The 3 Phases to Getting Ripped

Getting ripped, is very much similar to being successful in
life whether it be in business or in athletics or whatever your passion or
hobby is. Getting ripped and in the best shape of your life is serious business
and you must treat it as such, if you take it lightly then you are bound to
fail, success demands a certain level of seriousness to whatever you do. To
explain a simple thinking process you must use whenever you want to succeed in
anything and in this case getting shredded, I will compress the process to 3
key phases.

Phase 1: The
planning phase

You should never get into something blindly without any
goals, without the necessary knowledge to succeed. You must first access why
you want to start working out, whether you want to be lean, with a very low
bodyfat like how Olympic cyclist or rowers look, or whether you want to be lean
but you want to add more muscle than the rower, more along the lines of a
fitness model physique, or whether you want to be as jacked as bodybuilders. It
is important to know what your goal physique is so that you have an idea what
kind of a diet and workout routine is required to reach those goals.

Before you even start working out you need to know how to
eat well, how to train and how to make sure all that you are doing is working.
You need the basic knowledge of lifting with proper form so as to avoid
unnecessary injury and you need to know that you do not need to lift super
heavy, you need to know that your only competition is you not the douche bag
who lifts the biggest weights just to show off.

Also it is okay to look and ask for help if you have no idea
what you are doing, it’s better to ask for direction then to waste time trying
to figure out things for yourself which were already discovered by others, do
not try to re-invent the wheel as the saying goes.

Phase 2: The
action phase

Now that you have actually done the research whether by
watching videos, reading fitness blogs like this one, or reading books and
magazines, it is time to actually take action and start working out. All the
knowledge in the world does not matter if it is not used effectively. Many
people always saying “ I’m going to start working out” but they never get to
the actual working out part, they often come up with many excuses such as not
having time even when things like watching TV take more time and have very
little benefit. Taking an hour out of 24 hours a couple times a week to workout
will not kill you; it will improve your body and your life. This phase is the
most important because once you begin to work out regularly it becomes a habit
and it could turn out to be a lifelong healthy habit which could extend your
life and save you a lot of money you would’ve had to spend on medical bills.
Gym is very addictive once you get over the initial pain after your first
couple of workouts; you later embrace that pain and look forward to it.
Deciding to take action could become one of the best moves you have ever made
in your life.

Phase 3: The
evaluation phase

So you had set goals in the first phase, and took action in
the second phase, let us say that you wanted to lose a certain amount of weight
or gain a certain amount of muscle by the first 6 months, so when the first 6
months is up you should weigh yourself and see how much progress you have made.
If you have reached your six month goals, then you go ahead and aim at
achieving your 1 year target. If you have failed to achieve your 6 month goal,
you should not panic and quit just because you have failed, successful people
rise from failure, and if they fall 3 times they rise 4 times achieving more
than they did before the failure because they learn from failure. So how do you
learn from this failure? Don’t worry I will tell you, see if you did not gain
or lose as much weight as you want, you must assess all your activities from
your diet, cardio to your weight training program.

See if you were not consistent you become consistent and see
what happens. If you were not watching what you were eating, you eat cleaner
and you limit your number of meals and watch the size of your portions. If you
think your diet was fine and you were consistent you simple change your workout
program and try a different workout program. But changing your workout could be
something as simple as changing your rep ranges and your rest periods. Upon
assessing your workout plan you could learn that you were lifting weight that
were too light, and you could learn you were lifting too heavy so your form was
compromised which could have been avoided and saved you a lot of time and
effort had you researched the proper ways to lift.

Upon assessing your workout routine you could learn that your body
does not respond well to steady state cardio, or that maybe you were not doing enough
cardio. You could learn that if you tried mixing steady state cardio and HIIT
you could get better results. To get in the required amount of cardio to lean
down as much as possible it could be better to research some cardio exercises
that would best suit you, if you do something you enjoy; you are more likely to
do it frequently without having to force yourself.

This phase is about finding weaknesses and adjusting your
approach so that you eventually succeed, it is useless to continue to do
something if after giving it enough time it still does not give results. Also
know that everyone is different and our bodies react differently to different
workouts and diets, so you should be open to experimentation to find what works
best for you.