The best routine for definition

If you want to be in the 8–10% body-fat range, you need the best routine for getting defined, but… where do you start?… This is called a “cutting phase,” which requires a routine; what is the best routine for getting defined?… The answer goes beyond training or diet and also depends on each goal, whether for competition or simply aesthetics… First of all, let’s talk about what you consume; being in a calorie deficit means your ability to recover from training is not as good as during the “bulking phase,” but you must work to provide your body with signals aimed at maintaining the muscle you have gained.

The best routine for getting defined involves training with as much volume as you can recover from.

High training volumes help create a calorie deficit, although you can also include some form of cardio (using any strategy) to increase the calorie deficit.

Basic nutritional concepts

When you work below your calorie baseline, macronutrients become more important and you have to be as precise as possible with the amounts.

• First, you need to increase your protein: get it from various food sources, as well as high-biological-value proteins, including whey protein (or other proteins if you are intolerant), always keeping one thing clear in mind: “you must maintain an environment that is as anabolic as possible” to preserve your muscles.
• You should also maintain a balanced level of carbohydrates to provide the energy needed for your intense workouts; and although you can regulate the ratio inversely to fats, it is important not to overdo it when reducing carbohydrates… cycle them instead…
• Fats are important for maintaining your hormone levels. You can obtain them healthily from nuts, avocados, and vegetable oils, or add MCTs, which have the particularity of keeping fat away from the body, helping you achieve the best routine for getting defined.
• Add fiber to your diet, which you can obtain by increasing your intake of vegetables and fruits (which also provide vitamins and minerals), as well as oats and other cereals. Not only will you feel full, keeping hunger at bay, but it will also keep your digestive system in good shape.
• Probiotics are important for strengthening not only your intestinal flora but also your immune system.
• Finally, staying hydrated is extremely important during this phase, when you should increase your water intake while controlling your appetite and regulating your body’s systems, including your muscles.

Ultimately, how you shop for groceries and combine your meals is a personal matter, but there are variables that go beyond what to eat or eating clean—they concern what you are eating for.

How to progress to get defined

Above all, don’t get worked up or try to do what you dream of because you desperately need to show off the physique you have, whether on stage, at the beach, or on social media. The best routine for getting defined means losing 0.5 to 1% of your body weight per week, and we are not talking about losing only weight but also body fat; however, when progress stops, reduce your calories by 250–500 per day. Take photos of your progress weekly, record your measurements, monitor your body-fat level, and use a scale to track your weight every day. That will give you an idea of where you are heading, since we all lose fat in different places at different times.

• Use the scale.
• Pose and use progress photos.
• Take body-composition measurements, such as skinfold readings.
• Take your friends’ and non-friends’ criticism into account.

At all times, you can use this to guide your adjustments so that your routine during the cutting phase is the best routine for getting defined. In this video, Roberto Castellano explains that you need to understand your body to do this; he refers to hormonal factors and how the calorie deficit comes into play, and he also discusses what happens to the body. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqq6ou85nTs&t=2s The goal is to keep adrenaline and dopamine elevated so you stay agile and more active for hard training. You also need an effective plan to maintain fat loss and establish a carbohydrate loading/depletion rhythm.

The best diet-based routine for getting defined

During this phase, the first thing you should do is increase your water intake, and this is damn important because, in addition to hydrating you and your cells, it will help control your appetite. Now, you should start getting used to it by eating the same thing every day until you can cut your carbohydrates in half and replace them with high-quality fats.

• If you normally consume 400 grams of carbohydrates per day, that equals 1,600 calories.
• Now, you would need 800 of those calories to come from fats: that is about 88 grams of fat, which you can obtain by consuming eggs, oils such as MCT, avocados, nuts, and, obviously, omega-3.

Now, since you are working below your calorie baseline, you must consistently reach it, even if it is difficult for you at times. At this point, both motivation and sports nutrition come into play, because in addition to controlling cravings, you must also motivate yourself with nutrients or with your training partner. In the best routine for getting defined, macronutrients become more important, and remember this:

• When you are bulking and eating more than you need, you have room to mess up because you are eating everything.
• But when you are going through a cutting process that lasts no more than two months, you do not have that margin for error and must be precise.

Many people will tell you to exercise more and eat less, but that actually does not work, because then we would be surrounded by fabulously defined bodies. How do you do it quickly?… Next, we invite you to watch some advice from Rául Carrasco on the competition stage… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scJpW_tw8EU&t=2s In any case, if you do it dramatically, keep anti-catabolic supplementation and other things in mind, which we will discuss below.

The best supplement-based routine for getting defined

Before taking supplements and following the best routine for getting defined, you must make sure to eat clean, healthy, nutrient-rich foods. But you also require extra nutrients that should be consumed at the right time, and this requires a plan—a specific plan. Once you are committed to your diet, you will be ready for the final piece of the puzzle: “adding supplements.”

• BCAAs: thanks to their multiple functions beyond preventing catabolism, they speed recovery and improve ATP production, promote cell volumization, prevent fatigue by blocking the entry of fatigue-inducing tryptophan into the brain, increase protein synthesis, immune function, and digestive health, which can lead to better protein assimilation and absorption, and also raise growth hormone levels.
• Glutamine: it is used at 50% post-workout, and since it serves as cellular fuel for the immune system, it is inevitably something you need, both to minimize muscle-tissue breakdown and improve protein metabolism… In addition, its buffering effect helps neutralize the acidosis generated in the muscles during intense training…
• Thermogenics: they are literally fat burners; however, you have to understand that they work in two ways. On the one hand, they help stubborn cells open up and allow fat to enter the bloodstream to be used as energy; they also help raise internal temperature, causing the body to burn more calories by the end of the day.

Finally, do not forget to take specific oils such as medium-chain oils (MCT), CLA, and some mood enhancer that reduces irritability.

Obviously, vitamins and minerals should be present, as should the electrolytes lost through sweat, as well as natural infusions.

The best training routine for getting defined

Regarding training, it is clear that everyone should use a higher volume by increasing repetitions—not because higher repetitions “sculpt” the muscle or because of any other nonsense you are told about this.

More activity equals more calories burned, so the more repetitions you do, the more calories you will burn.

For the most part, athletes enjoy weightlifting more than cardio, cross-training, and any other type of training that stimulates fat burning. Remember that before planning your workouts the best routine for getting defined requires you to understand what you need to do.

• One approach is to start with 15–20 sets for the larger muscle groups.
• Continue with 10–15 for smaller muscle groups.
• Generally, perform 8–12 (or more) repetitions.

THE GOAL IS NOT TO LOSE MUSCLE…  let’s be realistic: you are not going to gain any muscle while cutting… and if you claim that you can, then you are selling an e-book or following a guru who has never even stepped on a competition stage… If you need to know more and want to share your way of training with us, we remind you of one of the most popular articles, which includes “how to train” to get defined.