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Maximum Muscle Definition in One Week

by Jeff Bayer fitness specialist Giving yourself enough time to accomplish your training goals is important if you want to avoid feeling rushed and resorting to unhealthy measures. Unfortunately, events like a weekend at the beach or a date where clothes might come off tend to spring up suddenly, and time isn’t always an option. Having a back-up plan for getting lean quickly is important. While you aren’t going to make dramatic changes in such a short period of time, enhancing your appearance is possible if you follow these steps over the course of a week. Here is your one week plan for maximum muscle definition.

Seven days out

To prepare for your intense week of exercise, the first thing you want to do is carb up, saturating the muscles with muscle glycogen. Consume three grams of carbohydrates for every pound of body weight, drinking plenty of water to reduce any bloating from the additional carbohydrate intake.

Five to six days out

On day six, drop your carbohydrate intake so you’re just eating vegetables and complex carbohydrates around the workout. This helps you lean down, since you begin losing water weight that was stored in your body. Also be sure you are getting at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight to keep your metabolism high and prevent muscle-mass loss. Schedule your workouts so you perform your usual workout on day six, and either take day five off or do a light cardio session. Be sure to perform thorough stretching exercises after your full-body workout as muscle soreness will occur while on a reduc ed carbohydrate diet.

Four days out

On the fourth day, you want to perform a full-body workout, using a rep range of 5-8 and focusing on lifting heavy to maintain strength. This will keep the tension on the muscles, preventing them from appearing flat as you continue your lowered carbohydrate diet. Perform 3-4 sets of bench presses, bent-over rows, squats, dead lifts, and shoulder presses. You can perform some isolated work, but that’s not necessary at this point. Instead, put your efforts toward lifting heavy and conserving energy. As before, include thorough stretching after your workout.

Three days out

Three days out, boost your carbohydrate intake so you’re around 50 grams for the day, plus the carbohydrates around your workout. This will help refill muscle glycogen levels to prepare you for the day two workout, without leaving you looking smooth all over. The workout for today should be cardio training, bringing the intensity level up a notch. You can perform interval training if you like, but use longer intervals of one minute in length to prevent glycogen depletion at the very high intensity level.

Two days out

Today you are going to perform another full-body workout, only this time you’ll boost your reps up to the 12-15 rep range, lowering the weight accordingly. The aim of this workout is to get a good muscle “pump,” filling the tissues with blood and decreasing muscle glycogen levels further. This will really increase the leanness and bring out muscle definition. As for your diet, increase your protein intake slightly while moving back to consuming just the carbohydrates before and after the workout and fibrous vegetables the rest of the time.

The day before

Finally, the day before the event you can do some light cardio, but don’t push yourself too hard. You want the muscles to retain some muscle glycogen, since that will keep them from looking smaller. Moreover, complete glycogen depletion will ramp up your hunger levels, making the next two days of dieting much harder. Focus on drinking plenty of water during this time and really watch your sodium intake. Even a small amount of sodium can have a very large impact on your abdominal definition, so try and cut it out as much as possible.

The day of the event

By day seven, you should be looking noticeably leaner and ready to show off your hard work. You don’t need to worry about doing a full-fledged workout this day, but a couple of sets of push-ups, sit-ups, and body weight squats will help give the muscles a bit more pump and bring out their definition. Stick to the low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet to keep your energy level steady and prevent cravings from blindsiding you. You may also consider backing off your intake of water to help further enhance your leanness -- just be sure to drink a small amount every few hours.

get cut quick

By following this week-long plan for leanness, you’ll be sure you’re looking your best. Remember, this type of workout is only a good idea if you're focusing on a specific event for which you want to have maximum muscle definition -- it's an extreme regimen that will be tough to maintain. Always consult your doctor before starting any exercise program.