"How do I get ripped?" is by far the most popular fitness question among men who start bodybuilding. Guys want that six-pack along with a chiseled chest, rock hard biceps and easily noticeable triceps.

The thing that bothers me, however, is that they're expecting this lean muscle mass to appear overnight, without any effort.

It just doesn't work like that. Some guys have been training and dieting all their lives and still cannot reach satisfactory, low levels of body fat and muscle definition. Getting ripped isn't something that occurs overnight; it's extremely demanding and is definitely not going to happen for everyone.
my definition of ripped
Keep in mind that by "ripped," I'm referring to someone with decent muscle mass having only between 12% to 14.5% body fat. This specification is crucial, as the meaning can vary from one individual to another.

For example, most professional bodybuilders aspire to achieve between 6% and 9% body fat and sometimes lower. Pre-competition dieting and training is a whole different ballgame and won't be addressed in this article.

For your information, medical professionals have determined that a "healthy" range of body fat is between 14% and 20% for the average male. We could debate for hours on what percentage of body fat is healthy, but let's not waste our time.

If you're looking to get ripped the way I define it, here are the main factors you'll have to control.

1- Proper nutrition
I've said it before and I'll say it again and again: Watch what you eat. How can you expect to boast a lean body if you're eating fast food, six days a week? Your diet accounts for more than 70% of how your body will look and feel.

That said, here are the main diet guidelines to follow:

# Generally, try keeping your daily caloric intake between 2,000 and 2,500 calories.
# Increase your protein intake and restrain from eating carbohydrates after 6 p.m.
# Reduce your overall salt, sugar and simple carbohydrate intake. They're just bad altogether.
# Drink water regularly.
# Eat smaller portions more often throughout the day.
# Don't starve yourself. Instead, stick to your diet schedule and allow yourself one or two "cheat" days a week.
# Don't stress out over your new eating habits. Eventually, healthy and lean eating habits will become part of your lifestyle.


Want washboard abs? Read on...

2- Regular workout habits
So you want washboard abs? Well you'll have to work hard for them. Hard means lifting weights at least three times a week and carrying out regular cardiovascular workouts.

For greater results, you should try to reduce the intensity of your cardio workouts while increasing their duration. Generally speaking, the longer you stretch out your cardio workouts, the more fat you'll burn.

Don't overdo it either because you might end up burning some muscle mass along the way. One hour to 90 minutes is plenty of time to get in both your cardiovascular routine and weight training.

Finally, try to schedule your activities around your training instead of the other way around. The key to getting ripped is discipline, discipline and more discipline.

3- Good resting habits
Good resting habits are also essential for getting your body shredded. You have to give your muscles sufficient rest periods between sets and workouts. Overtraining is just as bad as not training enough. Give yourself roughly one minute of rest between sets and 48 hours before training the same muscle group again.

Finally, make sure to sleep a full six to eight hours every night and keep those hours as consistent as possible.

4- Supplements
I don't have much faith in fat-burning pills, but, when used adequately, they can definitely give you an edge. Most of them include ingredients such as ephedra, ma huang and caffeine, which will help stimulate your metabolism and burn extra calories.

My advice is to take them only when you're tired in order to get a temporary boost in energy, or to cycle them over the course of the year. Check with a physician prior to use.

Finally, remember that everyone is born with different genetics and physical abilities. So be patient, work at your own pace and set realistic goals. With enough hard work and dedication, you'll build the best body possible.

If you really want to get ripped, quit slacking and get cracking.

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http://www.realpuas.com

Very good information.

For those of you serious about getting in shape and getting toned, look on bodybuilding.com for some great articles. You can either get jacked like Arnold or ripped like Bruce, all up to you.

Couple of key points:

1) The body needs a caloric SURPLUS to gain muscle. You will gain some fat.
2) The body needs a caloric DEFICIT to lose fat. You will lose some muscle.
3) Points 1) and 2) can't be done at the same time.

So basically, you need to decide when you want to BULK (gain muscle) and when you want to CUT (lose fat). Trying to gain muscle while you lose fat is very hard, if not impossible, and is a myth that most people do not realize. So check out some articles by the experts

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i love those guys that think just because they do crunches at night they'll have a 6 pack.


wrong o. if crunches everyday made you ripped i should look like mr universe after boot camp but nope, i still have sort of a belly there. dont really care cause i probably can run a 3 mile faster with boots and cammies on

Yeah definition is all about body fat %. I am a smaller guy and I have always been around the 7-8% range. And Hooah Whitey, from all the PT tests and workouts I do I should have a 12 pack.

For some reason i don't really work out i hardly go to the gym...i eat what i want and i still never get fat/or out of shape.
i can boast a slight 6 pack, and my chest is pretty broad.
i'm still 17 btw...it's pretty weird..i think it has to do with high metabolism or something.

People like you give me ulcers.

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Military people just get fat over time anyway, they get over confident with the amount of excersise and feel like they can eat whenever they want.

Believe me I've been in a military family all my life and lived on military bases never seen to many people that were actually in shape.

But yeah i've been working out almost half of my life and I am not jacked i'm only kinda cut and kinda strong, but yeah I hate the fact that I have nothing to work out for now. I used to work out for sports and shit, I used to litterally lift and run all the time. Now i realized why I am not jacked because I fuckin lifted lots of reps and ran rather than heavy low amounts and no running. BUt yeah I just need fuckin reason to work out...now im out of highschool.

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NoboDY caN HaNG WIth MY STUFF...

I completely agree, working out is something that should never come easy, ever.
I have been working out sense I was 10, I am 16 now and have a body I am moderately pleased with(curse my love of BBQ and Dr.Pepper).
The point is, if you truly want to look like Tyler Durdan( fight club) your going to have to kick your own ass daily.

now onto that kicking your own ass, if you want to loose weight run until you vomit and then run another 2 miles! In the words of my coach "if you can walk you can run, if you cant walk run so it will be over faster"

want to bulk up? eat hardy, proper nutrition is key, but I cant stress the importance of not over working a particular muscle(s), you will make slower progress and look goofy at the end.

I just stick to the regular diet and exercise.

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What's the worst that can happen?

I agree, indeed Ive seen news items where sleep gurus advise that sleeping more than 8 and less than 6 is not good for your health if done regularly.

a great website i use to workout and stay in shape is iwantsixpackabs.com its good shit there and 99.99% of it you can do at home in ur basement or your room thats why i like it . . . because you dont waste time waiting for something to be open or having to worry about the spread of illness . . lol

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You have to practice during the week for that one that counts on the weekend

1. Don't overtrain.
2. Do not quit after a few weeks if you don't see results you want.
3. Please eat right, you can get 10 hours of sleep and workout with the correct schedule, but your diet is the most important part. At least 5-6 meals a day would suffice.
4. Don't just work your abs/chest/bis/tris. You need to have a solid base, therefore please give your legs and back too the workout they need.

I'll add more later

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In order to succeed, the desire for success must be greater than the fear of failure

lol "you kinda resemble a pornstar i know

not saying its a bad thing

because i'd fuck both of you"

I hate being slow twitch. I can't gain at all. Just have to settle for being toned I guess. =|

I was on a Dallas PUA site and one of the guys there said he's 6' 5". He works out. He said when he got to 205 pounds and 5% body fat, the IOI's from women were non-stop. When he got to 220, they were still there, but less. When he maxed out at 245 pounds, there were even fewer IOI's.

I've done the math. at 205 pounds and 6' 5", that works out to 2.66 pounds per inch of body height. Myself, I've been working out for 8 months now and the IOI's are AMAZING! I'm 5' 11" and 172 pounds...very lean. No fried foods. No snacking. Very healthy diet.

I can tell you guys this for cetain: Diet is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than the work you do in the gym.

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Later,
Alphagame

I don't think much of this is specific enough to help many of these guys. In depth, specific info is what would tend to help people looking up the intricate details of a portion of their life. (i.e. picking up chicks)

This is my first post, mainly because I listen (or read) a hell of a lot more than I talk. What follows is kinda long, but getting a decent physique is not easy. I wrote this for my twin brother and some relative so It's not just something I pissed out over night.

I'm 21, 6'5" and 200lbs. I'm not sure where my body fat % is but a 32 inch waist at that size isn't bad. Nothing incredible but I've done well considering I used to be very skinny. I'm open to answering anything specific question, because this is a lot of info. Good luck.

Work Out Overview / Key Points

Getting in shape is basically an equation with slight differences between each person. To get noticeable results you must pay attention to as many aspects of the equation as you can. Knowledge and planning is far more important than just hard work. Combined, they produce startling results. Goldilocks is the best analogy. To much or little of anything will hurt you. Finding out what’s just right for you in each aspect is the holy grail. This is no easy task, and the most effective means are what anyone would want to help them.

To Arnold:
““I want to get fit and firm up, but I don’t want to get too big,”, I say in reply, “Do you go to your tennis pro and say you want to learn tennis but don’t want to play enough to qualify for Wimbledon?” Would you tell a golf pro, “Teach me golf, but don’t make me as good as Tiger Woods?” The fact is, most people don’t have the genetics, the time, or the energy to create really massive, bodybuilding-type physiques. So if you are bringing less to the table, isn’t it important to use the most efficient and effective means of developing your body possible? After all, who wants to waste time and effort exercising without results?”

-Schwarzenegger

The basics are as follows:

Muscles facts:

A muscle has millions of fibers that work together. Untrained people don’t have very good cooperation amongst muscle fibers. This means simply getting the form right and starting to work out will yield much faster results than even the best could hope for. Beginning training is a shock to your system, and you body responds by rebuilding itself stronger and more coordinated.

Working out rips you muscles on the microscopic level. With building blocks supplied (nutrition), your tissue rebuilds itself stronger. Your body is an interdependent system. Ignoring 1 muscle group holds back the rest of the body. (i.e. you’re biceps actually grow in proportion to your calves. Without training both, gains are minimized)

Working out is 40% sleep/rest/recuperation, 40% eating/nutrition, and 20% working out.
Sleep at least 7-8 hours a night. After a decent workout, don’t go run a marathon. (try to rest some) Eating right will supply the building blocks to repair the micro-damage that occurs when you work out. Without correct nutrition you are literally weakening yourself.

Nutrition:

Calories are energy. Eat more and gain weight (depending on activity, as fat or muscle) or eat less and lose weight. In losing weight you lose both muscle and fat, sometimes alarming amounts of muscle. Ideally you want to loose fat and gain muscle. This is very hard to do at the same time. Neither massive gains nor losses can occur without great sacrifice and a threat to your health. If you are losing more than 2 pounds a week, you can be sure some of it is muscle. Gradual improvement is ideal and healthy. Fitness is basically a slight change way of life, not a hobby.

Eating less food will help, but your body responds by slowing your metabolism. (self-defeating, as it’ll be way easier to gain back weight) To make lasting changes you must raise your metabolism through increased activity. With added food (healthy and within reason) you will gain muscle from the activity. This also raises your calorie needs. Increased metabolism + more muscle and only a slight increase in food consumption = fat reserves will be reduced.

Not all protein is the same. Many proteins can’t be used at all if not eaten with complimentary proteins. (you can have all the bricks you want. Without mortar, you’re going nowhere) Vegetables have incomplete proteins and must be combined in the correct way to be even slightly useful. 1 gram of protein per 2.2 pounds of body weight is usually the minimum, bodybuilders usually stick to a 1:1 ratio or even more. There is a big difference between how much protein a food contains and how much of that protein can actually be used to build muscle. Eggs are so good they’ve been given the arbitrary value of 100 with everything else being relative.

Eggs (whole) : 100
Fish 70
Lean Beef 69
Cow’s Milk 60
Brown Rice 57
White Rice 56
Soybeans 47
Whole-grain wheat 44
Peanuts 43
Dry Beans 34
White Potato 34

Since plant proteins are not complete here are some combinations that work:

Grains plus Seeds – breads with seed meals, breads with sesame or sunflower seed spread, rice with sesame seeds
Grains plus Milk Products – cereal with milk, pasta with milk or cheese, bread with milk or cheese
Grains plus Legumes – rice and beans, wheat bread and baked beans, corn-soy or wheat-soy bread, legume soup with bread.


Carbohydrates are good, stay away from ones that spike blood sugar. Slow increases are good and healthier. White rice is bad versus brown rice. Refined sugar is worst. At least 60 grams of carbs a day. (brain runs on it) How quickly carbs are metabolized is called the glycemic index. (simple and complex carbs are in the range.) High glycermic index (simple sugars) is bad because it leads to spike in blood sugar as opposed to a long delivery of energy. (i.e. candy at one end and wheat bread at the other)

Look up the glycemic index for everyday foods if you want. Mainly it just means eat whole grain, brown food, over processed white crap.

Quick Tips

Drink a lot of water each day (prevents kidney stones, is healthy, etc) Drink 100 oz. of water per day. (your piss should be no darker than very light yellow, otherwise you aren't drinking enough water)

Take multivitamin with 1 meal a day. (alone with water could cause it to pass right through)

Eat fruit right after working out to replenish glycogen. (muscles are most receptive to nutrients right after depletion)

Don’t eat heavily before or immediately after working out. (stomach will compete with muscles for blood)

Hard alcohol is about 80 calories an oz. 12-15 cans of beer is about ½ pound of fat. (I.e. a night of drinking is like a late night meal that goes mostly straight to fat plus it dehydrates you.)

Eat fresh food where ever you can.

How to walk through:

The total amount of muscle you have + your regular body function determines your basal metabolic rate. (BMR - how many calories you need per day to stay the same weight)

To start a work out program you need to know your BMR.

For men: daily calories = 66.47 + (13.75 x weight in Kilograms) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.76 x age in year)

1 inch = 2.54 cm 1kg = 2.2 lbs

This is then equal to the amount of calories you need to maintain your weight with you doing almost no activity. You then multiply it by an activity factor. 80% for very active (gym 6 days a week) and about 50% for moderate. So say your BMR is 2000 and your activity factor is 50%. You would need 3000 calories (1.5 x 2000) a day to stay the same weight.

Once determined, try and approximate you food intake. Learn to keep count of calories.

Try for 40% protein 40% carbs 20% fats in calorie composition. (to gain muscle)

Once working out consistently, make sure to eat something healthy at least every 3 hours like fruit or veggies to keep blood sugar up. (Plus the usual meals, especially breakfast.) Don’t eat for the 3, at least 2, hours before sleep. (much goes straight to fat) If you need a snack, any milk products but high fat cheese will do. Best being cottage cheese, it has a type of protein that is slow to break-up (casein) and will provide building blocks for the longest time you go without food. (sleeping)

The Workout

Key Facts:

Correct form is essential to growth, preventing injury, and actual improvement. Look through a book or online to get form perfect. Don’t rock or sway at all when doing exercise. Start with very light weight and be sure to use a full range of motion. (i.e. in bench press don’t stop an inch or two above your chest and don’t bounce the waste of your chest.)

Stretching is just as important. Stretch before, during, and after. (increases blood flow/performance, decreases injury, and reduces soreness)

Strength is a means to an end in increasing muscle mass. (the more stress you can place on your system, the more you can grow. Without going up in strength, you’ll stagnate) In general, do less weight, more reps to failure. (until you can’t do 1 more rep) Maximum development is generally achieved around 70-75% of 1 rep max. (amount you can lift only once with perfect form) This is 8-12 reps for the upper body and 12-15 for the legs. (and forearms) Lower and you’re training for power. Higher and it’s more endurance.

Split system training. (aka don’t work entire body everyday to ensure proper rest and instensity) This is good for rapid growth and if you want to really hit one group. (you’ll be too tired to hit all groups hard in the same day)

Basic Muscle groups and areas to work on

Back- width and length of latissismus dorsi (lats) middle back, spinal erectors (lower back)
Shoulders (deltoids) front, rear, and side heads. Trapezius (the triangle of muscle behind your neck.)
Chest- upper and lower pectorals. (there’s actually a dividing line) middle chest, serratus, intercostals
Arms- bicep (upper/lower, inner/outer) triceps (three heads)
Forearms
Thighs and glutes
Waist- abs (work every workout)
calves

4 sets per exercise, 8ish per body part. (less for biceps/tris, less for shoulder heads, calves can go almost endlessly) Start low to get form perfect, then increase. Try to train at a rate just below cardiovascular failure. (train as fast as body can provide oxygen to muscles) It keeps you in good cardio shape and prevents wasted time. The better the condition of your heart, lungs, and circulatory system, the more intense training you can do at the gym and more progress you can make.

Aerobics burn extra calories and improve cardio system. (i.e. makes you more lean) Too much can lead to overtraining. (cuts into recuperative cycle of muscles and can be very bad) A certain amounts of soreness is inevitable and is a sign that you have trained intensely. You shouldn’t be so sore that it interferes with daily activity. Ease back if this is the case.

General Tips:

Rest a minutes or less between sets. (less than 90 seconds for legs)

breath out with effort. (very hard contractions of the muscles usually involves a contraction of the diaphragm as well)

Stretching primes your strength, increases blood flow, decrease injury. (stretch before, during, and after)

best time to work out is in the morning before you day.

Don’t work out a couple hours before sleep. (any workout is still better than none though)

Finally, overtraining is destructive. Limit sets to reasonable amount. Do aerobics for at least 30 minutes a day 4 to 5 days a week is the minimum. Much above 45 minutes a stretch interferes with muscle growth and could lead to overtraining.

Long Term:

The same routine will work for a while, but your body will adjust. After time, you’ll need to switch things up. Learning new exercises and increasing intensity are just the beginning. I’m not going to write more on this topic as this is an intro. Ask for tips as you progress. Once you have the basics, a discussion is more helpful than simply supplying rules.