Archive for September, 2008

Get Ripped

Friday, September 19th, 2008

Weight-lifting workout

When trying to get ripped, the workout does not play an incredibly huge role, as already stated. As long as you are not on a crazy setup that has you doing volume overload (a surefire recipe for burnout when on a diet), you should be able to maintain your muscle mass.

What to consider when designing your workout to get ripped is that you want to cut back on the total number of reps and sets since you won’t have the fuel to recover from strenuous workouts. At the same time, however, try to maintain intensity since it will preserve your strength and muscle tissue mass.

So, if you used to do four sets of bench-pressing consisting of 6 reps at 180 pounds, knock that down to 2 or 3 sets of bench-pressing consisting of 6 reps at that same 180 pounds. Maintaining the same poundage is what is going to be absolutely key here. Even if it means doing only a single set, the weight should stay up (note, that it’s uncommon to make strength gains during this time; we are simply shooting to maintain your strength).

Additionally, when you want to get ripped reduce the amount of isolation work you do. This would include movements such as bicep curls, tricep isolation exercises, leg extensions, lateral raises, and so on. You can hit pretty much all the muscle groups in the body with the following exercises:

  • Bench press
  • Squat
  • Deadlift
  • Shoulder press
  • Row
  • Calf raise
  • One ab exercise

Obviously, you can swap these exercises around; do a pull-up instead of a row or do an incline bench press instead of a shoulder press. Getting these core movements in, however, will keep you on top of your game.

Divide these up into either a full-body program performed two to three times each week or an upper/lower split performed four days each week, trying to keep it to a maximum of 15 sets per workout if you’re doing upper/lower, and 20-25 if you’re doing full body.

To maintain your muscle glycogen from workout to workout (for those who are doing a low-carb approach and not eating very many carbs elsewhere in their diet), consume 5 grams of carbs per 2 sets during the pre/post-workout period).