I made this to share everything I've learned through years of research.
When I was 14, I was made fun of for being overweight and not athletic. I was focusing on the short term return of candy, sodas, and more junk. I wasn’t focusing on the long term return of structuring a training routine and diet plan.
Once I started high school, I knew that there needed to be a change in my life to bring up my self-esteem. I started training with a friend, but I wasn’t seeing the results I wanted until I did hours of research online.
I bought every ebook you could imagine from every fitness influencer on the internet. Some techniques worked, and some didn’t.
Through this, I used trial and error and the progress I saw through others to form my training routine to build strength and muscle mass.
It took hundreds of hours of research and training to achieve what I wanted to achieve. I knew that I was working the hardest out of anyone to learn everything about dieting and training.
I researched what types of muscle fibers were in each muscle group, along with how the fibers responded to specific types of training.
I knew that I had to share my experience with others, because 90% of the world isn’t properly educated on diet and nutrition.
Let’s define strength before we go too far into the specific topics. Strength, in regards to fitness, is the ability to exert maximal energy on weight.
“But, how do I get strong?”
Adopt a structured training program with the following:
Of course, most people want to look good if they go to the gym and workout several days a week. Aesthetics is the visual appeal that you have on others.
Training for aesthetics (hypertrophy) and training for strength have some correlation, but you can choose to train for a specific one.
To train for aesthetics, you must do the following:
You might be wondering if this can even be done. Can you train for strength and aesthetics to see faster results?
Yes of course!
People that combine them typically see 2x the results.
Strength training leads to faster muscle gain, and training for aesthetics typically leads to faster strength gain, or:
Strength training = strong
Hypertrophy training = visually appealing
Strength + Hypertrophy = visually appealing and strong
Exercise selection is very important in your training routine. Some exercises are definitely better than others, and you definitely can’t have them all without your gym performance suffering.
Some exercises are better for targeting muscle groups.
Compound exercises target the most muscle groups, with the ability to utilize multiple joints. These exercises include the bench press, squat, deadlift, and overhead press, just to name a few.
Isolation exercises are better for targeting a specific muscle group. This will allow muscle imbalances to be fixed, by training the muscle group by itself, without fatiguing any others.
These exercises, like I mentioned before, target multiple muscle groups in the body. They work very well in strength programs, because of the ease to progress with them.
Compound exercises are usually the exercises where you can lift the most weight. For example, I’m sure that you can deadlift more than you can curl.
If you want to know the best compound exercises for each muscle group, I made a list below:
Biceps: Best Compound Exercises
Triceps: Best Compound Exercises
Shoulders: Best Compound Exercises
Back: Best Compound Exercises
Chest: Best Compound Exercises
Hamstrings: Best Compound Exercises
Isolation exercises target the muscle directly for increased muscle stimulus. These exercises are harder to progress with, so you will probably want to focus on the time under tension and hypertrophy for these exercises.
Too many isolation exercises might diminish your gains, so make sure to use them sparingly. Don’t do these to failure, because it will be harder to recover if you do!
If you want to know the best isolation exercises for each muscle group, I made a list below:
Biceps: Best Isolation Exercises
Triceps: Best Isolation Exercises
Shoulders: Best Isolation Exercises
Hamstrings: Best Isolation Exercises
If you want to gain lean mass, you must go on a lean bulk.
To lean bulk, you have to consume 200-500 calories more than your caloric maintenance.
“What is a caloric maintenance?”
Your caloric maintenance is the amount of calories you need to stay at the same bodyweight. Any easy way to find this out is to eat normally for 7 days, and track all your food on the MyFitnessPal app.
After you track all your food, take those 7 calorie numbers and divide them by 7. This is the average amount of calories you eat, so we’ll use this as your caloric maintenance.
Now aim to eat around 200-500 calories more than that to enter a lean bulking phase. You will gain muscle, with the least amount of fat gain possible.
It is important to take in the right amount of macronutrients if you want to gain the right kind of weight.
Macronutrients are your protein, carbs, and fats. After this article, I guarantee you’re going to look at more nutrition labels.
Protein gives energy over a longer period of time and synthesizes in your muscles throughout the day. Carbs give quick energy, same with fats. Below shows the calories per gram of each of the 3 macronutrients:
Protein: 4 cal/g
Carbs: 4 cal/g
Fats: 9 cal/g
Put in the amount of calories that you’re trying to hit into MyFitnessPal and it’ll ask you about the macronutrient goals you have. I recommend aiming for 0.8-1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.
Protein allows your muscles to do this if you take in the optimal amount. With this, a 200 pound individual would need to take in 160-200g of protein per day. I know this is a lot, but that’s just part of dieting.
I would recommend to take in around 0.4 grams of fats per pound of bodyweight. Fats are necessary to survive and allow your hormones to function so 0.4 is a little above that necessary amount. The same 200 pound individual we mentioned earlier would diet with around 80g of fats daily.
Carbohydrates are the easy part as long as you know the calories you’re trying to hit.
Start by taking your calorie goal for the day and put in your protein and fat goals multiplied by their calorie per gram amount.
So let’s say our 200 pound individual we’re using had a calorie goal of 2,500 for each day. We would put in 200g of protein multiplied by 4, and 80g of fats multiplied by 9. This comes out to 1,520. The remaining calories would be used for carbs.
Take the remaining amount and divide it by 4. 980/4 is 245 carbohydrates daily. This makes up our 2,500 calories number!
I have used these things to gain strength and muscle gain as fast as possible. I even wrote down everything I know into a Free eBook to spread the knowledge!
The ebook contains everything I know, condensed into a little over 20 pages. The amount of content is equal to around 50 fitness YouTube videos.
Strength and aesthetics is something people admire in the gym. The self-esteem I’ve gained is tremendous, and I wouldn’t trade my knowledge for the world!
When I was 14, I was made fun of for being overweight and not athletic. I was focusing on the short term return of candy, sodas, and more junk. I wasn’t focusing on the long term return of structuring a training routine and diet plan.
Once I started high school, I knew that there needed to be a change in my life to bring up my self-esteem. I started training with a friend, but I wasn’t seeing the results I wanted until I did hours of research online.
I bought every ebook you could imagine from every fitness influencer on the internet. Some techniques worked, and some didn’t.
Through this, I used trial and error and the progress I saw through others to form my training routine to build strength and muscle mass.
It took hundreds of hours of research and training to achieve what I wanted to achieve. I knew that I was working the hardest out of anyone to learn everything about dieting and training.
I researched what types of muscle fibers were in each muscle group, along with how the fibers responded to specific types of training.
I knew that I had to share my experience with others, because 90% of the world isn’t properly educated on diet and nutrition.
Defining Strength
Let’s define strength before we go too far into the specific topics. Strength, in regards to fitness, is the ability to exert maximal energy on weight.
“But, how do I get strong?”
Adopt a structured training program with the following:
- Progressive overload and periodization in mind. This principle involves increasing some aspect of an exercise in a way that achieves progression.
- Mostly compound exercises for rapid strength gain. Compound exercises are defined as any exercises that utilizes 2 or more joints. With multiple joints being in use, more muscle groups will be activated during the exercise.
- Strength training rep schemes. You generally want to be in the 3-5 reps range for most exercises to progress faster.
Defining Aesthetics
Of course, most people want to look good if they go to the gym and workout several days a week. Aesthetics is the visual appeal that you have on others.
Training for aesthetics (hypertrophy) and training for strength have some correlation, but you can choose to train for a specific one.
To train for aesthetics, you must do the following:
- Just like any training program, keep progressive overload in mind. The only way to make progress in the gym is the actually have a form of progression in mind.
- Utilize compound exercises and also isolation exercises to craft your physique. Isolation exercises are great for targeting a specific muscle group for extra muscle stimulus.
- Train specifically for hypertrophy for muscle gain and fat loss. Hypertrophy training is in the 8-12 rep range to allow for more time under tension and growth.
Step 1: Combine Strength and Aesthetics
You might be wondering if this can even be done. Can you train for strength and aesthetics to see faster results?
Yes of course!
People that combine them typically see 2x the results.
Strength training leads to faster muscle gain, and training for aesthetics typically leads to faster strength gain, or:
Strength training = strong
Hypertrophy training = visually appealing
Strength + Hypertrophy = visually appealing and strong
Step 2: Select the Right Exercises
Exercise selection is very important in your training routine. Some exercises are definitely better than others, and you definitely can’t have them all without your gym performance suffering.
Some exercises are better for targeting muscle groups.
Compound exercises target the most muscle groups, with the ability to utilize multiple joints. These exercises include the bench press, squat, deadlift, and overhead press, just to name a few.
Isolation exercises are better for targeting a specific muscle group. This will allow muscle imbalances to be fixed, by training the muscle group by itself, without fatiguing any others.
Compound Exercises
These exercises, like I mentioned before, target multiple muscle groups in the body. They work very well in strength programs, because of the ease to progress with them.
Compound exercises are usually the exercises where you can lift the most weight. For example, I’m sure that you can deadlift more than you can curl.
If you want to know the best compound exercises for each muscle group, I made a list below:
Biceps: Best Compound Exercises
Triceps: Best Compound Exercises
Shoulders: Best Compound Exercises
Back: Best Compound Exercises
Chest: Best Compound Exercises
Hamstrings: Best Compound Exercises
Isolation Exercises
Isolation exercises target the muscle directly for increased muscle stimulus. These exercises are harder to progress with, so you will probably want to focus on the time under tension and hypertrophy for these exercises.
Too many isolation exercises might diminish your gains, so make sure to use them sparingly. Don’t do these to failure, because it will be harder to recover if you do!
If you want to know the best isolation exercises for each muscle group, I made a list below:
Biceps: Best Isolation Exercises
Triceps: Best Isolation Exercises
Shoulders: Best Isolation Exercises
Hamstrings: Best Isolation Exercises
Step 3: Form the Perfect Diet
If you want to gain lean mass, you must go on a lean bulk.
To lean bulk, you have to consume 200-500 calories more than your caloric maintenance.
“What is a caloric maintenance?”
Your caloric maintenance is the amount of calories you need to stay at the same bodyweight. Any easy way to find this out is to eat normally for 7 days, and track all your food on the MyFitnessPal app.
After you track all your food, take those 7 calorie numbers and divide them by 7. This is the average amount of calories you eat, so we’ll use this as your caloric maintenance.
Now aim to eat around 200-500 calories more than that to enter a lean bulking phase. You will gain muscle, with the least amount of fat gain possible.
Macronutrient Intake
It is important to take in the right amount of macronutrients if you want to gain the right kind of weight.
Macronutrients are your protein, carbs, and fats. After this article, I guarantee you’re going to look at more nutrition labels.
Protein gives energy over a longer period of time and synthesizes in your muscles throughout the day. Carbs give quick energy, same with fats. Below shows the calories per gram of each of the 3 macronutrients:
Protein: 4 cal/g
Carbs: 4 cal/g
Fats: 9 cal/g
Put in the amount of calories that you’re trying to hit into MyFitnessPal and it’ll ask you about the macronutrient goals you have. I recommend aiming for 0.8-1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.
Protein allows your muscles to do this if you take in the optimal amount. With this, a 200 pound individual would need to take in 160-200g of protein per day. I know this is a lot, but that’s just part of dieting.
I would recommend to take in around 0.4 grams of fats per pound of bodyweight. Fats are necessary to survive and allow your hormones to function so 0.4 is a little above that necessary amount. The same 200 pound individual we mentioned earlier would diet with around 80g of fats daily.
Carbohydrates are the easy part as long as you know the calories you’re trying to hit.
Start by taking your calorie goal for the day and put in your protein and fat goals multiplied by their calorie per gram amount.
So let’s say our 200 pound individual we’re using had a calorie goal of 2,500 for each day. We would put in 200g of protein multiplied by 4, and 80g of fats multiplied by 9. This comes out to 1,520. The remaining calories would be used for carbs.
Take the remaining amount and divide it by 4. 980/4 is 245 carbohydrates daily. This makes up our 2,500 calories number!
Final Thoughts
I have used these things to gain strength and muscle gain as fast as possible. I even wrote down everything I know into a Free eBook to spread the knowledge!
The ebook contains everything I know, condensed into a little over 20 pages. The amount of content is equal to around 50 fitness YouTube videos.
Strength and aesthetics is something people admire in the gym. The self-esteem I’ve gained is tremendous, and I wouldn’t trade my knowledge for the world!