to alternate between an upper and a lower body exercise with minimum rest which will skyrocket your heart rate throught the roof and increase lactic acid production all over your body which will  increase your natural growth hormone levels by much , sounds cool  right? Yes it is and I can testify myself for the fat burning power of this plan , it is almost unbelievable.

Here is a workout to try next time you are trying to quickly lose some fat :

A1-Dumbell squat : 12-15 reps

20 sec rest

A2-Dumbell bench press: 12-15 reps

Alternate between a1 and a2 without an actual rest beside the 20 sec then directly move to the next pair

B1-Dumbell romanian deadlift: 12-15 reps

Rest 20 sec

B2-Bent over dumbbell row

Alternate between b1 and b2 without an actual rest beside the 20 sec then directly move to the next pair

C1- Standing overhead dumbbell press : 15-20 reps

Rest 20 sec

C2- Leg press: 15-20 reps

Alternate between c1 and c2 without an actual rest beside the 20 sec then directly move to the next pair

D1- Preacher curls : 12-15 reps

Rest 20 sec

D2- Standing french press : 12-15 reps

Alternate between d1 and d2 without an actual rest beside the 20 sec then directly move to the next pair.

By now you should be swimming in your own sweat and your heart rate is about to explode from your chest , you might even start wondering if it is worth it , but don’t worry I guarantee you it is because this workout will melt body fat from your body like nothing else. 

Repeat this workout two more times in the same week but try to change the exercises with similar ones , like incline dumbell bench press instead the regular dumbell bech press to avoid local fatigue and hit as many muscle fibers as possible.

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The Workouts Splits Series : The full Body Split

OK let me ask you a question: have you ever started a new workout  that you saw on Internet or write it yourself to soon find yourself tired all the time , your performance in the gym start to drop and you start to feel a lack of motivation toward training but you kept grinding on it because you think that the plan is bad ass and hardcore and it will give you the results you are after , I mean it make sense after all you are busting your ass day in and day out grinding through the workouts like a spartan warrior. Sad news is after a while you get even more tired but you achieved no results and now you are confused , what is wrong ? Why it didn’t work? The answer my friend is the lack of proper structure and periodization, in simple English it means you were following the wrong split that didn’t allow enough recovery for individual muscle groups or caused too much stress on your central nervous system.

  When it comes to building muscles , one of the most important things to get right is your workout splits, you need a proper program design that will allow recovery and progress and usually most program on the Internet doesn’t fail to bring that , it is the individual modification that people add by themselves that will cause those issues. So in this series we will run over the main muscle building splits , their pros and their limits so you are able to pick the right split for yourself , also we will provide you with simple workout routines from each split so you are able to put them in action.

The Full Body Split 

The oldest split ever used by strength athletes and not so long ago before the bro split routines  it was the norm between bodybuilding and fitness competitors , Steve reeves used it , Arnold used it in his beginnings and some bodybuilding legends like Leroy Colbert never trained in another way, and if you wonder if he it get him  buff and ripped just check the picture below.

However kids this days overlooked full body splits and they were labled as “beginner’s split” , heck even beginners ditched them and start right away with the body parts split and that is too bad  because full body workouts work exceptionally well.

OK,  first for those of you who don’t know what a full body workout  split is, it is  split where you are going to work your entire body in one session usually  3 times per week allowing one day of rest in between. And while it is not attractive full body splits offers huge benefits so let’s list the pro’s and con’s of this split may be you change your mind about it :

Pros

-high training frequency: the new researches literature is all showing that for maximum growth a muscle must at least be hitted twice a week, with full body training you hit each muscle 3 times per week which is especially good for bringing weak body parts

-time efficiency: not everyone has the privilege of being able to hit the gym daily so a great way to still make gains for busy people is to train with full body splits.

-greater fat loss : this one actually make lots of sense and now is backed up by new researches from university of new zeland where they found that individuals who did full body training lost more bodyfat than those who did split routines[1] , the reason behind that is gene alteration as they concluded and here is what bodybuilding expert Mr Jim Stoppani said about that topic “whole-body training instigates gene activity to keep metabolic processes revved up in every single muscle, an effect that lasts all day long. Your body essentially burns more fat and carbs for fuel throughout the day with whole-body training.” and if you don’t know the man he is some real big shot in the bodybuilding and fitness industry so you better believe it before planning 3 weekly arms workouts in your next cut. And even without the gene geeky side of things it really make sense because working your whole body at once will surely burn more calories and raise the metabolism more than a bodypart workout.

-greater strength gains among experienced trainees which is literally the opposite of what most people believe because even fitness experts label full body workouts as beginner’s workouts . But it turns out that higher frequency it even more suitable for experienced lifters trying to get stronger because of constant central nervous system activation and the firing of the neuro motors pathways , and that remind me of the fact that back in the 90s the Russian Olympic lifting team trained the same lifts multiple times a day and we all can agree that they had some of the most  strong  athletes back then.

-better for athletic performance: yes that is right if you are an athlete don’t ever use a bodyparts split because it will only decrease your performance. Full body workouts on the other hand works every muscle in the body at the same time which make the body work as a whole unit instead of one limb at a time which is important if you are an athlete, you need to use every last bit of your strength in every action not just your biceps supination ability .

Cons

Okey okey , did I just seemed like I has a thing against body part splits , well I don’t or may be  whatever let’s now talk about the less pleasant facts about full body training:

-not enough volume for individual muscle groups : while you can hit each muscle group during full body workouts you cant hit them all with enough volume unless you are planning to train for 6 hours which you shouldn’t do by the way.

- less pump : seriously , is that even bad , yes it is because recent researches are inducating a big correlation between muscle pump and muscle gain. With full body workouts however it is hard to keep the blood flowing to one area which will  not enable you to  achieve a significant pump.

In the next blog , I am going to provide you guys with some full body workouts that will help you reach your goals if it is strength gain , muscle gain or fat loss so stay tuned.

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Muscle Building Keys: the ultimate tools for non-stop muscle gains

Muscle building is a naturally slow process which mean it takes time to occur because we are forcing our body to do something he actually hate, yes that’s true , our bodies don’t want us to build muscle , aren’t they lame? No they are not they are just trying to protect us from a possible famine because muscles need energy to be sustained and though now we can simply reach out to the fridge and grab a delicious protein shake , our ancestors back in the day needed to go hunting and that hunt sometimes went for days , days without food which led our human body to develop a protective mechanism against anything that might consume that precious energy including muscle.
However,over time  the human race managed to outcome that obstacle by the development of resistance training and exercise nutrition but, until this day , even with the overwhelming amount of information available people are still not able to build muscle and get the body of their dreams, why? I think a simple answer is that they don’t nail down the basic key’s of muscle building correctly so I decided to write you this little article where I shed light on what I think of as the key’s to muscle building, so keep reading bet you will be surprised because this is no magazines type of content , it is what I found to work over the years for me and my clients .

1- Maintain a Calories Surplus:

We all know how important is nutrition when it comes to muscle  building and fat loss but some people misinterpret that and think they only need to eat healthy food and their body will magically build muscle and lose fat .But that’s not the case because calories do matter , to be in an anabolic state you need two things : high calories and enough protein because your body will use calories as energy to repair damaged muscle fibers and build new bigger stronger fibers. So if you want to build muscle make sure to ingest enough calories . How much calories you need will also depends on multiple factors like weight , height ,age , sex and bodyfat but here is a simple way to calculate your calorie needs accurately:
-step 1 : you need to establish your basal metabolic rate or BMR which is the amount of calories your burn doing nothing , I personally use the modified Harris Benedict formula which is the following:
-for men : BMR= 66 + (13.7 x lean weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age)
-for women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x lean weight in kg) + (1.7 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age)
Note: the lean weight is your lean body weight without the excess body fat , you can calculate it using this formula:
Bodyweight(in kg)x(%) bodyfat= bodyfat in kg
Lean bodyweight=bodyweight in kg-bodyfat in kg
If you don't have a clue about your body fat percentage here is an approximation:
-for men:

-for women

Step 2:
Now that you had established your BMR it is time to determine your maintenance calories: simply multiply your BMR by 1.5 on days you workout and by 1.2 on days that you don’t and that will give you pretty much a right approximation about your maintenance calories aka the calorie number  that you maintain your weight at .
Step 3:
Establish a 20% calorie surplus , which mean you will multiply your maintenance calories by 120%.

Now that you establish your calorie intake you need to monitor your results and adjust the numbers either up or down.

you can read more about nutrition and diet here Nutrition 101


2- Focus on Big Compound Lift :

They will result in at least 80% of your gains so don’t neglect them and go after the newest machines and exercises you saw some jacked dude doing in youtube videos. Yes muscles do need variety and angles but unless you have been training for over 3 years and you put on at least 20 lbs of muscle you need to emphasis the big lifts like :
-Bench press for chest
-Pull  ups and heavy rows for back
-Military press for shoulders
-Barbell squats and the good old deadlift for lower body

 Those move should be the base of any muscle building workouts at least for beginners and intermediates and I can go on and write you an extra 1000 word about why those exercises are the best but am starting to feel this article is getting long and there is more to cover I won’t , but hey do your compound lifts buddy, let’s make some Gainz.

3- Do the Right Amount of Volume:

We all know that skinny dude who power through 8 exercises of chest before moving to train his biceps , sounds familiar right . Well volume is a main inducer of muscle hypertrophy but at a certain point it will only lead to overtraining especially for natural trainees who don’t have the privilege to use the vitamins s , I can hear you saying but arnold did ultra  high volume and it worked for him , well first Arnold was  on steroids  and second you are not Arnold so relax .
Here is some rough estimates for weekly volume for each body part :
-Chest: 16-20 sets
-Back: since it is composed of multiple muscle groups back needs more volume to stimulate each muscle properly so I would say 20-30 sets
-Legs: 24 sets : 12 for quads and 12 for hamstrings
-Calves: calves can handle pretty much high volume so I would say up to 30 sets per week
-Biceps and triceps : 12 sets each
-Shoulders: shoulders do respond well to high volume and they need to be targeted from multiple angles so id say up to 24 sets per week.

So here you have it guys train hard but train smart don’t overdo yourself because it will lead you nowhere.

4- Progressive Overload:

To many progressive overload is the main reason for hypertrophy over time , progressive overload simply means increasing the load on the muscle each week either by increasing weight or increasing rep which will overtime lead to bigger stronger muscles . A simple way to apply progressive overload is to add 1 rep to each set of every exercise  one you add 4 reps increase the weight by 10% so lets say you used to bench press 180 lbs for 8 reps you will go and try to add one rep per week until you reach 12 reps then you increase the weight to 200 lbs or so and try adding reps. It is really a simple yet very effective method of building slabs of sexy meat on your body.

5- Rest:

Bro are you kidding!  Rest is for losers , no pain no gain , am gonna lift that shit till I puke everyday until my last day . Yeah , relax bro , it really sounds cool but congratulation you just entered the no progress cult ,talking about those guys in string tanks working arms and chest everyday and creeping the hell of every girl who happen to be around . You may feel good and look good doing it but without proper planned rest you will never build muscle to the best of your ability which is already limited if you are natural so follow a training routine that involves planned rest days and a structured split that allow ample recovery for each muscle group so yes chest and biceps everyday is out of the equation. And don’t worry we will give you different splits and workouts plan here on the fitness coach so you can choose from them depending on your goal and preferences so stay tuned.

Also another part of the proper rest equation is the proper sleep, you need a minimum of 6 hours of deep sleep per night to regenerate your cells and rest you body and mind. Also the majority of your natural growth hormone secretion happens during your sleep so if you want more muscle and less fat you gotta get those zzz in buddy.

6- Improve Your Digestive Health:

As coach Charles poliquin says “ you are not what you eat you are what you digest” so yes you can be eating all kinds of meats and protein powders but if you cant digest them properly they waon’t help you when it come to building your dream physique. One of the most important  things to do in order to improve your digestive health is to consume enough dietary fiber on a daily basis , try to get at least 25 gram of fiber daily either from supplements or from eating veggies. Also, it is essential to get in both soluble and insoluble fiber because each one of them have a unique role, insoluble fiber since it can’t be digested it adds bulk to to the stools while soluble fiber prevent watery stools, good sources of insoluble fiber are wheat bran , vegetables and whole grains and for soluble fiber its best to get it from oat bran and legumes. Another trick is to chew your food properly so you give your stomach enough time to release its digestive enzymes  just look at lions and mimic them  they would chew their meat for minutes before swallowing it.

Probiotics also are an essential component of a healthy gut and digestive system , so if you wanna take your nutrition and supplement game above regular folks try to supplement with  at least 2 billion CFU  per unit is a good place to start.

In Summary:
- Make sure you are eating on a calorie surplus
- Focus on the big compound lifts
- Do the right ammount of volume
- Focus on progressive overload
- Focus on proper rest and recovery
- Improve your digestive health

Time to make some Gains folks!

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The Best 5 workouts to get to single digit bodyfat

Want to get shredded but you never seem to get there no matter what you do or how hard you workout, may be it is because you never done those workouts before.
When it comes to fat loss diet is king there is no question about it ,however there is some workouts that stands out from the rest when you want to melt bodyfat as quickly as possible. In this article I will share with you the best 5 burning workouts that I used over the years  whenever I needed to get ripped and they never failed to produce quality results in terms of fat loss.

1-400 Meter Sprints:

Sprints are my personal favourite, they are the absolute best way to burn calories and they come with the benefit of increasing your speed and athleticism.

For sprints , I like to use  400m dash and  trust me , if you never tried 400m sprints you are in for a big surprise because these bad boys are very tough and very rewarding because they skyrocket your metabolic rate and significantly increase your growth hormone levels, and if you never heard of growth hormone it is the stuff pro fitness competitor inject when they need to get ripped . Also another awesome thing about 400m sprints is that after the workout you will feel so rewarded like you are on top of the world because you will know that you just finished a workout that most peoples will not be able to complete.

The numbers of sets you perform will depend on your starting fitness level , so pick for yourself and start burning that extra flab:

Fitness level	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week6
Bad shape	2×400m 120 sec RI	3×400m 120 sec RI	4×400m 120 sec RI	3×400m 90 sec RI	4×400m 90 sec RI	4×400m 75 sec RI
Average shape	3×400m 120 sec RI	4×400m 120 sec RI	5×400m 120 sec RI	4×400m 90 sec RI	5×400m 90 sec RI	5×400m 75 sec RI
Good shape	3×400m 90 sec RI	4×400m 90 sec RI	5×400m 90 sec RI	4×400m 75 sec RI	5×400m 75 sec RI	5×400m 60 sec RI

2- Barbell Complexes:

I love barbell complexes , all you need is a barbell and the guts to go through a super intense workouts. Barbell complexes are simply a series of exercises performed back to back without any rest in between and without letting the bar out of your hands, after you finish the circuit you will rest for 60-90 sec and repeat again.

For me , I like to challenge my clients when doing complexes so what I will do is that I will have them trying to perform as many circuits as possible in a certain time frame , let’s say in 20 minutes and what that will do is that it will give them a sense of urgency and brings out the best of them , actually often enough I am very surprised about how many rounds they are able to do and I’ll admit some of them beat me into it which is both amazing and disappointing for me.

The great thing about barbell complexes is that they allow you to lift enormous amount of weights in a short time period, for instance in this workout if you are to use a 65 lbs bar and manage to pull in 10 rounds in 20 minutes you will lift approximately 26000 lbs in 20 min which is insane , it is like deadlifting 10 sets of 5 reps of 500 lbs which I doubt anyone is able to do and that’s the beauty of complexes.

When it come to complexes always start with the hardest exercise first then the next hardest then the next hardest so that the last exercise is the easiest one because sometimes some personal trainers will put high technical exercises like Olympic lifts as the 5th or 6th exercise in the sequence , and I am like wtf! That’s one easy way to get injured so we always start with the hardest exercises first.

Also, I like to use an ascending rep model where I will perform the least amount of reps in the first exercise which happen to be the hardest then I will add 1 rep moving to the next exercise and what that will do is that it allow me to take advantage in the fact that I am able to lift heavy weight in the easy exercises late in the sequence , for instance  your squat max would be nearly double your overhead press max so it won’t make sense to use the same weight for the same amount of reps in both exercises, enough with the talking let’s get straight to the workout:

A1-overhead shoulder press: 6 reps

A2-barbell front squats: 7 reps

A3-bent over barbell rows: 8 reps

A4-deadlifts: 9 reps

A5-barbell back squats

Note : perform the exercises from a1 to a5 is a circuit manner without resting or putting the bar down then rest as long as you need then precede to the next set.

For men use 65-95 lbs barbell while women will use 45-65 lbs . Each week try to add in 1 extra round until you reach 10 rounds , once you do that add extra 10 lbs to the bar .

Now come evaluation time , want to know how you fair  against others in terms of conditioning , check out this chart:

Fitness levels	Rounds achieved
Bad fitness level	5 rounds or less
Average fitness level	6-8 rounds
Great fitness level	8-10 rounds
Rambling Beast	12 rounds

3- Stair Climbing Pyramid:

Climbing stairs will get you in shape period! They are hard and they will trash your legs and lungs but they will get your butt in shape. I discovered this fat loss powerhouse after reading about it from fitness author Jhon Romaniello so I decided to give it a go and men , I was out of breath , my legs shaking and dreaded in sweat before even reaching the middle of the workout which is the fun part about this workout , sets will start to get harder since you will be doing an extra stair climb each rep then right at the middle of the workout once you reach 4 reps of climbs you will start to subtract one rep each set until you reach one rep and then you will finish the workout, sounds easy right ? Trust me it is not but it will burn tons of that ugly fat covering your hard defined muscle.

Choose a stairwell  where there is at least 100 stairs up so you have long enough time climbing to reap the amazing fat burning benefits of this workout . Here is what you will be doing:

Set 1: sprint to the top of the stairs and come back.

Set 2: sprint to the top of the stairs and come back 2 times with no in between.

Set 3: sprint to the top of the stairs and come back 3 times with no rest in between.

Set 4: sprint to the top of the stairs and come back 4 times with no rest in between.

Set 5: sprint to the top of the stairs and come back 3 times with no rest in between.

Set 6: sprint to the top of the stairs and come back 2 times with no rest in between.

Set 7: sprint to the top of the stairs and come back.

Rest 30-60 seconds between sets, but, as noted, do not rest between sprints up and down the stairs–that “rest” will be  your way down, which will allow you to recover even if you are not technically resting. For beginners , I would recommend an extra minute of rest around round 5.

Also  I like to add it is much better to do this workout with your friends so you guys cheer each others and create some sort of a small competition between yourselves so you don’t slack off or allow the fatigue to take the best of you.

4- Elimination Circuits:

Here is another fun one , the purpose behind this workout is simple but the execution is far from it . The idea is to perform a sequence of exercises alternating between upper and lower body exercises  resting only 20 sec between exercises. Each set you will add one rep to each exercise and what that will do is make the workout harder with each set . Once you fail to finish the required amount of reps of any exercise you will drop it from the circuit and continue until you are left with one exercise.

The funny thing is that with this workout the fitter you are the harder the workout would be because you will be doing more sets and reps, now enough with the talking time to go check this beast:

Exercise 1: overhead dumbbell press: 8 reps

Rest 20 sec

Exercise 2: dumbbell squats: 8 reps

Rest 20 sec

Exercise 3: dumbbell bench press:  8 reps

Rest 20 sec

Exercise 4: dumbbell romanian deadlift: 8 reps

Rest 20 sec

Exercise 5: dumbbell bent over rows:  8 reps

Rest  20 sec and repeat with adding and extra rep to each exercise

Note : choose a weight that is 60% of you one rep max on each exercise and try to maintain a good form on each rep because swinging around would do nothing but get you injured.

5- Walking:

Seriously ! Dude are you telling me that walking is the best workout to burn bodyfat?

Yes I am buddy, I know that walking doesn’t seem like much but it is one of my favourite go to workout when I want to get shredded , let me just give you some math so I can defend my argument : 1 hour of walking will burn approximately around 250-350 calories depending on the individual size and the speed of the walk itself , multiply that by 30 and you will have an extra 7500 calories per month , now let’s say you will be dieting for 3 months , now again multiply 7500 calories by 3 , that’s 22500 extra calories which equals around 6.5 lbs of fat lost during 12 weeks from walking .

Now imagine that you get your diet right, you did one of the super intense workout from above and at night instead of watching some stupid TV show on netflix you went for a one hour walk, imagine after 12 weeks instead of losing 12 lbs of fat you lost 18.5 lbs , would the results be different? Absufreakinlutely they will , it is like an extra 2 % bodyfat loss from just walking, it is amazing let me tell you.

Also the good thing about walking is that it wont tire you or stress your body , it actually will help you lower your stress levels and free your mind from everyday life hustle, just put on your favourite music  or listen to an audio book if you want to kill two birds with one stone . So next time you are going through a cutting phase add daily walking to your routine and come back to thank me.

Ok guys , here you have it , the best workouts to quickly get shredded to the bones , I just feel sorry for that fat that is about to be demolished but it is OK she is an ugly bitch anyway.

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