1. Hang out with at least one guy who has a better body than you

The old adage “You’re the sum total of the 5 people you spend the most time with” holds true even when talking about your body.

You see, physique improvements don’t start with your diet and training. They start with your environment.

So, your first task is to find a guy with a better body than you and spend time with him. You don’t have to chat regularly. Nor you have to become his bestie. But you want to have some kind of communication with him.

This behavior is the closest you’ll ever get to a physique “hack”.

Why?

Because just having this guy around, will force your subconscious mind to make better training and eating choices.

I understand if you’re skeptical. But it’s one of those behaviors you first need to try before you become a believer.

2. Train at least 3 days per week

If you can’t, just forget about improving your body

In my experience with hundreds of clients, people who can just train 2/week won't improve their physiques. In most cases, they end up training once per week. And even if they do train twice and improve their bodies, it happens because they were newbies. When you’re a newbie, anything works on you.

But if you’ve trained on and off throughout the years, you will find it harder to improve your body.

Twice per week training won’t be enough and you won’t build muscle at a decent rate.

If you can’t invest at least 3 days? You’ve made terrible life choices, you’re probably a slave in a free world, and I doubt you’ll improve your body until you re-organize your priorities.

3. Train each muscle 2–3 times per week

Training a muscle once is fine for the genetically elite or steroid users. The rest of us (and especially guys over 30) need more frequency. Most training splits can help you here.

You can do a full body.

You can do upper/lower.

You can do push/pull/legs.

No matter what banana split you choose, make sure it trains each body part at least twice per week. Anything less, won’t make you strong and won’t build muscle.

4. Follow a training program you like

Back in 2012, my training sessions started with 5 sets of barbell squats, for 5 reps.

But, before even going to the gym, I was dreading the squats.

Why?

Because each day I was working at a gym and would walk around for 8+ hours. At the end of my shift, my legs were killing me.

So, I came up with all kinds of excuses to skip training.

When you dread or even hate parts of your workout, your training intensity is low. You don’t push yourself. And you don’t enjoy the results you deserve.

So, make sure you enjoy your program.

If you don’t, tweak it asap.

5. Have a plan B for the exercises

What do you do if a machine is taken? What if an exercise hurts? What if a joint feels “off”?

In the above cases, you should substitute the exercise and keep training. The substitutions won’t always be perfect. But they’re better than waiting 10+ minutes for the squat rack, training through elbow pain, or constantly worrying if your knee or shoulder will pop out

6. Follow a progressive overload plan

Do more reps than last time.

If you exceed a certain number of reps, increase weight.

The above is the oldest progressive overload plan in the world.

Wanna know something else about it? Since it’s the oldest one, it’s also the one proven to work the most.

If you don’t like it, that’s OK — pick a different one.

However, you need a plan that will make you stronger than you were before. If your workout lacks a plan like that, it’s not a workout. It’s a waste of your time.

7. Focus on a single goal

If you’ve been training for years, forget gaining muscle and losing the flab at the same time. You’ll need a lot of time before seeing measurable results. And, in the meantime, you’ll be looking yourself in the mirror wondering “WTF (What The Fotis) am I doing wrong?”

So, gain muscle for a few months.

Then, lose the flab.

Or vice versa.

With muscle gain, you can also focus on certain muscles. For example, a client wanted to focus on his chest, his back, his arms and his shoulders.

My reply?

“Would you also like fries with that??”

I commend the desire for wanting more, but he is too advanced. So, we can’t focus on all those muscle groups simultaneously.

Instead, we focus on 1–2 muscles for 4–8 weeks.

Then, we’ll focus on 1–2 other muscles and repeat the process.

With each training block, he’ll increase muscle mass to the targeted parts while maintaining what he’s already built. One year from now, he’ll be a 2.0 version of himself, simply because he was smart enough to focus.

***

And there you have it.

7 behaviors that cang give you a body to be proud of.

If you are a man over 30 who wants daily tips on building muscle while minimizing (or even eliminating) joint pain, grab my free report here:

http://grecianfitness.eu/self-growth

Author's Bio: 

For nearly a decade, Fotis Chatzinicolaou has been helping men over 30 build muscle, lose the gut and get a body they can be proud of. He's also the author of the book Sculpted Grecian Body