So yesterday I learned that Canadian Ryan Reynolds is People magazine’s Sexiest Man in the World. 
Admittedly, I don’t think I made the short list this year, but I’m glad to see another Canadian representing so well 😉
So what can we learn from Mr. Reynolds?
Firstly – Great hair can only get you so far. Ryan wasn’t a house hold name UNTIL he added some muscle for Blade3. In fact, before he gained some muscle, you probably thought his name was Van Wilder.
Second – Talent can only get you so far. Ryan has had some great movies…’The Nines” and “Chaos Theory” come to mind as really good Ryan Reynolds movies you’ve never heard of….So most people haven’t seen his best works, but they HAVE seen him shirtless.
Third- Beards are awesome (He sometimes rocks one)
Lastly- Getting in shape is NOT a life long process.
Yep, I said ‘not’.
You see, when I was on a plane…(I think I was coming home from Gainesville)…I read a very interesting article about Ryan Reynolds upcoming role as the Green Lantern.
In this article, he mentioned how he had to ‘get back at it again’ and workout to get into the right shape for the film. He also eluded that his ‘movie body’ wasn’t his natural state, and that it typically takes him about 3 months to get into movie shape.
3 Months
Now granted the vast majority of us don’t have the time or monetary incentive to get into shape that Ryan does, but it does prove a point. 3-6 months for someone who is already relatively lean is an ideal goal for building enough muscle mass to look…well..movie ready.
After that, your goal should be reducing the amount of work you do in order to maintain this new look…while letting yourself..recover and relax.
Realistically, I think I’m trying to describe a sort of ‘wave theory’ approach to building muscle.
But what I’m also telling you is you simply can not go all out all the time…Actually you CAN if want to, but most likely you will not get results from going all out all the time.
You may need some down time AND you may need to come to terms with the fact that after an intensive 3-6 month training program you may not gain much more lean body mass…especially if you stick with the same workout volume and set-up.
I talk about this a lot… It’s a process called Anabolic Slow Down (Admittedly, I named it, because I couldn’t find an actual name for it)
Bottom line: the anabolic effects of a workout tend to diminish with time.
So the point of this blog post: For 3-5 months a year go ALL OUT, get all the gains you can, but after this once the gains start to slow, don’t be afraid to take some time off, lower the intensity and volume…who knows you may even grow a bit during this process..
BP
PS- This post has also made me re-think Muscle Buildling. I used to think it should only be used by high-level experienced trainers, but now I’m thinking even moderate lifters would benefit from an intense 5 month blast followed by some time following something much less intense (in terms of volume and frequency).
