To have a world class fitness body, you must be muscular of course, symmetrical and balanced, and have a well defined six-pack, but most importantly, you have to get ripped and shredded to the bone! If you do not know how to get ripped fast, then we are about to discuss how weight training, proper nutrition and aerobic exercise will assist in getting a ripped, beach worthy body by next summer.

Determine Where You Are Starting Before You Start To Get Ripped

If you do not have the ripped body of your dreams than you are either one of two people:

1. The ‘big guy’ at the gym who looks huge in clothes but has no muscle definition when the shirt comes off. You are training like a bodybuilder, eating in a caloric surplus, getting stronger and bigger each week but would never win a fitness model show because of your excess body fat.

2. Or, are you the ‘skinny guy’ who thinks he is ripped because your veins are popping out of your tank top, but have no muscle mass to support your frame. Sure, your veins make you look ‘ripped’ to the bike club but this false sense of ‘big’ would only get you laughed off a bodybuilding stage.

To get ripped, you must determine whether you need to start leaning down through a fat loss program or else add muscle mass with a bulking program. You cannot be ripped if you are lacking muscle mass or lacking muscle definition. Don’t chase both goals at once. I will address how both categories can learn how to get ripped fast with weight training, nutrition, and cardio.

How To Get Ripped With Weight Training

• Skinny guys should train less than 45 minutes each workout.
• Skinny guys should focus on only compound movements and no isolated movements.
• Skinny guys should focus on getting stronger by 5% every two weeks.
• Skinny guys should do no more than 1-2 forced reps to avoid wasted energy.
• Skinny guys should have there body parts split up into a maximum three day program.
• Bulky guys can train from 1 hour to 1 and ½ hours for the extra caloric expenditure.
• Bulky guys can incorporate more isolated movements for caloric expenditure.
• Bulky guys should still maintain their strength which will ensure no muscle loss.
• Bulky guys can include drop sets and pre-exhaust sets for the extra energy expenditure.
• Bulky guys can spend more time per muscle group and split their body parts over 5 days.

How To Get Ripped With Nutrition

• Skinny guys should be eating about 15 x their current body weight in calories for muscle mass.
• Skinny guys should eat at least 1- 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean muscle mass.
• Skinny guys should be eating at least 2x as many carbs as proteins.
• Skinny guys should be getting high quality fats with each meal.
• Skinny guys should be getting extra calories through workout nutrition drinks.
• Skinny guys should have their largest meals at breakfast, pre-workout, and post-workout.
• Skinny guys should be eating large quantities of oatmeal, whole grains, potatoes, and rice.
• Bulky guys should be eating about 10 x their current body weight, in calories, for fat loss.
• Bulky guys should eat at least 1 – 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean muscle mass.
• Bulky guys should eat a 1:1 ratio of proteins to carbs in the day.
• Bulky guys should only eat healthy fats like flax oil, olive oil, nuts, and avocado’s.
• Bulky guys should only consume liquid carbs during the workout.
• Bulky guys should consume carbs only in the form of veggies and fruits.

How To Get Ripped With Cardio

• Skinny guys should only do cardio if there caloric intake is in a 1000 calorie surplus.
• Skinny guys should keep their cardio workouts as far away as possible from their weights.
• Skinny guy should keep their cardio workouts less than 20-30 minutes.
• Skinny guys should do cardio no more than 2 – 4 x a week.
• Skinny guys should perform cardio on a full stomach.
• Skinny guys should have a protein-carb workout drink ready after the workout.
• Skinny guys should avoid long, endurance-style training.
• Bulky guys should do there cardio immediately after weights.
• Bulky guys should do a mixture of long, slow cardio and interval cardio.
• Bulky guys can do cardio up to 7-10 x a week in extreme cases.
• Bulky guys should do cardio on a empty stomach for quicker fat loss.
• Bulky guys should sip on a protein drink to avoid muscle loss.

There you have it. Now you know how to get ripped fast, whether you are a skinny or bulky.

What does it actually take to build large muscles? Often experts try to make the concept of building muscle sound incredibly difficult and complicated. I want to try to make it a little simpler. On top of this building muscle is also incredibly expensive. Too many gurus have you taking one supplement after another. I am not saying that you should avoid supplements all together but for the most part you can build muscle without them.

So what do you need to build muscle? The first thing that you need to understand is that your body is very happy the way it is. It doesn’t want to build muscle. Muscle requires your body to expend more energy to maintain. So your body is content to do without it. So you are going to have to persuade your body that you need muscle.

So how do we convince our body that it needs to build muscle? Well very simply put we need to give it a reason to grow. Let’s look at a couple of ways to do this.

Overfeed Your Body

If you are going to gain muscle then you are going to have to eat more. Some of you are thinking that the last time you ate more you gained weight and that it wasn’t muscle that you gained. Well we are going to combine our extra calorie intake with a bit more muscle building activity. We are going to require more of our body so we need to provide it with more energy.

Now when I say that you need to eat excess calories to build muscle I am not talking about eating a box of Twinkies each day. You need to be smart and eat healthily. You just need to eat more healthy food than your body requires to maintain its current weight and musculature. Eat lean proteins, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates.

Progressive Overload

Now that your body has been provided with the extra fuel necessary to build muscle you need to “stress out” your muscle so that it is forced to get bigger.

We are going to try to force your body into hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is a fancy term for building muscle. We are going to do this through weight training and a principle called progressive overload.

Progressive overload means that we are going to lift a weight heavier than your body is accustomed to. Don’t get hung up on which program that you use to do this. Any program will work. Just stick with it. What occurs when you lift heavier loads of weight than your body is used to is that muscle is torn down. As a result your body will come along and rebuild that muscle but make it bigger and stronger so that it is able to handle that same type of stress in the future.

I know that this sounds overly simplistic but it is really that simple in reality. You need to continue to stress your muscles by overloading them with heavier weight and volume training. They will in turn respond by growing stronger and larger.

Now you need to make sure that you get enough rest, however. You are tearing your muscle down and as a result you will need to give your body proper time to heal. If you don’t provide time for rest and recovery then you will not grow like you want.

Now everyone will have different genetic potential. Not everyone will be able to bench 500 lbs and squat 700 lbs. However, you will be able to grow into the full potential of your genetics.