When I met my wife, I weighed 152 lb. I was lean and looking pretty good. She is a southern girl from Georgia, and she started cooking. I love to eat, and I’d never known the deliciousness of bacon until I met her. In the span of a year, I went up to 175 lb. I was mortified that none of my pants fit my ass.
My butt gets huge when I gain weight, and then my pants and shirts don’t hang correctly. I felt my butt look like two possums fighting over a turnip under a black tarp. It was ridiculous. I was that guy who didn’t want to take his shirt off at the pool or beach. Well, the season is coming for being at the pool and the beach.
It’s awful when I see a guy wearing a button-down shirt like a Tommy Bahama shirt while hanging out at the beach or the pool and not taking his shirt off. I know the reason. It’s not that he hates the sun because he can wear sunscreen. It’s because he’s embarrassed.
I corrected my shirt season situation, so I want you to take the same direction. I want you to feel fantastic when you take your shirt off at the pool or the beach this summer. I want people to notice that you look great in your clothes and out of your clothes. I don’t want you to be embarrassed. You should take pride in the body you have underneath your clothes. So, let’s talk a little bit about how to get there.
Image is so important, and the way your body looks underneath clothing is just as essential as how it looks wearing clothing. We talk a lot about how clothes should fit and what they should look like. Still, the real framework in which those clothes sit will dramatically impact how your clothes look and how you present yourself. This includes how other people receive you.
Exercise is about 20% of the equation regarding how your body looks. The other 80% is your diet and what you put into your body. That being said, working out with weights can transform how your body looks. I work out 3 to 5 days a week. It needs time to rebuild and regenerate once you break that muscle down from working out. If you’re working out of a specific body part more than once a week, it doesn’t have enough time to rebuild. And when you tear it down, it builds a little bigger. Keep doing that, and suddenly, you have muscles. So, like I said, work out one body part one day a week and work out 3 – 5 days a week.
You might also want to think about hitting your shoulders and triceps when working your chest. When doing a pushing exercise, such as chest exercises, you’re also working shoulders and triceps indirectly. So, when working them with your chest, you don’t have to do quite as much to fatigue and break them down. It will save you time. I don’t like to be in the gym working with weights for more than 45 minutes. If you quickly complete sets, your heart rate will stay elevated, and you will be burning fat. You’ll get a fantastic workout.
As I said, I’m in the gym 3 to 4 days a week. I do chest, shoulders, and triceps on one day, back and biceps on another day, and legs on another day. I want to mention this: do not use super heavy weights due to risking injury. Who really gives a shit how much can you bench press? It’s more about being lean, seeing your muscles when you take your shirt off, and looking good with my shirt off in the summer.
Muscles don’t mean a damn thing if you can’t see them, and by seeing them, I’m talking about reducing your body fat percentage. And getting your muscles to show means doing cardio and eating a healthy diet. I do cardio seven days a week because I love eating while looking good with my shirt off. But cardio needs to be done at your target heart rate.
Your target heart rate is how fast your heart beats when exercising in your target zone. Your body will be using fatty acids as an energy source to keep you going. If you work out above your target heart rate, you will burn muscle, glucose, and glycogen. You’ve heard the term burning muscle. That’s what that means. Exercising below your target heart rate burns calories, but you’re not really doing much. So, how do you determine your target heart rate?
If I’m exercising in the zone, it doesn’t matter if I’m jumping rope, riding a bike, or running on a treadmill. I will be using fat as an energy source and burning body fat. Some cardiovascular equipment has a heart rate monitor, but you could also invest in a heart rate monitor.
So, how do you get your abs to show? Crunches won’t do it. You need to get on the treadmill. That is the only part of the way to get your body fat down. Your diet is key to you looking good with your shirt off. The older you get, the more your metabolism slows down. When I hit my 30s, my metabolism told me to work harder and eat better. That’s what I’ve been doing.
The best recommendation is to eat 4 to 6 small meals daily to keep your sugar intake low so your insulin levels don’t spike high. You want to get a lot of good-quality protein low in saturated fat. You should go out and investigate. Many books have been written on different types of healthy eating, and you should find one that fits your lifestyle and tastes.
You want to ensure your calories are low enough to burn off calories and have a calorie deficit. You will lose body fat if you burn more calories than you’re taking in. If you take in more than you are burning, you will gain body fat. It’s a simple equation.
The bottom line about shirts off-season is if you want to be comfortable taking your shirt off at the pool or beach, you need to spend less time on the couch and more time on the treadmill and pumping some iron. You need to spend less time at McDonald’s and more time caring for yourself and making your own food. If I can do it, you can too!
