The James Bond Skyfall Workout

Disclaimer: This is not the official Daniel Craig Workout, but it will make you look Like james Bond!

Hey Guys, whats up?

On his third role as James Bond, Daniel Craig Shows up with a even more incredible physique! He is leaner, look solid and proportional! Let's break down what can we do to look more like if we had the license to kill.

So, for this role, Craig actually had to bulk due to your previous role in Cowboys vs Aliens where he was skinnier:

(I know, it does not even look like him)

The Areas of Focus

If we take a look at Daniel's physique we can naturally see that he gives a lot o focus to his chest (mostly upper chest to give a masculine look), back and mostly shoulders (his shoulders are impressive). Those are the main areas that pop out at our faces when we look at him. So this should be our focus if we want to look like Bond. You see that he has great leg development but is not a HOLY MARY MOTHER OF JESUS thing.

The Dieting

For bulking we need obviously to eat on a caloric surplus. That means, if we need 2500 cal to maintain our weight, we need to eat 2800 cal to bulk properly(in a healthy way, don't be the marshmallow guy). For that, there is a simple calculation. Get your weight (in pounds or lbs, if you use kilos just multiply it by 2.2) and multiply by one of these following numbers:

14 if you gain mass quickly
15 if you are a moderate mass maker
16 if you are like me: a "hardgainer"

This number will be your maintenance amoutn of calories. To bulk, add 300 calories to that. This now is the amount of food you need to eat. To bulk. Simple as that.

Tips:

• Try to separete 30% for Proteins, 30% for fat and 40% for carbs.
• Try to delegate your macros igualy between meals.

The Health Eating Hack: Intermittent Fasting

You've probably heard of it right now. It's getting very famous. This method consists of taking a window of fasting and than eating later in the day. I've adopted it for 2 years and a half by now and I havd alwats loved it: I don't feel lazy in the morning, actualy, I feel more focused! I burn fat quickly and the best: I can eat more in my meals! As a hardgainer, for me to be alble to increase my apetite and bulk was amazing.

And is not just it: For Cutting is even better! You are able to eat big in your meals but in the end of the day you will still stay in a deficit!

How it Works: Between your last meal at night and your first meal on the next day you have to leave a 12-16 hour window os fasting. Olny then you can break your fast and eat. For example, if your last meal at night was at 22h, you can only eat on lunch (11h - 14h).

Tips:

• For bulking I recommend having 3 meals: At Lunch, at mid-day (17h for example if you had lunch at 12h) and a huge meal at nigh to complete your calories (try to eat more carbs at night to improve muscle retention).
• For cutting I recommend having 2 big meals (Lunch and dinner) and at mid-day having something smaller like some low-calorie fruits or protein/cereal bars.

I have to say tho, the first 2 week are hard because your boddy is getting used to it. But later, It's pretty awesome!

The Workout

I'm a Low Volume Guy so I will set up a Workout Routine where you work out 3x a week. On each day we will focus on one of the muscle groups that I've mentioned before. With that, when we hit the workout our muscles are fresh and ready to hit personal records. This is very important because it generates progressive overload, allowing our muscles to grow bigger and stronger and actualy giving us results.

We will perform heavy sets with repetitions going around 5-10 reps to increase strength and myofibrillar hypertrophy. This is our baseline. Than we will add some high volume exercises to pump the muscles and give them the sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. The low volume exercises will also give the muscles the dense and solid look while the high volume will give them the definition and pump!

So the routine will look like that:

Workout A - Chest (Focus) and Triceps
Incline Bench Press - Reverse Pyramid Training
Bench Press - Reverse Pyramid Training
Triceps Extensions - Reverse Pyramid Training
Incline Dumbbell Flys - Rest Pause Training
Rope Extensions - Rest Pause Training

Workout B - Back (focus) and Biceps
Weighted Pull Ups - Reverse Pyramid Training (NOTE* if you can't perfom weighted Pull ups, build up to 3 sets of 10 reps util starting putting weight)
Weighted Chin Ups - Reverse Pyramid Training
Biceps Curls - Reverse Pyramid Training
Rows (in a machine or equipment) - Rest Pause Training
Biceps Hammer Curls - Rest Pause Training

Workout C - Shoulder (Focus) and Legs
Seated (or standing) Shoulder Press - Reverse Pyramid Training
Elevated Feet Single Leg Lunges - Reverse Pyramid Training (the non working leg stays elevated on a bench)
Lateral Deltoid Raises - Rest pause Training
Rear Deltoid Raises - Rest pause Training

• For Abs: Train abs 2-3x a week on non consecutive days. If your abs are not very big do:
  3 set os 6-8 reps of weighted hanging knee raises.
  If they start to get big (or already are big) just build up to 3 sets of 15-25 hanging leg raises.

Whats Is Reverse Pyramid Training?

It's a very special style of training that allows you to reach different rep ranges. So, you can get the benefits of Low, moderate and high volume. Here we try to not go out of the low to moderate volume. here is how it works on this workout:

1 - You do your heavier set first (this will allow you to lift heavier while fresh and recruit more muscle fibers on the following sets)
2 - rest 3 minutes and remove 10 - 15% of the weight
3 - Do your second set adding 1-2 additional reps
4 - rest 3 minutes and remove 10 - 15% of the weight
5 - Do your last set adding 1-2 additional reps

If you are focusing on strength for a certain exerceise I recommend the 5,6,8 rep ranges for each set. If You are focusing on hypertrophy use 6,8,10.
Tips: Realy go hard (but not being exagerated of course) on the 1st and 3rd sets. On the 2nd try not to go too hard.

Example of Reverse Pyramid Training:
Set 1: 5 reps x 50 lbs (than rest 3 min)
Set 2: 6 reps x 45 lbs (than rest another 3 min)
Set 3: 8 reps x 40 lbs

How to Progress Overload and Get Results

On each week, do this alternately: Add more 5 lbs (2 kilos) or add more 2 reps. So if on Week 1 you did 5 reps of 30 lbs, on Week 2 you will perform 5 reps with 35 lbs. Than, on Week 3 you will now perform 7 reps with 35 lbs, and now on Week 4 you will go back to 5 reps but now with 40 lbs. This way, you will be able to make slow but consistent progress every week, geting you the results to look more like bond.

What is Rest pause Training?

It's another very special style that focus on pushing your limits. You can use it to gain loads of strength, muscle, or definition. Here we will use it to get loads o volume in a short period of time. The concept of the style of Rest pause I use (there are many) is simple:

You do a first longer set almost hiting failure
rest only 10-15 seconds
Do 4 - 5 more mini sets resting only 10 - 15 secons between them

This will allow your body to recruit a lot of moscle fibers because the muscle won't have enough time to rest.
Example: Lets say that with 20 lbs you can perform a max of 15 reps and hit failure. so what you will do is:

For the first long set: 12 reps and rest 15 seconds (almost to failure).
For the first mini set: 4 reps and rest 15 seconds
For the second mini set: 4 reps and rest 15 seconds
For the third mini set: 4 reps and rest 15 seconds
For the last mini set: 4 reps and rest 15 seconds

The cool thing is that if you think that you got the reps wrong and you are pacing you can just peform an additional 1-2 mini sets at the end.

How to Progress

Try to start at 12 for your first long set. The push, on each week, to an additional 1-2 more reps. When you hit 20 on your first long set add 5 lbs and come back to 12.
This are the rep ranges setups that I suggest:
10 3 3 3
12 3-4 3-4 3-4 3-4
15 4-5 4-5 4-5 4-5
17 5-6 5-6 5-6 5-6
20 4-7 4-7 4-7 4-7

*Note: You can substitute Reverse Pyramid Training With 3 set of 6-8 reps (or 4 sets in the focus muscle groups) and Rest pause with 3 sets of 15 - 20 reps. Sometimes we are equipment limited. But I have to say that they are not as effective and make you hit a plateau way faster.

Hope You enjoy, please leave your opinion and thanks for reading.

See you soon,

Gabriel.