If for thin people gaining weight seems like an impossible task, then for those who are overweight, on the contrary, the fight against extra pounds is a Herculean task! Naturally, everything in this world is possible! So anyone can lose extra pounds, but creating an aesthetic, attractive body is not an easy task. Even athletes with a normal physique - mesomorphs - will need a lot of effort to create relief. So what should you do if you need to achieve this goal - to create a sculpted body? Let's find out!
Can everyone make a relief?
Today everyone can make a sculpted body! But for this, some will have to not only sweat, but also resort to the use of pharmacological agents that are very dangerous to health. People who have metabolic problems associated with hormonal imbalance or gastrointestinal dysfunction, such as endomorphs, will not be able to achieve a sculpted body. People with such problems may not lose weight even with intensive training and diet; at least, the weight loss process will proceed extremely slowly.
Athletes who do not have problems of this type can count on ideal muscle shape, pronounced abs and a venous network visible through the skin. By the way, all this is easily achieved by ectomorphs - people with a type of constitution that is determined by the minimum percentage of fat in the body. There are also few muscle fibers in their body, but even small volumes on a naturally “dry” body look athletic.
Mass gain workout
The main advantage of such training is the rapid pace of muscle building. With such rapid growth of all muscle groups, the athlete’s strength endurance also increases. But there are also disadvantages. The main disadvantage is the buildup of fat, which is not at all surprising. As muscle mass increases, the body begins to intensively store fat. The second drawback is associated with the loss of relief, this is due precisely to the accumulation of fat.
Workouts for gaining muscle mass are characterized by a minimum number of repetitions, but with maximum effort.
The key thing to consider when starting training is that you should not burn more calories in one session than you consumed. Otherwise, the muscles will not grow.
Trainings are held no more than 3 times a week. Classes typically last about an hour.
The training program for gaining mass includes a basic set of exercises, including bench presses, loaded squats (dumbbells or barbells), deadlifts, pull-ups, abdominal pumping, and vertical presses.
Isolated exercises are not recommended. They will only waste energy, but will not help in gaining weight.
Perform a maximum of 4 exercises in one lesson, giving 3-4 approaches to each. Perform a maximum of 4-5 repetitions of each exercise. If you can easily do more than 10 repetitions, then the weight is small, in which case we advise you to increase the weight, otherwise this will be a workout aimed at relief, but not at all at mass.
You probably already realized that in order to gain mass, the effort directed at performing each exercise must be maximum! The weight you lift should be manageable, but it should still be as heavy as possible. This is what will give impetus to gaining weight.
When developing an individual workout, if you are a beginner athlete, we recommend starting your training with gaining weight. After 1.5-2 months, you can start training for relief. After 2 weeks, start strength training. Professional athletes plan their training cycles based on their personal wishes for their body, as well as the competition.
The weight training program involves enhanced nutrition. But this does not mean at all that you now need to switch only to meat or overeat. This will only harm the body. The training program for gaining muscle mass recommends consuming the maximum amount of proteins, fiber, carbohydrates, and vitamins. By the way, it is recommended to consume creatine, it will restore muscle fibers and increase strength and endurance. Some resort to consuming protein shakes. Here we advise you to choose a high-quality and proven product.
Remember, before you build a beautiful, ripped body, you must first build muscle mass.
Rules for training for body relief
Creating sculpted muscles is a complex process, since the athlete must strictly follow a number of rules. This is a slightly different training process.
- The intensity of the training should increase. If, when gaining weight, a person used the usual training scheme, consisting of an average of six exercises, each of which is performed three to four sets of eight to twelve repetitions, then the training process, designed to create high-quality dry mass, represents various options for performing exercises, such like: supersets, trisets, and even dropsets. Cardio exercises are also added to the training process. The training process scheme is also different.
- To create high-quality muscles, exercises are performed with a high number of repetitions , and the rest time is reduced to one minute or even thirty seconds. The number of approaches remains the same: 3-4.
- You should do four to five workouts per week. The training scheme is splits, when each workout is carried out on 2-3 muscle groups. But the right training regimen is not enough.
- To achieve the desired effect from a well-constructed training process, the athlete must follow a low-carbohydrate diet. The main task during the period of work on relief will be to reduce subcutaneous fat while maintaining muscle volume and strength indicators.
Terrain training program
Before each workout, we warm up the joints + light muscle stretching + 10 minutes on any cardio machine at an easy pace.
Monday – legs/shoulders
- Squats with a barbell on the shoulders - 4×12;
- Shrugs with dumbbells – 4×15
- Leg extension in a sitting machine - 3×20
- Leg curls in a lying machine - 3×20
- Seated dumbbell press – 4×12
- Standing lateral raise of dumbbells – 4×15
- Bent-over dumbbell raises – 4×15
Tuesday – Cardio
- Cardio on a bike - 30 minutes. My legs were tired from the last workout, so only 30 minutes. After this cardio workout, your leg muscles will feel better.
Wednesday – back/biceps
- Pull-ups in 4 sets to the maximum (if you do more than twenty pull-ups, hang additional weights on your belt)
- Bent-over dumbbell row – 4×15
- Seated pull-down to chest – 3×20
- Block row for the head - 3×20
- Standing biceps curl – 4×15
- Scott bench lift - 4x15
Thursday – cardio
- 40-60 minutes on the treadmill, the pace is not important, the main thing is to run, not walk.
Friday – chest/triceps
- Barbell bench press or dumbbell bench press (optional, preferably alternate) – 4×12
- Lying dumbbell lateral raises – 4×20 (with light weight, the main thing is to feel the stretch in the muscle)
- Dips – 4×12 (if you perform more than twenty times, hang additional weights on your belt)
- Dumbbell extension from behind the head with two hands - 4×15
- Standing block extensions – 4×20
Saturday – cardio
- 60 minutes on a bike or treadmill at medium intensity (depending on the athlete’s fitness level)
You don’t need to pump your abs while drying, because it is a stabilizer muscle. It works in almost every exercise, keeping the body in the correct position. If you want to pump up your abdominal muscles, do it, there’s nothing wrong with that. The main thing is not to overload it, 1-2 times a week is enough. Alternate between crunches and leg raises while hanging on the bar. You need to do this until there is a strong burning sensation, 4 approaches will be enough.
The program is hard, try to sleep and eat more (we'll talk about nutrition later). Perform one drop set and one superset each strength workout. Choose the exercise yourself, the main thing is not to perform supersets and drop sets with the same exercises in every workout. In the first exercise in training, do 2-3 warm-up approaches. Start performing subsequent exercises immediately with the working weight. One cardio workout can be replaced with swimming.
An example of a fat-burning workout for muscle definition. Vladimir Borisov.
Don't neglect stretching, it will protect you from injuries and reduce soreness (muscle pain) after training.
Recommendations for training and nutrition for relief
So, nutrition is a very important component of training aimed at creating relief. The main principle of the diet will be to reduce the amount of carbohydrates. The main emphasis in the diet should be on protein. Its daily amount should be 4-5 grams per kilogram of the athlete’s weight. During relief work, only complex carbohydrates can be consumed. You need to start with 2 grams of carbohydrates per 1 kilogram of the athlete’s weight, then, if necessary, reduce to one gram. To create a high-quality sculpted body, there are no differences in nutrition between men and women.
Detailed menu for girls on cutting → Read more about nutrition on cutting for men →
Different goals - different number of repetitions
You need to understand how many sets and repetitions you need to do in different situations.
For example, a bodybuilder must know the number of repetitions for muscle growth, that is, how many repetitions to do for mass (if he is gaining weight), and how many approaches and repetitions to do for relief (if he is drying out).
The number of repetitions per set depends on what you want to get out of your training.
- To increase strength, usually perform 2-4 repetitions per set. In this case, the weights are taken to be large, close to the maximum.
- To gain mass, the athlete needs to perform 5-10 repetitions. The working weight will be less than when working on strength, but still quite significant. The number of repetitions per mass should not be large. Often mass and strength gains are designated as separate training sessions. Although force grows along with mass, mass does not always follow force. It happens that a small muscle volume is more effective than pumped up mountains of muscles. You can find this in your life - it all depends on what percentage of muscle fibers are involved in the work.
- When working on relief or losing weight, it is important to burn a lot of energy from fat. A large number of repetitions with medium and light weights will allow you to do this. Do 15-20 repetitions until your muscles start to burn.
Please note again that for optimal training you need to adequately select working weights. You need to ensure that with this weight you can do exactly the planned number of repetitions. If you can't do even 1 extra repetition, that would be ideal. In practice, this rarely happens, so don’t despair.
It is also worth mentioning how many repetitions are done per mass when increasing the working weight. Everything is simple here. When switching to a new weight, first perform the minimum number of reps in the range with it (that is, 5), and then increase to the maximum (up to 10).
When to increase quantity
There are times when a person participates in competitions where the maximum number of repetitions is required (for example, in CrossFit). Here you need to train for quantity. You will have to forget about how many reps and approaches to do for mass, relief, or anything else.
So, how to increase the number of repetitions. Here are a couple of techniques:
- First, you need to work for maximum repetitions with good rest. Naturally, in each subsequent approach you will have fewer repetitions than in the previous one.
- The second technique is various “ladders”. For example, increasing working weight and working to the maximum in quantity. Or you can choose a specific weight and do 50 reps with it. Then increase the weight and do the same number of repetitions. One day there will come a time when your muscles will no longer be able to perform a single repetition.
Recommendations for sports nutrition for muscle definition
Sports nutrition can be actively used, however, not all.
- First, the athlete must remove supplements containing carbohydrates. If a person takes protein, then it must be a pure product that does not contain carbohydrates, such as whey protein isolate.
- You should also exclude sports nutrition products that retain water. For example, creatine in any form should not be consumed.
- Fat burners (thermogenics or lipotropics) can be added to an athlete’s diet.
- Taking amino acids is important. There is no particular difference in sports nutrition for men and women.
Here is an example of using sports supplements in a diet to achieve better results and create sculpted muscles:
- BCAA – This supplement should be taken in the morning immediately after sleep. The second dose of BCAA on training days is carried out either before training (during training), or immediately after training, and on rest days - at any convenient time.
- Full cycle amino acids - on training days, take before (or during) classes; the second dose can be taken at any convenient time. On rest days, you can take amino acids at any convenient time.
- Protein – on training days, protein is important in between meals or after training. You can also take a protein shake at night. On rest days, you can take protein at any convenient time.
And also read how to take sports nutrition while drying →
Diet for weight and relief
When an athlete trains for weight, he must consume at least 2 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight per day. Otherwise, there can be no question of any gain in muscle mass. This, of course, does not mean that you need to drink sports nutrition (proteins, gainers, etc.) ten times a day. First of all, you need natural food rich in protein. These are eggs (preferably boiled), meat (chicken, beef, turkey, etc.), fish. The presence of healthy natural food in the diet in the right amount will have a very beneficial effect on the growth of muscle mass. Sports nutrition can only act as a supplement, but not as a replacement for natural products. After training (within half an hour), you need to eat food rich in complex carbohydrates. This is buckwheat, oatmeal, barley porridge, spaghetti. A little later, you definitely need food rich in protein. When training for relief, it is necessary to reduce the consumption of foods rich in carbohydrates. This is especially true for simple carbohydrates (all kinds of sweets). You should also forget about fast food or reduce such food to the bare minimum. Food rich in fats and carcinogens is not only harmful, but also contributes to excess weight gain. In this case, there can be no question of any relief.
