If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know I’ve been documenting my Visual Impact Muscle Building results. Now that I’ve completed the program, I’d like to review my journey and some of the things I learned along the way. There isn’t much I’d do to improve the program, but perhaps my experience could help some people with any potential hurdles they may encounter. Author Rusty Moore is pretty good about answering questions on his Facebook page, but I’m happy to offer any assistance that I can.
If you’re not familiar with Visual Impact Muscle Building, you could start by reading my quick review. The brief summary is that it is a 6-7 month program dividend into 3 phases plus a bonus phase that will help you gain muscle while limiting fat gain in order to achieve a lean, defined, and muscular look. The focus is generally on upper body training so that you strategically gain muscle in the right places.
Background
I think it’s important to know where I started from and what my goals and expectations of Visual Impact Muscle Building were. This way, you can assess if you’re at a similar place and may experience similar, or better, results. Feel free to skip to the next section if this doesn’t interest you.
I initially performed Visual Impact Muscle Building back when it was in its infancy. I actually had to reduce the amount of time for each phase because I only had a few months to get in shape for summer. It worked well but I didn’t spend nearly long enough in Phases 1 and 2 because I was focused on getting really lean using the principles of Phase 3. I continued to incorporate the principles I learned across my own structured programs, cumulating with a cutting approach that helped me get to my lowest level of body fat last October (see my Six Pack Abs Workout Routine).
While I was thrilled with my abs, I looked too thin overall, especially my face and neck. I decided this was an optimal time to start Visual Impact Muscle Building again. Initially I hoped to increase from 134lbs to 145lbs while limiting fat gain and then trying to burn some fat and end up at 140lbs. Historically I look too thin under 140lbs and seem to gain too much fat above 145lbs. Ultimately, I wanted to lower my overall body fat percentage and add 5lbs of upper body muscle. As I’ll describe later, this goal actually changed along the way.
Visual Impact Muscle Building Results – Graph
Jumping into the results, you can see from the graph above that I gained a lot of weight (blue line) and a good amount of skeletal muscle (green line) while limiting fat gain (red line) during Phase 1. Phase 2 was an eating disaster due to holidays, birthdays, vacations, etc. so weight and fat increased while skeletal muscle remained constant. The first two weeks of Phase 3 included a week off and a week of being sick so weight increased pretty quickly during that time. However, I quickly shed that weight (mostly fat) and preserved skeletal muscle.
Visual Impact Muscle Building Results – Measurements
In the chart above, I show how my weight and measurements changed throughout the program. The short story is that I gained almost 10lbs, with only 1.4lbs of fat gain. I added 1” to my shoulders and chest, 3/4” to my arms but unfortunately added 1/2” to my waist as well. While these results obviously didn’t fully meet my goals, I was very satisfied with my overall appearance.
Visual Impact Muscle Building Review
For a more complete review, I thought I’d go through each phase in more detail. I fully documented Phase 1 and Phase 2 in other posts, so I’d encourage you to read those if you’re interested.
Phase 1: As previously mentioned, I started out pretty lean (8-9% body fat) going into Phase 1. Technically, my starting point came after a week off from training so I officially began at 10% body fat according to my tester. This allowed me to decrease my body fat back down to single digits during the first few weeks of Phase 1 while gaining muscle before adding back some fat. I think the biggest takeaway is that even though you get to eat excess calories, try not to go overboard. The cleaner you eat, the more likely you’ll gain muscle instead of fat. A go-slow approach works well here.
Phase 2: I set myself up nicely to take advantage of Phase 2 but the execution completely failed. I simply couldn’t handle the plethora of holiday parties, birthday parties, a couple weeks of vacation, and a variety of other derailing events. As far as the workout went, I was actually pleased with the results. As anticipated, I got a lot stronger during this phase and enjoyed it a lot more than training to failure. I really just needed to focus a lot more on my diet. The interesting side effect of this phase is that my goals started to change. While I had lost some ab definition, my overall appearance was much more favorable, primarily due to mass gains in my upper body combined with a “fuller” face and neck. Frankly, I had been focused on getting great abs for so long that I wasn’t concerned with the rest of my appearance. My wife and others actually prefer me with a little extra weight, especially in clothes.
Phase 3: This phase was all about trying to correct some of the mistakes from Phase 2. The challenge was that I didn’t want to cut calories too much given the change in goals. Unfortunately I got off to a rough start. I took my regular week off from training and then got sick for another few days. Overall, I went about 10 days without exercising which resulted in some weight gain. Fortunately not too much of it was fat. For the next 3 weeks, I lost a little fat while preserving muscle and getting stronger than I’ve ever been. At that point I actually decided to stop the program. I was starting to see my face and neck thin out again and figured it was best to go into a maintenance type routine. Would I have liked to have lost more body fat? Of course, but I was reasonably happy with my overall appearance. I corrected most the damage I did during Phase 2 and decided that I would shift back and focus more on gaining muscle again rather than reducing fat. I also skipped the bonus phase since I didn’t feel like I got my body fat low enough to shrink wrap my muscles.
Visual Impact Muscle Building Results – Photos
I hate before and after photos. I’m camera shy and don’t like taking pictures on a regular basis. Every time I try to take photos, I look way too serious or can’t stop laughing. So I decided to show some representative pictures with my goofy face chopped off. Note that I said representative…these are not technically before and after pics. The before picture was taken a while back but approximates the size of my upper body when I started. In reality I probably started with 2% less body fat so my waist would have been smaller than in the photo. The after picture was taken a week ago and I’ve put on 1-2% body fat since stopping Visual Impact Muscle Building due to eating about 4,000 calories of Easter candy and 5,000 calories of ice cream. Still, I think you can visually see the difference in muscle size. Maybe I’m seeing what I want to see though…decide for yourself. I definitely have that stubborn belly fat to work on again but that’s a problem for another day. The candy and ice cream were worth it after going 40 days and nights without them during lent.
Final Thoughts on Visual Impact Muscle Building
I think that’s about as much detail as I can go into regarding my Visual Impact Muscle Building results. My final advice is to start by getting relatively lean and then go through the phases as outlined. Feel free to substitute exercises and make the routine your own. Don’t screw up your diet like me, and I think you’ll see a phenomenal transformation. I’m sure I’ve glossed over or forgot a few points, but please ask questions and I’ll do my best to offer any tips based on my experience. Good luck to those who choose to undertake Visual Impact Muscle Building.
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