Sets and reps?

The number of sets, and the number of reps in every set is not difficult to figure out. Some people are sure that a certain number of reps is the key to huge muscles, but they're wrong. Don't fear if you couldn't do that 8th push-up, or the 10th curl. This is not bad, this is good. The last rep you were able to do, is the rep that really does something for you. That's when the muscle is really torn, and therefore, your body will make it stronger than it was before it was torn. That's how it works. - That's also why it's crucial that you don't work out before the soreness in your muscles is gone. Don't tear it when it's not rebuilt yet! That's really bad for you, and it will actually just make you weaker.

As a starter, you should do one session where you find your personal strength, and then you'll be able to make yourself a program.

See how many push-ups you can do, how many curls, dips, squats and all the others. When you know what 'level' you're on, go from that. Don't try to do as many push-ups as that world famous acrobat in the fitness video. Work with your own personal abilities, otherwise you'll just be disappointed. - Of course this goes the other way around as well. If someone told you: "You should do 8 dips", and you're able to do 9, then do 9! 

I suggest you start out with three sets of each workout. That's what I do, and it works just fine. When it comes to the number of reps, your body is the master. Do as many reps as you can in each set, and you'll know that you've pushed yourself as much as you could. Trust me, that's a really good feeling. 

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A lot of people say that more weight and fewer reps is the key to getting big, but read this: It's not about looking big, it's about looking strong! And if you - like me - wanna work with your own bodyweight, the only option is to add more reps along with gaining more strength. And I can honestly say that I think the majority of the ladies and gentlemen out there value a strong body way more than a big, broad, pumpy body. Don't you? 

Start building those muscles!

If you wanna start working out, but have no clue how to actually do it, have no fear. I also didn’t know how to burst the bubble. I didn’t have any idea what to do, how to gain strength, and actually be able to do anything that would toughen me up and make me bulkier.

If you know how to move, you’re on your way already. Everybody has muscles, and we all use them every single day, when we move.

The problem that strikes a lot of us is the speculations about “Where in the world do I start?” You cannot let this thought take over, ‘cause the only thing that’ll do is: slow you down and kill your motivation. You have to think: “I want to do this, so I will”, and do it.

I have some very basic workouts for every one of your muscle groups that I’ll share with you.

Chest:

The push-up is the ultimate way of working your chest. It’s simple, it’s rough and you always have the equipment to perform push-ups. Wherever you are!

The ultimate way of getting the best results from push-ups is to start with the ‘basic push-up’. Your hands should be parallel with your shoulders.

After that, do “Diamond push-ups”. Those are push-ups, where your hands are touching. Keeping your hands closer than your shoulders will specifically target the inner part of your chest, and that’s what gives you that sexy ‘man-cleavage’, which shows your strength when wearing a V-neck! (These are also very good for your shoulders and triceps!)

When you’re done with those two types of push-ups, you can end your chest workout with the “wide push-ups”. Those specifically target – as you might’ve guessed – the outer part of your chest. In this workout, your hands should be further away from each other than when doing the “basic push-up”.

I was not able to do a single push-up before I started working out. If you can’t do a regular push-up, there is an alternative. Instead of having your legs stretched out and resting on your toes, bend your knees and rest on those. It’s important that the weight is still being brought to your upper body, though. Do as many of these as you can, until you can do a regular push-up. Of course one push-up is not enough, so combine it with the ‘easy’ push-ups until you can do enough regular push-ups for them to actually work the way we want them to.

Bonus info:

The push-up actually affects your shoulders, triceps and core a lot!

Shoulders:

Isolating your shoulders is tricky, and you don’t actually have to isolate them in order to have them pop out. As I wrote before, push-ups will affect your shoulders as well. The shoulders are really tough to work out, but it’s worth it! Almost everyone adores a man with a nice set of shoulders, so don’t give up on them even though it’s really hard!

I focus very much on working my shoulders by doing workouts that hit both the shoulders and other muscle groups also, ‘cause that way I don’t have to isolate the shoulders, ‘cause trust me, that’s not fun!

A workout that does target your shoulders very much though, is the “decline push-up”. After a bunch of those, you’ll really be able to feel your shoulders. They’ll burn! Combine the decline push-ups with the ‘regular’ push-ups, and your shoulders will be popping in a matter of no time!

Triceps:

Dips. Dips, dips, dips, dips! “Dips” are absolutely magnificent when you want strong, poppy triceps. There is no workout that beats these when it comes to your triceps. And I bet you can do at least a couple of these.

When you’ve gotten really good at doing the "seated dips", you can start doing the more advanced “hanging dips”. These are harder to do, but they work, too! And it’s nice to spice things up. But I personally like a mix of hanging dips and regular dips, so I do one set of hanging dips, and two sets of regular dips. You can choose how you like to mix things. And you can choose to not mix things at all. Just do the types of workout you’re more comfortable with, so you don’t lose the enthusiasm halfway through your workout session.

Biceps:

The guns! Everybody wants the biceps. But read this carefully: Do NOT focus more on your biceps than all the other muscles! Symmetry is essential if you want a hot body!

The ultimate workout to build strong and rock solid biceps are the "bicep chin-ups". But if you’re a beginner, I can’t imagine that you can do these. They are really hard to do, and you have to gain some strength before this is a reel possibility. Chin-ups are amazing to do, and nothing makes me feel better than doing three sets of chin-ups.

You’re not supposed to read about what I like, though. That’s not gonna help you, if you can’t do chin-ups.

I’d say the biceps are probably the easiest muscles to work. You don’t have to work them as crazy in order for them to be there, almost everyone uses them in their daily life, so working them further shouldn’t really be an issue.

If you don’t have a set of dumbbells, I highly recommend you get one. Dumbbells will get you a long way. You can use them to do loads of curls, and when you’ve been doing that for a long enough time, you’ll be able to do more advanced workouts. There are plenty of different curls you can do to pump your biceps, but I’d definitely recommend starting out with “hammer curls”. Those are easy, and they work.

Back:

Some guys tend to completely forget about their back, when it comes to working out. This is a huge mistake. The back is as well as everything else supposed to be a sexy part of the male body.

Pull-ups are incredible if you wanna work you back, but just like the "bicep chin-ups", these are impossible to do, if you haven’t built the strength to perform these. - Although when you get the strength, these will be good for your lats, which are one of the three muscle groups that really mark a V-shape!

The “inverted row” is a workout I’d recommend any day if you want to have that manly back everyone will adore. It’s not that hard to do, and it carries results with it. You’ll really feel it the day after, when you’ve been doing these! (These will also affect your biceps!)

-          Don’t forget your lower back! Do “back crunches”, and it’ll be there!

Abs:

Everyone talks about abs. We’re all really focused on the six pack, ‘cause we see it everywhere. Having good abs is the new black.

We can all do “crunches”. There is about a million different types of crunches you can do. This is a totally individual thing. Choose the type of crunches you want. I always do a new type of crunches for every workout session, ‘cause I get really bored of doing the same kind every time. Working your abs can be a bit of a drag, so just find a way to spice things up!

Your obliques, though, are really good to focus on, and especially if you’re one of the guys with wide hips and a narrow waist. The obliques can be worked in a ton of different ways as well, and it’s gonna be up to you how you wanna work those. 

At the end of every ab workout, I always do “the plank” for as long as I can. This is what really gets you strength overall, ‘cause it toughens up your core.

Legs:

So you want strong legs, and buns of steel? Yeah, I thought so. These can be worked by doing “squats”. It’s often not necessary to add weight when doing squats. At least not for me. I don’t want my legs to be much bigger, ‘cause they already look pretty big compared to my upper body, and I never was fond of very muscular legs. They tend to get really wide, and I don’t find that suitable for anybody. Do squats, and your legs and ass will be great!

Combinations:

It’s really important that you keep your workouts in a system. Because the different workouts for certain muscle groups will target more different areas on your body, it’s necessary to coordinate your workouts so that you won’t harm yourself when you work out.

The chest, shoulders and triceps cannot be separated completely, so those are good to work together.

The biceps and back are also inseparable, so those are good to combine as well.

You can also choose to do like me, and work everything on the same day. This is a question of what suits you.

Have fun getting sexy!

Ways to improve your natural T-level

Did you know that it's actually possible to improve your testosterone-level without hormone replacemnt therapy? Well, it is. This is nice to know whether you're on T or not. You'll both be able to produce more testosterone, AND keep your hormone level somewhat steady if you follow some guidelines. 

It's a commonly known fact that working your muscles will make your body produce more testosterone. As you may know, all women bodybuilders have more masculine features than a woman usually has. It's a winning circle.

By just working out on a regular basis, your T-level will actually be more steady. I realised this when I put together a solid diet and started working out 3-4 times a week. No mood swings, no abnormal food-cravings coming out of the blue, and in general, I'm feeling healthy - at least most of the time!

There are bunches of food you can eat that'll definitely do their job to get you the best results you can possibly imagine:

1| Broccoli

Contains:

Indole-3-carbinol, fiber

How it works:

Elevated estrogen levels are bad. They interfere with muscle growth and lead to fat accumulation. Indole-3-carbinol has been shown to cut the largely female hormone estradiol in half for men.

2| Cabbage

Contains:

Indole-3-carbinol, fiber

How it works:

The same estradiol-restricting properties as broccoli, plus cabbage is high in fiber. Fiber is great for controlling weight, as it prevents the consumption of fattier foods.

3| Brussels sprouts

Contains:

Indole-3-carbinol, fiber

How it works:

Are you seeing a pattern? Specifically target bad estrogen and pack in that fiber.

4| Garlic

Contains:

Allicin

How it works:

Garlic’s active ingredient enhances testosterone levels and inhibits cortisol. Cortisol competes with testosterone and breaks down muscle tissue.

5| Oysters

Contains:

Protein, magnesium and zinc

How it works:

They increase your physical endurance because oysters pack more zinc than almost any other food source just six gives you almost seven times the RDA and zinc plays an integral role in muscle growth and testosterone levels.

6| Beans

Contains:

Protein, fiber, zinc

How it works:

The magical fruit does more than make you toot. Tons of zinc, high in protein and fiber and low in fat.

7| Poultry

Contains:

Lots of protein and little fat

How it works:

High-protein diets have a positive impact on muscle mass and testosterone levels. Chicken will get you there.

8| Eggs

Contains:

Protein and cholesterol

How it works:

Testosterone is synthesized from cholesterol. Eggs are a source of pure, unadulterated cholesterol, and one recent study showed that the excess cholesterol in eggs isn’t as harmful as previously thought. So start creating that testosterone.

9| Cottage cheese 

Contains:

Protein with very little fat

How it works:

"One cup of 1% cottage cheese has more protein and less fat than a serving of lean beef or chicken and because it has casein protein it digests slowly making it the perfect before bedtime snack."

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So there you have it. Plenty of foods that will help you keep a healthy and stabile T-level. And don't fear if there are some of these things you can't stand. You can just go with the others!

Three steps you need to follow.

This is something people tend to completely misunderstand. When we think about a hot male body, we usually think of someone with muscles that show. Super tight skin, a showing sixpack, bulky biceps and last but not least: symmetry in all of the different musclegroups. In other words: Someone ripped with muscles that fit them. 

When you think about it, it's not really about having humongous muscles and nothing else. It's about looking healthy. The reason why some people look good is because they look healthy. The reason why muscles are good, is because it's a sign of strength. And for a man, it's very attractive to be strong.

The thing that's probably pretty obvious here is that the muscles are the thing you want to focus on last. In order to be strong, they have to be there, but without the two other categories, it won't show. At all. You'll just have the great muscles behind the lazy skin and the horrifying layer of fat.

Nutrition: 

Now, I know how hard it can be to change your eating habits, and I know fried stuff is great, but if you want that stone hard body, you're gonna have to make some sacrifices. It's time to quit going to McDonald's, drinking soda and eating candy every other day.

You might think that "I don't have to eat differently, 'cause I'm already thin!". Well, you're dead wrong. If you're thin but still don't have that sizzling sixpack you're dying to get, the trick is not to just go and do loads of crunches. The crunches will indeed strengthen your abs, but your abs won't show until you get rid of the fat that's covering them. Even though you're slim - maybe you even weigh too little - there still might be this annoying layer of fat covering your muscles. It doesn't have to be a lot before your muscles are basically invisible. This layer of fat can only be removed if you eat healthy stuff! 

Also, if you have a really hard time gaining muscle, it might have something to do with eating wrong. If you're not eating a lot, and all you eat is the food that's full of carbs and fat and nothing else, your body will look slobby, and you won't grow any muscles. 

This goes for everyone - whether you're fat, skinny or anywhere in between. Proteins, vitamins and fibre are your friends. And they can actually be delicious. Yes. You heard right. They can be delicious. 

There are plenty of websites that show the exact amount of proteins, vitamins, fibre, fat and so on on the internet. I can't put the entire chart in here, and I'm not gonna be a dictator of what you should eat, because we don't all like and dislike the same things. I'll make videos/write blogs about certain dishes that are absolute gold when it comes to gaining good results.

Cardio: 

Yep. That word is usually not very popular. Just thinking about cardio made me wanna barf some time ago, and I'm still not a fan of cardio, but when I look in the mirror and see the results I've gained already, I find it easier to live with. Cardio is crucial if you want that lean look. Together with the nutrition, cardio is what scares those extra pounds away.

Again: don't think you can avoid this even though you're one of the slim boys, 'cause the tight skin is not gonna be there if you don't work for it. And also: wouldn't it be great to be in a good shape anyway?

The cardio is something you have to first of all: get used to, and secondly: live with. But don't panic! You don't have to spend hours and hours running, bicycling or rowing. I have plenty of great exercises that'll just shake that fat off of you!

Muscle building: 

This is the fun part! This is the part that adds that incredible spice to the entire routine. 'Cause when there's no fat to cover your body anymore, you want some muscles to be there. To impress the ladies? The gentlemen? Your friends? Maybe. But most importantly, you wanna feel confident in your own shell, and that can be done when you work for it.

If you eat right, and do the necessary amount of cardio, your muscles will grow very easily, AND they'll show. Does that sound good to you? Then follow me, and I'll give you videos with killer workout routines, ideas for delicious yet healthy meals AND by the end of every month, we can compare results! I'll give you my before and after photo, and I'll upload a new picture at the end of every month. Let's go!

Follow me

The reason why I'm making this the way I do, is because I want it to be personal, so that everyone who wants to get in shape can do it with me. I personally hate the blogs where a muscle monster is telling one to do the same thing as him/herself, and they're already capable of doing a thousand push-ups and what not. I'm still on my journey towards my dream body. So if you're one of those, I hope this blog will be more useful and personal. I know that that would definitely be more motivational for me.

If you're a beginner and have never done a single push-up, or lifted a single weight ever - do not fear! I used to be one of those guys, and I'd say I'm very much of a beginner myself. I haven't been working out properly for more than five months, but I see a lot of results already. If I can do it, you can do it too. So join my game, and we'll motivate one another!

Hi there!

I'm Caspian. A lot of people would refer to me as an FtM.

I have a youtube page, and I made two videos about health and fitness - those became really popular, so as a supplement to my youtube account (since I don't wanna make that all about fitness and healthy lifestyle), I figured I wanted to make a blog that's based on health, fitness and habits only.

I also want to let you all know that I'm not a professional, I'm not educated in this field, and some of the things I say may not be scientifically correct, but I'll base everything on my personal expierience and knowledge. If you don't like the idea or the stuff this blog will contain, I suggest you go and find something else.

The reason why I call this blog "Healthy FtM lifestyle" is because I know that a lot of 'FtM''s have certain special needs when it comes to gaining muscle and targeting specific areas, and I'd go so far as to claim that I have a bit more insight when it comes to these "special needs" than most fitness people do.

Have a nice one!