Quickly Chisel a Ripped Beach Body for the Summer

Summer is here, which means you probably are thinking about showing off a ripped beach body while playing in the water. However, if you’ve been focused on building muscle and getting bigger, you might have a little extra padding than usual. Your muscles, while bigger, are not as defined, and don’t exactly look like a shredded summer body. We’ll lay out the path to getting your ripped beach body ready for all the summer fun.

When it’s hot outside there are plenty of opportunities to show off your gains near the lake, beach or pool. Maybe your shirt is completely off and your abs are on full display or you are wearing cut off shirts that highlight your arms.

The goal is to maintain the size and shape of your muscles, while reducing fat and bloat that hides them away.

The principles of fast tracking to a ripped beach body

Before diving into how to get the look you want for the summer, let’s establish the foundation.

This post is geared toward the skinny person who has built up some mass, but is looking for a way to quickly get a more shredded look. This isn’t the right approach for someone who wants to walk around super ripped all year long. That requires a lifestyle change.

Getting ripped for the summer, but maintaining mass to continue your journey is the better approach for skinny people looking for gains.

What is your beach body goal?

As always, start with the goal. The reason this is important is there are a number of ways to cut weight after bulking, but they are not all suitable for every circumstance. Fighters and wrestlers may endure intense weight cut programs over a short period of time to qualify for a scheduled competition. A professional bodybuilder will take more extreme measures before a show than an amateur lifter will take before heading to a beach vacation.

In order to get a shredded look, you will have to trade off some muscle mass. Usually, you lose some muscle, but the goal is the lower fat percentage will help reveal more muscle. In the end, you have a more muscular look.

Don’t lose sight of the fact that if you are a hardgainer, you don’t want to give up all of the mass you have worked for just for a beach day.

Keep in mind your goal is much more casual, as you’re just looking to get ready for summer. I do not suggest you attempt an extreme weight cut for this. Even professional athletes face a lot of risks when they do this for very short periods of time. You can lose size and strength, and you may also experience severe cramping and other associated effects.

If you’re curious, check out stories of professional fighter weight cuts to see it isn’t for the faint of heart. Bodybuilder shredding programs are more similar to what a casual beachgoer is looking for, but again, they are doing it at an extreme professional level that is unnecessary for most people.

You can’t skip straight to a ripped beach body

If it was easy, everyone would do it. You won’t be able to wake up in July and suddenly look like a Greek god or goddess the same day.

The truth is, getting ripped or shredded is really a process of removing fat and bloat to reveal the muscles underneath. That only works if you have developed those muscles enough so there is something to show off. For example, just because you lose weight doesn’t mean that you’ll suddenly have strong and well-defined abs.

Also, there is no way for you to perform targeted fat loss. The idea of reducing fat in a specific spot is complete garbage, and mostly just a marketing tactic. Don’t buy into magic potions and pills for this. The only way to lose fat is to work on fat loss for your whole body.

This doesn’t mean a ripped body is unachievable. In fact, someone at 165 pounds with low body fat will look more muscular than a person who is 205 pounds with big muscles, but carrying a lot of fat.

The Skinny Gainz approach to a ripped beach body

Luckily, getting ripped for the summer is rooted in the same foundations you use to gain mass quickly in the first place. My approach to fitness in general is to get the trinity right- training, fuel, recovery.

It would be great if there was a way to cram that all into one day before you head to the beach, but in reality you should give it at least two weeks to get that muscle definition.

Although the foundation is the same, the approach will feel very different. You are looking to pump up your muscles, increase vascularity and reduce bloating and fat.

Training for a beach body

If you are a skinny person training for massive gains, your approach will be very different from someone looking for a ripped beach body. With hypertrophy training, or training for size, you focus on time under tension, high volume, and high set counts with heavy weights. The goal is to demolish your muscles with some intense training so they come back bigger and better.

When you are lifting for aesthetics, you are not as focused on getting micro tears to stimulate growth. In fact, lifting too heavy or with too much intensity at this point can actually deflate your muscles. You just want to get the pump and blood flowing.

Here at the tips I use to modify my training.

• 2 weeks before beach day (or 14 days out), I change up my routine to focus on challenging, but not extremely heavy weights. I do not believe in the concept of using very light weights for a high rep count. You still want your muscles to work, but just enough that the blood flows and they swell up, not so much that you exhaust them. For example, for bicep curls, instead of a barbell curl with 75 pounds, I would do dumbbell curls with 25 to 30 pounds for 5 sets of 10-15 reps.
• Also starting 2 weeks out, I will incorporate cardio into my training every 2-3 days. This might look like some intense basketball practice or jogging mixed with sprinting. The idea is to encourage your body to use up the glycogen and fat stores you’ve built up over time with eating extra calories to gain mass.

30 minutes to show time

About 30 minutes before I go out, such as to the beach, pool, or other setting where I am hoping to have a more ripped and defined look, I aim for the pump workout. This is a session that is purely designed to give you an aesthetic look, not to develop mass or increase strength. The exact exercises I do is dictated by what the specific event calls for. For example, if you plan to be shirtless, you will incorporate ab work and chest work. If you are wearing a sleeveless shirt, the abs and chest matter less than the shoulder, triceps and biceps. Of course, if you have sleeves, then really just the biceps and triceps will show.

This would be a horrible approach to every day mass training, but it’s important to have focus when you are looking for an aesthetic pump before a specific event.

Don’t forget your legs. If you have shorts that show off your quads, and pump there would be great. If you are wearing longer shorts or pants, then maybe that is time wasted.

My favorite way to handle this is to cycle through exercises non-stop to encourage the blood to flow and muscles to pop a little more. Let’s say we’re trying to go for a full body ripped look. Here’s an example of a routine I would follow.

1. 10 bicep curls
2. 10 overhead tricep extensions
3. 10 side lateral raises
4. 10 pushups
5. 20 crunches
6. 15 squats

I repeat this circuit 3-6 times, depending on how fatigued I am and how much time I have. Again, the goal is to get that pump, not to exhaust yourself. Perform each exercise and move to the next without a rest. The only break I take is about 30 to 60 seconds between sets.

Fueling a beach body

When you are eating to build muscle, it’s all about packing in protein and tons of extra calories to gain weight. You need a different approach to get ripped.

The best approach I’ve seen here for long term success is to focus on body recomposition, not just pure fat loss. The latter will result in a lot of muscle mass loss as well as fat loss. Instead, try to lean toward maintaining muscle mass, while shedding fat that is covering up your gains.

These are the tips I use to modify my eating starting 2 weeks before I need to look more defined:

• Aim for a caloric balance. You don’t need a surplus, because you aren’t actively trying to rapidly gain additional mass. A slight deficit is ok to help encourage your body to tap into energy stored as fat. You just don’t want to lose a ton of muscle.
• Shift to more protein and healthy fat, and away from carbs. Decreasing carbohydrates will lead to your body using up stored fat as an energy source, and help reduce bloating in your midsection. This can give you a tighter and more defined look. The continued protein intake will help your body retain and build muscle.
  • Bodybuilders will often use carb cycling to get ripped before shows. Again, I think this is too extreme for the average person. The idea is to restrict carbs to get lean, and then suddenly reintroduce them again right before show time to encourage the muscles to soak them up and look more full and round.
  • If you do eat carbs, whether it’s a small amount consistently, or as part of carb loading and cycling, choose complex carbohydrates. For example, think bulgar, quinoa or yams instead of plan white bread. The additional fiber makes complex carbs a healthier choice that offsets the carb bloat.
• Reduce food that causes gas and bloating. That uncomfortable feeling also leaves you not looking your best. That might include food with a lot of onions or snacks with high sugar content, like candy.
• Eat smaller frequent meals throughout the day rather than a few large meals. The more full your belly is, the less defined your ripped beach body will be. However, you shouldn’t starve yourself just for vanity. It’s not about being hungry, but rather eat meals that don’t leave you completely stuffed.
• Be thoughtful about your sodium intake. You’ll read a lot of publications that recommend cutting out salt leading up to a contest, show, or day at the beach. The idea is when you reduce the sodium, your body will stop retaining water that makes you appear soft, and instead you’ll be left with hard muscles and insane vascularity. The reality is the body has a delicate balance and going extreme suddenly with anything will likely just make you feel like you’re not yourself. Extremely low sodium levels also can have a negative impact on your health and your physique. You need sodium and potassium for typical functions like muscle contraction. You may even start cramping if you’re dramatic about changes in sodium and water intake. Think healthy. It’s probably a good moment to put down the potato chips and processed snacks. You don’t have to bring salt intake down to zero, but there’s no need to consume large quantities in every meal.
• Stay hydrated. Many athletes who need to cut weight rely on sweating out and essentially dehydrating themselves to lose a lot of weight quickly. This can be scary and dangerous. Many professional fighters end up hospitalized or miss their events due to the toll this takes on the body. Stay hydrated year round. This can help your vascularity and for your muscles to have a nice full appearance. It’s not worth risking your health through dehydration for vanity, especially in the heat of the summer. If looking strong is your goal, you won’t really achieve that if you are passed out from not drinking water.

Recovery gets you ripped

Get sleep every night. Sleep builds muscle, and plays a huge role in your bodies natural rhythms. If you don’t feel rested, forget a ripped beach body, because your mind will be struggling to enjoy anyway.

Lack of sleep leads to your muscles having a deflated look.

Studies have shown that missing out on sleep can lead to an increase in fat and loss of muscle. This is the exact opposite of what you want. There’s not simpler way to say this, get your full night’s rest to be on track for a ripped beach body.

Following these tips should help you feel more confident heading into your summer activities.

Let me know how they work for you, and if you have a different approach. Thoughts or questions? Let me know in the comments!