Knowing where to start can be difficult when trying to get in shape. The focus of this article is on how achieve that aesthetic “shredded” look that you see on the front of fitness magazines. It is not through one course of action that you will find success but through a combination of actions which will ultimately lead to the results you want!
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1. Hit The Weights
Weight training is essential for anyone who really wants to change the way their body looks – gaining muscle mass should be a high priority to anyone wanting to get in shape. Calories are required to maintain muscle mass, therefore the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you will require to maintain that mass. Put simply, when you have built a solid foundation of muscle, you will find it MUCH easier to maintain a low level of body fat.
Start simple and ensure you are working your entire body equally. Focus on compound movements such as bench press, overhead press, pull ups, deadlifts, rows and squats. Either work your entire body each workout or use a two day split (either push/pull or upper body/lower body). How you structure your split is really down to personal preference, mix things up to keep it interesting!
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2. Count Your Calories
Counting calories is one of the most important steps to getting in shape. Knowing what you are putting into your body removes the guesswork so it is no longer IF you will get in shape but WHEN! Just seeing what the foods you are eating look like in terms of calories will help you immensely in controlling both what and how much you are eating! You can use our simple calorie counter for help deciding how many calories your body needs for your specific goals.
Treat it like an experiment – keep your calories constant for a period of a week then evaluate your progress. If you want to gain or lose more weight then adjust your calories by 200 per week until you are happy with your rate of weight loss/weight gain. Just remember that weight isn’t everything, muscle weighs more than fat so you may get heavier whilst also getting leaner! Whether you are bulking or cutting, calorie counting will make sure that you are getting everything you can out of the hard work you are putting in at the gym.
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3. Eat Clean
Once you’ve started counting your calories, you can start making small changes little by little to improve your diet. Your body is like a race car, if you fuel it with nothing but processed junk foods it’s not going to be coming in first! Try to choose raw, unprocessed foods such as meat, fish, vegetables, low GI carbs and good fats such as nuts and avocados.
Protein is important for growth and recovery. The number of grams of protein you should aim for each day should be the same as your body weight in pounds. (e.g. A 195lb person needs 195g of protein per day). A common mistake a lot of beginners make is eating more protein than the body can process – especially when using protein supplements. Many people avoid fats altogether when trying to eat healthy – a better approach is to avoid BAD fats! For more information on what specific fats to eat and avoid check out our Paleo Muscle Gain article.
Stick to low GI carbs which are in their raw unprocessed form such as rice, potato, sweet potato and oats. Sugar has a negative impact on pretty much every part of the body – there’s a reason it is rarely found in nature. The more vegetables you eat, the better – Do not underestimate the value of vitamins and minerals, these are essential for your body to function efficiently in order to efficiently burn fat and efficiently build muscle.
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4. Stay Motivated
When it comes to getting in shape and staying in shape, consistency is the key to everything. If you work out 3 times per week, before you know it you’ll be in the best shape of your life! Start skipping sessions though and that hard work could all go to waste. The best motivation is seeing results so the harder you work, the more motivated you should be to continue.
Set yourself a goal – this can be anything from running a half marathon in 1.5 hours to losing 50 pounds. It must be a set time from now, maybe a month, maybe a year but start counting down to your goal every single day. Each day ask yourself “Am I moving closer to my goals or am I moving further away?”. Count down the days to your goal and know that every day that passes is a chance to succeed.
The best motivation comes from within (read more about it here). We all have bad days where we need help getting up off our asses and into the gym. Sometimes it is hard to find the motivation within ourselves. One of the most useful tools for these times is watching motivational videos. Go on YouTube, search for motivation and you’ll find a ton of inspirational content to get you on track.
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5. Get Organised
Living a healthy lifestyle is time consuming. You must make time to go to the gym, to prepare healthy meals and even just to sleep. We all have other commitments and we must streamline our lives if we want to achieve all of our goals.
Avoid wasting time in the gym. Time your rest periods and know your workout before you step through the door. Get in, go hard and go home. It’s up to you how much time you dedicate to working out but what’s important is not that you went to the gym but WHAT did you do in the gym and HOW did you do it.
Meal prep is one of the most powerful tools both to save time and to ensure that you always have healthy food ready which will prevent you from choosing unhealthy fast foods. See this article for more information on meal prep and the importance of tupperware!
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6. Run in the Mornings
Performing your cardio workouts first thing in the morning is a great way to start your day off positively as well as maximising your fat burning potential. When you exercise first thing in the morning, your body is running on empty. With no food in your system, your body is forced to turn to it’s own stored fat or glycogen stores for energy. Low intensity cardio primarily uses body fat for fuel so is the preferred choice first thing in the morning.
The large, sudden bursts of energy required for high intensity interval training, sprints or weight training rely on anaerobic processes which use stored muscle glycogen for fuel. Since we want to train as hard as possible in the weight room, it is better to save this energy source for resistance training sessions rather than wasting in on cardio.
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7. Get Some Rest
Proper rest is often overshadowed by training and nutrition but its importance CANNOT be overlooked! We do not grow in the gym, we grow when we provide our body with proper nutrition and rest. During sleep, your body maximises its production of growth hormone to aid with both tissue repair and growth.
In the gym, essential neurotransmitters are required for an effective workout. These include adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine and others. When we sleep, our body replenished these neurotransmitters which will make our next workout more effective!
Sleep has a strong positive effect on the body as a whole and lack of sleep can result in your body working less efficiently. An efficient body burns more fat and builds more muscle than one running at 50%. Look after your body and stop looking to external sources to get the results you want!