Get Jacked Like a Superhero Workout

Build a Better Diet

In order to get ripped like a superhero, your diet needs to improve. There are a lot of things you can start to incorporate into everyday life to start making the transition easier.

Related - Superhero Challenge 12-Week Workout

Learning to cook and preparing meals from fresh ingredients is going to be your winning key. If you can cook nutritious and tasty foods, there’s no temptation to go after the foods you once loved. You’ll be able to eat these foods and not have any guilt or second thoughts about how bad this is going to make you gain weight.

It’s really awesome.

The more sugars and processed foods you cut out, the sweeter naturally sweet things will taste. Your taste buds will start enjoying a broader range of flavors and fruit will start tasting sweeter than ever.

Once you start learning how to cook, you can keep track of your calories — eventually to the point where you can manipulate your macros.

Once you have those skills down, it simply boils down to coming up with a plan, training and recovering properly, and giving the process the time it needs.

Building More Muscle

In order to build muscle, you’re going to have to break it down in the gym and eat foods that help your body rebuild bigger, stronger tissues. Getting plenty of sleep ensures you recover quickly and helps keep cravings under control.

Not only will you need to eat nutritious foods, but you’re going to have to eat more than you burn. Making calories off of lean meats, healthy carbs, and nutritious fat sources can be harder than it sounds. You could seriously eat one pound of chicken and eat fewer calories than just a Big Mac.

Let that sink in.

Protein Sources

For protein sources, getting the best quality meat that you can afford will ensure you’re getting meat with quality nutrition.

Eating a well-rounded diet is important, too. Eating mostly the same things is alright, but try to add in a few different fruits and veggies when you can. I could eat fish and rice every day and be perfectly fine with it, but grilling up a steak or making my ground beef and rice mix is also great.

Pretty much any protein is good, just try to make sure you get the least-processed foods you can. You can have a few convenience foods — I bought some BBQ flavored frozen chicken chunks that I like to cook up three ounces to eat with a meal.

Spend most of your grocery budget in the produce and meat sections.

Here are 15 high protein sources:

• Whey protein
• Eggs
• Chicken breast
• Wild Alaskan salmon
• Turkey breast
• Canned solid white tuna
• Walnuts, almonds, pecans
• Pumpkin seeds
• Tofu
• Seitan
• Top round steak
• Flank steak
• Codfish
• Greek yogurt
• Rainbow trout

Carb Sources

Everyone is afraid of carbs, but they don’t know why. Instead of hating carbs and wanting to eliminate them from your diet, why not pick healthier versions?

Instead of scarfing down a box of mac and cheese, cook some whole wheat pasta tossed in a little garlic infused olive oil and finish it off with some cracked sea salt.

You get to eat pasta, it’s more nutritious, and you didn’t just ruin your calories for the day.

Healthy carb sources:

• Steel cut or old-fashioned oatmeal
• Yams
• Brown rice
• 100% whole wheat pasta
• 100% whole wheat bread
• White potatoes with skin
• Beans and lentils
• Butternut squash
• Quinoa
• Couscous

Keeping your carbohydrate intake low on days you don’t need them is a great idea… But don’t be afraid of carbs.

Here is a list of 15 vegetables that are low in carbs, but high in nutrition. Many of these can pair up making a filling and healthy side dish.

15 Low Carb Veggies

• Kale
• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Spinach
• Salad greens
• Tomatoes
• Onions
• Red and green peppers
• Mushrooms
• Cucumbers
• Carrots
• Zucchini
• Green beans
• Cauliflower
• Peas

Fat Sources

Fat does not make you fat. It actually plays a critical role in our bodies. The overconsumption of fat, especially when coupled with overconsumption of carbs, is what makes us fat.

Eating too many calories makes us fat — eating an avocado that fits into your calories won’t. There are a lot of nutritious fat sources out there, but there are also fat sources that aren’t as nutritious.

Here are 15 of the most nutritious sources of fats:

• Almonds
• Avocado
• Olive Oil
• Flaxseed
• Walnuts
• Virgin coconut oil
• Wild caught salmon
• Eggs
• Peanuts
• Clarified butter
• Peanut oil
• Hemp seed oil
• Pecans
• Cashews
• Dark chocolate

Fats are calorie dense, so be sure to measure how much you use. If one serving of shredded cheese is 100 calories and you eyeball 1.5, you’re eating 150 calories instead of the 100 you’ve accounted for.

Calories

That jumps us into the next category — calories.

Jump over to our TDEE calculator so you can get a baseline idea on how many calories you burn daily. This is a rough estimate, so being conservative doesn’t hurt for now.

Now that you have your daily calories, what is your goal? Do you need to lose fat? Build muscle? Both?

If you need to burn fat, start by eating 300 fewer calories than your TDEE for a couple of weeks and measure your progress. If you are already lean and need to build muscle, simply eat 300 more calories and measure. If you need to do both, I would invite you to lose fat first — if you can have control to lose the fat, you can certainly control the muscle gain.

Log your food and be accurate. Being lazy with your logging may not help you as much as you think. Learn to be accurate and consistent when you log your foods so you can figure out what works and what doesn’t.

The kitchen is where your physique is made — will you put the time into properly cooking, preparing, and eating meals that will help you get to that goal?

Jacked Like a Superhero Workout

Now that we’ve covered the diet portion, it’s time to jump into the workout.
This is a 12-week workout that contains three phases — a strength phase, a volume phase, and a high rep stage.

Stage one will last for four weeks and is going to focus on getting you stronger. You’ll be performing heavy weight, low rep sets and getting a lot of rest between those sets. This isn’t a powerlifting 3x3 routine, but this is going to get your body ready for the next phases of the workout.

The next four weeks will be stage two. Now is the time to pump up the volume and use a moderate weight. This stage is to help transition you from heavy lifting to the hell you’re going to have to go through in the last stage.

The last four weeks are going to be dedicated to performing high rep sets, along with some different training techniques to keep your intensity high. You will strive for efficiency and speed, which means your rest periods will be short. Strength takes a back seat while hypertrophy is the main goal here.

Phase One

Strength phase. This is going to require lifting four days per week, so training Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday is a great way to have rest between workouts and have the weekend off.

Always warm up before your workout and take a few sets to dynamically warm up before each exercise.

Day 1

• Barbell Bench Press - three sets of eight reps
• Incline Dumbbell Bench Press - four sets of eight reps
• Pendlay Rows - four sets of six reps
• Deadlifts - four sets of eight reps
• Seated Overhead Press - four sets of eight reps
• Face Pulls - four sets of six reps
• Hanging Leg Raises - three sets of 12 reps
• Planks - three reps held as long as possible

Day 2

• Squats - four sets of eight reps
• Close Grip Bench - four sets of eight reps
• Leg Press - three sets of 10 reps
• Goblet Squats - four sets of eight reps
• Standing Calf Raise - four sets of eight reps
• Pull-Ups - three sets of eight reps
• Incline Sit Ups - three sets of 15

Day 3 is same as day 1. Day 4 is same as day 2.

Phase Two

Day 1

• Barbell Bench Press - three sets of 12 reps
• Incline Dumbbell Bench Press - four sets of 12 reps
• Pendlay Rows - four sets of 10 reps
• Deadlifts - four sets of 12 reps
• Seated Overhead Press - four sets of 12 reps
• Face Pulls - four sets of 10 reps
• Hanging Leg Raises - three sets of 15 reps
• Planks - three reps held as long as possible

Day 2

• Squats - four sets of 12 reps
• Close Grip Bench - four sets of 15 reps
• Leg Press - three sets of 15 reps
• Goblet Squats - four sets of 12 reps
• Standing Calf Raise - four sets of 15 reps
• Pull Ups - three sets of 12 reps
• Incline Sit Ups - three sets of 15 reps

Day 3 is same as day 1. Day 4 is same as day 2.

Phase Three

Day 1

• Superset: Incline Dumbbell Bench Press and One-Arm Dumbbell Rows - three sets of 15 reps
• Superset: Close Grip Pull Up and Incline Dumbbell Flies - three sets of 10 reps
• Superset: Incline Machine Press and Machine Rows - four sets of 15 reps
• Superset: Arnold Press and Face Pulls - three sets of 15 reps
• Superset: Sit Ups and Reverse Hyperextensions - three sets of 20 reps

Day 2

• Superset: Dumbbell Concentration Curls and Skull Crushers - four sets of 15 reps
• Superset: Romanian Deadlift and Seated Overhead Press - three sets of 12 reps
• Superset: Leg Extension and Leg Curls - four sets of 15 reps
• Single Leg Seated Calf Raise - four sets of 20 reps
• Pushup Plank - four sets of :30 seconds.

Day 3 is same as day 1. Day 4 is same as day 2.

Wrapping It Up

If you seriously want to get jacked, the only secret to this process is that it takes time.

Come up with a goal, plan how to reach that goal, and execute. Period.

You’ll need to learn to cook and log what you eat. You should find someone to hold yourself accountable and maybe even a training partner. The more healthy things you start adopting into your lifestyle, the quicker your goals will come to fruition.

It’s okay to not be able to jump right in and eat only healthy foods — it takes time. It’s actually why so many people jump on the “I ate a salad” train. They simply don’t have an idea what eating a well-balanced diet with the proper protein, carbs, and fats in it… so they just jump into salads.

What’s worse, the extra ranch and toppings they ordered have pushed the calorie count of their salad so high, that it would have been better calorie wise to just order what you normally do.

You’re going to have to make the decision to be a superhero in willpower, or just don’t have temptations available. I really like convenience foods and highly processed stuff just like everyone, but when I don’t have it in the house and I’m too lazy to get it… it’s a foolproof plan.

You’re going to have to start staying true to your goals if you really want to reach them. It’s in black and white what you have to do — lift weights and get exercise, eat healthy foods, keep your stress as low as possible, and sleep.

When done consistently, these habits will open the door up to weight loss, muscle building, and being more athletic than you’ve ever been.
The process takes time.