How to Get the Physique You Want in Just 10 Months! | My Body Transformation | Month by Month Guide!
So, 10 months ago I had just got back from a once in a lifetime experience of travelling the world for 6 months. I got to see and do so many incredible things and I feel so lucky to have done it! However… There was of course one drawback to the travelling lifestyle…
That was that I lost the majority of my hard-earned gains in the gym! Years of hard work in the gym slowly eroded away over those six months where I was eating too much, drinking far too much alcohol and there aren’t many gyms around in South-East Asia! I managed five gym sessions during the whole 6 months. Shocking I know, but it was something that I knew was a consequence of me going away and having that once in a lifetime experience. So, I accepted my fate that I would lose my physique and would start again from scratch when I was back and get it back!
By the end of my travels then, I was a shadow of my former self. As you can see from my before
pictures, I was looking skinny, flat and with much higher body fat percentage, in fact for the first time in my life there were no abs in sight!! It was the one thing about travelling that I wasn’t enjoying and that was losing the physique that I had worked on for many years. By the end then part of me was itching to get back so that I could hit the gym hard and start eating right so that I could get my body back.
This is my journey back to shape, and proof that anyone reading this can achieve the same results if you follow what I did and stay committed and focused! In this blog, I will explain the different phases of muscle growth that I went through along the way and outline a blueprint that you can follow if you want to achieve similar results!
The 'Newbie Gains'
The first few months of being back in the gym or just starting out properly in the gym is a magical time. This is because you experience what is referred to as ‘Newbie Gains’ in the fitness industry. It is a state where your body is so un-acclimatised to working out that it is in a unique condition whereby it can build muscle quickly, whilst also burning fat, because any form of weight training is such a massive shock the system.
So as long as you are performing compound movements like push ups, pull ups squats and are getting progressively stronger, you will easily be able to build muscle. It is also possible during this phase to burn fat at the same time (If you are in a calorie deficit). This is the holy grail of bodybuilding that everybody wants to be able to do but it is only achievable for natural lifters when you are new to the gym (Or in my case have had an extended absence). This usually of course coincides with starting off with higher body fat percentages as if you start with already low body fat then you are un-able to do this.
To make the most of this magical period then, you want to make sure you are performing compound movements as I have said and consuming adequate protein. As long as you do that, push hard and keep getting stronger in those lifts you will as I did build significant amounts of muscle. Then if you want to lose some fat at the same time then make sure you are in a slight caloric deficit (Consuming fewer calories then you are burning).
Month 1: How I Trained
From that discussed knowledge, I knew then that this was a vital time for building muscle and so I knew I had to make the most of this. I also knew that at the very start it was pointless in wasting time doing isolation movements and that my focus should purely be on increasing my strength in compound movements, and the muscle growth will follow accordingly. A mistake a lot of newcomers to the gym make is that they do too many isolation movements like bicep curls and tricep extensions. These are far less effective than the compound exercises, as they incorporate fewer muscles. With compound movements, you can also go much heavier, putting your body under greater stress.
So, remember in the early days of working out STICK TO COMPOUND MOVEMENTS!
For the first couple of weeks then I had a very simple workout programme of and Upper Body day and a Lower Body Day. On the upper body workouts, I would focus on push-ups, pull ups, shoulder press, bench press, dips, rows, any and sometimes all of those movements. In general then it was bodyweight exercises, all with the goal of being able to lift more weight or perform more reps than I could that last time I did it. This progressive overload meant that I could slowly start building my strength back up in those key movements, laying the foundation for future gains.
For the lower Body I was doing the same, focusing solely on squats and deadlifts and leg press, just to increase the strength in those movements. Then I would also do some core work as well. Performing all those compound movements recruits so many muscles that you are maximising muscle growth whilst increasing strength.
Initially then your attention needs to be on building up your strength on the basic bodyweight movements fits (Pull ups, Push ups, Squats). Then once your strength has built up and those bodyweight exercises become easy, then you incorporate weights and start doing bench press, shoulder press, weighted squats etc. Using your bodyweight is the perfect place to start as they are very natural movements for the body and incorporate many different muscle groups at the same time.
At the very start of going back to the gym I knew that there would be a lot of soreness involved. The muscles would be so weak and not adapted to working out that they would be sore the next day even from the most minimal of workouts. That in mind I kept the sets low for each muscle group. So, I would do four sets of push ups, then maybe another four of bench press and then that was chest done. If I had carried on and done many more sets then my muscles would have just been sore for days on end, leaving me unable to hit the gym again! So, it was key to hit the muscles just enough to illicit some strength gains and growth and then move on to another exercise. This is obviously quite hard to judge, and comes with your experience after your first couple of workouts and you can judge it from there.
My training split then for the first few weeks was just Upper Body/ Lower Body/ Rest. This way you get to keep the frequency of training nice and high, whilst also getting in quite a few rest days as your body will be struggling to recover in these early days. It’s amazing how much muscle and strength you can put on in those first few weeks just training with those simple compound movements. Around my training I would try and add in cardio whenever I could for its health benefits but it wasn’t specifically part of my plan.
Month 1: Nutrition
In the first few weeks of being back, I knew that I wouldn’t have to take the nutritional side of things too seriously, as my body would be going through ‘Newbie Gains’ I knew that it would grow no matter what really as long as adequate nutrients and protein were supplied. With that then I just maintained a balanced diet, getting in all the healthy foods that I wasn’t eating when I was travelling, whilst making sure I was eating enough protein, simple as that. No macro tracking or anything. I was just making sure that I wasn’t over eating on calories as I wanted to lose some fat during this phase not put it on!
I would then eat a decent protein source with each meal, try to eat as many vegetables as possible whilst not consuming too many carbs and fats, and I would supplement this with a protein shake post-workout. I know that is a general protocol for gym nutrition but that simple way of looking at things made it all very easy and gave my body everything that it needed at the time to grow and increase strength.
In just the first month then following that simple training and nutritional plan my body composition changed a decent amount. I managed to gain strength, muscle mass and lose fat all at the same time.
Now no one is going to train for a month and look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the improvements I managed to make in that first month were psychologically massive as you see the improvements in your physique and it pushes you to keep going and to keep on improving!
My typical meal plan for this period was:
Wake Up: Coffee
Breakfast: 1 piece of wholemeal toast with 4 scrambled eggs
Snack: Nuts
Lunch: Wholemeal Tortilla, with Chicken Breast and Salad inside. 1 Apple
Snack: Whey Protein Shake
Post-workout: Whey Protein and a fast absorbing source of carbs like Haribo (NOT TOO MANY!)
Post-workout meal: Brown Rice, Chicken Breast, Broccoli, in a curry sauce.
As you can see then I was maintaining a balanced diet with a high protein content.
Month 2: Training
Now then after a month or so, your body begins to properly adapt back to training and so you have to change things up in order to continue to grow to make sure that you don’t plateau. I also had now built up my strength which gave me the freedom of being able to do more of the heavier exercises that I wouldn’t have been able to do at the start.
At this point then I altered my split to a Push/ Pull/ Legs split, so that I would have more time to specialise on individual muscles. I also cut out bodyweight exercises like push ups as I was now too strong for them to benefit and went straight for heavier movements like bench press instead. Some isolation movements were also now being added in, to isolate and work the smaller muscle groups. Exercises like bicep curls, tricep extensions, side lateral raises were now all being added in to really finish off those muscles after the compound movements which had begun the workout. The emphasis was still always on getting progressively stronger at those compound movements like squats, pull ups, deadlifts, bench press as they are the exercises that stimulate the most muscle fibres and thus encourage the most growth.
We have a free training plan available on the website which is the kind of training plan that I was doing during this phase.
Month 2: Nutrition
My principles for my food were remaining largely the same, just making sure that I was consuming good hearty foods, with enough protein in order to achieve serious growth. I was still pretty much in the newbie phase here and so your body is likely to grow no matter what as long as you are eating good.
At the end of month 2 I was starting to see significant changes in my appearance. Muscles were looking much bigger already and body fat was appearing to reduce and the abs were starting to pop show signs of an appearance too! So I was very happy with my results at this point and it just goes to show what can be achieved in such a short time frame!
Months 3-8: Training
After two months was when my muscles were properly adapted back to working out like they used to and so I had to adjust my training plan accordingly. This meant for a full Push/ Pull/ Leg split based around compound movements and with plenty of isolation movements in there as well. So, I was now training as I had done before I left, but the weight was still much lower! The main goal here was Progressive Overload, hoping to get stronger and lift more volume over time, this would lead to growth. If you find the link to our free training plan, this is the sort of routine I was performing week in week out in order to gain the size that I did.
At this stage my workouts were up to the same intensity that they were prior to me going travelling. Really pushing each muscle to their limits each workout so that I could achieve the growth that I wanted.
Months 3-8: Nutrition
Now I was more concentrating on having a ‘Lean Bulk’ style for nutrition. This means that in general I was in a small caloric surplus everyday so that I could achieve gains in strength and muscle mass, whilst eating good clean foods and ensuring that my protein intake was high enough. I would start every day with a breakfast that consisted of 2 whole eggs, 3 egg whites and a slice of wholemeal bread. Then for lunch again I would have a good source of protein with some slow digesting carbohydrates and maybe some fruit. Then post-workout I would have a protein shake followed by my largest meal of the day, which would contain again a high protein source, and be relatively high in carbs and moderate fats. I would then snack throughout the day on protein sources like nuts and cooked meats to hit my protein targets. Eating that way worked perfectly for me and I could build large amounts of muscle whilst staying relatively lean.
Months 8-10: Training
Cutting began here in the last two months, so that I could drop some body fat to look shredded for my summer holiday. My training continued the same as it always had done throughout the previous phase, although there was always the temptation to add in some extra ab training with summer just around the corner. But I continued a Push/ Pull split throughout my cutting phase and it worked to great effect, although sometimes it could be mentally tough to work three muscle groups per session when your energy levels are low due to reduced calories. If this is the case for you then switching to a different split could be beneficial to allow you to intensely work all the muscles.
I also introduced slightly more cardio, just as a tool to increase the caloric deficit that I was already creating with my diet.
Months 8-10: Nutrition
This is obviously where it gets serious then. Nutrition is the key part of cutting as you need to be in a caloric deficit, (Burning more calories than you are consuming) and diet is the best way of achieving this. I don’t actually count macros (although this is the best and most precise way to do things), purely because I know my body and how it works and so I can judge what I eat very well without the need to track everything that I eat. That being said, I would mainly focus on hitting my protein for the day. Then I would restrict carbs to just before my workout and to my post-workout meal. Then I would make sure I don’t go crazy on fats as well. This was my and always has been my general approach to cutting and it works for me.
For me that method of eating means that I am always eating enough protein, whilst maintaining a decent deficit. This of course is different from person to person and so you may have to work out your cutting macros and track them at first at least so that you don’t get it wrong.
Check out this link to another blog I wrote on getting shredded for summer!
I supplement my diet with whey protein, BCAA's, creatine and Fat Burners.
A general day of eating for me whilst cutting would be as follows:
Wake Up: Coffee
Breakfast: 2 whole eggs, 3 egg whites scrambled
Lunch: Wholemeal Pitta, with chicken breast and salad.
Snack: Whey Protein Shake, Fat Burners
Post-Workout meal: Rice, Two Chicken Breast, Kale and Broccoli. Whey Protein shake.
Snack: Cooked Ham.
That then is a typical example of my day of eating whilst cutting. As you can see I don’t shy away from carbs and fats but they are at the right level whereby they are high enough that I’m not starving myself but I am still in a caloric deficit where I can lose fat. This is proved by my fat loss results during the period.
End results:
As is clearly visible from my before and after pictures, I have achieved some great results from my first 10 months back in the gym. I have managed to get much stronger, put on a considerable amount of muscle, and now I have also shredded down and lost some fat. Overall I am ecstatic with my results. I feel myself again, having gotten completely out of shape whilst travelling, I finally feel like me again and have the physique that I have always desired.
If I can achieve these results within 10 months, then you can too! Carefully take notes of what I have wrote in this blog and apply them to yourself and your current situation. If you do that and stay committed to your goal and work hard at in, then you WILL achieve your goals. As I have said in the Training Plans section of the website there is a free training plan which you can try if you need a plan so there is no excuse! Feel free to contact us if you would like a nutritional plan drawn up and/or any one on one coaching, because we really want to help you achieve results like this for yourself so that you can feel the same benefits that I have in how I feel about my appearance.
Together, we will... Achieve Greatness!
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