By Eric Bach, BS, CSCS Head Coach at Bach Performance Follow Us On Instagram & Facebook
With all ventures there are basic principles that drive success. Fitness is no different.
And when it comes to building muscle? It comes down to training hard enough to stimulate progress, eating enough calories, and maximizing recovery you all your efforts pay off. So, here’s what I’m going to show you… How to build real world, functional strength and athleticism so you kick-ass in the gym and on the beach, on the field, or when playing with your kids. How to build dense, athletic muscle that gives you the true power look whether you’re hangin’ out with your crew in a t-shirt, with your lady in a button up, or closing deals in your business suit. How to follow a nutrition plan that improves, rather than consumes your life. Nutrition and losing fat is all about sustainability, not obsession. And all together… I’m going to show you simple habits I instill with my clients and in the BOSS Group Coaching Community to help busy guys like you radically transform your body and as a result, build a life that’s improved through fitness like Rob, a business attorney in Colorado.
What I’m not going to do is… Peddle you another bullshit fifty dollar fix-all supplement in a bottle. Swindle you into putting butter in your coffee, or any other fad crap polluting fitness. Put you in a position to end up beat-up, injured, and hating exercise. Tell you you’ll need to avoid all carbs or fats. Say, “no, you can’t have a well made cocktail (I prefer Manhattan’s), your favorite IPA, nor forgo cookouts or dates to stick to your strict diet. I want you to live life to the fullest, not look on from the sidelines. After all, fitness should improve your life, not consume it. Right? That’s what building a BOSS body is all about.
Below You’ll Find… A snapshot variation of one of the many custom workouts from inside the BOSS Group Coaching community.
You can test out BOSS for $1 for the next three weeks and… • Gain instant access to over one years worth of muscle building, fat shredding workouts • Have workouts that take only 30-60 minutes so you can get in the gym, make progress, and get on with your life. • Fat shredding meal plans • A private community to help you crush plateaus and transform your body once and for all. • Access to our full 183 pound exercise library • New workouts monthly for non-stop progress • Private coaching access to me so I can guide your progress and serve as your trainer.
Click Here and Join Today
HFT Maximum Mass With the vast number of training programs out there it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. After all, every new article seems to contradict the last and make building muscle way too complicated. In reality, not much has changed over the years when it comes to human physiology. Building muscle still comes down to creating a response (training), fueling the body (sleep and food), and recovering from the stress response to training.
When it comes to muscle-building workouts you’re really limited to two options: training more often or doing more work within each workout or using a higher training volume.
Should you train one muscle group per workout and pound it into oblivion like a bodybuilder or would you be better training your muscles more frequently, but not to the point of utter destruction during each workout?
My experience says the later: more frequent but shorter workouts reign king
for building muscle fast, especially for the average, non-steroid using lifter.
Still, you'll need to manage fatigue and train with shorter workouts to maximize your gains.
So, what does this mean for you, the busy guy who wants to add size to your chest, shoulders, and back and wonders, “what is the best way to gain muscle fast?” Well, listen up my friend. High-frequency training is the answer.
But What About Body-part Splits? Body part splits, those often performed by high-level bodybuilders often aren't the best option for busy (and non-juiced) guys who're looking to build muscle. First, most lifters aren't advanced enough to really benefit from a ton of isolation exercises like curls because they don't have the prerequisite strength to create the tension needed to grow. Having an expertly designed plan with plenty of compound exercises (like squats or rows) can change this. Unfortunately, well-designed body-part splits are uncommon due to poor exercise selection, rep schemes, and total volume.
Second, most magazine generated body part splits take a long time. Let's face it, you don't have 90 minutes to train. Third, the average busy guy misses training sessions, most commonly legs or back but never chest or arms, and thus, his training is unbalanced. This stunts growth and can open the door for injuries.
As a quick refresher, here's what these typically look like:
Monday: Chest Tuesday: Back Wednesday: Legs Thursday: Shoulders Friday: Arms
Yes, you probably feel more soreness after these workouts and it makes you feel like you're doing everything you need to grow. But excess soreness isn't a great indicator you'll build more muscle. It simply means you've done more than your body is accustomed.
High-Frequency Training Is Key For Natural Lifters Protein synthesis is a key driver of muscle growth. The benefit of being steroids is your body is anabolic 247. But if you're the regular guy who's not, there is only so much protein you can trigger in one workout.
Further, protein synthesis stays elevated for roughly 24-36 hours after training. In
this case, more volume per workout is not better when it comes to building muscle, hitting your muscles more often is.
As a drug-free busy guy, your focus needs to be on getting stronger in the gym, triggering protein synthesis, and getting on with your life: not destroying every fiber of your biceps like a pro bodybuilder. Further, when it comes to training like a bodybuilder consider the following: bodybuilders often focus their entire lifestyle on improving their physique. This means seven to ten hours of sleep, little alcohol, disciplined dieting, and maintaining this consistently for years. This is more than the average dude with a 9-5, a social life, and a family can muster. You must work within the confines of your lifestyle and time
commitments to maximize the results of your training, and this is precisely what I'm going to show you.
The Workouts Push/pull splits break training up by movement pattern. The movements on the posterior side of the body are predominantly responsible for pulling actions while the front/anterior side of the body is responsible for pushing actions. Legs are often paired on "pull" days.
Push/pull routines are suitable for almost all lifters. They're an economical way to train and allow for flexible planning. Moderate frequency of
movement is better for skill acquisition than body part splits performed once per week.
It’s important to not plan too many heavy/intensive workouts back to back to allow full recovery. With this in mind, we’ll alternate higher “intensity” and lower intensity exercises to maximize recovery.
Example
Day 1: Push (chest, shoulders, triceps, legs/quads, abs)—> heavy Day 2: Pull (legs/hamstrings, back, biceps) —> medium Day 3: Push (chest, shoulders, triceps, legs/quads, abs)—> light Day 4: Pull (legs/hamstrings, back, biceps)—> heavy Day 5: Push (chest, shoulders, triceps, legs/quads, abs)—> medium Day 6: Pull (legs/hamstrings, back, biceps)—> light
Progression: On each set you’ll start lighter and progress to a your heaviest working set last. We call this ascending (increasing) loading. It’s important to note that if you’re already pretty strong you may need to do 1-3 work sets to ramp up to your heaviest work set. Let’s say you want to squat 275x5 as the last work set of the day.
You would do 135x5, 185x8 to ramp up. Then, you could go 215x5, 235x5, 255x5, 275x5 on your last set.
The Program This program is drastically different from what you’ve probably tried recently. Give this a shot and stick to your rest periods: you should be in and out in about 40 minutes. If that’s still too long, only do one set on your last exercise. Repeat this program for 4-6 weeks, getting a bit stronger from workout to workout. Then, switch up your exercises and continue forward.
Day One Push (heavy) 1. Squat 4x5, rest 60-90 seconds Notes: Perform 2 warm up sets of 5 reps. Increase the weight on each work set. 2. Barbell Incline Bench Press 3-4x6, rest 60-90 seconds 3a. Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3x10, rest 45 seconds 3b. Dumbbell Split Squat 3x10, rest 45 seconds 4. Cable Triceps Push Down 4x10, rest 30 seconds
Day Two Pull (moderate) 1. Romanian Deadlift 4x8, rest 60 seconds
2. Chin Up 4x10,8,6,6 rest 60 seconds 3. Dumbbell Chest Supported Row 3x12, rest 45 seconds 4a. Dumbbell bent over lateral raise 3x10, rest 30 seconds 4b. Dumbbell biceps curl 3x10, rest 30 seconds
Day Three Push (light) 1. Dumbbell Bench Press 3x12, rest 60 seconds 2. Goblet Squat or Leg Press 3x15, rest 60 seconds 3. One Arm Dumbbell Press 3x10/arm, rest 30 seconds b/t arms 4a. Dumbbell Skull Crusher 3x12, rest 30 seconds 4b. Feet elevated close grip push up 3x12, rest 30 seconds 4c. Ab wheel rollout 3x12, rest 30 seconds
Day Four Pull (heavy) 1. Deadlift 3x5, rest 90 seconds 2. Barbell bent over row 3x6, rest 90 seconds 3a.45 degree back extension 3x12, rest 30 seconds 3b. Hammer hammer curl 3x12, rest 30 seconds 4. Lat Pull down 3x15, rest 60 seconds
Notes: Optional, time permitting.
Day Five Push (moderate) 1.Front Squat 3x6, rest 60-90 seconds 2. Barbell Overhead Press 3x8, rest 60-90 seconds 3. Dips 3x12, rest 60 seconds 4a.Dumbbell lateral raise 3x15,12,10 rest 45 seconds 4b. Dumbbell overhead triceps extension 3x15,12,10 rest 45 seconds
Day Six Pull (light) 1a. Stability Ball/machine leg curl 3x15, rest 30 seconds 1b. Single leg hip thrust 3x15/leg, rest 30 seconds 2. Close Grip seated cable row 3x8-12, rest 60 seconds 3. Pull-up or lat pull down 3x10-8-6, rest 60 seconds 4a. Incline Biceps Curl 3x12, rest 45 seconds 4b. Push Up 3xFail, rest 45 seconds
Going Forward The biggest mistake most lifters make is not sticking with a “bulk” long enough. But there’s the thing: muscle building takes a long time. It’s not a week by week
process, but a month by month process.
If you want to build your ultimate bad-ass body, then you need a plan.
With the right plan, you can build muscle and lose fat, nearly at the same time.
This is because at any given moment your body is either anabolic (building, such as building muscle or accumulating fat mass) or catabolic (breaking down fat, muscle, or carbohydrates for energy).
This means at any given moment you’re either losing fat or gaining muscle…but not both. So, this would lead you to believe you can’t build muscle and lose fat at the same time, right? Well, not exactly. As you can see with Ben in the picture below, you can lose fat and build muscle in a short period of time.
Now just 30 days later, he’s leaner and more muscular. Going forward, it will be easier for him to stay shredded and build muscle… leading him on his journey to his ultimate physique. By this I mean if you’re looking to become the total package…strong, lean, and athletic, then I’m your guy.
And if you want to be like Ben? First, understand this: Chasing simultaneous fat loss and muscle building is the first-class ticket to spin your wheels for weeks and months, hopping from program to program and diet to diet. Second: Join the BOSS Group Coaching Community for $1. By reading this far you’ve proven to me you’re serious about transforming your body. Now, will you take the next step?
We can help you implement these same strategies into your busy life.
Inside the Vault of the BOSS Group Coaching Community you will… • Gain instant access to over one years worth of muscle building, fat shredding workouts. • Have workouts that take only 30-60 minutes so you can get in the gym, make progress, and get on with your life.
• Fat shredding meal plans, like those that James followed.
• A private community to help you crush plateaus and transform your body once and for all. • Access to our full 183 pound exercise library of old school and brand new workouts to maximize your gains. • New workouts monthly for non-stop progress and never having to wonder, “is this the workout I should be doing?” I’ll take care of all this for you. • Private coaching access to me so I can guide your progress and serve as your trainer.
Click Here and Join Today
