> Let's be honest: Sometimes all you want to do is look your best. Fitness model and MuscleTech athlete Abel Albonetti shows you how. BY SHAWN DONNELLY |// PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEVE BOYLE HERE'S A LOT OF CHATTER Olympies quite a while ago, but we can still look these days about “functional training.” like a million bucks at the beach. ‘That is, training to help you perform If your main goal is to appear phenomenal with better—be it in an obstacle course race your shirt off, then this is the workout plan for (check out page 106 if youre interested in _you. To create it, we enlisted Abel Albonetti, an running one), a CrossFit competition, or the 2018 Austin, TX-based fitness model and MuscleTech Winter Olympics. And that's all well and good. athlete. When it comes to walking around with ‘We like functional training, eye-popping muscles, Albonetti knows what he’s But here's a function for you: to look and feel talking about—look at the damn guy!—so listen great. Sometimes that’s all you want to do, and —_up. Here's how to train to look like you're carved. the ing wrong with that. After all, most _out of stone. of us missed our chance at qualifying for the 's notlAESTHETIC TRAINING THE TRAINING SPLIT MONDAY Legs TUESDAY Chest WEDNESDAY Back THURSDAY — Shoulders & Abs FRIDAY Arms SATURDAY Cardio SUNDAY Rest ETO oo ack sua: DeADUFT Leg ness SUPERSET WIT WALKING BARBELL LUNGE Leg exTsiON SupeRSET WITH NG Les CURL STANDING CALF RAISE SEATED CALF RAE BACK SQUAT 4 WALKING BARBELL Position a barbell on your upper traps LUNGE Vv *On the final set, doa dropset. The same and grab the bar with a erp that's, \With a barbell on your upper traps, ‘200s for the log extension and log cur. slightly wider than shoulder width lunge forward until your front thigh is **0n the final set, do a quadruple Descend into a squat til your thighs are | parallel to the floor. Repeat on the other Lean forward a bit at the beginning of the rep to put a stretch on your lats. ‘Then move your torso back to vertical as you row the handle to your stomach, Hold the contraction for a second, Pe EKEREISE \WDE-oni PULLDOWN” aRBELL BeNTOVER ROW” cuost-n PuuooMN ‘ep RoW SEATED caDLERoW'* SUPERSEL WITH OPE STRAIGHT-ARW PULLOOWH ‘Wioe-sIPPULLUP TorAlLune +*On the final set, do a dropset. **0n the final set, do a double dropset. DUMBBELL LATERAL RAISE V Hold dumbbell in each hand at your sides. Raise your arms 90 degrees unt they’re paralle! with the floor. Hold the contraction for a second, then slowly lower the dumbbells to your sides. SO CO easneise ecref nee sean omssatraes | s } 1.24, SMH MACHINE 8 | roo, SHOULDER PRESS" 48 DUMBBELLLATERAL RAISE 4 ® BARBELL uPRIGHTROW J 4 ® INCLINE Bec DB 4 ® REVERSE LYE SMH MACHINE sHaUG 4 6 SUPSHSET TH BEMIO-THE-BHeK SMITH 4 6 MACHINE SHRUG On the final set, do a double drop SEATED DUMBBELL PRESS > Sit against a bench set to 90 degrees and lift two dumbbells to shoulder height. Press the weight overhead and then si F the dumbbells, back down, 18 muscie ries sePremBeR 20:AESTHETIC TRAINING 20 NUTRITION ABEL PRACTICES CARB backloading. He's been doing f for about two years to great offect. Here's how It works: In the morning he'll have healthy fats line exes, almonds, beef. and coconut oll, For lunch he has vege ables and a chicken breast. Before his after- noon workout. he drinks & protein workout, he has another protein shake with a bow! of cereal (for some fast Then about an hour later he'll have most of his carbs for the day. These come in a solid meal of te rice, @ salaa or steamed vegetables. and casein protein shake some peanut butter mixed in, ust to have something in his stomach overnight ‘Garb backloading gives me mor roughout the day, have a crash, tke | dle when | got up in the morn Ing and had ostinesl or whatever. And by getting carbs after your workout. it helas replenish the alveo~ gen that you depleted when you were training helos rebuld that muscle, CE DIRECTIONS: Do this asa circuitfor four rounds. eareeits tere HANGING LEG RAISE 5 OPE CABLE CRUNCH R DeCUnE SITUPY a nate woonckoP 15 EACH ibe) FRONT PLANK 1M **Do 10 weighted, then drop the welght and crank out anther 10. CABLE WOODCHOP 4 Holding the handle ofa high pulley with both hands, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Rotate your torso diagonally downward until the handle tends up past your opposite leg, keeping your arms straight, HANGING LEG RAISE > Hang from a pullup bar with a wider than-shoulder-width grip. Brace your core and lif your legs up, keeping them straight throughout the duration of the movement. If that's too difficut, start with your knees bent and work up to extending your legs. ABEL SAYS: "Thisis the one muscle group |tralnin cirult form. Butlust Ike with any other muscle group, lift sheavy 6s can, using good form. Soli goingfor 10 to 5 reps for each ‘exercise. I dontlove doing ab work-honestly, hate t-but| work them lithe time because! know need,=e PRI i ‘SEARCHING FOR THE right protein shakes to help youbuic a boay re are two exc ew options to try. First, theres Nitro-Tech 100% Whey Gold (835), « 100% ‘whey protein formala that fe sorting whey ‘and serves up 24 grams of coktfitered protein and 55 grams of BCAAS. Take it between meals and before and after your workouts for batter muscle buléing Second, there's Nitro-Tech Casein Gold (833), which dalvers muckneeded arr acids to resting muscles for up to eit hours, Like Whey Gold Casein Gold be of protein, as well as 10 grams of naturaly occurring BCAAS and gistamine. What's more, ‘each serving contains only 1 fram of sugar and has a silky= smooth texture, unlike those rity protien shakes of old For best results, take it at night i ee al ne wb i aE Gold, plus more su training articles, and videos at muscletech.com. 21CARDIO To get the most bang for his buck, Abel opts for high-intensity interval training (HIIT) over steady-state cardio. His favorite: bike sprints. Here's the workout: Get on a stationary bike and do 30 seconds of all-out sprinting~"Trying to kill yourself for those 30 seconds,” says Abel, Then rest for 90 seconds. Repeat for a total of 10 rounds. Do this twice per week. “When you do HIIT, the calorie burn goes on afterward," says Abel. "You might not be burning as many calories during the workout, but your metabolism is boosted the rest of the day. With HIIT cardio, you can maintain more of that hard-earned muscle mass.” Other good cardio activities: hill sprints, track sprints, and “deadmill” sprints (running on a turned-off treadmill at the highest incline). 22 BARBELL CURL 4 a barbell and curl the weight to your shoulders while Keeping your ies, Hold the con- Fa second, then the bar to the bottom of CRUSHER > ying on a bench, pres Fit toward your fo it back to the to ABEL SAYS:"With arms, Imake sureto do plenty of work on boththe biceps andthe triceps. And|ust ke wth allmy muscle groups start with relatively hoavy weight forthe rst fewexorcises. Later, go alittle lighter and do more reps to further deplete the muscle. But when youretryingto build ‘muscle, you wantto lft asheavy as poss ‘especially early oninthe workout, whenEO T eHEReIse nee BARBELL CURL” 12,10,1010.8 SUPERSET WITH ECan SKULL 12,10,1010.8 CRUSHER” SEATED DUMBBELL CURL ® SUPERSET WITH DUMBBELL OVERHEAD ® EXTENSION BAR PREACHER CURL @ SUPERSET WITH VBA CABLE ® PaEssooMn INCUNE BENCH D8 CURL ® SUPERSET WITH DUMBBELL Kickeack ® OPE ABLE CURL ® ® ABOUT ABEL ‘ABEL ALBONETTI GREW up in Hernando, MS, and began lifting weights at 14, He was homeschooled, so he never got to play sports in school, instead, he lifted, Around 17, he began training ina YMCA. By chance, a modeling agent discovered him in the Y one day. whick ied to modeling work. ‘As he continued to hit the gym. he transitioned to fit- vess modeling and started a Facebook page. Today, that page (@abelalbonetti as nearly two milion likes. You can also find him on Instagram (@abelbodygyrn) and YouTube (youtube.com fabelalbonett). He now lives in Austin, TX, with his wife FOR MORE ‘On Abers training and supplementation, AESTHETIC TRAINING ness 23