Just a few years ago Aaron Sweet was still battling his ectomorph genetics. Now, at 46, he has the physique of a fitness model thanks to an old-school bodybuilding diet and training regimen. “Every week it seems a new diet comes out,” says Sweet, who’s a project manager at Can Do Fitness in Edgewater, NJ. “Are they really that great?” He eschewed newer trends for a bodybuilding diet of six small meals a day, keeping protein high and carbs in check. “It worked back then, and it still works now,” he says.
More important than any one approach, however, is the discipline to stick with it. “Everybody responds differently to dieting,” says Sweet. “After all these years of trial and error, I found that a very traditional bodybuilding diet worked for me. But you have to stick to it. And that can be hard, because it’s very boring. When friends want to go out for drinks after work, I don’t drink. You have to make a choice.”
Increase weight on all exercises as the reps decrease. On the final set of 8, do a dropset for an additional 15 reps.
Start with the heaviest dumbbells you can manage for 8-12 reps. Go to failure, drop the weight five pounds, and go to failure again. Continue until you’ve reached roughly 50% of the starting weight.
