Preparations for the dream summer physique started yesterday.

Another year went by hectically fast with little time to work out and stick to your New Year’s resolution to sculpt a six pack. With a little less than a month left to prepare for the first step on the beach, you have missed out on a lot of potential progress, but lets not focus on the past and do what we can with the time we have. Next year find a way to stay motivated throughout the year with a training partner. But for this year, follow these simple yet effective steps and look the best you possibly can to get people’s heads turning and a little extra confidence in your step.

You can still look great!

6 Weeks Out

Exercises

I recommend going on a mini bulk for 3 weeks with an emphasis on your shoulders. What this will require you to do is eat at a slight surplus of 200 calories above your maintenance, which you can calculate with this simple online calculator. You will also want to keep protein intake relatively high at close to 1 gram of protein per pound bodyweight.

What you should really focus on is getting stronger on a compound lift such as seated overhead press. I also recommend using a barbell to allow yourself to move the most amount of weight possible, while still maintaining proper form. Keep the reps moderately low in the 5-7 rep range for 3 sets. In addition to the heavy seated overhead press, you should also incorporate standing lateral raises and Rear Deltoid Raises. Keep the rep range on these in the 8-10 range and 3 to 4 sets for optimal hypertrophy. Putting muscle on in your shoulders impacts your physique greatly and gives you the broad shoulder masculine look. You will want to train your shoulders twice a week for the next 3 weeks.

The other muscle group you want to focus on during this mini bulk are the abdominals. You will want to put on as much muscle as you can while bulking because when you start cutting down your body fat, you will not be putting on any more muscle due to being in a catabolic state. The exercises I can recommend are Russian Twists with a dumbbell or plate, hanging leg raises or a knees to chest variation if too difficult, and finally the simple ab crunch. With the abdominal crunches, you want to make them incredibly slow with a tight squeeze at the top portion of the movement and stretch your abs with a full deep breath at the top portion as well as at the bottom, starting position. Work out abs three to 4 days per week for the next 3 weeks. The best rep range for abs is high, in the 12-20 rep range, getting as much blood to the muscles as possible.

In addition to focusing on your shoulders and abs rigorously for 3 weeks, during this time you will want to do dumbbell bench press in the 8-10 rep range, barbell bicep curls in the 8-10 rep range and triceps pushdowns with the rope extension in the 8-12 rep range. Do 3 to 4 sets for each exercise.

3 Weeks Out

Now that you have completed your mini bulk and hopefully put on some muscle, you will want to shift your priorities into fat loss. This will require you to recalculate you maintenance calories and subtract 300-500 calories from what your require to sustain your current weight. If you put on a small amount of body fat that is okay, it is normal. After recalculating your calories, I recommend that you reduce all exercises to the 5-8 rep range, and focus on maintaining strength in all of your lifts. This will serve you better in preserving the muscle you just put on in your mini bulk.

BCAAs

A supplement you can use to preserve even more muscle during your bulk is BCAAS. I mentioned that when you are in a caloric deficit, you are in a catabolic state. This means breaking down materials such as muscle for energy. Taking BCAAS will help prevent this and therefore your body will burn more fat instead. Scivation Xtend is the best tasting one that I have used, with the mango nectar being my favourite flavour. The product also has citrulline malate, which is a vasodilator that increases blood flow to the muscles. In essence, this is an ingredient that provides an insane pump which is great for building muscle and for looking great and full on your beach days.

Now that you have the number of calories calculated, there are two ways to achieve this number daily. You can either move a little more or eat a little less. What I mean by this is you can burn the 300-500 calories with a cardio session each day and eat at your maintenance calories. The cardiovascular activity that you choose does not matter, therefore make sure it is enjoyable so that you stay consistent. The second method is simply eating a little less to hit your caloric goal. Additionally, you are going to want to drink a lot of water to allow your body to actually hold less water. If you drink water infrequently, your body will sense this and hold on to any water you drink to avoid dehydration. Inversely, if you drink lots of water, your body will not need to hold on to nearly as much, giving you a more aesthetic look. In addition to staying hydrated, it will be beneficial to keep protein high.

Keep up the calorie deficit and strength based lifting for the remaining three weeks.

1 Week Out

Now that you have lost some fat, your hard earned muscle should be starting to show more. Also, your midsection should also be becoming more visible day by day. This week you should increase your water intake and reduce your carbohydrates, while raising your fats to hit your calories for the day. Drink lots of water and maintain a low carbohydrate intake for just 6 days and keep up the heavy weightlifting.

The Day/Night Before

You are almost there! On the day before hitting the beach, stop drinking as much water unless thirsty at about 6 at night. This will allow your muscles to get that final dry muscle look that is what bodybuilders seek to achieve. The night before at about 7 or 8 at night, eat a ridiculously large amount of carbohydrates and significantly reduce your fat and protein intake (just one day of low protein and fat will not cause too drastic of any physical changes). The excess carbs could even be a whole box of cereal or even a box and a half if you are a bigger individual. This will allow you to restore the glycogen stores that you depleted this week due to your carbohydrate restriction. It will be very satisfying and will cause your muscles to be super full the next day.

SECRET TIP

In addition to the body, a tan will help you look more defined. If you have access to lots of sunlight, start tanning at least a week before. To be safe, you could apply a sunless tanner. A budget friendly and effective tanner spray is the Neutrogena Sunless Tan . If you want an expert opinion on this, go check out fitness model Connor Murphy’s results with it in his Tanning Quickly And Safely youtube video. I know a lot of guys may be embarrassed to use a product like this, but put your ego at the door. This stuff works.

FIRST DAY AT THE BEACH

Now that you have done all of the preparations, wake up early and eat a small balanced meal of protein carbs and fats.

An hour before you leave to the beach, take a scoop or 2 of your Scivation Xtend . The citrulline malate in the BCAAs will give you a great pump for the beach.

PRE-BEACH WORKOUT

3 sets of bodyweight pushups to failure

3 to 5 sets of bicep curls with very high reps

Lateral raises with light weight focusing on the pump

Bodyweight dips to failure

Now you have done all you can. Head down to the beach! If you enjoyed my post, be sure to give it a 5 star rating at the top of the post and join my email list.