The College Student's Guide to a Beach Body

Going to school in New England certainly has its perks. The weather is not one of them. After three and half years in the windy, frigid city of Boston, I finally landed safely in the sunlit paradise that is my South Florida home. With sand, sun, and surf at to spare, Floridians wear shorts and a t-shirt year-round. Down here, there is no hiding a gut behind a bulky down coat or an ugly Christmas sweater. Your body is on display 24/7.

Despite the brutally cold gusts daring me to make the trek to the campus gym at BU, I kept my focus and managed to keep fit during my time up north. Now, coming to Florida and shedding the layers is a more exciting experience than it is traumatizing.

After my freshman year at school, I wrote an article called "The Skinny College Student's Guide to Getting Ripped." While I stand by most of what I wrote back then, I'd like to update that piece with some lessons and tips I've acquired in the three and half years since publishing that column.

My goal is to provide a realistic, effective method for building a lean, muscular body while maneuvering through a hectic schedule filled with classes, research papers, internships, and the occasional party. Maintaining an exercise routine in college is challenging and demands dedication, but armed with proper knowledge about workouts, nutrition, and rest, anybody can build a beach body.

The Workouts

I'm a firm believer in routines that incorporate weight training and light cardio to build muscle and strip away fat. I'm a naturally skinny guy, so weight training is always the focus of my workout.

I advise starting every workout with a 10 to 15 minute warm-up on the treadmill or stationary bike. Not only will this get your blood pumping and your sweat pouring, but it also helps you focus on your upcoming lift and get into a zone.

While I've tried almost every type of workout routine out there--a different muscle group each day, core and stability exercises, powerlifting'"I've found the most effective method of gaining strength and adding lean muscle to be an old-school, total-body barbell workout.

Based on the book Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe, this workout requires a three-days-a-week commitment and roughly 45 minutes for each session. The workout focuses on compund lifts: the squat, bench press, overheard press, deadlift, and row.

Now if you were ever like me, you might see the words "squat" and "deadlift" and opt to quit reading this now and search for another column that tells you that leg presses and leg curls will do just fine.

Don't be fooled! The squat and deadlift are the two best exercises in the world for adding mass to your body, but most people are either too impatient to learn proper form or too lazy that they choose to avoid these essential exercises all together. I was once a victim of this, and now all I can do is look back with regret at the years I spent doing isolation exercises that did nothing for me.

This routine is three days a week, with one day of rest in between each workout. So you could workout on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday, it's up to you. Just make sure you don't do back-to-back weight training or you could hamper your progress and stall your muscles' recovery.

The routine looks like this:

Workout A:

Squats: 3x5
Bench Press: 3x5
Deadlift: 1x5

Workout B:

Squats: 3x5
Overhead Press: 3x5
Barbell Row: 3x5

All of these exercises are done with a barbell. No dumbbells or machines are used for this routine! In order to find the most challenging weight allowing you to complete the prescribed number of reps, keep doing a set of each exercise and adding 5 to 10 pounds every time till you feel that is the heaviest weight with which you can do 3 sets of 5.

Once you've found this starting weight, make sure to jot it down so you can increase the weight next time you workout. I've found that keeping a log has been incredibly helpful in keeping me motivated, on-track, and focused. I never waste a workout and always look to put up more weight than I did in the previous workout.

If you find that you'd like to challenge yourself a little more, you may add a few sets of dips to the end of Workout A and three sets of chin-ups to Workout B. Trust me, while it sounds easy to bang out a ton of chin-ups at the end of a workout, it'll be anything but after you've been squatting and rowing extremely heavy weight.

While you can certainly add some abdominal exercises to the end of each workout, your core is getting plenty of action by stabilizing your body during these big movements. Plus, these workouts will release a ton of muscle-building, fat-busting hormones in your body which will help shed that belly fat and put your abs on display.

Conclusion

As I said before, form is crucial in performing these exercises. Proper form ensures you're training the right muscles while protecting you from injury. If you'd like to read detailed descriptions of how to perform each exercise, pick up a copy of Starting Strength. I'm also attaching a link to a very thorough bodybuilding post that examines this routine in greater detail.

This routine will no doubt get your stronger, bigger, and leaner. I wish I could take back all the hours I wasted in college doing the latest poster workout or stability exercise. Take my word for it, this workout routine is harder than it looks and will definitely test your fitness. But stick it out and you'll see results. In just over a month of doing this routine, I've noticed my back is thicker and wider than it has ever been, while my legs are turning into tree trunks. Your whole body will transform together so you look like a complete athlete, not those silly gym rats with huge torsos and chicken legs. Good luck, and enjoy the new you!