Get that cover model look!

It’s a question we get asked constantly at Maximuscle – ‘how do I get the cover model look of the men’s fitness magazines or the Maximuscle catalogue?’ That lean, defined muscular look that sets you apart from everyone else in the gym and turns heads on the beach?

It’s not easy because it requires a combination of adding muscle and dropping fat – it is difficult to do both at the same time. Hard training and good nutrition will get you there…eventually. However with the proper routine, it’ll happen a lot sooner than you might think. We’ve created a combined nutrition and training plan that will help you get that cover model look.

Gym Plan 432kb

Cardio Plan 501kb

Meal Plan 718kb

The first and most important step is to fix your diet. I know it's a cliché, but abs are made in the kitchen and not the gym.

The food that you put in your mouth each day is the real key to success. Even ‘healthy’ food, doesn’t mean it is high in protein, which is essential for muscle growth or that your daily calories are at the correct level to bring out definition. And doing more exercise isn't always the answer. For most people, lack of time makes it extremely difficult to burn the excess calories created by a poor diet. And if you do too much exercise, you run the real risk of overtraining.

So the first step is to cut out the junk from your diet. You know the sort of thing we’re talking about – cakes, crisps, sweets, chocolate bars and sugary, soft drinks.

If you’ve already done that, and you’re still not losing fat, chances are you’ll need to keep a closer eye on what you eat. This is going to mean following some kind of meal plan where you’re keeping track of the number of grams of protein, fat, and carbohydrate you're eating each day.

Let's be clear about one thing - weighing food, measuring serving sizes and reading labels can be tedious. But if you’re really serious about looking good, you need to know what you’re eating, as opposed to guessing, otherwise, you’ll never reach your goals.

We've made it easy and simple for you to work out exactly what to eat in order to get lean and defined by creating an entire weekly meal plan for you.

The key to your training plan doesn’t lie in hours of cardio, but in a targeted weight-training programme with just a few sessions of intense cardio. One of the main benefits of training with weights is that it will help you lose fat without losing muscle. You may even gain a little muscle. Your programme should involve the use of relatively heavy weights that limits you to around 8-12 repetitions. If the weights you use are too light then you could end up losing precious muscle tissue or not putting on any muscle.

Our routine is based on compound exercises that involve working several muscles at once, such as squats, deadlifts and bench presses. These exercises use more muscle mass and burn more calories and are more effective than most isolation exercises.

When you’re on a diet, your ability to recover from a hard workout is reduced. Too much exercise can also accelerate the loss of muscle and leave you feeling tired and drained. That's why we recommend keeping each workout to one hour or less - 30 to 45 intense minutes are best. Do no more than 25 work sets per session.

You'll also be using supersets, which involve moving quickly from one exercise to another, with little or no rest between. Rather than resting between sets, you perform an exercise for another muscle group. Studies show that this type of workout fires up your metabolism for almost two days. Your body will also burn more fat for fuel. As an example you might start with the bench press, and do 8-12 repetitions. You will then move straight to the barbell row and do another 8-12 repetitions. Rest for 60-120 seconds and then repeat until the required number of sets is complete.

However, you won't be using supersets on all exercises. Why? When you're using heavy weights and pushing yourself hard in each set, your technique (form) needs to be as close to perfect as you can make it, especially with difficult movements such as the squat.

Cardio plays an important role in helping you lose fat, but don’t overdo it. Doing 30-45 minutes of intense cardio 2-3 times a week, combined with a good diet and a proper weight training routine, is a better choice than doing endless hours of low-intensity cardio, which can lead to a loss of muscle as well as fat. To burn fat and push your cardiovascular fitness to the next level, try our challenging and advanced workout that uses two different types of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). The routine we have designed is available to download as a full training diary sheet so you can keep a record of your weights, sets and reps (along with your cardio).