Getting Cut

Workouts that will floor you!

I have always been into weight lifting but not so much the other stuff like pushups and chin ups and pull ups and other forms of body weight lifts. Recently, I have been getting into these because they will rip you up and they help to keep the body with a good look, sometimes lifting only weights will give you a box type of look, which is not something I wanted. I started to include the following stuff into my workout. I am not giving you the following in any type of order, these are just things I do throughout various lifts. 

1.) Pushups- 1 minute timed set. (2 or 3 sets) 

Do as many as you can in a minute. Do not pace yourself. Go all out. By the end of the minute you should be exhausted. If you have to rest for a second, thats fine, but do not put your knees to the floor or get back on your feet, just hold yourself up and then continue with the set.  If a minute is too easy, go for more time. If it is too much, go for a little less, but challenge yourself. 

2.) Mountain Climbers- 30 second timed set

Get in a pushup position and bring your knees to your chest one at a time, do it as fast as you can. This is very difficult. You will feel it everywhere, but it really works the abs and shoulders. You will also see a nice pump in your chest after doing these. I love these, they work everything and will give you a good sweat guarantee. 

3.) PLANKS! (30 second, 45 second, 1 minute or more, whatever you can handle timed set) 

I love planks! They are amazing. If you dont know what a plank is, you might want to look it up because my descriptions on how to do things are not that good, but I will try. Get on the ground, face down. Put your arms close together and lift your body up keeping your forearms on the ground, your body and legs should be off the ground in a straight line, your feet are on the ground of course. Anyway, these are very difficult and you will feel them. They work the abs, they will really tighten the core and melt the fat. Do side planks to work obliques. Planks also work the upper body because you are holding yourself up. Planks are awesome and you will see results if you do them consistently and you will really push yourself with them. 

More General Workout Principles

5.) Do supersets. When working out, complete a biceps exercise and then immediately do a shoulder exercise. Or it can be any combination of exercises. This keeps the body guessing and really gives you more of a workout. Sometimes I even like to do biceps back to back. I will do biceps curls for 8 reps and then right after do reverse curls for 8 reps. Basically, what I am trying to say is to keep the body guessing. Your body gets used to workouts quickly and when the body gets used to a workout, it starts to not produce results as fast. Always do workouts that shock the body. 

6.) Do a lot of body weight workouts. I am not saying to neglect weights. Lifting weights is crucial to gain size. You will not get huge just off pushups and pull ups and chin ups. However, they are a good way to keep the body guessing. Just because you can rep 225 on the bench does not mean you can do a whole bunch of pushups. It is always good to develop the muscle in many areas. Try and doing pushups for a minute straight, watch how tiring it is. You will be surprised how difficult it is to go for a minute straight. Doing pushups will also help your bench go up. 

These tips may have been things you already know. All they are meant to do is let you know different ways to keep the body guessing so you see results you want to see. 

General Workout Principles

These are very general guidelines that could alter your workout. Hopefully for the better.

1.) I am a big fan of this, particularly for abs and body weight related exercises. Using time instead of reps. If you do have a set number of reps in your head, and you reach that point you will most likely stop. But what if you had more in you? This is why I like to use time because you don’t keep track of how many, you just go all out in the time allotted. Recently, I have been doing abs to time instead of a certain number of reps and the workouts have been harder and the results have been better. 

2.) Just letting the time click away can be boring, this is why I recommend to do your workouts to music. Lets say you are going to do abs for two minutes straight. (Harder than it sounds) Pick a song you like, a song that gets you pumped up and do abs for two minutes while listening to that song. After two minutes are up, take a rest. (When doing abs for two minutes for example, no matter how tired you get, do not let your feet rest on the floor, unless you are doing situps, if you want to relax take a second but dont let your feet touch the floor.) 

3.) To add on number 2: here are some good abs to do. 

Crunches, Reverse Crunches, Russian twists, V-situps, toe touches (similar to v-situps), situps, bicycles, PLANKS! These abs are great and if done one after another for a period of time will give you a great burn in your abs and will strengthen them. 

4.) When doing any type of workout, do not take long periods of rest. Being in the gym for 2-3 hours might sound cool but it is not more effective. Be in the gym for a shorter amount of time, but go hard during that time. Your rest should not be longer than the actual set itself. If you do a two minute timed set of abs, take no more than a minute break. If you are doing bicep curls x 8 reps, take no more than a 30 second break. Keep the muscle working, don’t let it rest for too long. 

More coming soon…

Diet Post #2

4.) I am not so knowledgeable on what to eat, I cannot provide a breakdown of meals for breakfast lunch and dinner. I can tell you things you should eat and things you shouldn’t, but these are very general and things you probably already know. For breakfast, try and stay awake from the pancakes and waffles. Eat eggs and try to eat a lot of egg whites. Eat apple sauce, it is really good for you and helps in shedding ab fat. For lunch and dinner, try to avoid white pastas and try to avoid burgers and all that bad stuff. Go for the grilled chicken or the fish, or something along those lines. Always try to eat a balanced meal. Dont just load up on chicken or protein, you need carbs too. But good carbs, dont just eat french fries and think you are satisfying your balanced meal requirements. Eat vegetables, eat fruits, these are good carbs. You need more carbs than protein throughout the day. If you eat good carbs, they will not cause fat, but bad carbs will. If you want to have a sandwich, try to avoid white bread. This may not be so helpful, but if you break it down, eating right isn’t too difficult, but it does take dedication. Drink lots of water!

Diet

I have never been in love with the idea of eating a certain way. It just drove me crazy, having to watch what I eat, it just didn’t seem like the thing for me. However, when I decided that I was going to try and get a look I have never had before I knew I was going to have to do something I have never done before, eat right. I have been doing a lot of research regarding what goes into eating right. I have looked at websites and famous trainers guides to eating and famous athletes diets, and I have looked at what many actors did to get that really cut look they have in movies. Here is what I am doing from what I have learned. This is not exactly what the websites and experts say to do, it is just what I do to keep from going crazy and overboard. Everybody needs to do something at their own level. If you go too crazy and you are not ready for it, it will be difficult to maintain. And most importantly, too get the look you want, you are going to have to make sacrifices. The following are just my suggestions. I am not a nutritionist or an expert. This is just the stuff I try to follow. 

1.) This is a given, but lay off the fast food and the soda. Soda is easy to stop drinking. Why do I say that? Because there is always another option, there is always water. Where there is soda as an option, water will be there too. Water is crucial to get that look you want. You need to drink water. Lots and lots of water. Your muscles need water. I know for a lot of people, soda is very difficult to stop drinking. But soda really hampers results. Try to drink water, and a lot of it! 

2.) Eating the best food is sometimes difficult to do. Let’s be honest, we dont have personal chefs or access to the best foods. These actors who get in monster shape for these movies have access to the best food around. However, some of us just dont have the means. My best piece of advice is instead of eating the first thing you see, try and look around for a better option. Don’t just grab that cheeseburger, look around, try and see if you can get some grilled chicken, or some fish. Or ask for a naked chicken, that is just a chicken sandwich, without the bread. Always look for something better. 

3.) “Eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and a pauper for dinner.” I recently read this quote from a bollywood actor. He is real cut up, so I figured he would have some good tips so I read the article and that quote makes a lot of sense. Eat good in the morning, eat a lot, you have the whole day to burn it anyway. And for dinner, dont eat as much because you are going to bed soon after, so your body wont have as much time to break it down, causing it store it as fat. 

4.) One day rule. I know you have probably heard of a lot of people saying one day you can go crazy and eat whatever you want. I believe in this rule to a certain extent. For example, I love milkshakes. I would have one a day if I could. So when I started to focus on eating right, the idea of never having a milkshake again was tough. So one day a week, I will have that milkshake and burger or something. I didnt designate a certain day, but I try to save that milkshake or something for the weekend. This makes eating right a little easier because you have that one day to look forward to and that one day will be more rewarding because you know you have earned it, by eating right throughout the week. 

More tips to come…

Post #1- Intro.

The goal of the following entries are just to guide some people in the right direction. I just want to relay all the info I have been learning. Every person is different and different things work for different people. I am just going to share what I feel is working for me and what I think will help in getting the look you want. Recently, I have doing a lot of reading and researching to discover the best ways to get a good body: broad chest, narrow waist, good abs, v-shaped back, cut up shoulders, well-defined biceps and triceps, etc…  I have been working out for a while but it has been in spurts, I would go hard for a period of time and then just get lazy or other factors would come in and then I would start back up again very hard and then slow down a little bit. For the longest time, I just wanted to get big, I would do bodybuilder type of lifts and not focus too much on my diet or cardio, I just wanted to get big. However, now I want to change that. Recently, I have been focused on getting more cut, instead of big, and getting well defined abs. I am focused on keeping a proper diet, or at least trying to, and I am not worrying about gaining weight, I am worrying about gaining muscle. Over the next few posts, I will let you know what I have learned and hopefully it helps. I am not saying I know all of this stuff and all these tricks and secrets, I am just writing to put what I feel works.