How To Get Buff

Now, I’ve experimented with lot of workouts & techniques in my time… Some were surprisingly good, some counter productive, and others outright ridiculous! But if you never give it a go you’ll never know, right?

Anyway, the thing is that if you’re quite frankly a bit out of shape, you haven’t seen a gym in a while and you’re lifestyle’s become pretty unhealthy all round, then little gym tips or diet tips won’t really help you… In fact they’ll probably just overcomplicate and frustrate you!

What you need instead, is a complete revision of your diet, habits & workout – that’s how you get buff and stay buff! You need a Complete  System… A Complete Course of Action to Follow! Then once you’ve got that base, you can try out some of these other more extravagant workouts & tips, of which most of it won’t even help!

So, unless you’ve got some serious money to spend on a Personal Trainer to not only revamp your workout, but to sort out your diet and habits as well, then your best bet is to go with a course. And to be honest if you can follow one of these courses right till the end then you’ll probably get better quality tuition than with a personal trainer who just did a year’s course, not to mention the self-respect you’ll get from actually doing something without needing to pay some guy 75 bucks an hour to make you do your exercises!

So which course? Well obviously it depends on what goals you have but I would say that for about 95% of people, the P90X Home Fitness Workout Program is a great choice…

It gives you everything you’ll need from the DVD’s, to charts, to an comprehensive nutritional guide… It’s one of the top selling fitness courses, it’s hard work but good fun and I’ve only ever heard good stuff about it – in fact,  go and check out some of the reviews here…

Now, the reason I said that the P90X would be right for about 95% of people and not necessarily 100% is that it’s great for getting buff and ripped… But not everybody necessarily want that. I know a few people who don’t really care about that, and just want to get huge. The P90X is not for BodyBuilders!

If you do want to get massive and get into Bodybuilding, don’t worry I do have a couple of things for you… First of all, do yourself the favor of watching (or even re-watching if you’ve seen it before) this…

It should all be there on youtube.

Secondly get hold of Schwarzenegger’s book Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder, sit down and read it cover to cover. It is brilliant! The first half is an autobiography of his life up until just before he became some action hero, and the second half is all in depth training material.

Enjoy…

We’ve all been there… The work’s piling up, you’ve got loads of social commitments, and you simply don’t have time to go to the gym… Well that’s absolute nonsense! 20 Minutes is all you need… How? By being able to get your workout in when you’re at home if you need to… Before you shower, just push out a quick 20 minute workout and you’re good for the day, knowing that you’ve put in your dues…

Everyone’s workout is different, so to have your house ‘Workout Ready’ will obviously be different for everybody… You need to go through your workout and figure out an ‘Express’ version that can be done with the equipment you have at home…

I’m more of a fan of bodyweight exercises, so my equipment includes…

1. A Door Mounted Pullup Bar
2. A Ledge or Chairs to do Dips
3. A Wall for Handstand Pressups
4. A Pair of Pushup Bars
5. A Mat for Situps & Bridge

And just with that basic equipment, I can do a couple of rounds of circuits with minimal rest, to target all of the main muscle groups and get a really good pump on!

That’s not to say that you need to keep your equipment minimal… I’ve got plenty of buddies with all sorts of equipment in their house – some have a full gym in their garage, others have a Rowing Machine in a corridor and one guy even has a Bench Press in his kitchen!

If you just want a real quick workout and want to get buff, then I recommend a couple of rounds of a really simple circuit: Pullups, Pressups, Situps, Squat & Lunges, and a bit of Plank to finish it off. Here’s the pullup bar that I use…

So, figure out an express version of your workout, get your house primed for it, and never miss a day again!