1. Exercise isn’t an option

You must give a muscle group bare minimum 48 hours heeling time.

To stay fit, lose weight, gain muscle, whatever your goal may be, you must exercise.

It is hard and may be slightly painful at first, but after several weeks if done properly you begin to really enjoy it and you will feel great.

Doing sit ups or crunches will not burn belly fat. There is no such thing as spot reduction. What I mean is working your legs does not burn fat off of your legs. Doing arm exercises does not burn fat on your arms. Therefore doing ab exercises will not burn the pudgy pouch around your abdomen. Exercise as a whole will burn fat off of your entire body, not specific areas. So don't think working any particular muscle group will burn fat in that particular area. If you want to burn fat anywhere on your body you need to do cardio and eat a balanced nutritional diet.

1. Key
   

2. Points

Working out the same muscles day after day is damaging and dangerous.

Cardio isn’t an option. It strengthens your heart and helps burn fat.

I follow a pretty simple training routine. I currently do 30 minutes of high intensity interval cardio 5 days a week. What I mean by that is if I am using a treadmill I will do 1 minute at 5.2mph followed by 1 minute at 8.0mph. I follow that with 1 minute of 5.2mph and then 1 minute at 8.5mph. I follow that pattern until I peak with 2 minutes at 10.0mph, then I work my way back down to 8.0 using the same pattern. I do 4 days of weight training. Each weight training session takes me about 30 minutes.

Sunday: Off

Monday: Arms, cardio

Tuesday: Shoulders, traps, cardio

Wednesday: Chest, back, cardio

Thursday: Legs, hips, groin, cardio

Friday: Abs, cardio

Saturday: Off

I do three sets of one exercise for each muscle on a machine. I follow that with three sets of an exercise for each muscle using free weights. I then perform a drop set for each muscle. A drop set would be doing a set at one weight then dropping it by 25% and immediately doing another. You drop the weight 3 times for a total of 4 sets in succession. All sets of every exercise I do to failure. Failure means until you can not do anymore. I aim all exercises to get about 8-10 repetitions. I do all of my sets as supersets. For instance on arm day I do a set for my biceps, immediately followed by a set for my triceps, immediately followed by a set for my forearms.

I never do the same workout more than once every month. I always mix up the exercises. Your muscles form a memory and to keep that from happening you always need to mix things up.

You must work out your legs if you are going to work on the top half of your body. Next time you go to the beach look at the muscular guys. I am willing to bet you will see a few of them with impressive upper bodies but with the legs of a chicken.

Depending on your goals you may do as much cardio as I do, or less. I recommend at least a 20 minute session every other day. I recommend what is called HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training. Instead of running at a steady pace your entire work out it is best to vary the speeds and difficulty of your workout. Our bodies become accustom quickly to anything that we do. Therefore, like with weight training you need to constantly change what you do for your cardio sessions. This method forces your body to work harder because it isn't able to easily adapt to the constantly changing speed and difficulty. Changing the incline on a treadmill is another thing that you can throw into the mix. Just don't do the same thing day after day. You will get poor results and that leads to decreased motivation. Mixing things up will give you the best results.

A combination of weight training and cardio along with a healthy nutritional plan will allow you to achieve your Extreme Physique.

Common Misconception 1 - For the ladies and the guys

More does not mean better! I see some people in the gym performing exercises on the same body-part for an hour at a time. Working out isn't what makes your muscles grow. Working out tears the fibers of your muscles. It is the healing of the fibers and the growth of new fibers that occurs in the days following your work out that increases your muscle size and strength. Pounding your muscles to death only damages them to the point where they can not heal properly in time for your next work out. This is called over training and it is a big no-no. I know mentality tells us more is better, but I assure you more can be worse! The guys at the gym frequently comment how they bust their butts and don't get the growth I get even though I don't bust my butt. I explain to them what I had just mentioned about over training, but they're a bit naive and refuse to understand what I am telling them. You should give each muscle at minimum 48-72 hours to heal before you even think about working it out again.  Don't forget to leave ample time to allow your body to recover from workouts. It is the time you are at rest when your muscles grow. If you bust your but in the gym and don't allow enough time for your body to repair itself you end up over-training and end up losing the very thing you are trying to build, muscle. I do this by not working out on the weekends.

Common Misconception 2 - For the ladies

Lifting weights will not cause you to become big and buff. The guys who are big and buff are so due to a combination of heavier lifting, higher protein diet, supplements, and male testosterone. If you aim for 15 repetitions when you work out using lower weights you will tone up, but you will not gain tons of muscle. Yes, you will gain some muscle, but trust me, it will look good, and not manly.

Common Misconception 3 - For the guys

Walking around the gym with your arms out at 45 degree angles as if you are holding watermelons is not impressive, it looks stupid. So please don't do it. Trying to over exaggerate your size is immature and everyone will not think you are tough, for they will think you have some sort of issue where you think you are bigger than you really are. Showing off is dumb so please spare everyone else the pain of having to be around it.