This program has only one goal, to make you as athletic and strong as possible in 47 days. I’ve included everything you need to complete your own fitness transformation program. There is a full PDF guide with each daily workout session. I’ve also included other important tools, like my ultimate nutrition calculator. Keep reading if you want to build serious muscle and change your body in only 47 days.
When I write each program, I think about the ideal type of person each program is meant for. This fitness transformation program is written for someone who’s had a break from weight training, or perhaps, is new to functional fitness style programs. Maybe they aren’t happy with their current fitness level and want to whip themselves back into shape. It isn’t written for someone who’s completely new to the gym. Let’s take a quick overview of the program below.
The 47 Day Fitness Transformation Program Overview
- This program provides a workout, or recovery workout each day
- Ideal for beginner, or intermediate athletes, with some gym experience
- You must have safe form on the basic lifts (Squat, Bench Press, Strict Press, Deadlift)
- It isn’t a CrossFit Program
- This program can be done in a commercial, or home gym
- Most workouts are in the 30-40min range
- It’s designed to begin your fat loss journey
- It can be used as a weight loss program
- It can be used for building lean muscle mass
This body transformation program is designed to help you improve your body fat to muscle mass ratio. This is known as body composition. Newer athletes can actually build muscle mass, while losing body fat. Athletes with more time in the gym will either gain muscle or lose body fat. They are unlikely to do both. This is one area where folks with lower fitness levels actually make the most improvement.
As I mentioned above, this isn’t a CrossFit program. There is no olympic lifting or high skill gymnastics work. If you’re looking for that kind of program, then you can see any of the dozens of other programs I’ve written. This workout program has a lot of supersets, weight lifting, and continuous work with moderate to heavy weights. Research has shown that weight training is one of the best methods for building muscle.
This program is a 7 week transformation program that should help you improve your overall health. You’ll work your entire body with different exercises, emphasizing compound lifts and high power output movements. You’ll also have pure cardio days, with a lot of high intensity interval training (HIIT).
What If You’re Brand New to the Gym?
If you’ve never done much lifting before, then I recommend a little different path. Your first priority would be to learn the basic compound movements. There are a couple of ways you can do this, depending on your budget. There’s nothing wrong with joining a local CrossFit gym, and having them teach you the basic movements. It works for thousands of people each year.
If that doesn’t sound appealing, you can always hire a personal trainer, or sports performance coach, for a few sessions. They can teach you the basics, and make sure you’re performing the lifts safely. If neither of these are an option, then you can teach yourself, but it will take longer.
I taught myself all the lifts when I was a teenager, and I learned olympic lifting the same way. You can actually join plenty of Facebook groups, or sub Reddits for lifting, and they can help you immensely. Take some video of your lifts and ask for critiques. I know I’ve posted some corrections for athletes in both places. Just be careful of free advice, it isn’t always that good, but it can get you pointed in the right direction. Now let’s talk about getting started on the right foot with your fitness goals.
How to Set Your Fitness Goals
This isn’t as simple as you think. In fact, thinking about your fitness goals the wrong way can really sabotage your gains. Let me know if this sounds familiar. You begin a workout routine, and you start paying a lot of attention to cleaning up your diet. You’re going strong for a few days or even a week, and then life happens. You miss a workout, you get called in to work, and then you eat some junk food. Before you know it, you’ve completely derailed your whole program, and it had nothing to do with the missed workout, or junk food!
You were thinking about your goal wrong. I recommend checking out this article, on researched based goal setting methods. It doesn’t sound super sexy, but I bet you wouldn’t mind reading it if you’d be twice as likely to achieve success with this fitness transformation program. Here’s an example of how to think about goal setting for best results.
Let’s go back to the example above. Once our athletes process was derailed, the whole thing fell apart, because it was rigid, inflexible, and relied upon the whole plan functioning perfectly. That isn’t realistic. Let’s take a look at a better method of achieving our desired body transformation.
The graphic above is a goal hierarchy. At the bottom of the hierarchy are daily concrete processes that you can engage in. These processes feed into the next level of habit formation. Once the new habit is acquired, it will naturally lead to your overall goal. Check out the example below for the ripped body fitness transformation program.
This hierarchy allows for greater flexibility, and most importantly, it avoids rigidity. If you only exercised three times per week then you aren’t a failure with this program. You still have several other subordinate processes that will allow you to achieve success.
You’ll notice that each daily process also supports the other intermediate level goals. Eating a high protein meal will also help you increase your lean mass, and it supports your goal of eating a healthy diet. Lastly, you’ll notice that I didn’t put goals like lose 10 pounds of fat, or bench press 200 pounds.
The article linked above explains that athletes generally do better with mastery related goals rather than outcome related goals. For example, if you only lost 8 pounds of fat, then you might think of yourself as a failure, where as you should really celebrate your success. Afterall, you created a fat loss habit that will most likely help you reach your ultimate goal. You mastered the process of losing body fat.
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I think I’ve harped on this enough. Follow the recommended hierarchy and maintain flexibility. Failing to perfectly complete one portion of your goal, cannot be allowed to derail the rest of your successful body transformation! Execute your daily processes, and be patient. You’ll reach your goals.
Next we’re going to talk about the programming, and exercise routines. After that, we’ll cover my nutrition guide, and some great nutrition advice on eating like an athlete.
The 47 Day Ripped Body Fitness Transformation Program
Before we get into the nitty gritty, I want to remind you that there will be a complete PDF download for The 47 Day Ripped Body Fitness Transformation Program at the end of the section. If I put the download up front, then you’ll just download it, and not read any of the coaching advice I’m about to drop on you. Workout plans are great, but knowing how to execute them is better!
If you want to try my most popular hybrid bodybuilding program, then check this out!
General Program Guidance
This program is written sequentially, with something planned for each of the 47 days. You won’t be in the gym every day by any means. Some days there is no programed work, just stretching and recovery. I don’t expect that everyone will be able to do all workouts as I’ve written them. That’s ok, just scale the workout appropriately.
As you get into the exercise program, you’ll find that it’s generally 5 days per week, targeting each muscle group. Normally you’ll end each mini cycle with two recovery or rest days. It doesn’t always follow that pattern, and I don’t expect many of you to do all 47 days straight through. Life happens, and sometimes you need a little more rest, or just can’t do the workout for whatever reason. That’s ok, remember we are process oriented and flexible. Small steps lead to big gains!
Much of the work is programmed for a lot of reps in a certain amount of time, however for regular lifts, I expect you to rest 2-3 minutes between sets. If I don’t tell you how much to rest, just make sure you’ve recovered enough going into the next set. Without further ado, let’s get going on our fitness journey, and step out of your comfort zone!
The 47 Day Ripped Body Fitness Transformation Workouts
The program is easy to understand. Each day I’ve given you a general idea of how long each training session lasts. I specify exactly how the workout should be executed. It’s important to note that I haven’t specified your warm up. Just realize that you should warm up your lifts, prior to starting the workout.
I normally advise 3-5 minutes of walking or easy cardio, followed by easier variants of the main movements you will be doing in the workout. If you will be squatting heavy, then warm up with air squats, and lighter barbell squats, before getting to your workout weight.
Days 1 – 8
I’m relying on you to make sure you’re executing the workout safely. If you feel like your form is starting to break down, then you need to take a break, or lower the weight. You can’t workout if you’re injured! Be smart and remember I’d rather you dropped some weight, so you could attack the workout, rather than do it exactly like I’ve written, with terrible execution.
On several of the cardio days, I’ve specified running. Research has shown that running is one of the best exercises to drop body fat, when mixed with resistance training. If you don’t like running or can’t, then you can substitute a different cardio exercise. You should aim to keep the same time intervals. If I specified one minute on and one minute off, do the same thing with whatever type of cardio you’re doing. You’ll find that even with short 20 minute workouts, it doesn’t take much time to get a killer workout.
Days 9 – 16
By the end of session 16 you should feel fairly comfortable with your overall workout routine. I always tell my athletes that when they’re getting back to the gym, they’ll be really sore for the first two weeks. That will gradually recede. I promise you’ll still be sore in the upcoming weeks, but not the kind of sore that causes dad noises.
You’ve probably noticed that most of the lifts are compound lifts. The only isolation movements you’ll be doing are really accessory movements to your compound work. Compound lifts are the best option for most people. You can do more work in less time.
Days 17 – 24
This is roughly the halfway point for the body transformation program. Astute readers will notice that I’m gradually increasing the length of the workouts. I’m also increasing the total workout volume, in terms of sets and reps. You can’t make progress doing the same amount of work you’ve already done! Progressive overload matters!
Days 25 – 32
By now some of you “type A” athletes will probably try and sneak in some “extra work.” While a little bit probably won’t harm anything, make sure you aren’t skipping those rest and recovery days. Walking has been shown to be one of the best recovery methods, and it can actually increase the amount of muscle mass you put on when done with a strength training program.
Days 33 – 40
For these final weeks of the program, I’ve gradually increased the amount of gym, or cardio days you will be performing in a row. This is by design. Most of my other programs are 4-5 day per week programs, and I want you to build the habit of working out that way, so you can continue on with your next program, and build even more strength, and muscle mass.
Days 41 – 47
These are the last sessions of the The 47 Day Ripped Body Fitness Transformation Program. They are intense, but you should be able to handle them by now. Moreover, you’ve no doubt drastically increased your overall fitness, and are in much better overall health. Great work! Oh, here’s the PDF download below. I bet you thought I forgot.
CLICH HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE 47 DAY RIPPED BODY FITNESS TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM PDF
Eating to Lose Body Fat and Increase Performance
I’ll let you in on a little secret. All diets can work. It’s the caloric deficit that actually causes weight loss. However, there are certain diets that research has shown are better suited for athletes. In my recent article I compared a lot of research on the paleo diet vs. keto diet. As it turns out, the paleo diet is much better for sports performance, as well as weight loss.
I recommend that you generally follow the paleo diet method of eating. Eat meat and vegetables, and limit your consumption of processed food items. Try and eat a wide variety of proteins and carbs as well. You won’t derail your whole program if you have a bagel, but limiting lower quality food intake will help you achieve your goals, and take your fitness to the next level.
I also recommend checking out these two resources. First, you should read my Ultimate Nutrition Guide, where I cover the basics of all nutrition. You’d be surprised how much you don’t know. If you really want to get nerdy, you can download my nutrition calculator. This spreadsheet calculates how many calories you should eat, and gives you macro recommendations as well. It will also track weight loss and your body fat changes. It’s basically a custom nutrition plan.
If you want a great follow on program, designed to build lean muscle mass, then look no further!
Meal Preparation
As most athletes realize, a big part of gaining muscle, or losing body fat, comes down to what you do in the kitchen, or your meal plans. I’m not the best cook by any stretch of the imagination, but having some easy go to recipes can really improve your chances of achieving your fitness goals. I recommend checking out these two websites for some great ideas for high protein meals. As we know, eating enough protein is key!
Remember our diet plan is flexible, and should start out with easily achievable goals. You don’t have to make a complete lifestyle change immediately. As we stated above, just making one high protein meal a day can be a great step to taking your fitness to the next level. And hey, if you cook some leftovers, you have a great high protein lunch for the next day as well! Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be difficult.
Final Thoughts
We’ve covered a lot of information, but I think you have everything you need to complete your body transformation, every step of the way. If done straight through, this is a 7 week body transformation program. It’s ok if it lasts a bit longer than 47 days, just get through the program diligently!
You’ve a better way of thinking about your goals, which will ensure that you can actually achieve your desired weight loss. I’ve also given you a fitness program that works your upper body, lower body, and includes tons of full body athletic movements.
Eat a reasonably high protein diet, and use some of the fitness tools I’ve provided, and I’m sure you’ll be amazed at the progress you can make in 47 days. If you have any questions or comments put them in the comments section below and I’ll get you an answer. Now get out there and get training!
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