Whether you’re an active or aspiring fitness model, it is hard work looking like a Greek statue. It takes a lot of dedication and commitment to bodybuilding and dieting year round. In modelling, you may be called for a shoot at any time, and since you depend on your physique to bring home the bacon, you want to look your best all the time. So, what do you do? Do you eliminate certain food groups to prevent bloating? Do you stop drinking water? Do you take supplements? What is the best workout for a fitness model?
Get some great workout examples, supplement ideas and other tips below:
Workout Examples
Fitness models train almost the same as regular bodybuilders, except that they include cardio every single day. This is important because models must maintain a low body fat percentage in order to achieve that smooth chiseled look. For models, good symmetry and shape are more important than muscle size.
There are many types of workouts for bodybuilding online. We recommend that you breakdown your workouts into areas of focus and not to work all the muscles every day. It doesn’t matter which days you work out which muscle groups, just make sure you have one day of rest. We recommend the following breakdown:
Chest/Shoulders – To develop your upper chest, use a dumbbell bench press set at a 60 degree angle and do several reps. For mid/lower chest, use the flat dumbbell bench press, for outer chest, use flat dumbbells, for front delts do front dumbbell raises, side delts do side dumbbell raises, and rear delts with bent-over dumbbell raises.
Back – To chisel your back, do close-grip lat pull-downs for the outer lats, wide-grip lat pull-downs for the inner lats, seated cable rows for the middle part of the back and hyperextensions for the lower back.
Legs – To build up your legs, do leg extensions, leg presses, squats for the quadriceps, standing, leg curls for the hamstrings, and standing calf raises.
Biceps/Triceps – Do reverse curls for bicep development, triceps pushdowns, dumbbell seated extensions and tricep dips for triceps development.
Abs – Before a shoot only do crunches to target the upper abs and hanging leg raises for the lower abs.
Cardio – Aim for high intensity cardio workouts of at least 60 minutes every day to be performed before breakfast. This optimizes fat loss. Warm-up with light exercises, then the cardio and then end with stretches.
Supplement Ideas
Supplementation is a must, but don’t go overboard. If you are an aspiring bodybuilder or just a regular gym-goer some supplements from Supplements Direct would be a perfect way for you to up your game. We recommend taking a multivitamin, nitric oxide, creatine and protein shakes. You should be getting the majority of vitamins and minerals from your diet. However, it is a good idea to take a multivitamin anyway to fill in the nutritional gaps. With nitric oxide, you’ll be able to exercise for longer and you won’t feel so tired post-workouts. Creatine is helpful in gaining strength and lean muscle mass. Protein shakes provide the right amount of protein. Ideally, take them post-workouts. Protein is the basic building block of muscles. You should be getting at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.
Also, fibers have to remain an important part of your diet, thankfully you can read about tested and compared fiber supplements – see more.
Dieting Tips
Models must follow a strict diet everyday, with a few cheat meals scattered about. Don’t starve yourself or do crash diets.
Eat small meals, every 3 to 4 hours
Drink 1 to 1 1/2 gallons of water everyday
According to the Institute of Medicine, 10-35% of your daily calories should be from protein.
Consume 2 to 3 grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight (40% of your diet)
Consume fat (20%-25% of your diet)
Eliminate allergens such as dairy and gluten in order to avoid bloating and water retention
Drink water even before a shoot. Drink your normal amount of water up until the night before, then you should cut back a bit. The day of the shoot, halve your water intake.
Source: Authority Health
Images by Rowan Papier for MMSCENE Magazine
