Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Stop guessing, start growing, get swole.
You're entering the pyramid phase.
Coming off the foundation phase, we're rolling right into pyramid
training.
Now, phase two is one of the main components that we're
focusing on is pushing some heavy iron, and so you get the
work in rep ranges that are a little bit lower.
Now, you're still gonna keep that endurance component because
we start in ranges around 20 or 15 a lot of times and work all
the way down to 2s.
This kind of turned back the clock for me.
This is the way I trained in high school.
And so this is where my body started to really change around
that age group, and so I got stronger, my endurance was still
good.
But you're gonna get some deep muscle soreness, so the recovery
and the lean tissue that you're gonna add with this phase is
gonna be pretty phenomenal.
This phase, nutrition-wise, we're gonna up your calories.
We're gonna introduce some HIIT cardio on one of your days off.
It's kind of offset so we can keep you lean.
But primarily, you're gonna push some iron which is gonna be a
lot of fun.
You're still gonna have some good endurance components
because some of the reps are still high.
You're not gonna be supersetting like phase one on the foundation
phase, but we're gonna push some heavy iron, we're gonna push it
often, and we're gonna add some really good gains.
So, some of the main differences you're gonna notice between the
foundation phase and the pyramid phase are, I believe, that your
soreness is gonna be just a hair deeper than it was at the
foundation phase 'cause now you're pushing some pretty heavy
iron.
The roundness of the muscle will still be there, the strength
gains are gonna come pretty fast, but you're gonna have to
learn how to handle some heavy weight.
And which that means, mentally, you're gonna have to get up for
it.
So when it's time to heavy squat, heavy bench, or whatever
that is, and you're in that two to four rep range, you've gotta
be ready for game time.
To ease your mind, the supplementation and diet aren't
gonna change a whole bunch.
Those habits in the kitchen and with your supplements are
already established, so now it's time in the gym to push heavy
weight, push it often, and really get those gains.
the physique changes that you'll really see coming off of this
phase is you'll just get a little bit thicker, little bit
rounder, little bit denser.
That's what's fun about pushing heavy iron, but also keeping
your rep ranges to where the condition is still the same, not
quite as same as supersetting, but it's laying a really good
layer of lean tissue by pushing the heavy iron.
What I always like to think is that my depth changes quite a
bit, so, meaning from this to this way...
So, your chest is sticking out a little bit more, your back's
feeling a little bit thicker, and the density in your arms are
coming around.
And so what's excited about going heavy is that
physique-wise, you should just feel like you're filling that
t-shirt out just a little bit more than you were from phase
one.
So, some of the obstacles you might run into with phase two
rather than phase one is make sure that your form is super
clean on these heavy reps.
Now, I need it to be heavy, I need it to be intense, but the
form still has to be good in the gym.
Don't also half your reps.
Make sure they're full range, they're real, they're good,
they're strong.
At the end of the day, you're only hurting yourself if you're
not taking things full range with good form.
Now I'm gonna be breaking down the training techniques and
philosophies for phase two.
So, the main training philosophy that this phase is centered
around is pyramid training.
You're gonna start with a low weight with a high rep, and
simply just work up in weight and down in reps.
And just make sure that you're always going to failure on every
set.
I want you to push as heavy weight as possible with clean
form.
For example, on leg day, you would just start simply with 20
reps, take a drink of water.
Then throw on more weight, go 15 reps, grab a drink of water,
that's your rest period.
Go down to 12, and then so on and so forth, 8, 6, 4, whatever
you're working up to that day.
But you want to make sure each rep range is at the max amount
of weight that you can push for those rep counts.
So the split for this phase is chest and back, legs, arms,
shoulders with abs, and then you've got your three days off.
But we're gonna do one HIIT cardio day on those days off on
this phase.
Now, you can pick whatever day you want to do that on, and this
is how you're gonna do it.
I want you to pick your favorite cardio piece of equipment and
just do 1 minute all out, high intense as you can, and then 1
minute just kind of moseying along at a moderate intensity.
You're gonna alternate that for about 30 minutes.
And what I'm doing that for is just to kind of offset just the
up in calories a little bit for this phase.
And so we want to keep you lean as we can as we're bulking you
up.
And so that's what your rest days are gonna look like.
The workouts do remain the same from week to week.
I really just want you to key in on pushing heavier iron each
week if you can.
So, because the workouts are not changing, really key in on form
and trying to up your weight each week.
On top of muscle building, bar none, you're gonna add strength
for this phase.
That is a big key to the phase.
It'll be pretty fun to start pushing some heavy weight in the
gym again.
So not only are you adding lean tissue, but you're also adding
strength.
Now I'm gonna break down the nutrition philosophies that
you're gonna use for phase two.
Since the goal of this phase is to increase mass and strength,
we are gonna up your calories, but remember, this is not a
dirty bulk.
During the pyramid phase of the Get Swole program, you're
gonna be adding approximately 200 to 300 extra calories in
carbohydrates.
And the reason why this was put together, there's gonna be a lot
more load into this exercise program.
And with that extra load that we need to put together, we need to
add some more calories.
We chose to use carbohydrates as an increase in the source just
because of the intense amount of increased workload.
You're still gonna be eating the same quality foods that you
were off the foundation phase, we're just gonna increase the
amount of quality foods that you're gonna be consuming.
So, we've done from the foundation phase to the pyramid
phase, we've switched up the ratios of macronutrients.
In your foundation phase, you're approximately 45% to 50% protein
to about 30% to 35% fats, and then approximately 10%
carbohydrates.
We made that transition into the pyramid phase and we made that
into about a 40% to 50%, to say about a 30% fat, and
approximately 20% of that in the carbohydrates.
So things aren't really gonna change from the preparation or
the set up of the diet in phase two.
You're still gonna be taking 3 whole food meals and 3
supplement food meals, spaced out in 3 hour increments
throughout the day.
During the pyramid phase, we've added carbohydrates in
different areas according to the diet plan.
What we did was we added a little bit more carbohydrates to
your breakfast, we've added a little bit more carbohydrates to
your diet source right before your workout, and the biggest
addition is that you've added a cup of carbohydrates or a cup of
fruit to your diet right before you go to bed.
And the reason why I chose this is because with my experience is
that right before bed, if you get a little bit of
carbohydrates in you, it increases your serotonin level
and kind of gives you a nice kind of transition into sleep.
Alright, so one of my favorite things to do on phase
two is take the vanilla protein powder, which is our Combat, and
put frozen strawberries and blueberries in, 1/2 a cup each,
to mix for one of your snack meals.
And so that's something we didn't have in phase one which
is excited to have in phase two.
During the pyramid phase, the one thing that you're gonna
definitely feel is a little bit more energy from the
carbohydrate source that you're gonna be getting.
The carbohydrate source that you're gonna take are gonna be
immediate fuel for your body when you work out.
And it's also gonna be utilizing and priming your body to use
carbohydrate as a fuel to help you build lean body mass.
Big key to dieting in general, or just an overall
lifestyle, is you have to rotate your meat sources, you have to
rotate your vegetable sources.
And so realistically, if you're eating turkey all the time,
you're gonna get tired of it.
So rotate your chicken, turkey, fish, beef, and keep it in a
good rotation.
Also with your green vegetables, asparagus, broccoli, green
beans.
It keeps things not as boring and not as stagnant in your
diet.
So keep everything in a heavy rotation.
Now I'm gonna be breaking down the supplement philosophies
that you're gonna be following in phase two.
Supplementation for pre and post-workout training is a
really big part of this phase.
You want to make sure that your performance is on a high level
so you can really push the iron you need to, then have the
recovery components all set so you can really recover from the
deep tissue soreness that you'll get off pushing heavy iron.
So the supplement plan really doesn't change a whole bunch
from phase one to phase two.
You're gonna wake up, get your breakfast.
Go ahead and have your Armor-V, which is your multivitamin, with
breakfast, and then also add Recon, which is your recovery
supplement.
You're gonna roll in right to your second meal, which is your
blended protein with Combat.
When you hit your lunch, you're gonna eat your lunch and then
also add your Armor-V again, which is your multivitamin.
Go into your fourth meal of the day, which'll be your Combat
blended protein.
Hit up dinner.
At night time, we're gonna add one more shake, but then also
right before bed, you're gonna have your Z-Core PM for your
nighttime recovery.
That entire window of pre and post-workout and all-encompassed
recovery is all set for the day.
So just like in phase one, on your non-training days, your
supplements are a little bit different.
So you're gonna get up in the morning, also have your
breakfast with your Armor-V and take your Recon.
Obviously you're not training that day, so then you're gonna
go to your second meal, you're gonna hit your Combat, which is
your blended protein.
But then now, when you go to your lunch, not only are you
gonna take your Armor-V, but you're gonna take another dose
of Recon too.
You go to your fourth meal, back to your protein again.
Fifth meal, which is your dinner.
And then ending out the night, you're gonna go back to Combat,
and then take your Z-Core PM before bed.
But on that day, with your Z-Core PM, you're also gonna add
some more branched chain amino acids.
And so what we're truly trying to do is just make you recover,
and grow, and heal up so you can add more tissue on these days
off.
That's it for the pyramid phase, which is phase two of the
Get Swole 16-week trainer.
Scroll down to the page below so you can get your daily breakdown
of training, nutrition, and supplementation.
It's time to transform, build muscle, add precise size, and
get swole.