My 30-Day Body Transformation (low effort):

Maximising Muscle/Strength growth with the least possible effort…

Hello everyone,

You all know the feeling. You set your mind to something, go all in for a short period, and feel amazing and incredibly motivated. But over time, that motivation fades, and eventually, you give up. That’s how it’s been for me with strength training on more than one occasion. I always wanted too much at the beginning and ended up overdoing it. I didn’t want to make that mistake again, so I came up with something different.

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So I tried to achieve as much as possible in 30 days but with minimal effort!

Quick Update: The YouTube video for this article is now online!!!

The Experiment

For four weeks, I committed to working out twice a week. And because I wanted to stick to the “least possible effort” approach, I had ChatGPT create a workout program tailored to the equipment in my home gym.

Here’s what the program looked like:

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But of course, the preparations didn’t stop there. To really compare whether I improved over these four weeks, I had to record my starting point. I didn’t just take pictures of myself; I also weighed myself and measured my entire body. This way, I could tell at the end of the challenge whether I had built muscle. Here are my measurements:

But it’s not just about appearance; it’s also about strength! To measure this, I did max strength tests in the following exercises. Here are the results at the start of the challenge:

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After all this preparation, I was finally ready to start! But more on that in the next section…

The Training Experience:

Week 1 was extremely tough. The first workout was especially challenging because I was already exhausted after squats. It really shows when you haven’t done proper strength training for two years. But of course, I kept going and finished my workout. The second workout of the first week went much better. But believe me… the muscle soreness in Week 1 was brutal (especially in the legs).

YouTube

In Week 2, I had my first motivation issues. It might sound ridiculous, but when it came time for squats, I suddenly had excuses popping into my head. But of course, I pushed through and can proudly say that I increased my weight in almost every exercise. For instance, my deadlift went from 60 kg to 70 kg, and my incline bench press increased from 12.5 kg to 17.5 kg in the top set. The only thing that really didn’t go well was my grip strength. It was definitely not sufficient during the second workout of the week to perform deadlifts, pull-ups, and rows properly.

Week 3 brought a small setback. As some of you might know from previous posts, I’ve been dealing with knee issues for a long time due to a bone spur. It had improved a lot, but the extremely heavy squats brought it back. So, I had to switch from regular squats to box squats. Nevertheless, everything else went pretty well, and I was able to lift more weight in many exercises.

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Week 4, the final stretch. Since I still had to do box squats this week, I decided to at least maximize the weight. I actually managed to increase my top set from 70 kg to 85 kg! Overall, Week 4 went very well, except for the fact that it felt like it was 500° in our home gym.

So much for the training, but that’s not all. During these four weeks, I also paid attention to my diet. I wasn’t focused on eating as healthily as possible, but rather on consuming 3,000 calories or more every day. Plus, I aimed for 120 grams of protein daily. These are the values I needed to gain weight and increase my strength. But now, let’s finally get to the results.

The Results

After four weeks, I managed to increase my body weight from 66 kg to 68 kg. It might not sound like much, but considering I didn’t gain fat, that’s a lot. Just to remind you: We’re talking about four weeks and, therefore, only eight workouts. I was very satisfied with the weight gain. But what about the body measurements?

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Looking at the chart, we can see that I gained 0.5–1.5 cm everywhere. For four weeks, these are excellent values. The only areas where I didn’t gain were my wrists and waist. And let’s be honest: Not gaining around the belly is a success, and getting thicker wrists is a process that takes longer than a few weeks. So, this measurement was also a success!

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Appearance is nice, but what about strength?

Of course, I did the same strength test at the end of the challenge as I did at the beginning. I’ll be honest with you, at first, things didn’t look good. I did shoulder presses again and couldn’t repeat the 50 kg. That was very disappointing, but I kept going. In the bench press, I had my first success, as I was able to increase my max weight from 75 kg to 80 kg. It continued like this: 14 pull-ups instead of 11, and I also managed to set a new record in squats. From 80 kg to 90 kg, that’s what I call an improvement, especially considering my knee issues. But now, let’s talk about the deadlift. I managed 100 kg at the start of the challenge, which for me, was an incredible amount of weight. My form was poor, but I still managed to break that record and increase it to 110 kg!

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Wrapping It Up

Overall, I have to say that I’m incredibly satisfied with the results. But it’s not just the strength and muscles that make me happy; it’s also my overall well-being. After just the first week of training, I felt so much better! Exercise gives your body so much, and that’s why the MAIN message of this article is the following:

Move your Ass!

Whether it’s strength training, running, swimming, dancing, or whatever… make sure you keep moving because that’s what our bodies are made for. I’ve written articles on this topic before. Those who move more, live longer. I think that sums it up pretty well.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you did, subscribe to my newsletter “Weekly Better” and don’t forget to check out the YouTube video that goes with this article to see the training, strength tests, and more in detail. 

Best regards,

Aaron ❤