8 Things You Need To Start Doing RIGHT NOW If You Want To Be Shredded By Summer

Holy fuck March is here. I swear it felt like just yesterday Marshawn Lynch was telling us he didn’t want to be fined. Since March is here, that means Spring Break is almost here. Spring Break is like a one week long cock tease that tells you exactly what you’re going to get for 3 months of summer. A ton of grilling out, bbq, more beer than seems humanly possible to pour down your mouth hole, very little clothes, and lots of ladies.

In order to make the most of summer, you need to be in tip top shape. Here are the 8 keys to getting shredded by summer:

1. Workout every single day.

It doesn’t matter what you do, what matters is that you do something. Anything to get a good sweat in. It could be playing sand volleyball, golf, or regular exercise. If you’re trying to look good this summer it’s important you build something worth showing off.

In order to build something worth showing off you not only have to spend plenty of time hitting the weights, you need to do something that makes you sweat. Every damn day. That’s a big part of the equation in looking good this summer.

2. Eat a massive spinach/chicken/berry salad every day.

When you’re trying to shape yourself into someone who is really, really, ridiculously good looking, vegetables are important. Super important. More important than anything else in the world. Without adequate vegetables you don’t give your body the vital things it needs to keep you going, and veggies get you full without many calories.

This is exactly where a spinach/chicken/berry salad comes into play. It’s got protein to help you recover and help build some muscle. It also has spinach and some sort of berry with it as well. These will help you get a strong dose of Vitamin C, to keep you from getting sick while you’re pounding beers instead of water. They’ll also get you full, while saving you a few hundred calories. After a few months straight, that saves a ton of calories.

3. Deadlift 3 times per week.

Deadlifting is the best exercise known to man. Even better than squatting. It’s also ridiculously effective at building super human strength, and helping you shed fat. Which makes it a perfect exercise to start adding into your very own shredded by summer program.

This doesn’t mean you need to be going ridiculously heavy every single session. Ideally spend one session really fucking heavy with fewer sets/reps, one session really light where you do a lot of speed work and more sets/reps, and one session with moderate weight where you focus more on slower tempo and more sets/reps.

4. Intermittent fastingfasting

I’ve written about the benefits of fasting before, and it’s no secret that I’m a big fan of fasting in it’s various forms. I think it’s incredibly beneficial in not only helping people deal with the psychological implications of a diet, but helping shed fat as fast as possible.

I choose a daily 16 hour fast with an 8 hour eating window. You could also do one or two 24 hour fasts per week, though I’d suggest working up to that before jumping in completely. Fasting isn’t only beneficial for your fat loss efforts though, it’ll help your heart out. All without fucking up any of your gains.

5. Quit eating fried foods (for the most part).

I’m not saying stop eating wings all together. That’d be blasphemous. I fucking love wings. But in order to drop fat as quickly as possible fried foods do need to be avoided. Fried foods are a calorie bomb just waiting to be dropped on your waistline.

Some foods to especially watch out for: fries, wings, donuts, and anything else that is fucking delicious. All kidding aside, let yourself live once a week or so and enjoy those delicious foods, just realize that unless you’re really carefully tracking macros and calories, it’s hard to eat those foods and still drop fat.

6. Start incorporating full body workouts.

Full body workouts are some of the most versatile tools in existence when it comes to dropping fat. Full body workouts that utilize heavy weights and short rest periods not only test your strength and endurance, but they help you shed fat much faster than traditional bodybuilding style workouts.

Start incorporating some circuit training into your workouts. Don’t be a pansy, and don’t start talking about how it’ll fuck up your gains. Doing supersets of thrusters and burpee pull ups sure as shit beats the hell out of the treadmill.

7. Figure out how many calories per day you need – eat 250 less.

Figuring out your daily caloric needs is one of the hallmarks of someone looking to get shredded. You can lose a decent amount of weight by just eating more vegetables and keeping track of what you eat, but at some point progress will stall. At that point if you don’t know how much you’re eating dieting can get significantly harder.

The internet is full of resources on figuring out how many calories per day you need. One of my favorites is the Katch McArdle formula. Katch McArdle is one of the few that takes your body fat percentage into account, and determines calories based on the amount of muscle mass you have. Not just bodyweight. When determining daily calories this is a huge deal.

8. Sprint like you’re escaping the clutches of a pissed off grizzly bear.

Sprinting is one of the most kick ass workouts there could ever be. It’s great to increase athleticism, help shed fat, and burn massive amounts of calories. The best part? You don’t need anything more than just your two legs. Sprinting isn’t difficult to incorporate into your current program either. It just requires a little planning.

My favorite variation of sprinting is finding a hill and doing hill sprints. I feel like I push myself more this way, and it places a little more emphasis on the quads. Something your legs will be thankful for after 3 days of deadlifting in a week. Shoot for 2 sprint sessions per week. Each one lasting no more than 20 minutes.