The 1001 Step Guide to Getting 230 lbs of Muscle and a Six Pack — Even as a Vegetarian
It often surprises people that I can maintain a lean physique and 230 lbs of muscle, all whilst being vegetarian and without juicing up.
It annoys them when they find out that I love to indulge in huge pizzas and pre-workout meals that top 1000 calories (I would be annoyed too if it wasn’t me…).
I lose weight on weekends away, even when that weekend consists of delicious alcoholic milkshakes and irresistible banana and peanut butter waffles — there’s a theme here right?
I’m not divulging this information to brag, but to set the scene for what is to come, and to explain that it is possible.
Alas, I have even taken the time to break it down into 1001 steps showing EXACTLY how you can do it too!
Sounds too good to be true? Guess you’ll have to read on to find out…
Disclaimer 1: below is an accurate step by step guide of how I got to where I am. The guide contains some satire and bad decisions.
1–69 Luck out on the genetic lottery
The first step is to be born with the right genetics for the job. I’m not saying that you need to have professional athletes for parents (although it would help), but, undeniably good genes help you to get off to the right start.
For example, I’m 6 foot 4, I build muscle easier than the average person, and I have a wide frame and thick joints. All of which gives me a slight headstart without even opening my eyes. Separately, but directly related to genetics, my parents also took part in various sports throughout their youth and knew the importance of me getting involved in sports at an early age, as well as the importance of homemade, fresh food. All of which set me up better than if I was eating low-calorie takeaways, and was never exposed to sports.
Since the beginning of time, events have conspired that have led to your ancestors eventually copulating and producing you. You carry with you the genetic makeup from them, together with everything that they have been through. If a wolf had eaten your great great great great etc. grandfather before he had had a child with your great great great great etc. grandmother, you wouldn’t be here. It helps, therefore, if you have inherited the right sort of genetics to speed things up a bit.
70–99 Get involved in sport at an early age and maintain that lifestyle
As mentioned above, I was exposed to sports at an early age. I began swimming as soon as I was allowed to, and I began football at the age of 4. I would continue to engage in some sporting activity 6 days a week up until the age of 11 when invariably school got more important and I had to be more selective over what sports I competed in.
Training and competing became a large part of my life, and it was a habit that stuck with me. Not only did my younger years create a habit to be active and train, but they also started to train my body and prepare it for the physical activity that was to come.
My muscles and connective tissues were stronger than the average child of a similar age, as was my cardiovascular system. As soon as I started more varied sports at secondary school, I was already at an advantage.
It is important therefore that you start early. You will know of compounding interest with your bank account and your savings. If you earn 7% interest one year, and then 7% on that the year after, and so on, you’d have doubled your money in just over 10 years. 10 years later you’d have quadrupled what you started with. 10 years later and you’ve have more than 7 times as much money than what you started with. The longer the period, the greater the gains.
The effects of compounding your fitness goals year on year are even greater than the effects on your bank balance. Instead of a hypothetical 7% (if you can find a 7% bank interest let me know), you could achieve a 50% increase in your fitness goals year on year, especially early on in your journey. The earlier you start, the greater the gainz 💪
Imagine the advantage you’d have on your peers if you’d have started training at the age of 4 compared to 24?!
Disclaimer 2: This step only works with the assistance of willing and able parents. It is a great sacrifice to put your child through 6 days of training and competing a week. So make sure that this happens, okay? 100–141 Be Competitive
To make full use of your newly found genetics and early start in fitness, you need to be competitive.
It’s not merely good enough to show up and just take part. To make the most of your gifts and to develop fully, you need the grit and determination to keep on pushing yourself. This is easiest achieved by utilising a competitive mindset.
You need to want to be better than everyone else, and you need to want to win. The desire to improve yourself tends to come hand in hand with the desire to beat everyone else. It may not turn into the healthiest of mindsets going forward, but it sure does help to eke out a bit more performance or effort in training.
141–204 Develop an early fear of failing/obsession to be the best
I mean, I did say that it may not turn into the healthiest of mindsets going forward.
It is important though, to develop an early fear of failing. This fear, coupled with the obsession to be the best means that you will push yourself harder than everyone else around you.
Whilst you may now have good genetics and a beneficial upbringing, so does millions of other people.
Talent isn’t going to make this easier anymore, you need some good old-fashioned effort.
Luckily for you, now you fear failure you will work your arse off and make sure you get the job done. Every training session will feel like life and death, and competing will take you to the emotional edge — nothing else will matter other than winning.
You may even find that team sports begin to be a bit of a problem. They were fun for a bit, but how do you cope with everyone else in your team who keeps messing up? This is not just a game for you, and they are holding you back.
Sure, this newly found fear of failing may have unfound implications for your life going forward. It may mean that you are less likely to take risks or try new things in case you fail, or you just don’t start new things because of the realisation that you won’t be amazing at it.
At this step, it is important to make use of the mindset that tells you that being average is the worst possible outcome ever. It will help you push through pain and tiredness.
205–245 Become a control freak
The next step is to realise that:
a) your fitness results are in your hands; and
b) you need to take control of your journey because no one is going to look at for your interests better than you.
Do not take any piece of advice at face value unless you understand what you are being advised. It may seem like a waste of time, but to truly improve yourself, in the long run, you need to understand why you are doing something.
Disclaimer 3: being a control freak in this sense, is an advantage but should be treated with respect and understanding that it has the power to be a severe disadvantage. With all these descriptions there are continuums. What I advocate here is taking responsibility for your life, your training, and your future. In reality, there is so much out of our control and the best course of action is steering our ships in the right direction to better go with the flow of life. 246–274 Develop an insecurity about your face
As a teenager, I once heard some gossip that a girl had said that I had a good body, but she wasn’t too keen on my face. I doubt the insecurity started there, but it certainly enhanced it.
Marrying up with the control freak step above, I found it difficult to accept the appearance of my face growing up. Weird thing to admit, I know. But it further reinforced the idea that I needed to do more with my body. After all, that was something that I could control.
Therefore, being insecure about your face and assigning a lot of your worth to your appearance, will force you to work on your fitness and improving your body. Win-win right…?
275–359 Adequate nutrition
I touched on this point earlier, but you must get adequate nutrition. This is, of course, vital to ensuring peak performance. It is more so important, however, when you are growing up.
Children require adequate nutrition and calories to cope with the demands that their bodies are putting on them as they grow. Any malnourishment growing up with have an impact on your body’s potential.
I had a large homemade cooked meal nearly every night. It was full of variety and contained loads of veg. It means that I was fueled to grow and fueled to perform. It also means that I have developed the habit of eating healthy, nutritious meals for myself.
As your body grows and you grow more muscle, you require more food to simply stay alive. Your body also becomes more efficient and metabolising and breaking down food for nutrients.
That’s not an excuse to indulge and overeat, but as you fine-tune your body it requires more fuel. It is why athletes can eat vast amounts of food without getting fat.
360–451 Prioritise training
You must make your health and fitness a priority.
It has been easier for me to prioritise my training because I used to compete or train 6 out of the 7 days a week. For me, going to the gym after a day at work is a necessity. If I didn’t have time to train in the evenings, I would find a way to train before work.
If I had to pick between a Friday night out and going to the gym, I would pick the gym. If I did go out on Friday and had a session planned for Saturday, I wouldn’t drink.
There is a lot I have missed out on because of prioritising training, of that I am sure. There have been times where the only things going on in my life were work and the gym.
To get to where I am now, these sacrifices have been necessary. The important thing for me, however, is that they do not feel like sacrifices.
My preparation for my bodybuilding competitions accumulating in my then girlfriend thinking I had cheated on her. The only thing in my mind at the time was making sure that my gym sessions were good and that I stepped on stage looking the best I possibly could. It was all that mattered.
452–528 No social life
Now that you have to start prioritising training, you need to say goodbye to your social life.
Friday night drinks? Get that gym session in.
Date night on Saturday? Hmm no. You need adequate performance food for your morning session, and you need to be in bed by 9!
There was a period in my life when all I could think about was training. I simply didn’t go out other than to go to the gym or to go to work. My week would revolve around getting my sessions in and making sure that I was sufficiently fueled and rested for each time I was in the gym.
529–576 Get fat
Gaining serious muscle is hard without the use of drugs. It is generally accepted that the average man can gain 1–2lbs of muscle a month.
Whilst your early gains will yield more significant results, it gets harder and harder to gain muscle as you progress. There are many factors at play, not least you need to ensure that your body has enough energy to perform when required, and also to repair and grow the muscle. This means that you need to be in a calorific surplus, you need to be eating more calories than your body normally needs.
There is undoubtedly a sweet spot to ensure that the extra energy you consume goes to building muscle. The problem lies in that you don’t use the same baseline energy all day every day. There are peaks and troughs in your energy usage.
What I did to ensure maximum gains, was to make sure I was always above what was required.
Sure, the unwanted consequence was that I gained some fat. But I needed the gains, and so do you. I used to smash a KFC Big Daddy Box Meal after work at 10 pm to make sure I had the calories. Tell your friends you are bulking, they’ll understand.
577–621 Learn to train hard
You need to learn to know your limits. There tends to always be a meme floating around that goes something like:
If you feel like you’ve given 100% and need to give up, you’ve still got 40% left!
Now I can’t comment on its accuracy, but I do know from experience that most people aren’t aware of their limits.
My method of training when competing in bodybuilding relied on giving 100% and making sure that you left nothing in the gym. The goal was to ensure that at the end of the set you couldn’t possibly do another rep. We relied on forced reps, negative reps, half reps, anything to make sure our muscles reached true failure. It was brutal and damaging for our nervous systems, but it did teach us to train hard.
I have trained people using the same methods and saw this in practice. Most people, when the weight gets heavy or they start to struggle, feel as though they are reaching their limits and need to stop.
It’s not that they are being lazy or weak, but rather they simply aren’t aware of what it feels like to reach their limits. They do not know what it feels like to work through the struggle and to fight for the reps.
You need to learn to get uncomfortable and you need to learn to fight through the pain and struggle when the weights get heavy or hard.
The only way we can improve is to do that which we have never done before. We won’t reach the heights we want for ourselves if we do not fight when it gets tough.
622–676 Learn how to intuitively diet
Counting calories and macros is boring. If you have ever done it for more than a week, you will start to detest the thought have checking the pack of a packet of rice or opening up MyFitnessPal and scanning another barcode.
Fortunately, there is a way to get around this boresome task. The answer lies in intuitively knowing how much to eat to align with your fitness goals.
If I want to lose some bodyfat now, I intuitively cut back on food at certain times of the week.
If I want to be in a calorie surplus to gain a bit of size, I just eat a bit more.
Having prepared for bodybuilding shows, you get a good grasp of what calories are in what foods. You also learn what sort of foods you need at certain times of the day, and how much you can get away with eating.
This takes a lot of learning and a lot of experimenting. You need to find out what sort of foods you perform best on, how much fuel you need for training, how much calories you need when you aren’t training and know when you are okay with going hungry.
677–741 Deal with injuries
I have had my fair share of injuries over the years. Mostly, they have been little niggles that have kept me out of action for a week or two or even just aches that I have learned to live with.
What I have struggled to deal with is when I have bigger injuries, and when to stop to prevent an existing injury getting worse.
I have had an issue with my S.I joint for the past year. There were phases when it was better, and phases when it was worse, but it accumulated to the point where I was in daily pain and I could barely sit down without being in agony. What followed was months of expensive physio and months only doing light rehab work.
What is annoying is that if I had acted on the pain when it first occurred and if I was careful, I could have been fixed in less than a month. Instead, it has been over a year since I’ve felt 100% fit, and whilst there is light at the end of the tunnel, it will be another few months before I can reach the levels I was at a year ago.
Even more annoying, is that whenever I do have an injury, I am unable to rest fully. I am hoping that this latest setback will teach me that should anything happen in the future I will take it maturely and patiently and make sure it is fixed before pushing myself.
Learn to be patient with injuries and learn when to listen to your body.
741–785 LEARN
I have a personal trainer for my weightlifting. She is a former Commonwealth Games athlete, and frankly, I love having someone else correct my form and give me a program to follow.
It would be naive and stupid of me, however, if I didn’t try and learn more about the sport I am learning and the science behind WHY I am doing things.
I went fully in with bodybuilding. I researched the science and I researched the methods that the experts were using. But I didn’t just take them at face value. I researched WHY they worked and what I could bring to improve it.
This is true of all aspects of your life, but it is doubly important when it comes to fitness.
Learn WHY you should eat certain foods. Learn WHY you should gain muscle. Learn WHY you should work on your cardiovascular health.
You don’t need to become an expert, but you need to have some grasp of what you are doing. After all, this is your body we’re talking about. It is the greatest tool that you will EVER have.
786–841 Don’t eat shit
I love Papa Johns pizza because it is the largest pizza that I can order where I live. Why am I telling you this? I just want you to know that I love food.
Food, like most things in life, is here to be enjoyed.
It is art, for your mouth.
Want to know how I get away with eating pizza and stay lean?
The answer is simple — I don’t eat shit all the time.
These unhealthy meals that I eat are sporadic and are timed to be at times when I either need the extra calories, or I have been on a calorie deficit for a certain amount of time that I can get away with a splurge.
On an average day, I won’t eat anything processed and I won’t have anything deemed as “unhealthy”. I won’t snack, and if I do it will be fruit or nuts.
I can enjoy the crazy tasty meals, because the rest of the time I eat healthily, and “boring”.
You can do it too, and the easiest way to feel better and to lose weight is this:
Stop eating shit.
It’s that simple — if you see chocolate laying around, instead of eating it, just don’t touch it.
Someone’s birthday and there’s cake? Don’t eat it.
Honestly, stop eating shit.
842–888 Don’t drink shit
Do you know the nutritional benefits of drinking alcohol?
Zero.
The calories in alcohol are known as empty calories. They do not benefit your body in any way.
It follows therefore that you need to stop drinking alcohol.
I stopped drinking alcohol in 2015 and didn’t have a single drop until 2018. It did not benefit me or assist my training, so what was the point?
Tying in with steps 1–69, my parents didn’t allow fizzy drinks in the house. Sure we’d get a treat now and then, but as a general rule, it was squash or water.
As such, I don’t care for fizzy drinks. I no longer like the stuff. It’s either full of sugar or full of artificial colours and weird shit that is frankly awful for your body.
Just cut it out. Don’t drink shit.
889–923 Eat well
It may sound obvious, but as well as not eating shit, you need to eat well.
Whether you are following a vegetarian diet, a vegan diet, a meaty diet, a gluten-free diet, a Mediterranean diet, the key is to eat well.
You need balance, and you need fruit and vegetables. You need protein, and you need fats. You need carbohydrates for energy. Eat for what you are doing, but make sure it is nutritional and fit for purpose.
I eat carbs before high-intensity weight training.
I eat protein regularly to keep my muscles and body nourished.
I spread my carbs out on non-training days because my brain needs fuel.
I need fats to keep my body protected and functioning.
924–966 Drink well
Do you know what I drink 99% of the time?
Water.
Your body is about 60% water. Do you know what happens if your body doesn’t have enough water? You won’t perform well.
You will feel bloated, you will feel lethargic, and you will feel tired and flat.
The other 1% of my fluids come from coffee.
I have my coffee black, no sugar.
967–1001 Sleep well
The final step on your blueprint to success is a step that I am sure will bring welcome relief.
You need to sleep well.
Want to know the effects of sleep deprivation?
Here:
- High blood pressure
- Weakened immune system
- Weight gain
- Trouble concentrating
- Low sex drive
- Less energy
- Poor balance
- Slower recovery
Summary: You need sleep, and you need plenty of it.
You need to sleep for your exercise to work. You grow and improve when resting, and so if you eat into your recovery by skipping out on sleep, you are seriously damaging your potential and your fitness. I have discussed this in more detail where I answer the question, how hard you should train?
Conclusion
Please don’t think that this article is an attempt to demean or devalue your potential in your fitness journey. I have intended to shine a light on the factors that have influenced my journey, and why it is trivial and detrimental to compare yourself to others.
It is also to show that certain achievements that may appear easy on the surface, have been achieved through years of mistakes and hard work.
I am who I am because of the above list. I have developed good and bad habits on my fitness journey that have had far-reaching effects on my life. I have learned from my mistakes and feel far happier now because of having made them.
It is too easy to compare yourself to others and their achievements, and feel that your achievements are devalued because of them, without taking into consideration the factors that are outside of your control.
I also want to do a shout out to professional athletes and sportspeople. There are so many aspects of my life that have led me to be able to maintain an above-average physique all year round without the use of drugs. Whilst sports are plagued with performance-enhancing drugs, it is worth remembering that most top athletes have lived their sport ever since they were old enough to walk. It is also worth remembering that I am not even close to being a professional athlete, and large chunks of my life have still been dedicated to getting my body to where it is now.
Throughout their lives, their bodies and minds have been conditioned to be the best of the best. The work behind the scenes and the sacrifices they make are not considered when their achievements are idolised and worshipped. When the masses see these ripped bodies performing seemingly superhuman feats, they think it is attainable and in their grasp, and invariably suffer mentally when they understand that it will be forever out of reach.
Remember; when you are beating yourself up about not feeling good enough, or when you compare your fitness achievements to some Instagram influencer, sportsman, or the jacked dude or girl at the gym, that you have no idea about the circumstances leading to that person’s achievements.
We are who we are because of the life that we have led and the things that have happened to us. We are a product of the society we live in, and the events that have led us to this very point.
Without living someone’s life, we should never judge or compare. After all, we cannot change the past. We can only take action now, in the present, and be grateful that for everything that has happened to us, we still have the power to make our futures better.
And remember, if you want to keep in touch and check out where I am now, connect with me on Instagram!
Originally published at http://samdelabertauche.com on February 1, 2020. You should take a look and bookmark the site…
