What is a way to get really ripped muscles?
Abdullah j asked:
well as you may see. I am a body builder. my body and arms do get big but there not ripped. is there a reason for this? or a way i can get them ripped??
PAUL
Tags: Body Builder, Muscles, Reason
September 25th, 2008 at 11:57 am
JOHN
im interested in finding out the answer to your question too …. hmm someone answer
September 26th, 2008 at 6:41 am
BETTY
You need to lose the fat that’s covering them. Your muscles can be farking huge, but if you’ve got fat on top of them they won’t look as impressive.
When I tried to look really ripped, I went on the “T-Dawg” diet as spelled out in “Testosterone Nation” magasine. It worked.
September 27th, 2008 at 11:59 am
EDWARD
Getting ripped depends on your bodyfat, water and glycogen levels. Generally, you’ll need your bodyfat to be well into the single digits to get competition-grade ripped — usually between three and six percent for a males.
Unless you are a mesomorph (easy gainer with no problems losing fat once you put some on) getting ripped will require you to diet down to that bodyfat level. Of course, the trick is to get yourself in single digits without also losing all of that hard-earned muscle.
Once you hit those levels, it may be difficult to sustain it for long periods of time. That hard, “grainy” look that bodybuilders get when they are competition-ripped is really only feasible for a very short window — usually the competition itself. At that point they’ve typically gone through a carb-depletion and load phase, as well as some pretty intense efforts to shed water, which can make you look “softer” in competition.
Once the competition is over, they have to ease up if they want to be able to gain additional muscle and have enough energy to return to their pre-competition intensity levels.
That said, there are many natural bodybuilders out there who stay pretty ripped all year long. The secret is to avoid extreme bulk and cut cycles, which get completely overused by most bodybuilders who aren’t on juice. Bulk and cut cycles work best for individuals on anabolic steroids (and this is not an endorsement by any stretch) or extreme mesomorphs who never seem to put on much fat, no matter how much they eat. For the average natural bodybuilder, carefully regulating your diet and monitoring your lean mass to fat ratio is really the best way to stay in a semi-ripped condition 12 months out of the year.
To get down to those levels in the first, you need to get religious about counting every calorie that goes into your body. For the most part this is a numbers game. Figure out how many calories you need each day to sustain your current weight and then go no more than 20% below those levels to start weight loss. If at all possible, burn the 20% through exercise, versus taking them out of your diet. This is really critical to preserving muscle as you cut.
Get yourself some body fat calipers (I like the Accu-Measure Fitness line — under $5 at Amazon) and make sure that as you lose weight, you are losing the majority of it from fat, and not muscle. So, for example, if you lost 1 pound of fat, but 1.5 pounds of muscle, you’re restricting calories too much and need to recalibrate. You won’t be able to know this kind of detail unless you are taking weekly bodyfat measurements.
Monitor your progress weekly, and tweak your calories or cardio up or down to get where you need to be. If you are losing fat fairly quickly, and lean muscle is staying around the same, then you can actually do a little more cardio and go for some more fat loss. However, if you’re seeing that you are losing more muscle than you’d like, then eat a little more or ease up on the cardio.
Make sense?
I’ve included some links below that can help you with the details of this. Getting ripped is a lot of science mixed with a little art and a ton of discipline. There is no reason you can’t get to where you want to be with this with the proper focus.
If you have any additional questions around any specifics in here, post them as questions and I’ll take a shot at them.
Best of luck!