Visual Impact Muscle Building is based on an unusual workout strategy designed to achieve model-like results. The truth figured out here.
The program has some quirky ways to go about workouts and does not recommends squats and deadlifts. Here you will find how this plan works, who it is suitable for, and all the positive and negative aspects.
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Who Is It For?
The program is designed in a unique way allegedly in order to achieve definition and lean muscle.
In a regular muscle-building program, the definition is achieved by getting your skin to wrap around your abs, filling tightly into the grooves, and showing your muscles in any light.
However, the way Visual Impact Muscle Building implements it is completely different, by avoiding traditional bodybuilding bulking and cutting and, quite strangely, squats and dead-lifts (more on this later).
Visual Impact Muscle Building was designed for those who seek a model-like physique, with shredded looks, good body proportions, and low levels of fat, not a full-size weight lifter look.
The catchy name of the program stresses the importance of visual appeal as the foundation for muscle development.
Visual Impact Muscle Building was designed to achieve a somewhat slimmer, densely muscular physique, a toned look with all the skin tightly wrapped around your muscles, or a lean “Hollywood Look”.
The underlying idea of this program is that muscle-building alone is not a guarantee for a good-looking physique and that even the strongest male bodies may not necessarily be the best-looking ones.
The workout schedule of the program is designed to achieve long-lasting, permanent results, and has nothing to do with the usual bulking and cutting of old-school bodybuilding.
The blueprint is designed to reach permanent low body fat and definition around dense muscles in a completely different way.
According to the author, the greatest culprits that cause an oversized look are the very kind of exercises that are considered the most effective for muscle growth: the deadlift and the squat.
These two compound exercises are universally regarded as the best for overall muscle growth because of the stress they place on your body and nervous system.
Here is where the program is unusual. According to Rusty Moore, the problem is that by applying “nontargeted” muscle growth with squats and deadlifts you end up looking like a curvy, beefy meat-head. Very strong and impressive for sure, but not necessarily the best looking.
The reason for that would be that bulging quads break the linearity of your physique making you look “curvy” and out of proportion, with legs too big compared to your upper body.
Sure, if you do too many squats and deadlifts you may end up with bull-like legs, however, this is still a long way to say that they should be skipped altogether. After all, squats and deadlifts are notorious for boosting metabolic rate, spurring muscle growth all over, and helping burn fat, when combined with proper nutrition.
In other words, it takes time and effort to get bulky legs out of proportion, and the banning of squats and deadlifts from the program may be an overreaction by the author out of fear of not getting a sculpted, well-proportioned physique.
Myofibrillar Hypertrophy Strategy
Training for strength with low repetitions combined with low body fat increases the definition of your muscles giving them the much-coveted dense look. However, the program strategically switches to a high repetition range to prevent plateaus.
The Visual Impact Muscle Building plan also includes a kind of hybrid repetition range, around 4/5 reps, designed to get the best of high and low ranges and increase density and size at the same time.
The workouts are arranged in a way to shift the balance away from an excessive high-repetition, sarcoplasmic growth (6/15 reps), and more towards a low-repetitions myofibrillar range (1/3 reps), though there is space for both.
Having said this, the program is not biased against high repetitions as such, as long as these are strategically implemented with low repetitions as required for best results.
In other words, you need both, it is the balance that needs to be shifted. Too many low-reps cause you to look harder but undersized, and too many high-reps cause you to look bigger but also softer.
The Advanced Ripped Technique
Since skin shrinking is slower than fat burning, the program implements an advanced strategy that requires cutting down calories while exercising in the strength, low-reps range (1/3) precisely for the purpose of losing some sarcoplasmic, fluid muscle size, around 5 to 10 pounds lighter than your final targeted body weight.
In other words, your diet while training for strength at the same time, and your muscle and overall size go smaller than the final size you are after. Doing this for a couple of months gives your skin time to adapt to your new, smaller waist and body size and fit tightly around it.
Next, you re-introduce the high- reps (6 to 15) for muscle mass about 3 weeks before a contest or you hit the beach without increasing carbohydrates and your muscle will actually fill into your skin even tighter, making you look ripped.
Then you can turn to maintenance mode by switching back to the low repetition range and keeping your calories on track.
The Additional Standard Fat Loss Technique
If this sounds too complicated and daunting, there is also an easier, standard technique that involves reducing your body fat gradually over 6 to 8 weeks without losing muscle mass at all. This gives your skin plenty of time to shrink around your muscle for excellent definition.
Visual Impact Muscle Building Workouts
Apart from the debatable bias against squats and deadlifts, Rusty Moore discourages you against a high repetition range because it can only lead to Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy as opposed to Myofibrillar Hypertrophy, which in contrast is achieved through a low repetition range.
A higher repetition range causes a build-up of lactic acid and a quick adaptation of your muscles, which actually increases their muscle cell size with fluids, while a low repetition range increases lean, dense muscle mass.
Visual Impact Muscle Building Phases
The program uses a protocol of 3 subsequent phases organized in a pyramid structure and tailored as a 4, 6, or 9 months plan, so it is very flexible and adjustable to your needs or goals. Normally, the program lasts 6 months and the cycles go as follows:
Phase 1 – Sarcoplasmic Growth
Normally lasting 2 months though it can be tweaked. First of all, grow in size. This is done by focusing on the sarcoplasmic growth of fluid inside your muscle cells, using a 6 to 15 repetition range with brief rest periods in order to achieve fatigue and pump.
However, the program also recommends not to go overboard with popular intensity techniques like drop sets and the likes.
Done indiscriminately, this approach can blow your muscles into oblivion rather than growth. Phase 1 teaches you how to hit the sweet spot for optimal sarcoplasmic growth without annihilating your muscles.
The net effect is fast muscle growth and size. Rusty Moore also gives indications and insight on how it feels like when you are building mass, so you know you are on the right track without relying just on numbers but listening to your body.
Phase 2 – Sarcoplasmic and Myofibrillar Hybrid Training
Again lasting 2 months, which can also be tweaked. This phase is the necessary transition step before the full myofibrillar, low-reps phase.
With a repetition range of about 4/5, your muscles are primed to get denser and gain strength on the mass you have already built upon, improving definition while still working on the size department.
Phase 3 – Maximum Density And Definition Training
This is the final phase to bring all density and definition out of your muscles. The repetition range goes down to 2/4 while losing extra fat with High-Intensity Interval Training.
This phase is hard work. You are likely to hit all your personal bests in all lifts while actually losing fat. Because you have already built muscle size before, you’ll become stronger even while losing body fat.
In fact, this is the last phase before the shrink and wrap effect, bringing out extreme definition much better than the old school high reps for definition.
The fallacy of high repetitions is that they are supposed to bring out definition, whereas in fact they just create a pumping good only for sarcoplasmic muscle growth, not the definition.
About Rusty Moore
Rusty Moore has 25 years of training experience and dedication to fitness, having produced unusual training methods designed for the best possible looking physique, not just in swimming shorts but also in trendy clothes.
He created Visual Impact Muscle Building with a different kind of person in mind, someone who does not want to become a huge beefy guy but is more concerned with good looks and a lean, athletic physique.
He is also a character in that while a fitness expert and enthusiast, he also likes traveling and having a good beer, if and when required.
Visual Impact Muscle Building Components
The program consists of 3 parts.
The main PDF format, 72-page instant download manual with all the information needed to achieve the shredded, angular, and muscular look and why. Here you will find the 3 phase pyramid structure plus the Bonus Phase, each phase being the foundation of the previous one, and the nutritional guidelines.
A 227-page Exercises Demonstrations ebook with pictures and body muscle sections organized with a clickable menu for easy navigation.
Printable Workouts Charts to monitor your progress.
Visual Impact Muscle Building is a simple, flexible, and convenient blueprint designed to achieve a lean, dense, muscular, and attractive male physique with permanent low body fat that looks good on any beach setting.
The guidelines and theory behind it are unusual and not in line with the traditional muscle building and fat loss methods of old, like bulking and cutting. The workout schedule is designed to achieve a model-like look with permanent results rather than bodybuilder size with a lot of bulky muscle.
The program is a valid alternative to traditional muscle building and fat loss plans, only let down by basic nutritional guidelines and an excessive bias against muscle-building exercises like squats and deadlifts.
My name is Jay Fielding. I gained an interest in fitness since I was a child, and eventually developed my passion into a career path. I am now a Certified Personal Trainer with a natural ability to program customized body recomposition and motivate people in achieving their goals, be it gaining muscle or losing fat.
