I was sent a very interesting video that went out a while back, where a bit of an “experiment” was done, LIVE, to determine what the ideal male physique is. This was NOT some bull***t questionnaire that involved Leo Di Caprio’s Dad Bod and then comparing this famous multi-millionaire to random guys. This was a legit experiment. If you’re looking to build the optimal, 10/10 physique, you’ll be interested in this… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now a couple of things before starting: 1. I can already hear the “who cares what women want, I just lift for myself” objection. At least 25% of you are already thinking this as you read these words. That’s fine. It’s your life, do whatever you want.  If you want to bulk up to 25% body fat and go for the ‘bear mode’ look, more power to you. But I think that most men if they’re being honest with themselves, will be interested in this video because of the sheer honesty of the women involved. Usually when you get these kinds of things, honesty goes out of the window because the participants are overly sensitive to other people’s feelings. You can tell these women were honest because their answers were extraordinarily similar across the board. 2. Yes, the body fat %s in the above picture are way off. So when it says “5%” just call it 9%. When you see “20%”, call it 26-29% etc. Alright, let’s get into it. The Results The five guys were lined up next to eachother with masks on (so facial aesthetics didn’t distort the experiment), with shirts on, and then without. Two by two, the girls would come through, and pick their favourite in both scenarios. The first pair come through. “I have a certain preferred body shape, and I like broad shoulders.” For the shirts on experiment, she picked the “10%” guy, (who was actually more like 12-13%). Her friend picked the same guy. Then the shirts came off. Now things get interesting. Shirts off, their answers changed. The super-shredded guy was very impressive, but they didn’t want him. The “20%” guy (who’s definitely in the late 20s), the Bear Mode guy, was too big. Too fluffy.  “He’s a little too big for me.” The “5%” guy? He was chosen by both of them, and I would put him at a muscular 8-10% body fat. It looks like the clothes were hiding the midsection of the 12-13% guy, and without a shirt on the midsection now becomes a major factor. But in winter months? It’s probably not a big deal. Broad shoulders/the v-taper is #1. The Second Pair Again, big emphasis on “broad shoulders” when the clothes are on. Notice the pattern here?  (By the way if you want broader shoulders, the fastest way to doing this is by increasing the width of your lats, then adding a bunch of shoulder work on top of that. The best program for lat width is Pull Up Domination. Remember that the lats provide the foundation from which to build off, they’re a FAR bigger muscle group than your medial delts.) Both women chose the 12-13% guy again with shirts on. Notice how when people are actually honest, there really isn’t much variation in their choices at all? How many people are actually going to choose the Dad Bod over the Chad Bod, honestly, in real life, without the Dad Bod being an extremely famous/powerful guy? Nobody will if they A) have the choice, and B) are being honest. Once again, the clothes come off. The first girl stuck with her choice of the 12-13% body fat guy. When asked why him over the 9% guy, she said “he’s bigger in size”. Which objectively isn’t true from a muscular standpoint, so if she’s talking about height then that skews the results a little, as the dude is a couple of inches taller. The other girl struggled to choose between the two leaner guys – around 6% and 9% or so. After touching the super-shredded guy, she went with 8-10% body fat like the previous two girls. The Third Pair Again, it looks like they both chose the 12-13% guy with clothes on. Then with shirts off, both of them went with the 8-10% guy. There’s the pattern. If you want the ideal male physique, you’re going to need broad shoulders, and somewhere between 8-13% body fat depending on your height, muscle mass, genetics etc. None of them chose the super-shredded guy, although a couple were thinking about it. Not ONE even came close to thinking about the two heavier guys. Now if you’re looking to get into ridiculously good shape and get the ideal male physique, you’re going to love the exclusive February newsletter coming very soon to IFFT. The high T recipe on page 2 will help you to lose fat, gain muscle, and work towards the ideal physique FAR faster – testosterone is an accelerator. The Ancient Greek training guide will show you how to build the Greek God physique and the ‘Golden Ratio’ (a shoulder:waist ratio of 1.61). Very valuable stuff in there. The newsletter goes out on Sunday 13th never to be seen again. Don’t miss it. Click here. P.S. Here’s a quick snapshot into the IFFT Program (yes, there’s a ridiculous amount of valuable programs/videos/podcasts/guides under each tab):

The post Do You Have The Ideal Male Physique? appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.

I’m excited to announce that the Pull Up Domination Program will be coming out very soon, and will be available for pre-order within the next few days.

This program is going to solve a lot of problems for you guys.

The goal is to get you from wherever your current position is, to 20+ pull ups (legitimate, zero momentum reps) in any given set.

If you cannot do 5 pull ups, or 3 pull ups, or a single pull up…

This program is going to fix this for you.

Why Is This So Important?

If you’ve been following me on Twitter for any length of time, you’ve heard me talk about this before. Pull Ups are such a great exercise, because:

• They are the foundation of building a powerful v-taper, which is the most sexually attractive part of your physique, hands down
• They are the foundation of big, strong, broad shoulders
• They are a major bicep-builder too

Put it this way. If you can do 20+ pull ups in one set, it’s impossible NOT to have an insanely good v-taper, and a very lean, fit body.

All you’re going to need for this program is a pull up bar (of course), and either some dumbbells, kettlebells or some suitcases that you can fill up with some heavy stuff (like rice/water/milk etc.)

So it’s a minimalist program (that you can do from home), that will develop a KILLER physique.

You’re going to build your back up significantly. Specifically your lower lats, upper lats, rhomboids, lower traps and rear delts. Even the ‘glamour muscles’ like your biceps & abs.

ALL of these muscles are required to be in peak condition for a 20+ set.

I can’t give you any more detail than this without giving you the program itself. But all you need to know is that this program will turn you into a pull up machine.

In The Meantime

All you need to do right now is to make sure that you have a pull up bar at home, and either DB’s, KB’s or heavy suitcases.

That’s it.

In regards to the pricing of the program, it will very likely begin at $37 for a very limited period of time, before the price really rockets upwards from there towards a final price of $67.

The guys on my email list will be receiving a special discount for this weekend’s release, on top of the already discounted price, so make sure you’re on there.

So stay tuned, and I’ll talk to you soon.

The post ANNOUNCEMENT: Pull Up Domination Is Coming Soon! appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.

A lot of men were very inspired by ‘The Godfather of MMA’ and his movies in the past, and want to get the Bruce Lee Body, and with good reason. The movies were awesome, and the dude was a shredded badass.

Today I’m going to delve into some of the training routines and diet tactics he followed and described in ‘The Art Of Expressing The Human Body’, and add my take on things, so that you can maximise your chances of getting shredded yourself.

Bruce Lee Weightlifting

A common question that guys often ask is, “did Bruce Lee lift weights?”. The answer is a resounding YES.

But there’s quite a few differences between his style of training, and the bodybuilders/powerlifters whom he read about in magazines. A couple of key differences in his style of training included:

1. He followed a full body split, rather than a bodybuilding-style ‘bro split‘
2. He scaled back a lot on the total volume, which is a key driver of muscle growth (especially combined with diet, which we’ll get to in just a minute), as he didn’t want the ‘bulk’

The Bruce Lee Body Full Body Workout

So here’s the routine he used to do to get the lean & shredded-rather-than-bulky physique he was famous for.

Clean & Press 2×8

This movement was the foundation of his muscular power, meaning the velocity by which he moved weight. This movement involves exploding the barbell from the floor and up to your shoulders. Then the second part of the movement involves pressing it over your head while maintaining stability.

He also performed each rep with little rest time, meaning that it was more of a combination of explosive power and cardio – perfect for MMA really, as opposed to pure power which is what Olympic lifters train for.

Barbell Curl 2×8

These were performed every time in Bruce’s workout, and were the staple for his arm development (a lot of bodybuilders would agree that the barbell curl is king for biceps).

These gave him not only the bicep development, but also the pulling & grappling power he was after in his training.

To perform this exercise correctly, simply get an EZ bar (better for your wrists) and grab the bar at shoulder width. Raise the bar from an elbow-extended position, up to the top until your biceps are at peak contraction. Then lower back down SLOWLY to keep the tension on your biceps.

Behind The Neck Press 2×8

The behind the neck press gave him a ton of additional shoulder strength (and useful overhead strength) in addition to the clean & press. They also developed his shoulder & tricep muscles significantly.

But one important note here, is that you don’t have to do this exercise behind the neck, because it might not be the best for your shoulder health (depending on your flexibility). A perfectly acceptable substitution for this would be the military press.

The exercise technique requires a barbell being rested on your neck/upper traps, and then being pressed above your head. You do need decent shoulder flexion to perform this movement on a consistent basis, safely.

Barbell Squat 2×12

This was the only real lower body hypertrophy exercise he did. He knew that he didn’t need big legs, just enough muscle to drive maximum force/power.

In order to perform this movement correctly, you’ll need a squat rack with a barbell resting on your upper traps/shoulders. Then squat down nice and deep (your hips should be as low as your knees), then rise back up to the standing position.

This exercise is king for quad, glute and hip development, and Bruce found that 12 reps gave him a more useful workout than 8 reps. He rested for only a short time between sets, so 2×12 with little rest definitely had a minor cardio component to it (especially when you consider that the entire workout was done with little rest in between sets).

Barbell Row 2×8

This one was even more important for his grappling strength than the barbell curls, as this exercise really engages your rhomboids and rear delts. It also trains them how to work as a unit, which is really critical for fighting and any kind of performance.

To perform this exercise, you want your knees bent and your back straight, with the barbell resting on the floor at your feet. Maintain this tight position, and pull the bar up to your midriff. Pause for a second, to ensure maximum muscle tension. Then lower the weight back down SLOWLY to the starting position.

Barbell Bench Press 2×8 (The Bruce Lee Chest Workout)

This is a big one for overall upper body strength and pushing power. Having said this, Bruce wasn’t doing it for 8 sets of 15 like most bodybuilders would do every Monday. Building a huge chest wasn’t really his priority.

With the bench press, you want to make sure you shoulder blades are pinched together and your back is tight throughout the entire movement. Lower the barbell down towards the lower portion of your chest SLOWLY, then press upwards until almost lockout.

The Bruce Lee Body Diet

Bruce Lee was shredded, and the reality is that unless you’re a professional athlete who is paid to train 30+ hours per week, and is therefore essentially being paid to burn calories, you’re not going to train your way to being shredded 24/7.

That’s your diet’s job.

And Bruce Lee’s diet did the work for him (in combination with training 24/7 like an athlete), with a strong focus on protein and an insistence upon NOT fuelling his body with junk food.

What did he fuel his body with exactly?

Protein Shakes

If you want the Bruce Lee Body, be prepared to consume plenty of protein shakes. Check out this grass-fed whey protein isolate powder by Bulk Supplements (tastes great):

Protein is the king macronutrient of body composition. Obviously it helps to build lean muscle and retain is while being shredded and/or dieting. But it also limits your appetite and therefore makes it FAR easier to lose body fat and get completely diced.

By the way if you’re looking to get down to 10% body fat with Intermittent Fasting, I’ve already coached 7,000 men how to do this. Get your FREE guides by entering your email below:

Healthy Chinese Food

So we know that Bruce wasn’t a fan of fuelling his MMA with junk food, and he wanted to maximise his performance by eating properly.

But what exactly is healthy Chinese food? Here’s some examples of healthy, high protein meals that he used to eat on a regular basis, and you can copy if you want the Bruce Lee Body:

• Beef in oyster sauce (with rice, I believe)
• Steak or liver 1-2 times per week
• Shrimp with veggies + tofu
• Chicken with veggies + tofu

So as you can see, the underlying theme here is that there’s always a strong protein serving, with veggies most of the time. It’s a great combination for micronutrients and vitamins too, especially with the red meat/veggies combo.

He avoided junk food, he avoided sugar-dense foods, and his main carb source was rice by the looks of things. I can’t see any mention of alcohol intake either, so it’s no wonder he managed to stay shredded.

This is an excellent diet to maintain a super low body fat level year round, without losing muscle.

Bruce Lee Body Fat

Speaking of which, what was his body fat %?

My guess is that he was 7-8% year round. Peeled. So the question then becomes, how can you achieve that, so that you can get the Bruce Lee Body?

1. Get into a calorie deficit, by getting onto a proper Intermittent Fasting meal plan
2. Maintain a high protein intake every day, by focusing on meat, fish, and protein shakes every time you put something in your mouth
3. Avoid junk food & sugar like the plague
4. Train full body 3x per week, and get on a strict lifting regime
5. Train MMA as much as humanly possible – Monday to Saturday for at least one hour would be ideal, with Sunday as a recovery day

I hope you’ve found this information to be useful, and also inspiring for your fitness goals. If you’d like to focus on fat loss, so that you can achieve a Bruce Lee Body, I can help you.

I’ve got three FREE fat loss guides waiting for you right here, with far more in-depth information than outlined in this article:

The post How To Get A Bruce Lee Body appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.

Today I’m going to delve into the differences, using examples of pros within each category. We’ll look at visual differences, body measurement differences and drug usage differences (speculative in some cases).

What Is Men’s Physique?

Men’s physique is a relatively new category that was introduced in 2012 at the Olympia. The main goal with this was to diverge from the modern day ‘mass monsters’ and give the world something a little more aesthetic and attainable for your average Joe.

There’s a strong focus on the shoulder to waist ratio, using numbers 52.5 to 27 (a little more extreme than what I mentioned in the ‘v-taper‘ article.) So it’s almost a case of – the narrower the waistline the better – which is a nice contrast to the open bodybuilding category.

There’s also less of an ‘upper leg emphasis’, as the men’s physique competition requires men to wear knee-length swimming trunks. The focus is on the ‘ideal beach body’, rather than pure mass.

Example Physiques

Jeremy Buendia, 4x Men’s physique champion is pictured below (with a 27 inch waist):

So although the average person may look at him in his off-season and call him ‘a bodybuilder’, you can see the difference between him and Phil Heath on stage is simply night and day.

His waistline is narrow and chiselled rather than bloated and out of proportion, and his face is square and angular, rather than, just BIG. I’d guess he’s probably 6-7% body fat here.

Another example, Ryan Terry:

Again, narrow waistline, chiselled face. Probably ~5% body fat.

Another one, a very sauced-up-looking Sergi Constance:

Sergi’s waistline doesn’t appear to be as narrow as the other guys, but he’s pretty huge around the chest & shoulder area, with pretty much perfect muscle insertions.

It’s reported that his arms are a whopping 19 inches in size, so even though these guys aren’t competing in bodybuilding, there’s some real size there by anyone’s standards.

Having said that, I suspect these were measured while bulking and being a slightly higher body fat %, not that he ever really goes beyond 8%.

What Is Men’s Classic Physique?

This was the most recent addition to the IFBB, and was introduced in 2016. The goal with this category was to almost relive the ‘classic’ (and more aesthetic) Golden Era of bodybuilding.

The guys who compete here are almost like the modern day Arnold’s and Frank Zane’s. These guys are huge, and have taken their size beyond Men’s Physique, but not as far as the open bodybuilding category.

The main difference between the open category and Men’s Classic Physique, is that the former have lost control of their stomachs, due to expanded intestinal size in their pursuit of maximum growth. Whereas the classic guys can still hold the ‘vacuum pose’ – holding their stomach’s in.

Example Physiques

Here’s the Mr. Olympia of classic, Chris Bumstead, looking like the next Arnie:

This dude was only 22 in the above pictures, which is absolutely insane. Likely around 5% body fat.

(In case you’re looking to get down to 10% body fat, I’ve coached 7,000+ men how to do this with Intermittent Fasting. Check out my 3 FREE guides by entering your email below):

Here’s the former champion Breon Ansley, who you can see pictured next to Chris Bumstead:

So clearly these guys have more mass on them than the guys in Men’s Physique, but aren’t exactly Ronnie Coleman either.

Drug Usage Differences

While I can’t possibly say what each person takes and at what time, I can give you a pretty rough estimation of what guys take at each level.

There’s screenshots of fitness models openly talking about their gear usage, and also Chris Bumstead & his coach are open about his off-season cycle – you can see the YouTube video right here.

Men’s Classic Physique Steroid Usage

Also worthy of mention is his coach’s comments on that very video, saying:

“We said offseason and currently. Which is 100% the truth. During prep are some more things needed than just test? Of course. But we’re EXTREMELY conservative. If he’s doing say 500mg test, 300mg masteron, 150mg tren ace (per week) + Ai’s during prep that’s basically as hard as he goes now”

“He’s never really done much at all tbh. I wouldn’t care to admit it if he had. Everyone does dumb shit when they’re young. But you have to remember 1. He’s a genetic freak and has always got away with very very little. And 2 he’s my family that I care about a lot, I would never want him doing anything excessive or unnecessary when it’s clearly not needed and he was progressing well every year”

So right now Chris isn’t on any more than 1 gram of gear per week, but that’s right now, at the upper limit of his weight class, as Derek mentions in the video. He almost definitely was on more than this on his way up to being Mr. Olympia.

Men’s Physique Steroid Usage

Now, I don’t know if this guy has actually competed in the IFBB Men’s Physique (which is why I said a lot of this stuff is speculation), but it looks like he’s competed in similar divisions, and is regularly compared to Sergi Constance.

Both guys are famous fitness models. He’s called Jaco De Bruyn:

He’s got a ridiculous physique, just like Constance. But he’s completely open about his gear use, rather than having a ‘let’s just not talk about it’ approach.

Here’s some screenshots of him talking to what I can only assume is a future competitor wannabe:

So it looks like a decent amount of stuff. Is it as much as Chris Bumstead was taking in his off season a few years back? Is it more than what he was taking?

Nobody really knows.

There’s two major factors here that may well be playing in Chris’ favour – genetics and food. Chris has ridiculous genetics, and bulks properly in his off-season, which is something a lot of fitness models don’t seem to do. When you bulk properly, your drug requirements go way down.

Men’s Physique Vs Bodybuilding

Alright, here’s where the real mass monsters are. The open category is full of guys who get up to 300+ pounds in their off-season.

This category doesn’t care about having a narrow waistline, with pure mass (and symmetry) being the goal. Insulin use is pretty much guaranteed, which excessive amounts of growth hormone.

Here’s the two most famous examples.

Jay Cutler vs Ronnie Coleman:

These dudes are enormous. Far bigger than Arnie ever was, far bigger than Chris Bumstead is, and probably aren’t the epitome of health either.

So hopefully by now you can really tell the difference between the three categories in the IFBB.

If you liked this content, feel free to read some of my other articles on improving your looks, powerbuilding, and ‘bro splits‘.

If you have any questions in relation to any of this, make sure you’re on the email list. That’s where I respond to all questions within a couple of days.

The post Men’s Physique Vs Classic Physique Vs Bodybuilding appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.

Can you build broad shoulders, even if you’ve got a narrower bone structure? The answer is YES, but you’ve got to do things a little differently to most guys.

Most men want broader shoulders to some degree. Because they know it looks good – it symbolises strength, power, and fitness. Especially when it’s combined with a narrow waistline (a strong v taper) and/or an Adonis Belt.

The Benefits Of Having Broad Shoulders

Men around the globe want broad shoulders for a variety of reasons. On some level, we realise that women find v-tapers to be more attractive than pot bellies and narrow shoulders, and that men respect us more when we have broad shoulders and big biceps.

Here’s the scientific reasoning behind a v-taper being attractive:

• It signals higher testosterone
• It’s an indicator of physical health
• It means that a woman is likely to be physically secure and protected
• It symbolises raw strength & power

You can read more about these attraction indicators in this study, this one, and this one.

Having broad shoulders tends to lead to a better life, all other things being equal. So it pays to know how to build them, and that’s what I’m here to help you do.

Myths Surrounding Broad Shoulders

Before writing this article, I searched a little to see what other people were saying about this, and I came across a fair amount of BS.

Myth #1 – There’s Nothing You Can Do About Shoulder Width

This is complete garbage, and I’ll get to some examples shortly. But your genetics only determine your starting point. How you progress from there, is completely up to you.

A man with a lower starting point will simply need to put in more work to achieve the same end results as the guy with better genetics.

Myth #2 – Build Up Your Shoulders To Get Broader Shoulders

It’s counter-intuitive, I know.

But your shoulders are actually pretty tiny muscles in comparison to things like your upper lats, upper pectorals, and lower traps.

These muscles take up far more space, and will take the lions share when it comes to beefing up your total shoulder circumference (which I’ll explain more in just a minute).

The exercises that you use to broaden your shoulders should focus on these muscle groups FIRST, then your side delts.

The Fundamental Law Of The Male Physique

I’ve seen other articles on this topic, that focus on genetics, bone structure, and things you cannot control. While I don’t disagree with the fact that you can’t control your bone structure, it’s ultimately a waste of time.

And here’s the thing – it doesn’t even matter.

Here’s why…

I personally have a FAR narrower bone structure than my younger brother, and this difference is most obvious in our legs. I have naturally skinnier legs than him, and his legs resemble tree trunks.

But this was far more obvious BEFORE I started squatting.

Let me pose this question to you.

Have you ever seen a man who can squat 500 pounds, with super skinny legs? I know I haven’t. Have you ever seen a man who can bench press 300 pounds, with a super flat chest and tiny arms? I have not.

So the fundamental law, is that you cannot be physically powerful and really small simultaneously – it just doesn’t exist for 99.999% of the population.

The same fundamental law of size applies to your shoulder circumference too.

But when it comes to shoulder circumference, you’re looking at:

• Weighted pull ups
• The overhead press
• Incline bench press

These are the big three exercises that will help you to beef up your shoulder circumference (your overall musculature that makes you appear bigger in that region).

The biggest one is easily weighted pull ups, because wide lats will give you a wider appearance, especially if you then build excellent lower traps and side delts on top of this foundation.

If you can do 10+ pull ups with 50+ pounds around your waist, I can guarantee that your shoulder circumference will be respectable. It’s physically impossible for it not to be.

Now, will you have the broadest shoulders in the world? No.

But they will be far more impressive than most men, and you’ll look fantastic.

Recovering From Shoulder Workouts

In addition to the big three exercises above, you’ll need to make sure you’re recovering properly from them.

This means plenty of protein, carbs, and sleep.

You MUST sleep properly. It’s critical not only for recovery, but also for testosterone levels. If your testosterone is below 500, you can kiss goodbye to any potential muscle gains.

Check out Testogen if you’re looking to naturally increase your testosterone levels into the ideal range for men (800-1200).

How To Measure Shoulders

The best way to measure your progression with your shoulders, is through your shoulder circumference, not just width.

This is exactly what the studies do, and it’s what matters in real life. You can get some 18 year old kid with broad shoulders, but men with far more muscle mass in their upper chest, upper backs, and shoulders are going to look far superior.

Here’s an example of my shoulder circumference being measured (and I don’t have a wide bone structure, it’s all extra ‘meat’):

Examples Of Broad Shoulders Vs Narrow Shoulders

Here’s a guy who’s won the genetic lottery, in the sense that he’s good looking AND he’s got wider clavicles just from a bone structure standpoint:

But here’s a point I’d like to highlight – the dude still has a pretty solid amount of muscle in his delts. This guy has WAY bigger-than-average side delts, which really add to the width of his shoulders.

If this guy had ZERO muscle there, there’s no way his shoulders would look as broad as they do.

Let’s look at another example, with a guy with much narrower shoulders from a bone structure perspective:

This guy is not comparable to the first one from a shoulder clavicle standpoint, but he’s obviously put many years of work into building those traps and shoulders up, and now he’s got some serious mass extending from those shoulder clavicles.

And he looks GREAT.

He’s basically made up for the deficiency in bone width, with pure muscle mass, with the traps and side delts being the main focus.

If you have narrow shoulders, you simply have to put in more work into the correct muscle groups, to compensate for it.

How To Build Broad Shoulders

Through a well-designed weight lifting program, you could pack on an extra 30 pounds of muscle onto your frame, that an untrained man simply will never have.

Meaning that you could have several pounds of extra shoulder muscle compared to the next guy. This will give you a far more powerful appearance.

This is on top of building wider lats, and losing belly fat to give you a narrow waistline. These are the things that really build your v-taper, and the illusion of broader shoulders.

(If you want to burn more fat with Intermittent Fasting so that you can enhance your v-taper, get on my email list below):

How Much Muscle Do You Need?

It depends.

If you’re a ‘regular’ hard-gainer, then it may just be 20 pounds of lean muscle, and then losing 10 pounds of fat (yes hard-gainers are usually quite a lot more than 10% body fat, and the fat loss will help them to appear broader).

If you’ve got really narrow shoulders, you may need to gain 30 pounds of muscle, with a really heavy emphasis on hypertrophy in the shoulders, traps and lats.

This is the difference between having a rectangular body shape (waist is just as wide as your shoulders), and an upside down triangular shape (shoulders are far broader than waistline).

*When I say 20-30 pounds, this is 20-30 pounds of pure muscle. Not fat, not glycogen, not temporary water weight. Pure muscle will simply transform the way you look, and will make ‘muscle fit’ clothing look good on you.

Try These Shoulder Workouts For Men

Let me start by saying that if you want to build 30 pounds of lean tissue onto your frame, it’s going to take some time, and your training will need to become progressively more difficult over time.

But here’s a great shoulder routine to really get you started – do this 3x per week:

The standing military press is the heavy ‘tension work’ for your shoulders, and will provide the baseline for your shoulder development. It will tax your side delts, front delts, traps and triceps.

The upright row will isolate your traps significantly, and will contribute greatly to having a more masculine look and a thick neck.

Dumbbell side raises are my personal favourite for building broad shoulders. They really make your shoulders ‘pop’, and add to that width that you’re chasing. I highly recommend doing these for higher reps, feeling that ‘burn’, and doing rest-pause training.

Rest-pause training means that you pause at the end of each set for a few seconds, and squeeze out a few extra painful reps. You do this multiple times.

The lactic acid build up is agony, but you learn to love it. Especially when your shoulders are growing like weeds.

The Best Workout Program

Now, the above is simply a quick sample routine.

If you’d like a far more comprehensive long-term training program that will really build up your shoulder width and shoulder power, then I recommend getting the ADF Lean Bulking Program (For Skinny Guys).

It’s a 5 month bulking routine that will put on 10-20 pounds of muscle on your frame.

Not only does it give you all the training materials you need, but it also has the eating system to follow. This includes the calories and the meals you need to eat, every single day (training days are higher calories and higher meal frequency), every single month.

Here’s what Jamie had to say:

“I’m really liking this routine. Alex has created a program that works very well for skinny guys. My biggest problem was always knowing what to eat, and now this is completely taken care of. My shoulders in particular are MILES bigger than they used to be, with my girlfriend really liking the physical changes ;)”

This program will really help you to beef up your lats (and therefore the width of your shoulders), your actual delts themselves, and your traps also.

You will be able to accomplish all of this within 5 months if you stick to the actual program and the diet plan in there.

Check out the link below:

To Summarise

If you want to build broad shoulders, you’re going to need several things.

A substantial amount of muscle in your lats, your side delts, and your traps. Your upper chest will also play a role in your total shoulder circumference.

Once you’ve done this, a smart move would be to maximise the appearance of having broad shoulders, by narrowing your waistline and getting down to 10% body fat.

Men with really broad-looking shoulders are never 15%, 20% or 25% body fat. It’s one of the most downplayed elements to the male physique. Your waistline must be narrow.

If you’d like to learn how to get to 10% body fat, join 7,000+ others on their journey, right here:

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What Is A Bro Split?

The Bro Split is a highly popular way of training, that splits the body into five different groups (usually). Often this kind of bodybuilding split will look like the following:

• Monday – International Chest Day
• Tuesday – Back
• Wednesday – Legs
• Thursday – Off
• Friday – Shoulders
• Saturday – Arms
• Sunday – Off

Regardless of whether or not the person chooses to participate in ‘International Chest Day’, the Bro Split tends to be spread across five training sessions per week, with two days off.

It became popular decades ago, through some of the ‘Golden Era Bodybuilders’ like Arnold and Frank.

But modern day science has a couple of things to say about it…

The Science On Bro Splits

Brad Schoenfeld has conducted a very useful meta-analysis of all the studies on training frequency and muscle growth – he’s done all the work for us.

His conclusion?

Training frequency does not significantly affect muscle growth, when total training volume is equated.

Meaning; as long as you perform enough total volume (# of sets x weight x reps), then it doesn’t matter if you train once per week or three times per week. The muscle growth will be the same.

Total work performed (per week) is all that truly matters when it comes to muscle growth.

But there’s a problem with this (as with most studies).

In the real world, this doesn’t work out to be that applicable. If you’re a very well-trained lifter like myself, and have been lifting for 10 years, needing 20 sets of chest per week to grow…Is this realistically going to be performed in one session without serious problems?

Without EVER getting injured? Or fatigued? Or losing rep quality after 1.5 hours of benching?

No.

It’s not realistic.

In the real world, there’s a very high chance that you’re better off splitting this volume up into multiple sessions per week, if you want to stay injury-free long-term.

Having said that, if you’re an exception to this and you know for sure that you can do 12 sets of bench in one session, or 8 sets of squats/leg press without any issues, then feel free to do whatever you like.

Bro Split Vs Full Body Workouts

Some guys like bro splits because it ‘feels good’ to exclusively focus on one muscle for the whole workout, which may actually yield better results for them in reality, IF it leads to a better mind/muscle connection.

Again, scientists don’t like the term ‘mind/muscle connection’ because they can’t measure or quantify it. But it doesn’t mean it’s not a major force behind your muscle gains. I mean, try doing a drunken weight lifting session, and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

Muscle connection helps you to ‘LooksMax‘, and the old-school bodybuilders knew this.

But if you can maintain a strong mind/muscle connection while doing full body workouts, you may well be better off over the long-haul.

Why?

For the experienced lifter (and certainly for Men Over 40), the Bro Split does put a cap on how much volume you can realistically perform per week. If you exceed this cap, you’re more likely to get injured. There’s only so many sets of incline bench you can do until your elbows and shoulders get beat up.

If you’re over 40 and you’re looking to gain some muscle without getting injured, make sure you’re on the email list. I give away free tips constantly to my audience:

But if you split these sets across three sessions of squat, bench, some deadlifts and pull ups? You’re far less likely to suffer the same issues. You have less inflammation to recover from when you split it into ‘manageable chunks’. All you need to do is maintain your mind/muscle connection by doing several high rep warm up sets to pump blood into the target muscles.

Here’s what it would look like…

The Bro Split Routine

See how this would be far more manageable, AND it wouldn’t force you to do less compound movements and more isolation movements? I.e it wouldn’t force to you bench less and do more incline fly’s because of shoulder pain, for example.

It would also allow you to get very competent at certain exercises very quickly. You may find it easier to make faster gains as a beginner with a higher training frequency. Building an Adonis Belt for example, may be easier due to the repetition of movement that beginners need.

But the two drawbacks to the full body routine, are:

1. Loss of mind/muscle connection
2. Too much time spend in the gym per session

The latter can be solved by super setting exercises, which is even more doable if you have your own home gym/dumbbell set. Chest and back movements can be supersetted, just like arms and shoulders can all be supersetted.

This will save you HUGE amounts of time week in, week out. Just be prepared for the intensity.

Having said that, if you’re a brand new beginner you don’t need to worry about this, in fact, your training should look a lot more like this:

THAT full body workout could be done in under 1 hour. And there’s no way you’ll be getting injured doing that, assuming your technique is on point. Whereas 10 sets of incline bench might still be asking for trouble if you’re trying to do it all in one session, like you would with the Bro Split.

A good example of a full body workout that accomplishes all this, is the James Bond program. Definitely check it out if you’re over 40.

But at the end of the day, it’s really up to you which training methodology you choose.

Training Frequency & Injuries

You’d be training each muscle once per week on the bro split, and three times per week on the full body split. BOTH work for muscle gain, as long as the training volume is equated.

In reality, BOTH will work if you’re a beginner and you’re not doing that much total volume because you simply don’t need it.

But as you become more advanced and/or you start aging, you’ll want something that lowers your risk of injury from all that volume.

This is where full body workouts come in.

Time Management

While the full body workouts are definitely going to be better for your knees, elbows, shoulders and lower back, they might get time consuming for the advanced lifter.

It all depends on your situation.

If you take REAL time to get changed, showered, and to drive to the gym, then this may not be the case. Being in the gym less times per week may be better for you. Supersetting is also another technique to look at on the full body workouts to save serious time.

Get To 10% Body Fat In Your 40s

If you’re looking to get lean with Intermittent Fasting, I have regular tips over at the email list. Make sure you don’t miss your 3 FREE fasting guides. You can access these by entering your email below:

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Oh, it’s the grand-daddy question of them all. All of us want to gain muscle and lose fat, and we want it immediately.

The reality is that muscle looks good. I’m not talking Ronnie Coleman freak-show kind of muscle, but none of us are ever going to have a third of what we has, so looking like a monster isn’t a valid fear.

A more valid fear for the vast majority of guys is going to be looking to weak or too skinny overall, especially the taller, longer-limbed folks. Skinny arms, legs and a flat chest are the norm in this case.

Low body fat also looks good, especially when combined with a decent muscular base. In fact, when you have low body fat, it’s not just your abs that are revealed (which most people focus on). It’s also your shoulders, chest, back, and FACE which completely transform in terms of sharpness, and simply looking more aesthetic.

In my opinion, the facial transformation is probably the most worthwhile for most people (exceptions are if you already have a longer, leaner face).

So how exactly does the average person go about achieving this transformation?

First thing’s first: You have to make this an absolute priority in your life. It’s simply not going to work if you’re stressed out all the time, or you’re trying to grow a business, or travel the world or something like that.

You HAVE to commit to this kind of thing, because you’re technically trying to improve two things at once, which isn’t optimal for any ONE thing.

Most guys on Twitter who ask me this kind of question just aren’t serious enough to pull it off. They’re the kind that justify eating junk food, not eliminating sugar, and eating breakfast on the weekends. It won’t work if you won’t commit.

So make this a priority, and stick to it.

Secondly, you’re going to need to get your diet absolutely spot on. There’s very little margin for error if you’re going to successfully pull off a body re-composition (simultaneous muscle gain and fat loss).

It means kicking out alcohol – weekend drinking will ensure that you fail on this mission. It also means minimising sugar.

And all of this needs to be done within the context of Intermittent Fasting – which will allow you stay full as you continue to lose fat and reveal your abs – fat loss on autopilot. It’s going to be difficult to achieve anything impressive (in terms of leanness) if you’re hungry all the time.

If you want to get this entire eating system tailored to you (the closest thing to a guaranteed 10% body fat ), then check out this IF meal plan.

Thirdly, your training also needs to be spot on. Which means the stimulus is intense, and is enough to create muscle growth, but not so much that you can’t recover. This essentially means that your training volume needs to be on point.

A good range for muscle growth without overtaining for most muscle groups is going to be 8-22 sets. The best training cycles will start off towards the lower end, and gradually build up as your body adapts. For the best full body training program for ‘older guys’, check this out. For younger guys, check this out.

Finally, sleep is also a critical factor that needs to be addressed. If you’re sleeping less than 7 hours, you’re simply not going to recover fully from all that intense lifting, and your cravings for sugar (and excess calories) will also be higher. It’s a double-negative-whammy.

The more sleep, the better. 8-9 hours is going to really help you. I know this sounds like a lot, but I’m not joking. Don’t be like the excuse-makers, and get it done.

I hope you’re starting to get the overall message?

Everything needs to be on-point, as there’s such little room for error when you’re trying to have the best of both worlds.

And if you want the closest thing to a guarantee to muscle gain and fat loss at the same time, and making a radical change to your physical appearance in less than six months, then check out my coaching options. Monthly coaching is only $97 per month.

Enjoy!

The post FINALLY! How To Gain Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.

I believe Intermittent Fasting is one of the prerequisites for a High Value Man.

Let’s face it, we all want better lives, to be happier and more successful across all areas from health, sex, fitness and business. But, how do we achieve this?

In the western world, one of the hardest aspects of our easy lives, is avoidance of excess calories. Every aspect of our society is set up to either overfeed us, or have us moving as little as possible.

The end result is 80% of men you see are shuffling around with low energy, low ambitions and the now ever present “Dad Bod”.

One Aspect Of Your Life Bleeds Into Others

I firmly believe, from my own experience, that one area of our lives can bleed into others.  That’s why a lot of online advice to men is “go lift”. Exercise makes us feel better, gives us visible results and is a metaphor for life – put in the effort and you will get the rewards.

So, as you see one area of your life improve it can spur you on to improve others.

However, that on its own isn’t enough, if we are to be successful in life, in the top 20% or 10%, we must draw on more than simple effort.

Intermittent Fasting Is Discipline

If we are to grow as men, to become Apex Alphas, in order to meet the challenges that we face, we need discipline. IF breeds discipline, because it forces you to avoid some pleasure for a greater future goal. This discipline is more so, because it will make you seem different from those around you, and so potentially draw criticism or questions.

If you are to push yourself in the gym, or in business, or approaching women, you will need discipline. Delaying food gratification and beating those impulses will give you a well of achievement and discipline to draw on and utilise in these other areas.

Intermittent Fasting Changes your Mindset

My journey with Intermittent Fasting & the High Value Man has led me to realise that my body was lying to me about what it needed. It was lying because, bad eating habits set by society, had been ingrained over many years, and my body was craving things it didn’t need.

Once I started to see this, first by delaying a meal by 1 or 2 hours and then 3 or 4 and building from there, I realised, that my body was capable of more than I knew, and so was my mind.

I realised, that here was another area that society has mislead us about – breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?  

So, changing my mindset around food, calories and eating, helped me to further change and move my life forward in other areas.

The Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting

The ability to be disciplined, is an area I have already discussed, on top of that, I have found that IF gives me a more focused mind and I just feel better, lighter, my stomach is “tighter”, less bloated. I have more energy.

I run a 7-figure business by day, and clearly focus is important, and being in my forties, while I train 3 times a week, I can use IF to maximise my aesthetic results without overtraining.

And speaking of aesthetics, getting compliments from women either directly or indirectly when they look at me, is great. I’m not in the 10% body fat bracket, but I am probably in the top 10% of men and probably top 5% of men my age.  When you combine this with my achievements in other areas of my life, you have a potent mix of attributes that women see as very high value, as do men that I also interact with.

There is no downside to Intermittent Fasting, and the discipline and results you gain, will certainly help to put you in the top 20% of men, enabling you to win the game of life.

So, what are you waiting for?

The Apex Alpha Blog helps men level up across areas such as mind-set, finance, health and sex, to win the Game of Life.

www.apexalpha.blog

The post Intermittent Fasting & The High Value Man – Apex Alpha appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.

One of the most useful tools in your Intermittent Fasting arsenal, is caffeine. Ideally, black coffee, although green tea is a good substitute.

Caffeine blunts your hunger, ramps up your metabolism and helps you to push that first meal back as far as humanly possible.

It’s a three-pronged attack of Intermittent Fasting, fat burning magic.

But the big question is “can you have milk in your coffee?”

I’m going to give you answer that may be surprising, in about two minutes.

The Benefits Of Black Coffee

Black coffee is a very powerful fat loss tool on its own, but where it really shines is when you have this in the morning, in a fasted state.

You’re more than simply ‘skipping breakfast’ – you’re replacing it with something that will fuel you and reduce your appetite simultaneously.

So here are some of the ways black coffee will improve your fitness life:

Faster Metabolism

Your Intermittent Fasting coffee will ramp up your metabolism and allow you to burn more fat more easily.

Especially if it’s black.

People often talk about ‘eating breakfast’ to increase your metabolism, but they don’t realise that the 2% increase in metabolism is completely-and-utterly destroyed by the 30-40% increase in caloric intake.

Black coffee leads to a metabolic increase without the calories.

So yes, you will get to that 10% body fat much faster and with less stalls/plateaues.

Reduced Hunger

Black coffee also seriously blunts your hunger.

Quite often people will begin their Intermittent Fasting journey with a little morning hunger (as breakfast is what they’re accustomed to), only to follow a personalised meal plan with black coffee, and have that hunger completely vanish.

Before they know it, the love handles have disappeared, they’re beow the ‘200 pound mark’ and another few months later they’ve finally got abs.

And it all started with replacing their high carb breakfast with black coffee.

Zero Desire For Junk Food

Most people have a sweet tooth that’s been drilled into them since they were kids.

It’s a problem.

It’s what leads to the desire for cookies, ice cream, overeating virtually anyting and everything, and ’emotional eating’ which is a very real thing (I used to suffer from this in the past).

If you can eliminate this desire for junk food for the rest of your life, man, you’re going to be one lean, fit motherfucker.

Black coffee helps you to achieve this, because you’re starting each and every morning with a bitter taste, which almost ‘drives out’ your sweet tooth over time.

Highly recommended.

But what if you have milk in your coffee? Won’t that ruin the fast?

Intermittent Fasting Coffee: Is Milk Good Or Bad?

Most people follow a 16/8 Intermittent Fasting schedule of at least 16 hours fasted, and ideally, during this period you consume zero calories.

And even if you’re going ‘hardcore’, completely resetting your insulin and destroying the excess estrogen with a 72 hour fast, the same zero calorie rules still apply while fasting.

Black coffee has zero. Green tea has zero. Water has zero. Sparkling water has zero.

But milk has SOME calories.

Is it the end of the world?

Well, let’s remind ourselves of why we’re fasting in the first place.

For most people most of the time, the primary goal is to lose fat. The secondary goal is for health benefits – detox, hormones, mental health etc.

Does drinking milk in your coffee compromise any of this?

The answer is of course, no.

You will still lose weight if you have two splashes of milk in your two coffees. It amounts to about 20-40 calories, tops. Therefore 97%+ of your daily calories are still being consumed within the condensed, 8 hours or less eating window.

Which is what the Intermittent Fasting lifestyle is all about. Condense that eating window. Make yourself fuller.

So the answer is YES you can drink milk.

But what if you’re that ambitious guy who wants to get down to a lean 10% body fat, and effortlessly maintain that chiselled state year round?

What if you want to eliminate your sugar addiction for the rest of your life, so that you can keep off that belly fat FOREVER?

If this is you, then it’s best not to get into the habit of putting anything into your coffee.

Because if you want rock hard abs year round, and a good-looking face at all times, you want to be living a lifestyle where ‘wasted calories’ are the rarity, not the norm.

Plus, black coffee simply trains you to get accustomed to bitter tastes, which makes it way easier to stay lean over the long-term.

Things like sugar cravings and wanting something sweet simply doesn’t exist in my world.

It’s nonsense.

And I attribute a decent amount of this to black coffee.

The Black Coffee Strategy

It’s super simple.

You wake up at whatever time you normally would.

Instead of eating breakfast, you drink a cup of black coffee and enjoy that beauty.

Then two hours later, you have another cup.

THEN another two hours later, you break your fast (with lunch) eating a relatively low carb meal with plenty of protein.

Dead simple, right?

But it’s this simplicity that’s so powerful, and will ramp up your metabolism, reduce your cravings and your hunger, and make fat loss so effortless.

No more stalling. Endless fat loss gains.

Now, this is the black coffee strategy for 16/8 fasting.

If you were doing something like the OMAD diet (One Meal A Day) then you would stretch the fasting period out, and have some more tea or sparkling water.

Enter The Intermittent Fasting Kingdom

If you’re interested in getting your diet on point and getting completely ripped, make sure you check out my meal plans.

I also offer Intermittent Fasting coaching where you get on-going help and complete accountability via 24/7 Whatsapp support.

Enjoy!

GRAB YOUR COPY!

The post Intermittent Fasting Coffee: Can You Have Milk? appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.

So we should pursue both at the same time, right?

Only if you’re a beginner. If you are a beginner, then you’re in luck, as you can absolutely have both at the same time.

If you’re a beginner, you need to do the following, in order:

1. Learn the BIG SIX movements’ technique, and get used to performing them
2. Get on a good, solid program with weekly (or daily) progressive overload
3. Get into a modest calorie deficit (about 10-15%), using Intermittent Fasting to make this as easy and as sustainable as possible

The BIG SIX are:

• Deadlift
• Squat
• Bench
• Press
• Rows
• Pull-Ups

Learn how to do them, and you’ll have a functional, real-world strength base for life. These are the movements that train your muscles, joints and CNS to move as a unit. Machines will never do this.

The next action is to get on a good training program. There needs to be guaranteed progressive overload every week, with optional daily overload (depending on your performance).

Progressive overload is the increasing difficulty of each workout, which is what will get you bigger, stronger and more muscular. This can take the form of increased sets, reps, or weight on the bar.

A great example of this progressive overload is my James Bond program. The training is split into four week blocks, and each week (within the block) has an extra set for each of the key movements. But within each workout, the last set is an AMRAP set (as many reps as possible), which allows for extra progression per workout due to increased reps.

This is an extra progressive overload pathway which is dependent upon your daily performance, and it will sure as hell get you bigger and stronger as FAST as possible.

If you’re a beginner, you WILL gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, provided you stick to the modest calorie deficit.

When getting yourself into an energy deficit, there’s a few things to consider.

Firstly, you need to make sure your diet is sustainable, which is something I’ve harped on about for years. Going zero carb in a carb-filled world isn’t sustainable. Nor is increasing the deficit by more than 20%. Nor is being a complete hermit and never allowing yourself any social life, or any dietary freedom at social events.

Discipline comes first, but you also need freedom to some degree. Intermittent Fasting will bring you this freedom, due to the enormous calorie buffer you will have in the evenings.

Secondly, remember that the goal is to gain muscle. Which requires protein. And when you’re in a calorie deficit, you need protein even more than normal. So definitely get at least 0.8 grams per pound of bodyweight. Possibly closer to 1 gram per pound if you’re below 15% body fat.

Summary

To summarise, yes you can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. It’s magic. But make sure that you’re focusing on the compound movements, you’re on a good training program that guarantees weekly progression, and you’re dieting in a sustainable manner.

The post Can YOU Gain Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time? appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.