It seems as if the entire world is talking about getting lean.
I mean look at some of the guys I follow. Rusty Moore from Fitness Black Book – his popular blog is all about building that lean Hollywood look. Look at my buddy Nathan from NathanStrength.com – he’s been blogging about body transformations and getting ripppeedddd!! – he walks the talk (just check out this video).
Everyone wants to get lean. And I love it. I love the lean look. I’ve been lean all my life and have never really considered getting bigger.
So what to do…
Deep down, I really enjoy being lean. It’s functional, easy to maintain, and even fun to look at sometimes.
But for the sake of helping my fellow fitness bloomers, it’s time for something new – something different.
I’m embarking on a new challenge…
I’m going to get jacked!
Whoa! Sounds a bit intimidating.
Let me rephrase that…
Over the next couple of months, I’m going to be focusing on three simple words: building lean muscle.
Why this Particular Challenge?
I believe there are a lot of fitness bloomers out there looking to get bigger. They want some muscle. They want some size.
They’re tired of being called skinny by their best friend’s mom (this may or may not have happened to me).
Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve been lean all of my life. I’ve never tipped the scale past 177 lbs and I’m just scraping the 6ft mark.
I’m kind of curious to see what I look like when I’m a beast.
Most importantly, I want to go through this and document every little detail. I’m going to document my training, my diet, my supplementation, and any activities that may or may not affect my results.
I believe the fitness community is lacking this.
There is a lot of generalized instruction out there – do this, do that and you’ll get the results. That’s garbage. That’s not helpful.
I’m going to document everything. And you’ll have access to it all. You’ll be able to learn from my mistakes, analyze my strategies and thought process, and follow in my footsteps to get similar results.
I want to create something of value…for you.
How am I Going to do This?
Good question. I’m glad you asked.
The Training
I’m going to be following one of the most trusted and effective muscle-building programs out there. It’s a program designed by one of my mentors – Rusty Moore. It’s a program designed to get you incredible results for a visually appealing look. The program is called Visual Impact Muscle Building for Men and it’s going to blaze some serious trails in the fitness community.
Check out the entire Visual Impact Muscle Building Program that I’m using.
The Diet
Our results are determined by our diet – this is a known fact. To get big, there are certain rules one must follow. I will show you what they are. In the upcoming weeks, I’m going to be outlining my entire strategy when it comes to diet. I’ll show you how I calculate what my caloric intake should be, I’ll show you where I’m getting my major macronutrients (protein, carbs, fat) from, and I’ll show you how to strategically time your meals for optimal results. Remember that diet is everything. No matter how good your training is, you will never achieve optimal results without proper dieting.
Note: don’t let the word ‘diet’ scare you. I’m simply referring to how and what you eat.
Supplementation
I’m not a huge fan of supplements. I use the common ones but I try to focus on getting the majority of my nutrients from my diet. For this challenge, however, I’m going to be introducing two new supplements into the mix that should really help boost my results. I’ll be revealing my supplement list in an upcoming post.
What are my Goals?
Like I’ve mentioned earlier, I’ve never stepped over the 177 lb mark. Never really bothered to either. As I measured myself to start this challenge, I’m sitting at 169.5lbs. My goal is to gain 12-15 lbs (most of this will be lean muscle mass, some of it will be fat). I’m aiming for that 182lbs mark. We’ll see what happens.
Note: Understand that beginners have much greater potential for building lean muscle mass. I’m no beginner. I’ve been training for many years now so my ceiling for growth is a bit more limited. I’m also a very active person so it’s going to be interesting to see how my body deals with change. Either way, this won’t stop me from achieving my goals. If you’re a beginner this is great news for you because any gains I make you can probably double.
What’s the Time Frame?
The muscle-building phase of the Visual Impact Muscle Building program ideally lasts 2 months. The beauty of this program, however, is that it is extremely customizable. You can tweak things to ensure that the program caters to you and not the mass population.
And that’s exactly what I’ll be doing. Depending on my progress, I’m looking at a time frame of 6 to 8 weeks. With the right diet and supplementation, I should easily be able to hit my 182lbs goal within this time frame.
Keep in mind that this is all brand new to me. Gaining serious muscle mass has never been a desire of mine.
But something inside of me has been ignited. A spark has been lit.
And when that happens, it’s game over.
I really love challenges. I live for them.
So for the next 2 months, I’m going to be laser-focused at accomplishing my goal of building lean muscle. I know that if I put my mind to this I can really get some great results.
I also look forward to being your personal guinea pig. I promise to make lots of mistakes, test all that can be tested, and document the shit out of this challenge.
Looking forward to seeing what happens.
