Twelve action-packed weeks filled with cardio and lifting, 84 exercises, completely no relaxation days, and a promise of an aesthetic lean physique three months down the road (nicely, if you survive).
What do you say? You in?
The so-called “Mass with Class,” Lee Labrada, spawned that precise program virtually a decade in the past within the type of Lean Physique 12-Week Coach on Bodybuilding.com’s BodyFit platform.
However earlier than you permit the subsequent three months of coaching within the former Mr. Universe’s palms, learn this program evaluation first!
There’s One thing You Ought to Know First
Hey, my title’s Kyle (I’m the founding father of Noob Features).
It’s good to fulfill you! 🙂
Earlier than you dive into this evaluation, I wished to leap in right here initially to principally… spoil the evaluation and provide the total ranking.
You prepared?
We charge Lee Labrada’s Lean Physique 12-Week Coach 6 out of 10.
That’s not nice.
We evaluation numerous packages right here at Noob Features and this one is unquestionably on the decrease finish.
So what can we suggest to guys that wish to construct a lean and muscular physique with the least quantity of effort?
With out understanding greater than 3 days per week…
With out forcing down 5 or extra tiny bodybuilder meals per day…
And with out giving up your favourite meals?
We predict Superhero X12 by Match Mole is a greater choice. By no means heard of it? Maintain studying and we’ll fill you in.
Construct a Superhero Physique With out Coaching Like One
Getting in form is not straightforward. However this program offers you a real-life strategy to constructing a leaner, extra muscular physique with out obsessing over health 24/7.
To start with, Lee Labrada’s program kills your free time and has you understanding 7 days per week.
No, that’s not a misstype.
With Lee Labrada’s program, you may have 5 lifting days and a pair of cardio periods each week.
Yea, you don’t get a single relaxation day for 12 straight weeks.
Now I don’t find out about you, however I don’t “stay to coach”. As an alternative, I practice to stay.
I’d quite hit my exercises onerous in fewer periods after which spend my evenings watching Netflix or taking part in video video games as an alternative.
On the opposite, Superhero X12 reveals you find out how to rework your physique in 3 very environment friendly exercises per week.
There aren’t any pointless workout routines and no time wasted.
If you happen to can commit to three hours of coaching every week, you’ll be able to create a great-looking physique. (And keep it yr spherical!)
Plus in case you hate cardio, you don’t must do it! It’s non-compulsory!
Second, the schedule in Lean Physique Coach is about up in a means that would result in overtraining and stalling your muscle beneficial properties.
Right here’s the deal…
Whenever you’re a noob, a well-designed exercise program does 2 issues:
- Stimulates every muscle group at the very least 2x per week
- Provides sufficient time for every muscle group to get better
That is usually carried out by working a muscle group on someday after which ready at the very least 48 hours earlier than working it once more.
For instance, right here’s what your week may seem like on an higher/decrease cut up:
- Sunday – Relaxation
- Monday – Higher physique
- Tuesday – Decrease physique
- Wednesday – Relaxation
- Thursday – Higher physique
- Friday – Decrease physique
- Saturday – Relaxation
This type of schedule satisfies the “2 issues” of a well-designed program.
However this isn’t what Lean Physique Coach does.
As an alternative, Labrada’s program has you hammering your muscle tissues and joints each single day of the week with no single day for restoration.
I imply, yeah… you’ll make some progress.
However wouldn’t you quite use a exercise program that permits loads of time to relaxation so that you don’t burn out and really feel like crap every time you permit the gymnasium?
Alternatively, the exercise routines in Superhero X12 are designed for guys that need nice outcomes with out feeling fully drained.
Like I already mentioned, you’ll be able to see unimaginable muscle beneficial properties beginning with simply 3 exercises per week.
This gives you loads of time to get better (bodily and mentally) so that you come again greater and stronger with each session.
And never solely that… SX12 has a BONUS 2-day routine for actually busy people that also wish to develop their our bodies with restricted time.
It’s sort of a gamer-changer.
Lastly, Lee Labrada’s program leaves out crucial piece of diet that’s vital to your physique to vary.
Energy.
In terms of dropping or gaining weight, it’s energy in and energy out.
And for some cause, Lean Physique Coach has no point out of what number of energy it’s best to devour to fulfill your objectives.
This blows my thoughts.
It’s like shopping for a automotive with no steering wheel.
How are you going to presumably predict what your physique will seem like, in case you don’t say what number of energy you’re purported to eat?
However, Superhero X12 comes with a full calorie and macro breakdown of precisely what you want to eat to construct muscle.
It’s all lined. Plus the included calorie calculator does the heavy lifting for you.
And the sweetness is… you’ll be able to actually eat no matter you need so long as it matches in your diet numbers.
Yea, eat a bit of cake each single day if you need! You’ll be able to nonetheless achieve muscle!
Loopy, proper?!
These are the explanations, I believe Superhero X12 is a greater choice than Lee Labrada’s Lean Physique Coach:
- You’ll save time by understanding solely 3 days per week
- You’ll really feel higher and have extra vitality as a result of your routine offers you loads of time to get better
- You’ll construct muscle and drop a few pounds quicker with a diet plan that tells you precisely what to eat
However you don’t must hearken to me.
I’m only a random man on the web.
Why not click here and take a look at Superhero X12 for your self?
Construct a Superhero Physique With out Coaching Like One
Getting in form is not straightforward. However this program offers you a real-life strategy to constructing a leaner, extra muscular physique with out obsessing over health 24/7.
In regards to the Creator – Lee Labrada
The Golden Age of Bodybuilding was already winding down by the point Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, and Serge Nubret have been calling it quits on wildly profitable careers.
Lee Labrada joined the bodybuilding craze in 1982, putting first in Texas-based and junior competitions earlier than advancing onto the professional world.
His stage profession ultimately spiraled into:
- At the very least 22 bodybuilding titles within the skilled circuit (together with Mr. Universe)
- Seven straight top-four finishes at Mr. Olympia, tying Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Over 100 journal covers
- A diet model aptly named Labrada Vitamin
- Induction into the IFBB Corridor of Fame (2004)
Since retiring in 1995, Labrada’s been fairly candid about his … questionable journey towards IFBB titles. He admitted to anabolic steroid use (however he’s adamant they didn’t assist him on stage).
Labrada later accepted the position of Houston’s first-ever “Health Czar” again in 2002, rolling out the “Get Lean Houston” marketing campaign to decrease the epidemic-level weight problems charges in Texas.
The very subsequent yr, Houston forfeited its title of “Fattest Metropolis in America,” although weight problems charges lingered above the nationwide common at 33% in 2017.
(That unlucky title now belongs to Little Rock, Arkansas. Congratulations!)
What’s Lee Labrada’s Lean Physique 12-Week Coach?
Ridiculously exhausting with a touch of overtraining.
Lean Body 12-Week Trainer strikes a fragile stability between your mortal enemy — cardio (& fat-burning) — and the one you inform your girlfriend to not fear about — lifting (& muscle-defining).
This body recomposition routine ought to inch you nearer towards a extra aesthetic physique with:
- Seven exercises per week, together with 5 lifting & two cardio periods
- (… look forward to it) 84 straight exercises with no relaxation days in any way
- A triple risk: diet, train, and dietary supplements
- As much as two hours of cardio each week to soften fats
- A deal with the ten–12-rep vary, which is on the higher finish of the hypertrophy spectrum
Now, that appears like an expert-level program, However alas, Labrada says it’s for “everybody” which ranks it alongside Goblet of Gains and the Rise and Grind workout.
Laborious disagree … We predict rookies would do significantly better on a program like Your Transformation Starts Here Volume 1, we’ll get to that in a second.
Lean Physique 12-Week Coach Particulars & Options
Legend has it, in case you say cardio 3 times in a single put up, the “actual bodybuilders don’t do cardio” crowd will stage an rebellion and prepared their pitchforks. (Oh, you’re nonetheless right here?)
Right here’s a more in-depth have a look at this Lee Labrada program:
Most important Web page
Labrada deserves some credit score right here. The Most important Web page is so no-holds-barred trustworthy that you simply’ll know to get the hell out of Dodge earlier than firing up exercise #1 (in case you choose up on any neon crimson flags).
This web page is a Q&A-style course intro:
- Who’s this program for? “Anybody” with 45–60 spare minutes a day mendacity round.
- How usually will you train? Actually each day (pure cardio days are “relaxation” days).
- What gear do you want? Primary gymnasium gear — machines, free weights, cardio gear, and a pulley machine.
- What do you have to do after this program?
Most likely run and by no means look again. If the considered one other 12 straight weeks of this program haunts you, Labrada recommends 4 different alternate options for mass and energy.
From the offset, this program seems to be like overkill. Eighty-four consecutive days of high-intensity coaching (generally to failure) can transfer you dangerously near overtraining territory.
The longer you hammer your physique with greater than a dozen day by day units at 70–75% of your 1RM and 4 HIIT periods/week, the extra possible you’ll discover the classic OTS signs, significantly plateaus.
Exercise Schedule
Labrada divides this system right into a 2/1 cycle: two days of weightlifting adopted by someday of cardio, and repeat! Within the Exercise Schedule tab, you’ll uncover the 12-Week Coach sample:
- Again, Biceps, & Cardio
- Chest, Shoulders, & Triceps
- Cardio
- Legs & Abs
- Repeat
Or, how we see it: cardio (leg day in disguise), relaxation, cardio (leg day in disguise — half two), leg day (actual leg day this time), repeat.
Many respected shops, together with this study published back in 2019, counsel 48–72 hours of relaxation between same-muscle exercises to maximise 10RM efficiency.
With a lot leg consideration, your decrease half will hardly ever return to the gymnasium at 100% energy. So chances are you’ll exhaust your self on the gymnasium … however nonetheless not have a lot to point out for definition-wise.
Coaching Tips
The Coaching Tips tab can also be a fast skim organized in an easy-read Q&A format.
Right here, Labrada describes this system’s cardio and resistance coaching tips (which is able to decide 20% of your success, in line with the Mass with Class himself):
- What’s the coaching model? Most workout routines fall into the three×10–12 sample.
- How heavy do you have to carry? Heavy sufficient that you simply’ll fail by the ultimate rep.
- What’s the cardio routine like? Brutal. Cardio periods usually drag on for 26–half-hour and cycle via straightforward, reasonable, and high-intensity coaching.
- What do you have to do on relaxation days? Cardio. Your relaxation days are cardio.
- Must you take relaxation days in case you really feel sore? No.
(The outlet simply retains getting deeper, and deeper, and deeper.)
In fact, there are fairly a number of excessive factors right here, except for the truth that the man dubbed “Mass with Class” clearly is aware of find out how to sculpt an aesthetic physique.
It kinda appears like a reference again to Steve Cook dinner’s Big Man on Campus College Trainer.
The Good:
- The ACSM recommends 8–12 reps per set for hypertrophy; it’s factor, too, as a result of it looks like each set inside this routine has 10–12 reps (it might probably get repetitive!).
- The American Heart Association recommends at the very least 75 minutes of vigorous cardio exercise plus two strength-training periods every week. When you’ve got a household historical past of coronary heart illness or are bordering on hypertension or diabetes, this routine is sort of a one-two punch to your total physique (although no one likes 30-minute cardio periods).
- There’s a quick 60-second relaxation between all units. A meta-analysis from 2009 uncovered that falls properly throughout the candy spot: 30–60 seconds of relaxation between units raises development hormone to an excellent stage, amplifying your muscle development even additional.
- It’s primarily a push-pull-legs (PPL) routine, leaving you at the very least 48–72 hours of relaxation earlier than focusing on the identical group once more (although your decrease physique will take a beating).
- Most cardio periods encompass interval coaching. Hop in your cardio gear of selection — treadmill, bike, elliptical, or rowing machine — and alternate between spurts of reasonable and high-intensity coaching. If you happen to do chisel down extra physique fats with this routine, it’ll be right here. Research means that HIIT might be the important thing to fat-burning, liable for burning as much as 28.5% extra absolute fats mass than steady-state cardio.
- The train selections are conventional and doable (with modifications), even in a house gymnasium: dumbbell bench press, EZ-bar preacher curls, stiff-legged dumbbell deadlifts, and so forth. There’s additionally somewhat extra train selection every time exercises roll round.
The Dangerous:
- Although coaching to failure is a positive ego-booster, it’s extra a fad than the rest. The outcomes of a 2016 meta-analysis discovered that pumping out units till your muscle tissues give out gives no further advantages. Actually, not coaching to failure reportedly will increase energy by 0.6–1.3% extra!
- Twice every week, you’ll squeeze again/biceps day and cardio coaching into the identical exercise. Sadly, experts suggest at the very least six hours between cardio and resistance coaching in case you don’t wish to sacrifice efficiency in both.
Vitamin Plan
Lean Physique’s Vitamin Plan is extra detailed than others we’ve seen. Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless somewhat naked in case your present eating regimen is 60% ordering DoorDash and 40% mooching off mother’s selfmade dinners.
You’ll eat 5 meals per day, alternating between normal meals and so-called “mini-meals.”
He additionally briefly (very briefly) explains the eating regimen plan, together with:
- 1g of protein per pound (the ACSM recommends at least 0.8g for hypertrophy)
- 1.5g of carbohydrates per pound
- Meals divided into equal thirds: protein, advanced carbs, and fruits & veggies
- Selecting servings equal to the dimensions of your open palm or fist
- Avoiding excessive sugar, salt, fats, and processed meals
- No soda. White Claws, whiskey, and so forth. (change ‘em all with 10 cups of water a day!)
The record of steered meals is a superb begin in case your kitchen experience would ship Gordon Ramsay on an insult-laden rampage. The ingredient selections are fairly normal for a clear consuming plan.
There’s additionally a “cheat sheet” in case you’re craving a cheat meal. If oddly particular cravings like corn muffins, raspberry tarts, and Neapolitan sundaes strike, Labrada has a more healthy various.
(We didn’t point out energy as a result of, nicely, neither did Labrada.)
Lean Physique-Pleasant Recipes!
Bored with the everyday rooster breast/broccoli/brown rice combo? (You’ll be able to admit it; it doesn’t make you any much less swole.) Labrada additionally contains 17 recipes that match throughout the dietary plan.
Simply click on one which will get your style buds swirling — possibly tangy new potatoes or a Mediterranean sandwich — and think about dinner full.
Complement Suggestions
Labrada’s dead-on about one factor: dietary supplements gained’t change a well-balanced eating regimen and an intense coaching routine (although it’s debatable whether or not this plan will fill that hole totally).
Likelihood is, you have already got most of those dietary supplements in your cupboard:
- Protein powder & protein bars: He lists them each individually. However so long as it’s low in fillers and synthetic substances, excessive in protein (20–40g), and excessive in protein content material (>80%), one isn’t essentially higher than the opposite.
Swolverine Whey Protein Isolate
That is one in every of our prime really helpful whey protein powders due to it is excessive protein content material per serving, excessive deliciousness, and the truth that all Swolverine merchandise are sourced from GMP-certified amenities
- Multivitamins: These day by day nutritional vitamins can definitely assist in case you’re barely low on vitamin C, D, and micronutrients. But, the results gained’t be earth-shattering; research means that multivitamins don’t decrease the danger of coronary heart illness, most cancers, and different lethal ailments as beforehand claimed. Although the vitamin B content material — together with different hint vitamins — can assist with vitality ranges, muscle well being, and hormone ranges to an extent.
- Fish oil: Odor apart, the findings of at the very least one study from 2017 means that supplementing with fish oil can reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) by some 33–42% — which might be significantly helpful for such a high-intensity day by day routine. However don’t construct your hopes too excessive; this 2002 clinical trial didn’t discover that very same proof.
- Pre-workout supplements: Whereas many researchers counsel that pre-workout dietary supplements are little greater than placebos convincing you that you simply really feel extra energized, some powders can increase anaerobic imply and peak energy (2016). These with caffeine can even enhance your focus and vitality ranges throughout draining exercises.
C4 Unique Pre-Exercise | Caffeine + Beta-Alanine + Creatine
Formulated with strength-boosting Creatine, CarnoSyn Beta-Alanine, and caffeine to enhance your muscular endurance and hold fatigue at bay as you crush it within the gymnasium.
- Creatine: This definitely-not-suspicious white powder is a favourite amongst aspiring novice bodybuilders, and for an excellent cause. A research review from 2003 compiled the outcomes of twenty-two creatine-focused research, figuring out that its common boosts embody 8% in energy, 14% in efficiency, and as much as 45% in bench 1RM. Larger efficiency = extra noticeable beneficial properties.
Swolverine Kre-Alkalyn: Creatine Phospate
If you happen to’re trying to get swole, look no additional than Swolverine Kre-Alkalyn. Our buffered creatine phosphate will increase your efficiency within the gymnasium and provides muscular measurement with out these pesky unintended effects like bloating, cramping, and water retention.
Wanting the multivitamin push, Labrada’s selections in dietary supplements are fairly spot-on. Simply don’t count on 5g of creatine or a day by day scoop of protein powder to make a world of distinction right here.
7 Necessary Advantages of Lean Physique 12-Week Coach
- You’ll be able to’t dispute that Lee Labrada is aware of find out how to sculpt a stage-ready, aesthetic physique, even when this routine has its flaws.
- Physique recomposition is feasible in case you add in actual relaxation days as wanted, eat sufficient energy and protein, and keep an everyday complement schedule.
- The routine is doable with time, effort, and a gymnasium membership (or a decently stocked residence gymnasium).
- It’ll positively scratch your coaching itch — possibly to an excessive!
- These already in respectable form report seeing outcomes, so it positively can and does work for some portion of the inhabitants.
- A lot of the dietary supplements have been well-selected.
- It’s a terrific program for anybody with an intensive coaching background, and since every exercise is a unique mixture of workout routines, boredom isn’t too widespread.
4 Negatives of Lean Physique 12-Week Coach
- Twelve straight weeks of coaching with lively, cardio-filled relaxation days will put your thoughts and physique via the wringer with no assure of spectacular outcomes.
- The dietary plan is a bit bleak for anybody with little expertise within the kitchen, although the 17 pre-planned recipes are a shining gentle on that entrance.
- Attainable overtraining. Wait, did we point out that one already?
- There is no such thing as a point out of energy or particular ideas for fats consumption. Full newbies may really feel like they’re caught up shit creek with no paddle. Plus, with no good eating regimen, what’s the purpose of the coaching and dietary supplements?
Wrapping Up This Lean Physique 12-Week Coach Evaluation
Lean Body 12-Week Trainer is okay (sure, simply okay) program in case you’re a gymnasium rat hoping for a change in tempo, tons of lifting and cardio, and no issues about overtraining.
This program is redeemable in case you break this system up with actual relaxation days each 2–3 exercises, commit each the cardio and resistance coaching points, and take cost of the eating regimen.
However this routine brings tons of overtraining potential, the rave evaluations are far and few between, and the dietary side is weak. It’s a greater program for these with a good bit of coaching.
It could possibly work, but it surely’s greatest to observe this program with some modifications.
Ranking: 6/10
However There’s a Higher Possibility
If you happen to’re on the lookout for a exercise program that checks all of the containers on what we expect builds an superior physique…
Then Superhero X12 is a greater choice.
Superhero X12 permits you to save time by beginning you with simply 3 exercises per week which are environment friendly and efficient.
You’ll have extra vitality and really feel nice because you gained’t be overtraining and giving up your worthwhile relaxation days.
And you’ll be able to construct muscle and drop a few pounds quicker because of Superhero X12’s complete diet plan that tells you precisely what you want to eat.
Check out Superhero X12 to see the difference.
Construct a Superhero Physique With out Coaching Like One
Getting in form is not straightforward. However this program offers you a real-life strategy to constructing a leaner, extra muscular physique with out obsessing over health 24/7.
