How I got My Abs Back - My Journey To Build Lean Muscle Part 1 of 2

I will tell you right now that I hope for this article to be two things. First and foremost a piece of information that I hope readers will find useful, and secondly it is a testimonial. It is a testimonial that explains how I came to feel like I was getting back in control of my life in regards to my quest to build lean muscle.

Let me explain, I am 36 years old. For my entire life I have been in good shape. I had no problems having my shirt off in public. In 2007 my wife and I had our first child. We have had two more since. Since that time I have been working full time and my wife has been home with the kids. Over time getting to the gym became more and more difficult and less of a priority. As I slowly dropped the gym habit I also abandoned good eating habits for worse. Last summer I had enough. I weighed 227 lbs. My waist was 38 inches up from my usual 34. All of my pants were tight. I had a noticeable bulge around my waist. The muscle I once had was now either gone or buried beneath layers of fat. One morning I told my wife that I had to go out and buy new clothes. This is when I realized that it was time to get back on track, but how? After exercising my entire life I had to step back and think abut what to do.

The first step was easy. I went out and bought a new pair of runners. The next day I signed up at a gym a few minutes form our home.

The next step was probably the most important. I sat down and I set some goals for myself. I realize now that by doing this it gave me something concrete to strive for over the past 6 months. I also realized the importance of keeping my goals realistic. I will not go into what my specific goals were because I had initially set a goal to simply get back in shape. That was too broad so then I broke that down into specific goals related to a) cardiovascular fitness, b) muscle gain, c) body fat loss, and d) a decrease in overall inches from my body.

I set what are commonly referred to as SMART goals. That means my goals were:

Specific - I needed to lose 4 inches from my waist and I needed to decrease my body fat percentage. I didn’t have my body fat tested. I didn’t need to. I could tell by looking I was no longer muscular,lean or ripped. I set strength related goals and I set cardiovascular related goals like being able to run 5km in under 22 minutes. On top of that I wanted to do it all within 4 months of work.

Measureable - If I wanted to achieve it I needed to be able to measure it so I could gauge whether or not I was getting close to my desired end result. By setting goals such as losing inches from my body, and being able to run a specific distance in a certain time I always had something to chip away at.

Attainable - The goals needed to be attainable. I had a gym membership, I had new running shoes and I had every evening free from 9:00 til 10:30 to be at the gym. The key here was and continues to be overcoming any desire to hit the couch instead of the gym at 8 pm after a full day of work, then chasing the kids and changing diapers all evening.

Realistic - The goals you set need to be realistic. For example, losing 45 lbs of body fat in 3 weeks is not realistic. To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work.Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished.

Timely - A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there's no sense of urgency. By setting my goals to reached within four months they were timely for sure....maybe too timely.

After 5 months of hard work and neglecting my wife 5 nights per week, by setting SMART goals I was able to do what I had set out to accomplish. My waist is back down to 24 inches, I was recently evaluated at 10% body fat, I have a 4 pack again (soon to be a 6 pack), my 5k run is 20:45 and (at least in my own eyes) I am strong again. For the first time in a few years I am not having any worries about having my shirt off at the beach this summer.

Make sure to stay tuned for part 2 of this article and I will continue my discussion about my journey!

To find out about the program I used to get my life back and and to build lean muscle Click Here!