Ripped in Fourteen Pages By Thasin Alam Buddy, by the end of this paper you ll know exactly how to get a six-pack in only two to three months. The dream body that almost everyone wishes for is finally within reach, and I m making it a personal goal of mine to attain it. Actually, it s been a goal of mine since a few years ago. Around seventh grade, my friends and I would always talk about getting buff, to get girls, to look cool shirtless while playing basketball, and just to have something to show off at the beach among other things. The summer right after eighth grade we decided to make the fantasy come to life. We organized something we nicknamed Boot Camp because my friends and I had vowed that we d be as hard as possible on each other when it came to getting ripped. Every morning we d wake up at 6:30 in the morning, meet up at the park at 7:30 and continuously work out until 12, and sometimes even 1:00. Then we d hang out at a friend s house so we wouldn t get the urge to pig out on food or extend our fitness workout even longer by playing a couple of games of basketball until 5 or 6 pm. Our workouts were handpicked so that we were doing much of the same routines that military training facilities were doing in numerous places, things that one of my friends found online. The point I m making is that we really worked our butts off for around 60 days, and while some of my friends did achieve some results, no one attained anything even close to what we were aiming for: a six-pack and the muscles to go with it. I know one of my friends lost 40 pounds, and a couple of others lost around 15 to 30 pounds, but the rest of us looked the same as we ever did. All we really got was a higher stamina, and that s not something you can show off the beach, now is it? I myself lost only 12 pounds, and I ll admit that those long hours of
grueling workouts were some of the most painful moments of my life. It was extremely frustrating to work hard for days on without a break, and achieve what I would consider to be no results. Is it even possible to get ripped in the time it took me to lose 12 pounds? Is it possible to get ripped in even less time? I hope so because if I had one question to ask that I could get answered for sure, it would be: What is the quickest and easiest way for me to get ripped? There is one difficulty when it comes to the process of getting ripped: some tips you can find on how to get buff fast may only be myths. In fact, many of these so called facts are not extensively proven, and might even make it harder to get ripped. An important factor in trying to find a fast way to get ripped is to be able to separate the actual facts from the myths. For example, here s a shocker that I had known for a while: swimming isn t as helpful as everyone seems to think. The widely thought myth is that swimming is perhaps the best form of exercise that can be done by a person to lose weight and work their way onto getting ripped. However I had found out that due to the body s natural buoyancy in the water, all the benefits of swimming consist mostly of an increase in stamina, stronger lungs, and perhaps as a relaxing pastime (Lauren). As you can clearly see, none of these things are something you re able to hit the beach with. Another one I found out from a previous basketball coach was that a good workout doesn t necessarily mean that you re going to sweat (Deacon). In fact, burning calories doesn t mean that you re sweating. It is common knowledge that your own metabolism burns calories even when you are simply sitting down (Lauren). At the same time, you are obviously not sweating, so there is no correlation between sweating and undergoing a good workout. For the slightly more curious, sweating is a method the body uses to cool itself down, and you only need a search about perspiration to verify that information (Freudenrich). Now, I have explained that
even among exercise facts, some facts are still more myth than anything. For your sake, I ll distinguish between which workout facts are actually facts, and which ones are things that you really needn t concern yourself with. I can vouch for the above myths that I have just busted (Mythbusters, anyone? ), as I have had the good fortune to come across those a while back. I m sure you re aching to get to the actual workout part (which is probably the only reason why you endured two and a half pages of my writing) but first, you ll need a solid foundation. Don t think of it as a diet, it s simply eating healthy. The Five Meals a Day Diet A good foundation on which your workout should rest upon is your daily nutrition. Simply put? Eat healthy pal, and stop taking advantage of those free refills at McDonalds. When I first decided to include what sort of nutrition one should take in, I thought it would be easy enough to simple say eat healthy and eat in moderation. When I think about it, I realize that I myself do not know exactly how I can eat healthy, and I d like to bet that you don t know exactly what it entails either. Don t blurt something out; just think about it got something? I doubt your answer is detailed enough to construct an entire diet on, and I hardly blame you. I was quite bamboozled as to how to fully customize a diet, so I could really do nothing but search aimlessly. A breakthrough occurred when I happened upon the book of a man named Mark Lauren, a fitness expert (who actually trained soldiers to get ripped!) that knew many of the aspects of a nutritional diet. Now according to Lauren, the ideal nutritional diet consists of five or six meals a day, every three hours or so, and these meals should be moderately small, but enough to fill you up (Lauren). Of course, these meals shouldn t be just crème brûlée and chicken teriyaki. Lauren recommends getting an ample amount of each carbohydrates, proteins, water, and fats.
This may seem strange, as there doesn t seem to be anything lacking (while a diet usually cuts down on something), but Lauren provides a brief explanation for each food category. Carbohydrates are things such as rice, pasta, cereals, and sugars. They re vital for your body because they provide short term energy and can be burned away quickly as soon as you use up energy, which means that you won t keep those carbs in your belly. Proteins are vital because they are the center of every meal, especially for those who are looking to get buff (such as ourselves), because a sufficient amount of proteins will inhibit muscle loss while still shaving off fat. Water does a lot of things, but an important function of it for someone looking to get buff is that it helps the liver eliminate fat from your body (Lauren). Last but not least, fat is vital to a diet. Yeah, you heard right, and no, I am not toying with you. Lauren explains that most diets cut down on fat, but fat provides satiety, so if we do not intake a sufficient amount of fat we ll only crave more food and our diets will go down the toilet. Of course, don t chug items with fat down your gullet; simply keep an ample amount in your diet. Something else that Lauren really emphasizes upon in your diet is your post-workout meal. Mark Lauren explains that after every workout, you should always eat 30-50 grams of lean protein and 30-50 grams of carbohydrates with plenty of glucose (Lauren). I recommend looking up some foods that have the recommended nutritional values that I have just stated, as I do myself, so you can choose your own post-workout meal, which might translate to an entire 6 ounce can of tuna (for the protein) and one to two average sized pears (for the carbohydrates). This is vital because right after your workout, the lean protein will help your muscles recover, and the carbohydrates will provide energy to the muscles so they don t burn a bit of themselves to provide you with energy (Lauren). Your diet is something you should customize yourself with these few base rules, according to your preferences, as no online guide knows yourself better than you do.
Now there are two goals which you should keep in mind while dieting. One goal is to either bulk up in muscle, or to cut down on fat. If you want to bulk up, make sure you eat more calories than you really should (Lauren). To figure out how many calories you need to consume, a simple search for a calorie intake calculator on the web will help you. While asking around my I-Search group in school for helpful sites that could aid me while I try to get ripped, I heard about a site made by a bodybuilder named Scooby Werkstatt. Normally, I wouldn t recommend such a site, because it doesn t seem very professional, but one of my friends vouched for it, saying they followed some of the advice on the site, and it actually works. On his site, I finally understood the basics of the two types of dieting: the one that helps you bulk up, and the one that helps you drop pant sizes. So basically, after calculating your recommended calorie intake, make sure you know which type of diet you want to follow. If you plan on bulking up, make sure you eat somewhat more than your recommended calorie intake and if you plan on cutting down on fat, you should eat less but very nutritional food (Werkstatt). The rest is up to you; just make sure you make some healthy choices. Vocabulary is important, but not as important as Staying Conscious through the Workout! This section is pretty short, as it only covers some brief knowledge that you should know before you start trying to get ripped. Two vitally important terms you must know if you were to hit the gym would be reps and sets. Reps are short for repetitions, which is basically the amount of times you do an exercise. Sets are groups of reps which have a small resting period in between, to catch your breath. That gives you the bare minimum to understand gym-speak and will help you to pick up workout tips in the future.
A good idea is to figure out exactly where you re starting off. This means that you should check your BMI (Body Mass Index; consult with your doctor if you have no idea what that is), weight, and some of your other physical characteristics. The purpose of this is to help you create your own workout plan. Obviously, if you re 50 years old and have never walked up stairs in your life, doing 50 pull-ups right at the start of your workout plan is probably not a keen idea for you. Likewise, if you ve been working out moderately for several years now, you can probably do more than just one set of five crunches per week. In fact, it is important that you should always try to exceed your limit in every workout you undergo, but don t overdo it. If at any time while working out, you feel pain that is anything other than a burning sensation near your muscles (such as joint pain), stop working out, check up with a doctor, and ease up with the workouts in the future (Lauren). Don t wait for the pain to remind you that you re pushing yourself too hard. Speaking of a burning sensation near your muscles, that s the feeling you want. Ever heard the expression No pain, no gain? Well, that expression refers to that burning feeling in your muscles when the workout is really penetrating your muscles, and not an excruciating pain that feels oddly similar to childbirth. I recommend reading this section a couple of times over, just to drill it into your head. Better safe than sorry. Anyways, it is now time to reward you for having the patience to read all the way up to this point. It s What You ve Been Waiting for Getting ripped doesn t require you to hit the gym for hours every day. Hold on to your seat because I m only just getting started: if you read on, you can get buff without even bothering to find out where a gym is located. It s true, getting ripped doesn t have much to do with how long you work out as it does with how well you work out. Twenty fake crunches will never help you get abs as well as only a couple perfect crunches.
Now that you got a general gist of how you should plan your workouts, let s move on into what sort of fruit you should chop up into your workout salad. It s pointless to point out how to do some exercises (I myself have a hard time reading descriptions on how to do things so I won t waste your time trying to make a guide), so I recommend exploring around online or looking through my sources to find some good ones. One that I d recommend would be the plank, in which your goal is to stay in the push-up position with your forearms on the ground. It really burns through your belly fat and helps you define your abs, as well as strengthen almost every single muscle from your calves to your shoulders (Lauren). Now to bring in a classic, try crunches to really bring out some abs. They re frighteningly simple, but not if you modify it in ways of your own choosing. For example, a personal favorite of mine is the variation where right after your body reaches its peak in height, you flex your entire torso to the left and right as far as it can go in both directions and proceed to bring your torso back down. I did say I wouldn t resort to describing exercises because they re hard to follow, but that variation is widely used and only requires a search on Youtube to discover. Your weekly schedule should consist of working out about four or five days of the week, and if you re really dedicated, maybe even six days. You should always leave time for your muscles to recuperate, and make sure you don t overeat because that will destroy the entire purpose of your workouts. There are two types of exercises that you will have to do: cardio and strength training. Contrary to popular belief, cardio won t help you get fit as well as everyone says it should (Lauren). In fact, cardio targets specific movements and adapts your body to make that movement easier to carry out, such as running, swimming, or cycling. As your body gets used to that particular movement, the stronger muscle fibers in your body are unused and no longer
needed so your body actually burns it off, because supplying the very same muscle fibers with oxygen is a waste (Lauren). However, cardio is still important in monitoring your cardiovascular health, and the idea that it burns muscle is backed up by evidence but highly debated. The main point I m getting across about cardio is that try it, just don t rely on it. Strength training is a high intensity workout that targets the stronger muscles fibers in addition with the lesser fibers, and the only thing it ll burn away is fat. As a result, you should focus less on cardio in your workouts, but try doing both types of exercises. Motivation and Dedication = Results Honestly, when I first started this I-Search I was pretty sure that it is possible to get buff in only two to three months, but I was constantly put off by how many people thought that goal was impossible to achieve in so short a time span. For one, there was my family, and then there were even some of my friends. As soon as I started to draft this piece, I was debating whether or not I had just picked a dead end essay with an impossible goal in mind. Feeling quite depressed, I focused on the interview portion in an attempt to finish this I-Search as fast as possible. I wasn t too keen on looking up a professional bodybuilder or something, because I was suspicious that they would lie just in case my I-Search became famous and the interviewee wanted to be put in an over-good spotlight. I was in English class when I hit a stroke of luck. My class was undergoing a workshop, where group mates would edit each other s I-Searches, or at least what we typed up so far. I asked my group mates if they knew anyone that was pretty buff. One of them, Dylon, said that he was pretty ripped and that he wouldn t mind being interviewed. The rest of the group laughed, thinking that he wasn t serious, and I didn t consider interviewing him. I don t really know why,
but I always thought of Stuyvesant students as people who are only buff when it comes to their brain muscles. Later, I found that most of his friends vouched for him and told me to interview him. I didn t actually interview him until a week later, on May 31 st when I had decided that it was time to take a bit of a risk and see where interviewing him leads me. I now say that I don t regret interviewing him, as the session had provided countless tips. We met up at a place called Jr. Sushi, a place I was already vaguely familiar with. The conversation wasn t tense or anything, in fact, he seemed somewhat eager to spill what he knows. When I asked him about it, he replied with a grin, Ms. Thoms is reading this, so if I make myself look pretty educated in this interview, no way am I failing this marking period (Jagoo). So he had a sense of humor? Perfect, one of my concerns with the interview was that I might have gotten stuck interviewing a 40-year old man who had a horrible sense of humor and an uncomfortable tension clinging to his body. I wanted to get a bit of background information from Dylon, just to make sure whether I could consider his information trustworthy. I asked him a couple of icebreakers, such as how he first started working out. He replied that he started in the summer between seventh and eighth grade because he used to be chubby and he wanted to get ripped like some other kids in his neighborhood (Jagoo). I couldn t help but crack a smile at that because it seemed a lot like my own story when it came to working out, and so I thought he probably is being honest. However, I d have to say he has a much better attitude than I because he finds working out fun due to the sense of accomplishment he feels afterwards (Jagoo). I have already said that your workout needs a nutritional foundation, and Dylon went on to describe his typical meal: lean meat,
scrambled eggs, and mostly whole wheat sandwiches (Jagoo). He also confirmed something I had learned from Lauren: meals should be eaten every two to three hours and they should be small (Jagoo). Dylon added some helpful tips such as don t eat too many carbs before you go to sleep as you won t be burning them quickly enough, and also take in protein after workouts to help your muscles fix the rips in them that your workout causes (Jagoo). He even agreed with Lauren s statement about fat and how it should also be eaten, although a bit less than in moderation (Jagoo). Cardio versus strength training is a highly debated discussion, and while some people say cardio actually burns muscle (such as Lauren), others say that cardio helps lose weight better than strength training does, and still others argue that both are vital. Dylon seems to be part of the last group because when I asked him if he does cardio, he said, I don t, but I hear it s good for breathing and burning fat, but not for muscle building (Jagoo). I started probing more into his workouts, and Dylon broke it down for me nice and simply. He explained that he himself works out everyday because he feels that he has worked long enough to take on the muscle stress (Jagoo). He also explained that he doesn t work out on the same muscle group everyday, and he stressed that (Jagoo). Dylon pointed out some favorite exercises of his for each muscle group and recommended that I watch them on youtube.com if i didn t know what they were, as I am now recommending that you look them up if you have no idea what they are. He said that hanging leg raises were extraordinary for your lower abs, and if you rotate your legs at the same time, they made good work of your obliques as well (Jagoo). Now for those of you who have no idea what obliques are, I suggest you get a bit of an idea of the human muscular system, but obliques are basically the muscles on the side of your abdomen (Lauren). Dylon also said that bicycles (the exercise, not the activity) work out your entire
abdominal area while pull-ups help your back (Jagoo). Dylon clearly showed his intelligence in the matter because he didn t stop there, he said that dips were good for the triceps and the chest, classic push ups were good for your shoulder muscles, and squat jumps were great for your quad muscles, which are you leg muscles (Jagoo). Throughout the interview Dylon added several interesting tips, such as the day where you work out your chest and the day where you work out your triceps should be kept at opposite ends of the week because most exercises that work out one of those muscle groups, also work out the other. This also applies to exercises that target the back and the biceps too. One of the most important tips Dylon said may have been his motto of going for high intensity and low reps. With that, Dylon explained that your workouts should really get you tired but they shouldn t take long, which can be shown because high intensity exercises relate to an exercise that is more difficult that what you are accustomed to, and as such, you can do that very exercise a low number of times and still get a great workout (Jagoo). Don t Lose Faith The highlight of my interview was definitely when Dylon put forth his own opinion on my goal: to get buff quickly in only about two to three months. I asked Dylon how long it took him to get buff and he responded that it took him roughly about a year (Jagoo). I was pretty perplexed, and I had lost a lot of hope by then on my goal, so I asked Dylon whether or not he thought my goal was possible to achieve. He agreed that it would be difficult, but he said that it is definitely possible and that my goal demanded perseverance (Jagoo). It took Dylon a year to get buff, so he must know how difficult it is, yet he admits that the time he took to get buff
could ve been cut down to only two or three months, and that really brings a whole new sense of determination to my goal (Jagoo). For the Ones in a Rush: Bravo, you have endured twelve long pages of testosterone-fueled knowledge and you are progressing on to your thirteenth! However, how much would you hate me if I told you that I could ve shortened those twelve pages to the bare essentials on getting buff? Well I ll get to it before you take out the torch, pitchfork, and the angry villager expression. The first thing you need to know is that while both cardio and strength training are important, strength training is what you need to build muscles and get ripped. However, do not neglect cardio; try cardio two or three times a week. Your diet is something that plays a great factor in your workout, and is therefore something you ll need to look after. Always remember to never overeat in a meal, and to eat often (about 5 small meals a day, with two to three hours in between each meal). After every workout, you should eat a very small meal consisting of 30-50 grams of lean protein and 30-50 grams of carbohydrates that help your muscles recuperate. When you start working out, remember that a slight burning sensation (that doesn t hurt in such a way that provokes you to stop the exercise) is a good thing, while something a bit more like joint pain should tell you to stop then and there, and probably get some medical attention. Your workouts should consist of your own preferences, and choose which exercises you do according to your ability. Don t try 20 chin-ups when you can t even pick up a 10-pound dumbbell. Also, keep in mind that your workouts will never get too easy for you (and therefore somewhat
ineffective because the workout is not using up much of your energy) if you keep changing them up. For example, if you can do 50 classic push ups in one set, then try doing 20 classic push ups with your feet resting on something about two feet off the ground. When taking these variations into account, the number of different workouts that you can undergo borders on limitless. You should workout about four to six days a week, with your days-off as time for your muscles to relax and for you to think up workouts for the following week. Do not expect to see results immediately, but always remember to put 110% into your workouts. It ll be worth it in a few short months. Good luck reader. Works Cited Deacon, Kevin. In-Person Interview. 23 March. 2010 Freudenrich, Craig Ph.D. "Discovery Health "How Sweat Works"" Discovery Health "Health Guides" HowStuffWorks.com, 13 Sept. 2010. Web. 01 June 2011. http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/information/anatomy/how-sweat-works.htm Jagoo, Dylon. In-Person Interview. 31 May. 2011 Lauren, Mark, and Joshua Clark. You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises. New York: Ballantine Trade Paperbacks, 2011. Print. Werkstatt, Scooby. "Losing Weight and Building 6-Pack Abs." Scoobys Home Bodybuilding Workouts. 17 Mar. 2009. Web. 05 June 2011. <http://scoobysworkshop.com/6packabs.htm>.
.