Jimmy Joy: Why did you start bulking? What was your goal, and what is it now?
Henrik: I have always been skinny and wanted to gain weight, and my girlfriend and I decided to try to get in shape, so we joined the gym together. I had previously tried to gain weight without working out, but did not see any results, since I didn't have much hunger. Working out motivated me to eat more, and helped increase my hunger. My original goal was to hit 80 kg, but as you can see from my progress pictures, I hit 85 kg before starting to cut. My friends and I were inspired by Zac Efron's insanely lean body in Baywatch, so we bet on who could get the lowest percentage of body fat in 3 months. Then my cutting phase began and I reached 81 kg at 11% body fat, which resulted in me winning the bet. Since the last picture in my post from June, I have started bulking again and I am currently at around 85 kg. My current goal is to bulk to 90 kg, and then cut down to 86-87kg while being at 10% body fat.
Why do you use Jimmy Joy Plenny Shake?
Back in 2014, I heard about Plenny Shake and was amazed by the concept of powdered, complete food. The only supplier of a similar product in Europe was 🤬 (now rebranded as Jimmy Joy) back when Joey was selling the powder from his apartment, and you received the powder in clear plastic bags, which made the powder look like drugs lol. I have been happy with Jimmy Joy. The Plenny Shake Active is also great for working out due to the high protein content.
When did you decide to become in shape?
I decided to get in shape back in January 2017 together with my girlfriend. She has actually stopped working out, while I continued.
Do you have any tips for others that want to do something similar?
My diet consists of a lot of Plenny Shake powder and milk. The density of both milk and Plenny Shakes are really great for gaining weight and building muscles. As you can see from my diet, the only "real" food I eat is for dinner at around 600-1000 kcal. I often feel sick if I have to eat more than that in one setting, so I always top it off with a liter of milk to make sure to get enough calories. My dinner is often not a super healthy meal, but since the rest of my calories are from Plenny Shakes, it kind of balances it out. Also, I would recommend to always drink a small shake before bed even if you are not hungry. I have made the most gains from drinking those extra calories before bed to get a caloric surplus.
What is your exercise routine?
My exercise routine focuses on minimizing the time spent in the gym while still working out the majority of the body. I made the routine myself, but I don't have any education within fitness, so I might be completely wrong.
I do 1 warm up set with 0.5 of my max weight with 11 reps in the given exercise followed by 2 sets of max weight with 8-11 reps. This applies to all exercises I do. I refer to this as doing 2.5 sets. I superset as much as possible between 2 different muscle groups (to minimize time spent in the gym). As previously mentioned, I have the following 2 different full body workouts that I alternate between:
Workout A
- Weighted dips: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Weighted abs ball: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps (see https://youtu.be/5ZVvtfqoaY4?t=131)
- Diverging Lat Pulldown: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Biceps curl machine: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Leg press machine: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Inclined dumbbell (45 degrees): 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Calf machine: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Pec fly: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Conversion Shoulder Press: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
Workout B
- Lower chest cable: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Wide grip pull-ups: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Normal bench press: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Biceps curl: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Pec fly: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Squat: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Inclined dumbbell (30 degrees): 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Bent-Over Rear Deltoid Raise: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
- Triceps machine: 2.5 sets with 8-11 reps
The duration of these workouts is around 1-1.25 hours depending on if you superset some of the exercises.
And the diet you had for cutting?
Also, the diet my last post mentioned was for gaining. My diet when cutting during the 3 months was mostly:
Cutting diet
- Jimmy Joy Shake with 2.5 scoops, cocoa powder, 0.25 liter of milk and 0.25 liter of milk: 700 kcal
- Jimmy Joy Shake with 2.5 scoops, cocoa powder, 0.25 liter of milk and 0.25 liter of milk: 700 kcal
- Dinner at 600-1000 of mostly meat and potatoes along with 1 liter of low fat milk: 900-1300 kcal
Total ideal kcal: 2300-2700
How did you come up with your diet, schedule, and regiment?
My diet is mostly just based on getting more calories than my body burns. I don't care much for macros, since Plenny Shakes already has optimized that, so I just make sure to count my calories daily and make sure to get enough calories. I used a TDEE calculator to figure out how many calories I need to gain or cut X amount of kilos per week.
The main focus of my workout schedule was to minimize time spent in the gym, since I'm not much of a gym rat. So I did some research and found out that full body workouts allow you to work out the majority of the body, while not spending that much time in the gym on a weekly basis. If I felt like I needed progress in a specific muscle group, I would Google exercises, and pick out the best ones based on scientific research and add them to one of my workout routines. I would recommend the YouTuber Jeremy Ethier for the best science-based workout exercises.
Henrik's Transformation:
And finally / lastly, some tips for other customers and some hurdles they may come across?
For starters, I would recommend not working out too much, and rather focus on your diet and getting enough calories. If you are working out while at a calorie deficit, the workout is pretty much useless, since you will lose weight. 90% of gaining muscles is in the diet, so put your focus there!
Anything else you'd like to add?
Drinking as much milk as I do might result in increased acne or breakouts. If that happens to you, you can replace a lot of the milk with more powder and might even see better results, since milk will often make you fat and gain muscle, while Plenny Shake powder seems more optimal for pure muscle gain.
