Abercrombie Workout: Transform Yourself Into A Male Fitness Model

August 28, 2023 | 317 Comments


You know…there’s a very specific reason why you don’t see pictures of pumped up overly muscular men in clothing stores.

It’s because the majority of people (women especially) are turned off by people with bodybuilder esque  physiques.

Sure, we all say “Damn look at that guy” when we see massive men like Ronnie Coleman or Kai Green walking around, but that’s the extent of it.

My guess is that only about 5-10% of guys actually want to look like a bodybuilder. Most other guys would be perfectly content with physique akin to an Abercrombie model.

Am I wrong?

Abercrombie workout routine
Be honest with yourself. Who looks better, the Abercrombie model or Ronnie Coleman?

Abercrombie workout

The Abercrombie workout below is split up into 2 parts:

  • Part 1: Increase muscle tone without putting on size and lose body fat
  • Part 2: Gain muscle without fat

Part 1

The first part of the Abercrombie workout focuses on losing body fat. Ideally, you should be at least 10% bodyfat before moving on to the Phase 2.

Check out the following articles is you help on losing body fat:

During Part 1 of the workout, your goal is not to build muscle. Instead you’re going to focus on increasing muscle tone without increasing the actual size of your muscles.

This will give you really hard and dense muscles without actually getting bigger, similar to Bruce Lee.

And how do you increase muscle tone without getting bigger? Most people would tell you to lift light weights for high reps (15+ reps) but this is a huge mistake. The secret to increase muscle tone is by lifting heavy weights for low reps.

There are 2 golden rules you must follow when you want to increase muscle tone without size:

  • Lift heavy weights for low reps
  • Don’t lift to failure. Stop at 1-2 reps short of failure.

So for example, if you can lift a weight for 7 reps, you should stop at 5. The key here is to do more sets while avoiding fatigue in your muscles.

A workout following these principles would look something along the lines of this:

Note: For a complete step by step blueprint on how to lose fat and get ripped, check out Superhero Shredding.

Mon (chest & back)

For each exercise below, choose a weight you can only do for 7 reps max (that means you fail at 7 reps), and only do 5 reps. Perform 3 sets per exercise.

  • Incline dumbbell press
  • Dumbbell row
  • Bench press
  • Weighted pull-ups

Wed (shoulder & arms)

For each exercise below, choose a weight you can only do for 7 reps max (that means you fail at 7 reps), and only do 5 reps. Perform 3 sets per exercise.

  • Standing military press
  • Barbell curl
  • Close grip barbell press or weighted dips

Friday (lower body)

For each exercise below, choose a weight you can only do for 7 reps max (that means you fail at 7 reps), and only do 5 reps. Perform 3 sets per exercise.

  • Front squat
  • Deadlift
  • Bulgarian split squat (exception: do 3 straight sets of 6-8 reps per leg)

Part 2

Now you’re done with Part 1.

And by now you should look pretty good. Your abs should be defined and you muscles should be showing plenty of definition.

But your job is not over yet.

It’s time to move onto phase 2 of the Abercrombie workout.

Phase 2 will focus on gaining muscle with minimal amounts of fat.  To accomplish this, you’ll need to focus on a higher rep range (8-15 reps) as well as eat in a slight caloric surplus.

The diet is relatively simple.

You’ll simply be eating at your maintenance level every day and  on the days you lift weight, you add an extra 500 calories. This will allow for lean muscle growth with minimal amounts of fat.

The sample workout for Part 2 looks something like this:

Monday(Push day)

  • Flat dumbbell press – 4 sets x 8 reps
  • Incline dumbbell fly – 3 sets x 10 reps
  • Standing military press – 4 sets x 8 reps
  • Dumbbell lateral side raise – 3 sets x 13 reps per arms
  • Skullcrushers – 2 sets x 12 reps
  • Parallel bar dips – 2 sets x failure

Tues (Pull day)

  • Weighted pull ups – 4 sets x 8 reps
  • Cable rows (close grip) – 4 sets x 12 reps
  • Barbell curls – 4 sets x 8 reps per arm
  • Dumbbell curl variation – 4 sets x 12 reps
  • Pull ups – 2 sets x failure (with body weight only)

Thurs (Legs/calves)

  • Back squat – 3 sets x 8 reps
  • Reverse dumbbell lunges  – 3 sets x 10 reps per leg
  • Seated calf raise – 3 sets x 12 reps
  • Standing calf raise – 3 sets x 12 reps

Friday (shoulders/traps/arms)

  • Seated military press – 3 sets x 8 reps
  • Shrugs  – 3 sets x 10 reps
  • Tricep extension – 3 sets x 15 reps
  • Curl variation – 3 sets x 15 reps

The workout above is based on Visual Impact For Men, which is hands down my favorite workout routines for building a non-bulky physique. Check out the video below to learn more about it.

Abercrombie

What to do after the workout?

So what do you after the 2-part abercrombie workout?

Well obviously, the first thing you should do is to go the nearest bar and take advantage of any lonely cougars with your newly sexified body.

Oh, you mean with regards to your workout and diet, my mistake. In that case, it really depends on your overall physique goals.

Do you simply want maintain your new body? If that’s the case, you can just do 3 full body workouts each week. That’s plenty enough to maintain muscle.

If you want to gain even more muscle, you can repeat Part 2 again.

Fitness models for life

Walk up to 1000 random women on the street and ask them “Who do you find more attractive, bodybuilder or an Abercrombie model?”

My guess is that 90-95% of the women will choose the Abercrombie model.

Bodybuilders reading this article probably already hate me but that’s cool, I’m ready for your hate comments.

317 Comments - Leave Your Thoughts

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  1. Should I eat at a surplus even if I hit the gym 4-5 times a week? Totally not an excuse to eat more, I swear!

    1. You should only eat in a surplus when you’re trying to gain muscle. If you train hard to build muscle 4-5x per week, then yeah, eat in a surplus.

      1. Have you read Brad Pilons How Much Protein? I havent, but did he recommend the minimum of 0.6 there? I heard you can take a minimum of half your bodyweight in lbs and make it work.

          1. Would you recommend this workout to achieve the physique of the model in the photo you used. People from previous comments mentioned that there isn’t a massive chest workout on this. However the model is quite big in terms of muscle. I aim to get a lean and muscular physique. But I don’t want to cross the fine line of becoming ‘too’ muscular in my mind. The model has about the limit for me. Would you think this is achievable with this workout and/or what would you change/add in?

            I assume this workout is done at the gym since most don’t know how much weight they need/should lift to 5 reps in phase 1.

            For the second phase, is the workout from phase 1 the 3 full body workout you talk about or?

            Once done with phase 2. Do you recalculate your calories to your body weight and eat that many ? Would you continue with a surplus or?

            Cheers.

          2. yes it can work.

            phase 2 is the 4 day split as listed. Yes you recalc your cals to maintenance and add approx 500.

  2. So heres my situation, I am 5’11, 200 pound 23 year old male. I am not fat by any means i am mostly muscle no gut, but as I have a long torso I do have some love handles. I am wondering how long you think it would take to complete part 1, and what kind of a diet to observe, should i do cardio on those days in between. so if i go MWF to lift, should I run T, TH, Sat, or should I add a 4th day. Thank in advance.

  3. Phase 1, you say to not lift to failure and instead lift to a rep or two below fail. In phase two, should I now be lifting to fail within the rep range you reccommend? Thank you very much.

    1. Not to absolute failure every time but you should lift to the point where the next rep will be a real struggle to push out, make sense?

  4. Hi. I’m looking forward to starting the workout, my main goal being to lose body fat and to tone muscles. However, I’ve never worked out using most of the equipment in the gym, nor do I know what my normal calorie intake should be per day. I like to do things independently, but would you suggest I get a trainer to help me out in the beginning until I get the swing of things?

  5. Sorry I don’t want to sound skeptical, I workout the same body parts at least x3 a week. Will once a week like the program do?

    1. I don’t really mind I just want to know and the more brief the workouts it will be better I think. I’ve been doing x6 a week (divided something like Chest/Back/Triceps & Shoulders/Biceps x3 a week) I heard it could be bad because of overtraining.

    2. It depends. 3x per week is good if you’re going for pure strength or trying to bring up a lagging body part. This workout is more for beginneres than anything else.

  6. Would you call this better than the abercrombieworkout.com abercrombie workout? And if so in what way? Also do you know if the results are in any way different?

  7. Hey, I was wondering if I should lose weight for this workout? I weight 150 pounds and am 5″9. I have a fair bit of leg muscle, chest and arm. This is probably the result of going to gym on every sports day that for the last two years in high school when soccer season was off. I have played soccer for most of my life. However a bit of my stomach is sticking out maybe a couple of centimeters and its solid. I have checked for the last couple of days and ts always solid. I was wondering if I should still lose weight or Im new enough that I should just start working out?

        1. So obviously you should be eating nutritionally dense foods like meat, fruit, veggies, rice, pasta, but at the same time don’t neglect your favorite foods. Eat healthy 80% of the time and fill the other 20% with your favorite foods.

  8. Hey Keith, just stumbled on your website and I love it! Had a quick question, I really like the layout of both this workout and the Joe Mangienello one from your Magic Mike series. I can’t really decide between the two, so I figured I’d ask your opinion. Currently I’m 5’10 and ~150-155 or so and not very strong. Current 5RM are 140 on bench, 175 on squats, 220 on deads, 25 lbs neutral grip pullups for 5 reps.

  9. Hey
    Why isn’t their any exercises for back in the first part ? It’s just for chest.
    Btw, great plan u made dude!

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