There are two critical components to any fitness routine: diet and exercise. Each one plays a role in achieving the fitness model look. Diet provides the best means for cutting fat while exercise provides the best means to build lean muscle mass. The two elements can be joined into a workout plan that will get you closer to achieving the physique of an Abercrombie model.
Phase 1
When you think about the defining features of an Abercrombie model, most likely your first image will be of a body with tight, six-pack abdominal muscles and overall lean muscle mass. I think it’s best to focus on getting six pack abs before working on increasing the size of your muscles. The only way to achieve a true six-pack look is through the combination of a restrictive diet and a high intensity, fat-burning workout. Such a workout should include low volume repetitions of strength training through the use of heavy weights. To avoid the failure of over-training, you should ideally shoot for 4-5 sets of 3-5 repetitions. Always stop one rep short of fatigue.
Here are some exercises I recommend:
Chest: Bench Press, Incline Press
Back: One Arm Row, Weighted Pullups
Shoulders: Standing Shoulder Press, Seated Shoulder Press
Biceps: Straight Barbell Curls, Sitting Dumbbell Curls
Triceps: Closed Grip Bench Press, Weighted Dips
Abs: Planks, Renegade Rows
You can split these exercises into a 2 day routine that you perform twice weekly for a total of 4 workouts per week. The goal here is to avoid that puffed up appearance of the bodybuilder, building smaller, tighter and stronger-looking muscles that are more pleasing to the eye instead. You may be surprised that the preceding regimen did not incorporate any targeted leg work. Remember - you don't want to get those big, thick legs that you see in bodybuilders - Abercrombie models just don't have them. I’m convinced that you can get lean enough legs simply by performing high intensity interval training (HIIT).
HIIT is very important during this first phase. A proper HIIT workout routine can really help you blast fat.
Lastly, never minimize the key role diet can play. Exercise is only possible for a particular duration and intensity. You can really lose fat fast and sculpt leaner muscles through proper dieting and nutrition. Use whatever works for you - daily weight monitoring, calorie tracking or even intermittent fasting - be sure you are consuming a calorie deficit.
Phase 2
Once you have completed the first steps and have realized fat loss sufficient to create defined abdominal muscles, the next phase may begin. Your overall goals will impact how you implement this phase. If you simply want to quickly increase the size of your muscles, you can perform a weight lifting routine to “shrink wrap” your muscles while maintaining the same calorie restrictive diet. Anyone wishing to increase mass should start to eat a larger number of calories. Be careful not to eat too much though as you can only really add so much muscle without gaining fat.
For those trying to gain a lot of extra muscle mass, you need to be careful to avoid many muscle-building workouts or you will train to failure. Perform high repetition sets and ensure that you completely fatigue your muscles on each exercise, instead of performing low repetition sets. Someone hoping to gain a large amount of muscle mass over an extended period will need to slowly transition from pushing to the point of exhaustion, and then back to simple strength training all over again. You will be stuck with that puffy, soft bodybuilder look if you continue to train your muscles to fatigue. At that point, you need to revert back to low rep, heavy weight strength training to get lean, defined muscles.
Click on the picture above and watch video #3 to learn the advanced techniques that celebrities like Taylor Lautner, Brad Pitt, Cam Gigandet, and others use to "shrink wrap" their abs!
The Fitness Model Look
The above information indicates that a fitness models workout must constantly work on achieving and maintaining fat loss while also gaining muscle size and tone. A prototypical Abercrombie model workout regimen is likely to incorporate high intensity interval training as a fat loss tool, along with strength work to achieve denser, more toned muscles. This will lead to a lean, athletic look. At that point, an Abercrombie model workout could either switch to “shrink wrap” the muscles to provide a tighter, more muscular appearance or switch to a muscle gaining program to add a little more bulk. Anyone who trains to the point of muscle exhaustion for an extended period of time will at some point need to return to the low repetition, heavier load type of strength program in order to prevent development of the undesirable, softer look often seen in bodybuilders. For the best results, you should forget the old bodybuilding approach that you've used in the past and focus instead on using a fitness models workout routine.
