Reimagining Fitness: A Day in the Life of a Professional Bodybuilder

I wake up at 5 am without an alarm. Rolling out of bed, I weigh myself at 203 pounds. Right on track: I will compete at the national bodybuilding championships in three weeks. My goal is to compete, weighing 199 pounds. I have been systematically reducing my body weight by one pound per week for the past 16 weeks. This slow-loss strategy strips the last vestiges of body fat off my physique without losing any of my hard-earned muscle mass. If you lose body fat too quickly, you’ll lose as much muscle because your body will sense starvation and cannibalize muscle to spare precious body fat.

Part of my morning regimen is rehydration, where I drink 32 ounces of water over a two-hour period. I dress, head to the kitchen, brew some coffee, and check my notifications. Awake and alert, I head to the garage for a 30-minute “fasted” cardio training session. My goal is to attain and maintain a 120 beats-per-minute session average. This is 80% of my age-related heart rate maximum.

When you do cardio every morning, you get good at it. I powered through my 30-minute session; done, dripping sweat, I hit the shower. At 7 am, I eat the first of my six meals: an egg white omelet with mixed vegetables. Today being a Saturday, I headed to my home office for three hours of paperwork and bill paying. At 10 am, I headed back to the kitchen and consumed an 8-ounce serving of turkey and a small garden salad. Then it was time for yard work: mowing the grass and cleaning up afterward took until 1 pm.

It was time for my third meal: a serving of haddock, rice, and asparagus. I was to meet Paul, my training partner, at the gym at 2 pm, so I changed, retrieved a Tupperware container with a pre-cooked meal (beef patty, garden salad, sweet potato) and commenced the 30-minute drive to the gym. I greeted Paul, and we immediately got to work. This would be chest and arm day and take 90 minutes to complete. Today’s menu was the Smith machine bench press, dumbbell incline press, pec dec machine, and cable crossovers. Forty-five minutes later, my chest and delts were pumped and exhausted.

Our bicep routine was standing barbell curls, seated incline curls, preacher bench curls, and machine curls. For our triceps, single dumbbell overhead triceps press, dips, triceps pushdowns, and rope-handle pushdowns. Four sets for every exercise, each set heavier than the prior set. Reps ranged from a low of 8 reps to a high of 12 reps. Paul is stronger and younger, a perfect training partner.  He pushes me, spots me, corrects my form, and gives me “forced reps” when required. I glanced at the gym wall clock. Our session lasted one hour and seventeen minutes.

Exhausted, drenched in sweat, shaking slightly, I retrieve my Tupperware container and ravenously rip into my fourth meal of the day. This food revives me. I gather my gear and head home, shower, and take a 45-minute power nap. Refreshed, I drink another coffee. Later, I meet friends at a local Greek restaurant. I order a giant Greek salad, lamb chops, and quinoa. I then head back home and watch a movie.

Before bed, I have my sixth and final meal of the day, a large protein shake that delivers 50 grams of high BV protein. Taking the shake before bed will keep muscle-sparing protein in my system as I sleep. I fall into a deep, refreshing sleep and cannot wait for the next day. As I sleep, I swear I feel my arms and chest growing.      

Elemental Periodization

Every exercise I do, every bite of food I take, every sip of liquid I drink, everything I do is related to improving my health, performance, and physique. Everything I do is preplanned. Periodization is just a fancy word for extensive preplanning. Implementing the periodized lifestyle is the essence of bodybuilding. Pros use periodization to improve their performance and physique, and so should you.

James is a hypothetical stereotypical out-of-shape, 45-year-old business executive. He wants to take ten weeks to lean out and shape up for the class reunion. The strategy is to reduce body weight by two pounds a week during weeks one through six, then reduce one pound per week in weeks seven through ten, 15 pounds total. The deadlift shows his periodized progression. A periodized progression is established for each of the eight progressive resistance exercises he performs twice weekly.  

Cardio is critical. Wearing a heart rate monitor enables a numeric rendering of aerobic intensity. A 45-year-old has a 100% heart rate max of 175 BPM. He commences with four weekly high-intensity power walks. The target heart rate increases slightly each week; the session duration is extended by two minutes. Endurance is thus stair-stepped upward. At the end of 10 weeks, he deadlifts 215 pounds. He ends by powering through daily 35-minute sessions while maintaining a 130-beats-per-minute rate, weighing a now streamlined and muscled-up 180 pounds.

Four reasons for failure

1. Insufficient progressive resistance intensity: To build strength and muscle, subject the targeted muscle to stressors sufficient to trip the hypertrophy switch. The body must wrestle with poundage at the limit of current capacities. A submaximal effort is insufficient; the ideal “set” ends with a barely completed final rep. If there is no struggle, muscle gain will not be realized.

1. Insufficient cardiovascular training intensity: Aerobic exercise is cojoined with disciplined dieting, thus forcing the body to oxidize fat. Cardio conditioning enables the athlete to train harder and longer. Do you sweat? If you do not, it is unlikely the intensity generated is sufficient. The elite will perform early morning fasted cardio to amplify fat burning.  

1. Insufficient dietary discipline: Transformational fitness is based on dietary discipline. Clean up your eating habits! Eliminate highly inflammatory ultra-processed foods and enable detoxification to commence. Adequate nutrition is strict and unbending: there are no cheat days, no cheat meals, and no dietary Mulligans. Meals are nutrient-dense power foods, natural, fresh, organic, and wholesome—our philosophy: the expert use of regular food.

1. Lack of tangible results: Enthusiasm is the solar power of transformative fitness. Measurable results in performance and physique reflect the effort. Weekly increases in performance produce changes in the physique; muscle grows, and fat oxidizes. Clean eating amps energy and clears mental fog. Those unable to generate results understandably quit. Ferocious adherence generates measurable results; results create enthusiasm that continually revitalizes the effort.