What Makes a Lean & Muscular Physique?
What’s the key to getting lean and muscular? Is it a 12-week transformation? How about a cup of detox tea? Maybe it’s the keto diet?
No, no and no. It comes down to this. Dialling in training, nutrition, sleep, recovery and daily movement for years on end.
Some say it’ll take a decade, others say only a few. Either way, it’s not happening overnight.
How’s it possible to stick to it for so long? Essentially, it comes down to creating habits through repeated behaviours.
Over time, the training, nutrition, sleep and recovery aspects will feel second nature, like brushing your teeth.
For every action we do & morsel of food we ingest, our body receives a signal. It’s the small signals sent repeatedly that slowly morphs our body into the way we want it.
In order to build a lean muscular physique, there are certain behaviours that must occur. No ifs, ands or buts. You can try getting away without it, but eventually, there will be no other choice but to get on board.
The objective of this article is to discuss the non-negotiable behaviours required to have a lean muscular physique. Also, I’ll dive into some strategies to help stay the course.
1) Lifting Weights
Duh, this is a no brainer. Weight training is the signal that tells our body to grow muscle. You can try pilates, yoga, trail running or bodyweight workouts. But you’ll find that without the iron, building a lean muscular physique ain’t happening. No siree!
Making resistance training a consistent part of your life can be difficult. Balancing work, family, friends and other commitments isn’t always easy. But who said this was going to be easy?
Here are some tips to make it stick
Hire a trainer. This way you have no reason for missing sessions.
Schedule your training session into your calendar like any other meeting. This is your training time. Make sure the boss and significant others know.
Pay for a program. Having a program takes out the guesswork and the investment of your hard-earned dollars keeps you more committed.
Recommendation: Lift weights 3-6 times per week for a decade straight to achieve the lean & muscular body that you desire.
2) Nutrition
Everyone knows the saying, “building abs happens in the kitchen”. If being lean and muscular is a goal of yours, you must master the kitchen.
These days nutrition is more dogmatic than religion. Just know, there are 101 dietary approaches one can take to achieve rippling abs and juicy pecs.
In my experience, there are principles that must be met to give yourself a fighting chance.
Principles
Protein consumption can’t be low. At least 1g per lb.
There must be some form of food tracking involved.
Micronutrients must be prioritized - vitamins and minerals.
Carbohydrates are an essential part of the diet.
At least 3 meals of even protein distribution must be consumed every day.
What are some ways to help stick to your nutrition plan?
Meal Preparation. Buy enough food for the week, cook it all at once. Portion it out.
Hire a nutritionist. This adds the accountability factor.
Buy from a meal prep service. Expensive, but your time is worth something. It must be if you’re reading this article.
Cook delicious tasting foods. No, chicken, broccoli and rice are not something to eat at every meal. Use herbs, spices, condiments and a variety of foods to keep the diet enjoyable.
Recommendation: Have food ready at all times. 365 days of the year. Watch your biceps slowly blossom. When you don’t have meals ready you’re more likely to stray off your goals and nutrition.
3) Sleep
You knew it was coming. There’s no way around this one. 6-8 hrs of quality sleep per night, every night. If you neglect sleep, you’re making this way harder than it needs to be. And I mean WAY harder.
Recovery happens during sleep. I won’t go into the details but know that people who sleep less on average tend to have greater disease rates than those who get enough sleep. It’s really hard to be lean and jacked when you’re unhealthy.
The Prerequisites to getting high-QUALITY sleep:
Minimal screen time 1-2 hours before bed
A consistent sleep and rise time
Multiple doses of sunlight - yes, even in the winter months.
A dark, cool bedroom.
A relaxing, non-stressful activity prior to bed
Just like training and nutrition, your sleep routine should be carefully planned and modified until it’s dialled in. This will take some experimentation to find what works best for you. Whatever you do, don’t sleep on your sleep routine.
Recommendation: Get your 6-8 hours of high-quality sleep per night, every night for as long as you want to be lean and muscular.
4) Movement
In order to be lean and muscular, daily movement is a must. It’ll help prevent body fat accumulation and provide a myriad of other health benefits.
Contrary to what people may think, training for an hour or two several times per week isn’t enough to have a lean muscular physique year-round.
Exercise accounts for only a small percentage of the calories we burn. The greatest portion comes from NEAT - non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which is what I like to simply refer to as “Movement”.
Walking, moving around the house, performing household chores, fidgeting, yard work etc - all count as movement.
Ways to get more movement in your day
Schedule movement breaks into your day
Schedule them around habits that are already formed. Before or after meals is a great one. It doesn’t need to be long. 3 - 10 minutes is plenty.
Choose parking stalls that are further away from your destination.
If talking on the phone, use this time to walk.
Purchase a sit/stand desk to encourage fidgeting and positional changes.
In between sets, walk around the gym floor rather than sitting.
On rest days, perform household duties like vacuuming, sweeping, laundry folding etc.
On long vehicle trips, stop every couple of hours to stretch the legs and go for a walk.
Recommendation: Aim for a minimum of 30 minutes of movement each and every day to maintain healthy levels of body fat.
5) Stress Management
Last but certainly not least, stress management.
Let’s be clear. Stress is a good thing. It’s what drives improvement.
It does become problematic when the amount of stress that we experience exceeds the body's recovery capabilities.
Problematic in that we have troubles recovering from workouts, sleep quality declines, motivation drops and our body composition worsens. All these issues will take us further away from the goal of being lean and muscular.
Proper training is physically stressful on the body. Add on stress from work, family, bills and more; it’s very easy to overdo it. When our stress bucket overfills, it becomes increasingly difficult to build muscle and lose body fat.
A big aspect of stress management is our personal perception of stress. If you begin to attach less negative emotions to the stress you encounter, your body’s ability to cope with stress will improve.
I always tell my clients, control what they can control and don’t worry about the factors outside of their control.
You’re in control of your training, nutrition, sleep and your response to stressful situations. You have no control over what your boss says, or what the government imposes or rush hour traffic.
Stress management includes 2 main branches.
Awareness
This refers to your ability to be aware of your thoughts and emotions. By having personal awareness, you can respond in a less stressful manner resulting in less overall stress.
This is where meditation shines. Meditation is something that everyone can benefit from, especially anyone looking to be lean and muscular. Through meditation you will learn to become more aware of your thoughts and emotions, leading to improved emotional control. A great app to get started with meditation is called HeadSpace.
Stress Reduction Activities
Activities that encourage relaxation will help to reduce stress. When you’re in this state, the body will put more resources and energy towards recovery. Keep in mind, the progress that we make from training occurs during the recovery process, not during the workout itself.
Activities To Reduce Stress:
Walking
Reading
Listening to podcasts
Hanging out with friends
Having a glass of wine
Playing video games
Drawing
Cooking etc.
The more we engage in these activities, the greater reduction in stress we will experience. Ever wonder why some of the leanest & most muscular people seem so relaxed? Coincidence? I think not.
Just like training, nutrition and movement, stress management needs to be scheduled into the day. People that I’ve worked with tend to have great success incorporating meditation first thing in the morning and/or evening before bed. That’s not to say that it can't be included during other parts of the day. It’s easier to create a new habit centred around a current habit or specific time of the day that doesn’t change like the first thing in the morning and before bed.
Recommendation: Manage your stress through meditation and relaxation based activities on a daily basis.
In summary, I recommend 5 behaviours that someone who is looking to get seriously lean and muscular should do every day to achieve their best self.
Lift Weights
Adhere to the Nutrition Principles
Get Quality Sleep
Move throughout the day
Manage Stress
Unfortunately, there are no workarounds - No magic pills, exercises, superfoods or recovery devices that will outperform the fundamentals.
I get a lot of questions from people trying to look and feel better.
What's your favourite exercise for chest
What's the best type of diet
What’s the best ab exercise
What's the best supplement for fat loss
… ETC
All these questions are valid, yet the person asking is usually missing the forest through the trees. These questions don’t really matter that much if the basics aren’t being performed on a daily basis. As a coach, it’s my job to help people come to that realization and also find ways to build those habits into their lives in a sustainable way. These habits aren’t built overnight, they take time! Always start with something that you can easily do and build up from there.
If you’re someone looking to build a lean, muscular physique but aren’t sure where to start, feel free to reach out on Instagram @endurehp_fitness or via email at matthew@endurehp.com
