Science of Aesthetics (ePub)

This book is targeted for people of all fitness levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) desiring to build a lean and natural muscular physique. It is self-educational, simple to understand, and requires no training or dieting knowledge or experience in the domain of bodybuilding. It teaches all key training and dieting fundamentals and gradually builds on your learning from ground up to help you assimilate the acquired knowledge to create your most effective individualized meal and workout plans, ultimately making you become your own trainer.

The book is scientifically driven and synthesizes information from more than 350 different research studies and papers. It consists of nine chapters:

Chapter 1 explains the four key dieting fundamentals that every bodybuilder should know about for effectively planning his meals. It lists down common fallacies you should be wary of and explains the concept of energy balance, macros and micros and their types and functions, the dieting approach you should be adopting, and the means to calculate your BMI, BMR, and TDEE to help you determine your body needs.

Chapter 2 explains your muscular system, structure, mechanics, and the way your body responds to different types of exercise.

Chapter 3 teaches you how to read food nutrition labels and calculate your calories to help you track your progress better and increase your food awareness into making wholesome choices for better health.

Chapter 4 elaborates on the different approaches to improve your body composition by addressing concepts such as body re-composition, cutting, bulking, intermittent fasting, refeeding, and cheating.

Chapter 5 addresses the time dimension of your nutrient consumption and explains in minute detail when and what to eat, drink, and supplement before, during, and after exercise to maximize your muscle building and fat burning progress. It also emphasizes the benefits of sleep for recovery and explains how to create a conducive environment for better sleep hygiene. Further, it describes causes of water retention and various ways to reduce it, and lastly, it discusses and clears out all confusion about the alleged muscle building and fat burning benefits of meal frequency using research, eventually driving into a logical conclusion.

Chapter 6 explains in detail the key strength/resistance training principles to amplify your muscle building, strength gain, and performance, such as progressive overloading, using compound and isolation lifts, optimizing mind-muscle connection, emphasizing eccentric movement, tweaking exercise tempo to optimize time under tension, and using the right rep ranges for hypertrophy.

Chapter 7 describes everything you need to know about cardio. It elaborates on the different energy systems of the human body, introduces and compares the two types of cardio (steady state and HIIT) and lays down guidelines on how to correctly and effectively do cardio to maximize fat burning and minimize muscle loss without overtraining your body.

Chapter 8 dives deep into the minutiae of stretching and explains the six common stretching techniques practiced by trainers and athletes with their pros and cons to help you decide which are appropriate for your training program and to teach you when and how to effectively apply them.

Chapter 9 is where you are guided to customize your workout and meal plans based on what you have collectively learnt from all the chapters throughout the book.