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0 In only 82 days summer will be upon us and everyone knows what that means; 12 ounce curls by the pool on the weekends and an occasional trip to the beach. And if you want to be shredded for all of this, you need to start putting in the work now! Here are 6 tips to help you get shredded for summer.
1.Determine Your Weight Goal
First things first, you should determine what your goal weight is. Ideally you should plan on losing 1 pound a week (which means you are in a 500 calorie deficit each day). So if I want to lose 5 pounds by June 1st, I should start 5 weeks out, which would be the week of 4/27. If I wanted to lose 20 pounds by June 1st, I should have started the week of 1/13! You can make up for the loss of time, but it will require you putting in more work!
Please note that losing 1 pound a week is general rule of thumb. You can lose more or less, it will depend on your calorie intake vs deficit. Here is a calculator you can use to determine the amount of calories you should eat to reach your goal.
2.Clean up your diet
This ties back with determining your weight goal, but in order to achieve your weight loss goal you NEED to consume fewer calories than you burn. You also need to determine the amount of carbs, fats and proteins you should be consuming on a daily basis as well. To calculate this, there are plenty of free calculators online. Here is one I use.
To start off, try keeping track of these on a daily basis to understand what you are putting into your body. Once you get a gist of it, you don’t need to track it as much unless you want too.
You should also start incorporating leaner meats, more complex carbs, and healthier fats into your diet. These will help accelerate the time it takes you to getting shredded. Below are some examples of what to eat for each marco nutrition.
3. Increase the intensity of your workouts
High intensity training helps to improve your metabolism while also increasing your heart rate during exercise which results in burning more calories. Try adding in a second round of cardio to your workouts (like our WOD’s) or incorporating more circuits throughout your weightlifting routine. If you work out for an hour each day, spend at least 20 minutes doing cardio and 40 minutes doing weights.
We have build workouts specifically to achieve this. With our WOD’s, we blend traditional weightlifting with HIIT to not only focus on build strength and size, but to also get cut when doing it. HIIT training is a great way to target all muscle groups, incorporate cardio, and get your heart rate high!
If you are new to HIIT style training, or feel intimated trying our WODS, start off doing by doing a HIIT fitness class. This will show you the ropes in how to approach a HIIT style workout, and also give you an idea of the tempo you want to do it at. Read My take on class pass to see how you can take fitness classes within your community for an affordable price!
4. Smaller, more frequent meals
Increasing the frequency of your meals will help shred your body. Lean proteins, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates (carbs) spaced evenly throughout the day will boost your metabolism and turn it into a fat shredding machine. The way your body works is simple – in order to digest food, your body burns fat. So if you eat three meals per day, your body will spend calories digesting the foods you ate only 3 times per day. However, by increasing meal frequency to 6 meals, you’ll also burn more calories, as your body will have to digest foods 6 times.
This is something that I have incorporated into my meal plan and have seen great results from it. Each of my main meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) are about 400 calories or less. Then each snack I have (mid morning, mid afternoon, after dinner) throughout the day are around 200 calories each.
5. Incorporate more compound lifts into your routine
Compound lifts are any strengthening exercise where you’re using more than one muscle group at the same time. They include exercises such as squats and deadlifts, and there are plenty of benefits to be had from doing them
By engaging a greater number of muscle groups than single-joint movements, multi-joint exercises allow you to lift heavier weight, which raises your metabolism both during and after your workout.
These movements have also been shown to more effectively trigger the release of favorable anabolic hormones like testosterone and growth hormone, which burn fat and help you withstand a caloric deficit.
You don’t need to make all of your workouts based around compound lifts, but incorporating more of them into your workouts will give you the results you are looking for.
6. Surround yourself with people who will help you reach your goals
In order to stay on track and get shredded, you need to surround yourself with people who are going to motivate you and keep you discipled. If all of your friends are constantly going out and drinking, the likelihood of you getting into peak shape is going to be low.
If you have a gym buddy, ask them to commit to a plan similar to you. You can also make a friendly competition among your friends to see who can look the best before summer. This will not only keep you motivated, but it will also keep you from being around people who might be a bad influence
My Final Take
I hope these 7 tips help you get shredded in time for summer but also remember, you get out what you put into it! Results are not made over night, so have patience. Be Persistent. Be Present
