10 Week Muscle Transformation

Thank you for checking out my 10 Week Muscle Building Transformation. My goal with this muscle building transformation was to show newbies and seasoned lifters alike what can be done in a short space of time when you know what you’re doing (I actually did this whilst making some mistakes too!).

Here’s a bit of background before I show you the results of what I did :

My Training Experience :

I’ve been a qualified personal trainer for over 9 years now and worked in the industry for around 8 years. I’ve trained myself for around 10 years on and off in some capacity but you’ll probably see I haven’t trained exclusively for muscle building in those 10 years. I’ve trained for boxing, wrestling and other things but I’ve always loved muscle building and being muscular so I decided to get back to it in late 2009.

The Situation :

From late 2009 to around April 2010, I put on a good deal of size – Went from around 11.5 stone (158lbs) to 13.5 stone (190lbs). This wasn’t all lean muscle weight but most of it was! A mix of work issues and personal things kept me out of the gym for around 4 months so I decided to kill a few birds with one stone – Get away from my home in the U.K and relocate to the beautiful Mediterranean island of Cyprus for around 11 weeks and train HARD!

The Workout :

My workout was split into 2 x 5 week phases. The first 5 weeks I went against what I normally do and did insane volume training. Very similar to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Workout – This was training 6 days a week – I thought it was a good time to experiment with this kind of training as I had the time to do so! I saw ok results but my joints and body had started to burn out because of my fast strength increase.

The second phase I did almost the complete opposite! My training was based around one working set (HIT style) known as the DANTE/DOGGCRAP method (no that’s not a joke!), half body, 4 x a week and my strength and size increased rapidly. It also alleviated the joint pain that had started to bug me!

LET’S GET STARTED!

WEEK 1

Week 1 was all about getting a feel for my new gym – I found a great gym for what I needed and the people going their were great as I needed a spot on more than the odd occasion.

Well, this was my starting point! Not a great look..soft, puffy and with love handles with..well, a lot of love in them!

Not a great picture either but I was on my own so had to settle for either a self-timer or taking the pictures myself with camera in hand. I settled on the latter as the lighting the bathroom was much better. (So apologies for the change in picture style from week 1 onwards)

My Starting Stats :

I did some prep work for a month before I moved to Cyprus which brought my weight back up to 13.25 stone. Around 186lbs. (85kg) – Here are my stats in this picture

Arms : 15.25 inches

Chest : 42 inches

Waist : 35.5 inches

Quads : 24 inches

Calves : 15/15.5 (right half inch bigger!)

WEEK 2

Again, I’ve got to apologise for the pics! Not very pro but I didn’t have much choice – I had to rotate this one as it came out slightly bent (You can see from the way I’m holding the camera!). Hence the white bits in the picture!

Ok, down to business! The first week is always pretty hard but I was glad I did a month of prep work. It came in handy and I slipped into my new routine quite nicely!

Although my body is not used to such volume so I was definitely getting fatigued towards the end of my workouts. That should improve as my body gets used to the new type of stimulation! Overall, pretty happy at the beginning of week 2! Here  are my stats – Not too much change..

Arms : 15.25 inches (+.25)

Chest : 42.5 inches (+.5)

Waist : 35.5 inches

Quads : 24.25 inches (+.25)

Calves : 15/15.5

WEEK 3

Starting to see some thickness coming through at the end of my 2nd week.

This training schedule is definitely intense!

I’m getting much stronger and fast! My big lifts have all gone up this week – Bench, Deadlift and Squat all increased.

I’m noticing my chest looking thicker than last week as well as my shoulders and traps. My arms are notoriously stubborn!

Arms : 15.375 inches (+.125)

Chest : 43 inches (+.5)

Waist : 35.5 inches

Quads : 24.5 inches (+.25)

Calves : 15.25/15.675 (+1.25)

WEEK 4

The end of week 3 and I’m still seeing some great strength gains.

I’m starting to really notice the size coming along now as well and I’m consistently gaining 1-2lbs a week.

It seems to be going in the right places too as my waist measurement has stayed the same thankfully (I didn’t want much more on there – it’s bad enough as it is!)

Chest is really starting to deepen and even seeing some size come on to my stubborn arms! Hopefully things keep going at this speed and don’t slow down!

Arms : 15.75 inches (+.25)

Chest : 43.5 inches (+.5)

Waist : 35.5 inches

Quads : 25 inches (+.5)

Calves : 15.5/15.875 (+1.25)

WEEK 5

My gains seem to be slowing and I feel a bit softer this week..

Shoulders are bulking up nicely this week but my chest and mid section look a little softer.

I did want to do give the high volume training a chance for 5-6 weeks but I may have to change to a lower volume, higher intensity program to see if that kickstarts any new growth.

I’m tidying my diet even more next week also. Limit the carbs a little and increase the protein. No gains to write home about this week – just my chest and unfortunately my waist!

Arms : 15.75 inches

Chest : 43.75 inches (+.25)

Waist : 35.75  inches (+ .25)

Quads : 25 inches

Calves : 15.5/15.875

WEEK 6

Messed up the pose a little bit today..got carried away and flared out my back a little too much

Saw good results again this week! My strength is starting to plateau though. I think it’s because my body is burning out from the insane intensity.

I’m changing phases next week to see if we can kickstart some new strength and growth!

Arms : 15.875 inches (+.125)

Chest : 44 inches (+.25)

Waist : 35.5 inches

Quads : 25.25 inches (+.25)

Calves : 15.675/16 inches (+1.25)

WEEK 7

I didn’t end up changing my phase this week as I felt better after taking the weekend off. Thought I’d give it one more week because my gains were still good.

This was a mistake – I didn’t grow much this week and my waist grew half an inch! You can see that in the picture too.

My chest and shoulders look fuller this week on the plus side – but I’m definitely changing phases next week to a higher intensity, but a lower volume workout.

Arms : 15.875 inches

Chest : 44.5 inches (+.5)

Waist : 36 inches (+.5)

Quads : 25.5 inches (+.25)

Calves : 15.75/16 inches (+1.25)

WEEK 8

I’m seeing instant results from having changed my workout phase this week!

It’s obvious that my body had started adapting to my last workout.

Saw increased strength, size and I even shed that extra water/fat that I had put on last week.

I did this by tidying up my diet even further (my diet was consistently good throughout these 12 weeks) but my body was also quite clearly shocked at the change of workout and cleaner diet. These aspects combined saw my body change for the better this week. The end of week 7 was the best I looked during this transformation. You’ll see one reason why that was in the following weeks below..

Arms : 16 inches (+.125)

Chest : 44.75 inches (+.25)

Waist : 35.5 inches (-.5)

Quads : 25.75 inches (+.25)

Calves : 15.75/16.125 inches (+.125)

WEEK 9

Argh bad week this week! After squatting 145kg, the following day I managed to get myself some crazy knee pain!

The lesson to be learned here is not to squat heavy without wrapping your knees – My wraps didn’t arrive in time before I went to Cyprus so I had to go without.

This injury stopped me training my legs heavily and I think were responsible for my gains stopping (Hopefully you know that training your legs heavily also positively effects your upper body growth due to the release of testosterone).

My upper body in this picture is probably the biggest it has been in my entire transformation. My chest is really full as well as my shoulders and arms (arms grew a whole quarter inch!) – Although my waist increased this week. You can see me looking slightly more bloated.

Arms : 16.25 inches (+.25)

Chest : 45 inches (+.25)

Waist : 36 inches (+.5)

Quads : 25.75 inches

Calves : 15.875/16.25 inches (+.125)

WEEK 10

I was still struggling to train legs with my knee injury in my last week so the aim was to try and end up in the best shape out of all 10 and a half weeks of my transformation.

I reduced my carbs and went for some personal bests in the gym with my upper body workouts.

I feel it worked nicely and you can see I hardened up in the last week without losing any size!

Overall I’m pretty satisfied with having put on 10lbs of solid muscle in just over 10 weeks without any fat gain! In fact my final statistics below show I lost .25 inches off of my starting waist measurement!

Arms : 16.25 inches

Chest : 45.125 inches (+.125)

Waist : 35.25 inches (-.75)

Quads : 25.75 inches

Calves : 15.875/16.25 inches

OVERALL 10 WEEK MUSCLE TRANSFORMATION

So here is my final transformation picture from Week 1 compared to Week 10! Along with the statistics from week 1 compared to Week 10! I hope this has impressed upon you what can be achieved in a relatively short space of time with the right knowledge, focus and discipline.