How to Get Ripped

If you've ever watched a superhero movie, a professional combat athlete or simply gone to the beach and admired the muscled-up men strutting confidently up and down the sand and thought to yourself, "I wish I could look like that," then this guide is for you. You might not believe it, but the difference between you — whether you're skinny or overweight — and any given man with a ripped physique isn't nearly as big as you think. It doesn't all come down to genetics, or steroids, or blind luck. In fact, it's mostly just a combination of three things: hard work, persistence, and a bit of know-how. RELATED: How Often Should You Work Out? Don't believe us? Follow our advice for just six months of your life and see what happens. You'll drop body fat, build muscle mass, and start turning heads the next time you take your shirt off. To help guide you on your journey, we recruited celebrity fitness trainer Sergio Pedemonte, owner of Your House Fitness who has worked with everyone from Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) to O.T Fagbenle (Handmaid's Tale and Marvel's Black Widow), to share his expertise on how to get ripped. His entire job involves getting people into the best shape of their lives, so you can bet he knows what he's talking about. Ditch the 'But My Genetics' Excuse and Dream Big Yes, we're not going to lie to you: your genes do play a role in your body composition and metabolism. However, some people inevitably exaggerate the importance of genetics and allow themselves to develop self-limiting beliefs around their body's capabilities. According to Pedemonte, your genetics mainly determine how quickly you can build muscle and/or lose fat, with most people falling into one of two categories: they are good at putting on weight, whether fat or muscle tissue, or they have extremely fast metabolisms and have a hard time gaining fat or muscle tissue. This isn't really the big deal you might think it is, since you can also use your genetics to your advantage. If you gain muscle easily, you can train at a moderate caloric surplus or even at maintenance and still see progress, and if you struggle to gain weight, you now have a license to eat a lot more food (more on that below). The bottom line? Your genetics are something to work with, not some insuperable barrier to your future physique. Dial in Your Diet With a Strategic Approach to Eating It isn't an accident that we put diet before training and cardio. Diet is king. Diet will make or break your physique. So you'd better get it right. RELATED: How to Optimize Pre- and Post-Workout Nutrition We tapped Pedemonte for specific advice on establishing the proper diet for optimal results, since getting a ripped body involves a lot more than just cutting out your fast food lunches: Monitor your calorie intake: You need to know how many calories you're consuming each day, and whether you're in a caloric deficit or surplus — give or take 100 calories. People tend to underestimate this number, Pedemonte told us, so precision is key. You can download a diet or nutrition app to help you track this. Track your macros: You need to get an adequate amount of protein since protein will help repair your damaged muscles. It's also the most thermogenic of the macronutrients, so a high-protein diet pays serious dividends in terms of calories consumed. Stop drinking your calories: A sure-fire way to fail a diet is to drink calorie-heavy drinks like sodas or sugar-filled specialty coffees. Drink tea or black coffee, replace your sodas with naturally-flavored sparkling waters, and aim to drink a lot more water throughout the day. It will help you feel full, too. Build out a proper diet with vegetables and lean protein: Once you start tracking your calories, you'll understand that you simply don't have room to eat certain foods. Your hamburger with sauce might taste great, but it will cut into a huge chunk of your allotted calories. The solution? Embrace vegetables and lean protein sources like chicken, turkey, and fish. You'll be able to eat more volume while consuming fewer calories. Hit the Weights and Track Your Progress Weight lifting, resistance training, and bodyweight strength training are essential. It's non-negotiable. These are the single best tools for building muscle, and muscle, in turn, makes fat burning easier, since the more muscle you have, the more calories those muscles require to sustain themselves. But the kind of weight training you do matters as well. RELATED: How to Torch Lots of Calories With Low-Intensity Steady-State Cardio Pedemonte suggests you focus on compound movements like the bench press, squat, deadlift, and push-up, together with some basic core work. If you're new to weightlifting and don't know where to begin, you can find any number of free programs on the internet, or you can follow Pedemonte's basic template: Pick a compound exercise Perform 5 sets of 10-15 repetitions Rest from 30 seconds to one minute between sets  This amount of volume will help promote muscle growth while also helping you focus on perfecting your form. Incorporate a Mix of High- and Low-Intensity Cardio For the goal of getting ripped, Pedemonte recommends doing two very different types of cardio exercise: high-intensity and low-intensity or steady-state cardio. High-Intensity Cardio: Sprinting, cycling, rowing, and many fast-action sports like hockey, football, basketball, and soccer all qualify. This type of cardio pushes your heart rate up and creates a nice "afterburn" effect, which will boost your metabolism long after you've stopped training. If you don't particularly like sports and just want a rubric to get through a gym workout, Pedemonte suggests high-intensity interval training, using a bike, treadmill, or rowing machine for three minutes of high-energy cardio work followed by one-minute recovery, and then repeating the whole session three times, for a total of nine minutes of exercise and three minutes of rest. Steady-State Cardio: Think hiking, long walks, hill walks, or even a casual bike ride. There are two advantages of steady-state cardio: you'll usually burn more total calories, since you'll be training for longer than with the high-intensity variety, and because you're not pushing your lungs or your muscles to the limit, the recovery time is minimal. Pedemonte recommends adding in regular walks of 10 to 30 minutes, once or twice a day, to help bolster your calorie burn without punishing your body or impeding muscle recovery between more strenuous workouts. Essential Workout Tools Follow the above tips for just six months and we guarantee you'll be in the best shape of your life. But what if you don't have access to a gym? No worries: we've put together a short list of fitness tools to help you with muscle gain and fat loss in the comfort of your own home. Amazon Basics Battle Exercise Training Rope Training with battle ropes will get your heart rate up, covering your cardio bases, while also working your muscles, covering your weight training bases, and it's fun too.  $29.99 at Amazon.com Perfect Fitness Rotating Pushup Handles Add depth to one of the best bodyweight exercises (the pushup) while also extending your range of motion and incorporating a rotating motion to torch your chest muscles. This is a great way to take the normal pushup and make it more difficult. $24.99 at Amazon.com FEECCO Weighted Jump Rope  Jumping rope is an intense cardio workout no matter what rope you're using. However, if you're looking to get ripped, the a good weighted jump rope is the way to go. With a half-pound total weight, these will have you feeling the burn in not only your arms but also your core, legs, back, and shoulders. $19.95 at Amazon.com NordicTrack Adjustable Dumbbells If you have the cash to splash and want a better replacement for an actual gym, look no further than this pair of adjustable dumbbells from NordicTrack. You'll get weights ranging from 10 to 55 pounds, in 2.5-pound increments, opening up a huge range of movement options, from presses to rows to goblet squats. $349 at Amazon.com  You Might Also Dig: How to Get Better at Pull-Ups Trainers Reveal the Most Common Muscle Growth Myths How to Set Realistic Weight Loss Goals