What Would It Take To Have The Perfect Bodybuilding Day?

What would be a realistically perfect bodybuilding day compared to the fantastical ideal? An interesting question. The big question is what is required for someone to have the perfect bodybuilding day? The perfect day to maximize hypertrophy? How would it look exactly? First we need to analyze the factors that must be controlled in order to reach optimal efficiency. The simplest is sleep. 8 hours at night and we can throw in a good 15-30 minute time period for a quick recuperative nap. 4-5 solid whole food meals spaced well throughout. A good 1.5 hour workout. Possibly split into two workouts but for simplicity's sake we'll stick to one here. A little cardio and 10,000 steps in the day. A little deep tissue work and a whole lot of relaxation. How much time would this actually take?

Obviously there are many different possibilities for the day for different people. This is just one. Now let's tally this up and the tasks of bodybuilding took up almost 6 hours. That seems great in comparison to an 8 hour work day. However, the two longest blocks of free time were 1 hour 45 minutes each. Realistically if this were an actual person the free time would be even less because of travel time. Being busy later in the day too cuts out a lot of options for being social. It's not a realistic schedule for 99.9% of people out there no matter how dedicated they are. Doing this every day for months on end would be close to impossible. This is why sacrifices, compromises and trades have to take place for someone seeking optimization. The technically true optimal is not the real optimal. The real optimal is sustainable as well.

So now on to a realistically optimized schedule complete with compromises and awareness of reality's demands.

Realistically some walking around could be done during the work day during bathroom breaks or just due to the normal workflow required. However the odds of getting the 10,000 step goal is greatly reduced when compared to our optimal first example. The highlighted requirements are almost all there though. 5 meals were hit and spaced well, 1 hour long workout but not the 1.5 that might be preferred, 4500 planned steps but some would occur during the work day and workout, and there was still enough time to get 8 hours of sleep.

The biggest difference though when optimal vs realistic are compared is the evening freedom. It is a lot easier to hit the gym, eat and then do something with others that possibly may incorporate that 4th or 5th meal while it happens. There is a flexible 3 hours and 45 minutes that could easily encompass a dinner and a movie as an example. This wiggle room is paramount to the success of a plan. It gives time for gaining sanity and having options. Some people thrive on each day being the same and some people will not be able to keep 3 days in a row looking the same. Options and flexibility lead to more reliable success for many people. Having that built into a plan is a vital component of reaching long term goals.

This doesn't even touch on those who work swing shifts, night shifts, 12 hour days, 7 days straight of work then 7 days off of work or people who are on call 24 hours a day. These situations are awful. There is another article on the site that talks about working around some of these situations that may be helpful if you're in that spot. Click here if you want to check it out.

The amount of nuance when it comes to training, nutrition and progress are immense so if you're having any difficulties feel free to reach out. In depth consultations are available on the site or quick questions can use the contact tab or instagram to send a message.