How to start Body Building — Michael James Tamondong

There is this misplaced link between bodybuilding and unrealistic body shapes alongside with harmful and unhealthy practices. However, the word bodybuilding refers to the process of building your body with an intense workout and healthy nutrition. It has nothing to do with pill intake or monster-type bodies, even though many bodybuilders have gone down that path.

Michael James Tamondong, a personal trainer, bodybuilding, and fitness enthusiast is here to tell you what bodybuilding is to him and how it has helped him regain control of his life. First things first, let’s introduce MJ, a former athlete, and a bodybuilding and fitness enthusiast, who can show you that everything is achievable as long as you work hard for it.

Michael James Tamondong

MJ, aka sixp8ck, the alias he is known for within the bodybuilding and fitness community and the one he uses on his social media accounts, was born on June 14, 1977. He moved with his parents to San Francisco, California 13 years later.

Throughout his childhood, he was a talented volleyball player and proudly represented his team at many championships. However, an injury forced him to quit his early playing career to a player various teams he formed some years later.

The 2009 recession found the former athlete in a challenging phase. Having lost his job he neglected his body for some time. But he decided to start working out again so this is how he got into bodybuilding and fitness. MJ as a bodybuilding and fitness influencer.

Body building journey

He created a bodybuilding.com profile on Bodyspace, where he could track the progress of his body transformation and he created his own BodyGroup for other people like him to follow and get inspired. Bodybuilding is a difficult procedure that needs continuous discipline and commitment. For this reason, connecting with like-minded people online can help you share stories and encourage each other to move forward.

His bodybuilding plan mainly consisted of a diet rich in protein, carbs, and healthy fats during 5–6 meals per day. According to his workout routine, he rotated his food. For example, when he was focusing on abs and weight lifting his carb intake was higher, while when he was doing cardio, his carb intake was lower. During the low-carb days, he compensated his energy levels by eating more good fats. His protein intake was stable every day while he was rotating his supplements so that his body doesn’t get used to them.

Eventually, his determination resulted in him getting featured at Sixpacknow.com as Abs of the Month 2010. In that article, you can find in detail his everyday workout and diet plan, and the progress according to which he managed to change his body, with before and after photos.

MJ as a bodybuilding and fitness influencer

In the present day, the proud founder of Shredded Beyond ABSolute is a Filipino-American personal trainer, influencer, and bodybuilding, and fitness enthusiast. He uploads consistently content related to fitness, and a healthy lifestyle on his Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Follow him and be part of his 120k+ likes and follows on his Facebook account, 30k followers on Instagram, or 2.3k subscribers on YouTube and enjoy daily entertaining content and valuable fitness insights.

“Back then the goals I was trying to set, maintain, and achieve in a step by step process were to be athletically and healthy fit with an overall shredded lean body muscle. I was aiming for my own set of 8 pack abs and I would try my best to keep on improving, striving, and pushing to sculpt my body to where I am now.”

MJ reached his dream after a lot of self-motivation and discipline, and although his journey was hard, he did not regret his decision.

“Finally now I am where I wanted to be. In my journey, I needed a lot of determination, hard work, balance, and consistency but if I had the chance I would do it all over again.”

For all of you who want to get started with bodybuilding, MJ put down a couple of pieces of advice for all the beginners out there. Let’s see what those are.

Workout 3–4 times per week

You might think that working out more will help you achieve your results sooner, but that is not the case. During intense exercising your body needs time to recover. Otherwise, you might injure yourself. Thus, keep in mind that you should work out a maximum of 3–4 days per week. But the important thing is that during those days you should exercise different parts of your body so that at the end of the week you will have engaged all of your muscles.

Choose a workout routine that fits within your life

Do not try to adjust your life according to your workout routines. This is not the ideal way to go about it. Bodybuilding requires an excessive amount of motivation, self-preservation, as well as military discipline. So it is going to be difficult to maintain your streak even without having to change your everyday activities. For this reason, choose to work out the days you used to go to the gym before, for instance. This will help your body adjust better to your new routines.

There are many ways to build the body of your dreams, and many bodybuilders follow different routines. Before beginning your own journey, do thorough research on best practices, or ask advice from expert personal trainers.

“Best of luck to all who is going after a shredded set of abs and sculpting a brand new body. You all need to hang in there to keep on pushing it and trust me. YOU will reach your own goal in no time.”