Day 23:Chest

This is your last chest workout on Phase One of Operation Aesthetic. Regardless of whether or not your chest is a strength of your physique, you should be seeing more detail and definition in your pectoral muscles. This is due to the reduced-calorie diet and the effort you’re putting in to create detail.

OPERATION AESTHETIC NOTES

*The higher-rep sets at the end are not an afterthought—especially when you’re dieting. These are the sets that really carve in detail that you can see as you lose body fat.

*You can add intensity techniques to any of these exercises if that feels right to you. These include rest-pause, where you wait a few seconds after failure before performing another move; or drop sets, which I use frequently.

*For drop sets, you begin with one weight and then go immediately to a lower weight without resting—and that counts for one set.

Early morning cardio

25 minutes

Perform this session upon waking before consuming food.

EXERCISE	COMMENT
Incline dumbbell bench presses Keep control and rhythm for every rep—explode up and then control the weight as you lower for a two count.	5 SETS / 12, 10, 8, 4, 15 REPS

Barbell bench presses Those last two sets with higher reps are what help you add detail while maintaining muscle mass while dieting.	6 SETS / 12, 10, 8, 4, 15, 15 REPS

Incline dumbbell flyes To target upper pecs, emphasize that area with each stretch and contraction.	4 SETS / 12, 10, 8, 15 REPS

Dips This is one of my favorite exercises, and I include it in both my chest and triceps workouts—but take note of the difference in form in my videos.	4 SETS / Burnout*

Incline Smith machine bench presses You can safely perform partial reps through the weakest portion of your bench press with this move.	5 SETS / 12, 10, 7, 3, 15 REPS

Post-Workout cardio

25 minutes

You can also perform this later in the day.

TIP: At the end of a workout like this, your body needs to be replenished. I recommend getting in RE-KAGED^®, which delivers 28 grams of protein in addition to fermented Glutamine, BetaPower^®betaine, and creatine hydrochloride. This combo of key ingredients helps you re-feed and repair your muscles after training.