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In the world of elite bodybuilding, Hany Rambod needs no introduction. He's coached every Mr. Olympia since 2009, and plenty of other champs along the way including reigning four-time Physique Olympia winner Jeremy Buendia. The question isn't whether Rambod's FST-7 system is good enough for you. It's whether you're good enough for his program.

Program Overview

FST-7 Essentials: Upper Body Build your best torso, from perfect bicep peaks to a massive lat spread, by applying these upper-body concepts to any phase of training! All the best FST-7 techniques for your upper body are right here.

FST-7 Essentials: Lower Body What works for the upper body works for the lower body. Get big quads and ripped hamstrings by applying these FST-7 training concepts to your quads, hams, and calves!

FST-7: Phase 1 Overview In this phase of Hany Rambod's latest trainer, you'll eat big, lift heavy, and test your limits from day one. To survive and thrive, you'll need to train, eat, and supplement right. Here's everything you need to know!

FST-7: Phase 2 Overview You've spent four weeks building size and strength. Now, everything changes. Get shredded while still maintaining your strength gain, and achieve your ultimate physique!

FST-7 stands for Fascia Stretch Training done in 7 sets. The program is divided into two parts. Phase One will get you big. Phase Two will get you ripped. Before doing the workouts, read the Phase Overviews and watch the videos so you know what to expect. Then check out the FST-7 Essentials sections for training tips to help you get the most out of each workout.

Meet Your Trainer, Hany Rambod Nicknamed "The Pro Creator," Hany Rambod has been constructing championshipwinning physiques for the past 20 years. His ground-breaking FST-7 Training System has helped his clients win more than 10 Olympia titles. Rambod also has the distinction of having trained two Mr. Olympia competitors, the only trainer in history to do so. Rambod's roster of champions includes the seven of the past eight Mr. Olympia winners in Phil Heath (2011-13) and Jay Cutler (2006-07, 09-10).

Meet The Athlete, Jeremy Buendia Jeremy Buendia is the reigning Mr. Olympia Men's Physique champ. Working with Hany and using FST-7 techniques have made Jeremy a near-unbeatable force. He's carried away the gold medal since 2014, and shows no signs of giving it up.

Phase 1 Overview I don't know how many times I've been there: You train like an animal, leave it all on the gym floor day after day, see great gains…then hit a wall. If you've lifted for any length of time, you know all about plateaus and how hard it can be to get past them and start growing again. My FST-7: Big and Ripped program is designed to help you tear down that wall and get back to the world of big gains. FST-7 stands for Fascia Stretch Training done with 7 sets. In this program, I target the fascial layer beneath the skin and above the muscle by pumping as much nutrient-rich blood as possible into the belly of the muscles being worked. This increased blood flow ignites growth factors such as testosterone, insulin sensitivity, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels to promote rapid hypertrophy. FST-7 has two sections: Phase 1 and Phase 2. The goal of Phase 1 is to get you bigger, harder, and stronger using FST-7 in various intensity techniques. Phase 2 is all about getting you ripped—shredding in a way that enables you to hold onto your strength gains. My goal is to get you both ripped and strong in eight weeks. Like everything else, if you put in half the effort, you'll get half the results, so go all in!

Phase 1: Training Overview Typical programs like this are usually 12-16 weeks long. Mine lasts for 4 weeks, which doesn't leave your body with a lot of time to adapt to all the work you'll be doing. You're facing a wall, and these four weeks is going to be all about taking that wall down with your bare hands, one block at a time. You'll need strength, sleep, smart dieting, and supplements to get it done.

Over the course of Phase One, you'll be following some basic FST-7 principles to help you add mass and strength, and get past points of failure that normally cause you to slow down or stop. • • • •

Do around four free-weight compound exercises per body part, working multiple muscle groups to build a solid base. Start with 1-2 high-rep warm-up sets for your first exercise, then pyramid up in weight over 3 sets to safely work up to your last and heaviest set. Build strength and size using heavy weight to stimulate muscle fibers for overall growth. For each exercise over this four-week period, keep the volume to 3-4 sets of 5-8 reps each. This is relatively low volume, which allows you to keep the weight high. If you can easily do more than 8 reps, increase the weight so that you can only do 5.

In each workout, the last exercise is the moneymaker: the FST-7 set. During this set, apply one of four intensity techniques: 1. Forced Reps: After reaching failure, have a partner help you just enough that you can get an additional 2-3 reps in during the last set of an exercise. 2. Negatives: After reaching positive failure, have a partner help you return the weight to the starting position of the movement. Lower the weight slowly, resisting the eccentric portion of the movement. Do an additional 3-4 reps like this for the last set of an exercise. 3. Peak-Contraction Reps: Hold the contracted position of an exercise for 3-5 seconds. Do this for the last 3-4 reps of the last set of an exercise. 4. Partial Reps: After you've finished your rep count, do 3-5 more reps using just a third of your normal range of motion to increase intensity during the final stages of muscle fatigue. You'll do up to 7 sets of this last exercise of the workout, with a 30-45 second rest between sets, and using the same or greater weight to increase the pump and stretch the fascia surrounding the muscle for greater growth. If you're a beginning or intermediate lifter, it's fine if you aim for a smaller number, such as 4 sets, especially early on. You can see examples of how all of those intensity techniques work, and which ones work best with certain movements and muscle groups, on the FST-7 Essentials: Upper Body and Lower Body pages.

Cardio And Abs

Your initial experience with FST-7 will leave you sore and limping like nothing you've ever done. But don't forget that you'll also be doing cardio to make sure that the mass you gain is clean mass. And you'll be doing adequate ab work to help you withstand the heavy lifting of this phase. Cardio: Do the cardio workout of your choice at 65-percent intensity 3-4 times each week after training to keep your metabolism high, increase your appetite, and keep your heart healthy. Abs: Twice a week, on any day you choose, do the following ab exercises:

Simple enough, right? Now take it seriously, and get it done.

Phase 1: Nutrition Overview

Success in this program will largely depend on the foods you eat. You'll be consuming nutrient-rich macros by eating meat, nutrient-dense carbohydrates, and healthy fats. You'll be taking in lots of calories, but none of them should be by accident or out of impulse. Eat well, eat big, and train hard, and you'll grow. For Phase 1, here's how your macros will look: • • •

Protein: 1.5-2 grams per pound of body weight Carbs: 2.5-3 g per pound of body weight on training days, 2-2.5 g on rest days Fats: 0.4-0.5 g per pound of body weight, or 20-25% of total calories

Here's how that looks for a 185-pound male: • • •

Protein: 276-370 g Carbs: 462-555 g Fats: 74-92 g

Here's a sample meal plan, plus my favourite foods for growth in Phase 1:

Meal 2

Meal 3

Meal 4

Meal 5

Meal 6

Meal 7

Hany Rambod's Favorite Growth Foods •

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Whole Eggs: Egg whites have their place—and you'll eat them, too—but whole eggs can't be beat. They provide extra calories, and if you use omega-3 eggs (eggs with omega-3 fatty acids), you get healthy fats. Blueberries: These contain loads of vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber. And the fructose increases glycogen in the liver, which helps fuel workouts as well as improve thyroid function to promote optimum hormone levels. Pasta: You get more carbs per serving from pasta than you would in the same amount of rice or potatoes, so you can eat less and still get enough nutrients and calories without feeling too full to eat your next meal. Low-Fat Fig Newtons or Similar Cookies: They provide an additional insulin spike to get amino acids into your muscles.

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Salmon: Fatty fish, such as salmon, provides healthy fats for extra calories, heart health, and the enhancement of joint repair, which is important when you train heavy. White Rice: White rice digests quickly, further spiking insulin to get nutrients into the muscles. Sirloin Steak: In addition to the protein content, the saturated fat from red meat like steak keeps testosterone levels up where they should be. Lean Ground Beef Patty: Red meat is a slow-digesting protein that releases a steady stream of amino acids into the muscles, making it ideal for the evening, since you won't be eating for up to eight hours after bed. All-Natural Peanut Butter: Adding peanut butter to your protein shake will slow down the absorption of whey protein to provide a time-release effect throughout the night.

Phase 1: Supplements Overview The FST-7 supplement stack has one major role: to increase blood flow. The amount of nutrient-rich blood flowing to target muscles is a huge factor in hypertrophy, enhancing the roundness and fullness of your muscle bellies during and after your workouts. Of course, the supplements will also be providing crucial nutrients and boosting your performance during gruelling workouts.

Phase 2 Overview Since we're shifting our emphasis from building to shredding, Phase 2 will be different from Phase 1 in a number of crucial ways. In Phase 1 you ended your workouts with FST-7 sets. In Phase 2, you'll start most workouts with them. The concentration needed to accomplish these special sets will help you focus on developing the mind-muscle connection. We'll also be increasing from 3 sets to 4 sets on other exercises, and boosting the reps per set up to 8-12. And we'll be using machines more, so you can get through some new techniques like dropsets more efficiently. That's not all that changes, though. You'll also do more cardio and ab work, while eating fewer calories. Nothing will be easy from here on out, but the goal is a noble one: to reveal your best-possible physique. Let's see what you're made of.

Phase 2: Training Overview In Phase 2 you'll increase your workout pace with less rest between sets, greater volume, and more time in the gym. In the end, you'll be leaner, stronger, and have a lot more muscle definition than you may have thought possible. You have four more weeks to create the physique you're after, so take a deep breath, set your schedule around this split, and start working.

You'll still be utilizing plenty of free weights and compound movements in Phase 2, but the emphasis will shift in some cases to machines so you can quickly add or remove weights to make use of intensity techniques such as dropsets. You'll also be doing more isolation movements to enhance the shape of key muscles. You should continue to start each workout with two warm-up sets for your first exercise. You'll still pyramid up in volume, too, only now you'll do one extra set to increase your volume. And by increasing your reps, you'll be able to work additional muscle fibres and pump more blood into your muscles, which will help stretch the fascia from the inside out.

It's up to you (and perhaps your training partner) to incorporate intensity techniques wherever possible, and to get the most out of every set. In addition to the techniques you used in Phase 1, such as partials, forced reps, slow negatives, and paused peak contractions, I recommend you try these techniques in Phase 2:

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Dropsets: After you reach failure on an exercise, reduce the weight by 20-30 percent and crank out as many reps as possible. Do 2-3 drops on the last set of an exercise, lowering the weight again each time you reach fatigue. Supersets: This approach to training pairs exercises for the same or antagonist muscle groups, such as biceps and triceps. Perform a set for each muscle group back-to-back, with no scheduled rest between exercises. Giant Sets: This intensity technique uses four exercises for the same muscle group done back-to-back with no rest between sets. Pre-Exhaust: Perform an isolation exercise to failure, then follow immediately with a compound movement.

Wondering how to use these? Just watch videos of me training Men's Physique Olympia champ Jeremy Buendia on the FST-7 Essentials: Upper Body and Lower Body pages to see how it works for every muscle group. Cardio And Abs More is better, right? In Phase 2 you're going to be doing more cardio, more intensely—as you simultaneously up your ab workouts. All of that will be on top of an increase in your overall workouts. This is the kind of work it takes to sculpt all that great mass you've built up into a chiselled statue.

Cardio: Ramp it up to 5-6 times each week—and do it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach to really burn some serious fat. I recommend sessions lasting 4045 minutes, and at least 15 beats per minute faster that you did during Phase 1. If you're still not seeing the kind of fat loss you're hoping for, add another cardio session after you finish your daily training. Abs Three times a week.

We're all different. Some people can do two sets of push-ups a day and have rippling abs. Others can do crunches all day long and end up with a nice, flat torso—but no six-pack. This plan, along with your epic workouts and a sound nutritional approach, will have you working toward a trimmer, tighter waistline and serious abdominal definition.

Phase 2 Nutrition Overview To build size, you consume a lot of calories. To shred, you consume fewer of them, and you get them from different sources. During Phase 2, you'll cut back on carbs to tighten up your midsection, and up your proteins and dial back your healthy fats slightly so you can maintain your strength and energy level.

Your Phase 2 macros will look like this: • • •

Protein: 1.75-2.5 grams per pound of body weight Carbs: 1-1.5 g per pound of body weight on training days, 0.5-1 g on rest days Fats: 0.3-0.4g per pound of body weight, or 20-25% of total calories

Here's how that looks for a 185-pound male: • • •

Protein: 276-462 g Carbs: 185-277 g Fats: 55-74 g

Yes, that's a big range, but bear in mind that this is an advanced training protocol. If you want to use it to really dial in your physique, you should be adept at dialling in your macros. This ratio of protein, carbs, and fats is designed to give you the energy you need to keep training, while still allowing you to drop weight. Feel free to use a fitness calculator to help you zero in on your calories and macros. Here's a sample Phase 2 meal plan, plus my favourite foods for shredding.

Meal 1

Meal 2

Meal 3

Meal 4

Meal 5

Meal 6

Meal 7

Hany Rambod's Favorite Shredding Foods • • • • • •

Oatmeal: This slow-digesting carb provides a stable release of energy throughout the day. Sirloin Steak: Red meat is a good source of creatine, which pulls more water into the muscles to increase muscular strength and endurance. Tilapia: Tilapia is the perfect source of protein for shredding: low-fat and fastabsorbing. Wild Rice: Due to its higher fibre content, wild rice doesn't digest as quickly as white rice so you'll feel fuller between meals. Avocado: The healthy fat in avocados helps keep your energy levels up during lower-carb periods. Asparagus: As your level of physical activity decreases toward the end of the day, the energy from starchy carbs is more likely to be stored as body fat. By replacing those starches with fibrous vegetables, you can continue to shred all day long.

Phase 2: Supplements Overview Since the goal during Phase 2 is to lean out, your supplement stack will focus on fat burners, while giving you the energy you need to finish these more challenging workouts. The stack will also include anti-catabolic agents such as branched-chain amino acids to help you maintain muscle mass, along with vitamins and greens to help you maintain your health.

All That's Left Is The Work You've got your split, your cardio and abs protocols, and your meal plan. Now all that separates the old you from the new you is a lot of hard work. Show the world what you're capable of!

Lower-Body Essentials

Looking for a one-stop shop to tell you everything you need to know about FST-7 training for the lower body? This is it. If you're following the FST-7: Big and Ripped program, bookmark this page to use it as a reference for training techniques to use during both four-week phases of training. In Phase 1, use FST-7 at the end of the workout to increase blood flow and maximize muscle growth factors. For Phase 2, preload your muscles by using FST-7 at the beginning of the workout to enhance your intra-workout pump. Hany Rambod, the creator of the system, doesn't recommend using supersets until Phase 2, since it pushes intensity and recovery demands through the roof. As with the upper body, intermediate lifters should aim for 4-5 sets of FST-style work, and advanced lifters should aim for all 7 sets. Machines, free weights, barbells, and bodyweight are interchangeable when utilizing these training tips, so take the concepts you learn in each workout and apply them to whatever phase of training you are currently in to get big and ripped!

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When creating supersets or giant sets, look to pair isolation movements such as leg extensions with compound movements such as lunges, squats, and presses. Hany's choice for Jeremy Buendia is a brutal triset of leg presses and leg extensions, with walking lunges between each move.

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When training large muscle groups, the goal is muscle failure, not global fatigue. Manage your heart rate, and you'll be able to do more work. Use a lighter weight than you normally would because you'll perform all three exercises back-to-back.

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When you lunge, keep the weights close to your hips if you're using dumbbells or keep the weight above your hips if you're using a barbell. Do not allow your knee to go in front of your foot, and push with your heel on walking lunges to activate the glute muscle.

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Maintain continuous tension during the leg extension. Do not let the weight drop at the bottom. Pause right at the point before the weight touches. Turn your toes out to target your inner thighs, and turn your toes in to target your outer sweep.

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Switch up the order of the exercises to keep your body off guard and create a bigger and better pump. If you can't do all three exercises, take out the walking lunges and add them back in as you improve.

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Include extra posing at the end of the workout to make up for the extra rest. There's no need to pose during the trisets, as they will dramatically impact your heart rate. Use what little rest you have!

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When creating supersets, pair isolation moves like leg curls with hip extension moves such as deadlift variations. Hany's choice in the video is straightlegged deadlifts paired with leg curls.

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For the straight-legged deadlifts, bend slightly in the knees and focus on a 2-3 second tempo as you lower the weight on each rep. Change the dumbbell and foot position on each set to create variation and target different areas of the hamstring.

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During the leg curls, go through the entire range of motion. Pause at the top for peak contraction, then control the weight all the way down, pausing before the weight touches to maintain tension. Point your toes to target the lower portion of the hamstrings.

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Once you hit failure, finish off the lying leg curls with 3-5 partial reps or "pumps" at the end of the set.

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Do not pose in between sets. The legs are the largest muscle groups and they require extra rest, so to avoid fatigue give your muscles extra rest.

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It is extremely important to stretch your hamstrings, so give yourself extra time post-workout to stretch.

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Don't bother with supersets for calves. Just pick a single move and hit it hard. For FST-7 work, Hany says you can't beat the standing calf raise.

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Calves can handle a boatload of both reps and weight, which is why you should use both heavy weight and high reps if you really want to grow your calves.

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To increase intensity, use pauses at the top and partials from the bottom up. Complete 20 reps with full range of motion, then complete about 5 partial reps off the bottom of the step. For the partials, come up halfway for each rep, pumping blood into the calves.

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For the final 2-3 reps, pause at the top before stretching down to the bottom and rising up to peak contraction to pause again. Use this to finish the set and increase the pump.

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The biggest mistakes when working calves are not using full range of motion, bouncing, bending the knees, or using momentum. Any of these common mistakes will rob you of the full benefits of this exercise.

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Extreme muscle soreness is the most difficult part of working calves. During the rest in between sets, stretch your calves, either one leg at a time or together. Soreness usually peaks about 48 hours post-workout. In severe cases Rambod recommends using ice or Epsom salt to alleviate the pain.

Upper-Body Essentials Hany "The Pro Creator" Rambod, legendary bodybuilding coach and mastermind of Olympia-caliber physiques, is known best for three letters: FST. They stand for "fascia stretch training," a lifting protocol which incorporates facial stretching into your workouts to increase blood flow, giving you a 3-D look with rounder, fuller muscle bellies. In Phase 1 of Rambod's FST-7: Big and Ripped program, he uses FST-7 sets at the end of the workout to increase blood flow and maximize muscle growth factors. For Phase 2, you'll preload your muscles by using FST-7 at the beginning of the workout to enhance your intra-workout pump. Intermediate lifters can get all they can handle from just 4-5 FST-style sets. Advanced lifters can chase all 7. Machines, free weights, barbells, and bodyweight are interchangeable when utilizing these training tips, so take the concepts you learn from each muscle group and apply them to whatever phase of training you are currently in to get big and ripped! You'll find one of these workouts on each week of the program, but bookmark this page to watch Rambod's videos with four-time Physique Olympia champion Jeremy Buendia, or to review his best tips for each body part.

Biceps • • •

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Look for supersets that balance different grips or arm positions. In the video, Hany has Jeremy alternate high cable curls with barbell spider curls. Don't lift too heavy! The biggest mistake Rambod sees in the gym is curling so heavy the shoulders do the work, not the biceps. Build better peaks by supinating your wrists, turning your pinkies toward yourself. This motion gives you a better contraction during the exercise and builds a better biceps peak. Pause at the top of the contraction for 1-2 seconds, especially on the last few reps. This increases muscle soreness to encourage greater growth. After hitting failure, add 4-5 partial reps at the end of the set to pump even more blood into the muscle bellies. Use ladders on the spider curl. Take the weight to the low, mid, and high point on every rep. Ladders fatigue the biceps in every range of motion—and the partial reps pump more blood into the muscles. Pose in between supersets for 5-10 seconds. Recommended poses include front double biceps and back double biceps. Don't forget to supinate your wrists for better peaks!

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When creating supersets, use different motions or grips. Hany's choice is diamond push-ups paired with overhead rope extensions. Make sure your hands are close on the diamond push-up to help put as much tension as possible on the triceps. Use partials at the end of the overhead extension set. Throw in 3-5 extra partials to pump more blood into the muscles at the end for maximum tension and growth. Turn your pinkies out on triceps overhead extensions to work the outer head of your triceps. Once you go to full failure with your pinkies out, do partial reps by going halfway through the rep without turning your pinkies out and keeping your wrists straight to fully exhaust the muscle. Instead of flexing, starve the muscles of blood in between supersets by resting your arms overhead away from your heart. When you bring your arms back down, you'll rapidly reintroduce blood and increase growth factors. Flex your triceps after the final set to flood the muscles with blood. Flex one arm at a time, then both together.

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Pair pressing movements with fly movements. Hany's choice with Jeremy is chest flyes with bodyweight dips. Slow down and control the negative. Don't go too fast, and don't swing the weight. "The most difficult thing in these movements is to not use momentum," says Rambod. This is especially important during dips. Watch your posture. Keep your chest and your chin up. "When you want to focus on triceps, you drop your chest down," says Rambod. "Because we're trying to focus on the lower pec, you'll want to keep your chest slightly higher." As with biceps, use height ladders. By bringing your arms together at different elevations, starting low at knee height and ending at eye level, ladder sets target every part of the chest. This is where a training partner is a no-brainer. Open hands during flyes to get a better contraction, which leads to more muscle soreness and better growth. Flex in between sets, using side chest pose and crab most muscular. Hold for 5-10 seconds to increase blood flow and get a more 3-D pump.

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When performing supersets, pair different styles of front raises or presses. Hany's choice with Jeremy is lateral raises paired with cable front raises. On lateral raises, do not go higher than shoulder height. Raising your arms above that level mainly activates the traps. Minimizing trap activation helps to fully engage the delts. Use isolateral static holds. Hold one weight at shoulder height while performing a set of reps with the other side. Start at 5 reps on each side, then 4, 3, 2, 1. "If you fatigue quickly, it's OK to drop down more quickly," says Rambod, "you might have to do 5, 3, 1." Start with a lighter weight if necessary to keep your form as strict as possible. Maintain straight—but not fully locked out—arms, and pause to squeeze at the top. Do not use momentum! "A little bit of body English is OK," says Rambod, "but if you really start to swing, you'll increase your chances of injury." Use a rope on front raises to get full range of motion. To avoid stopping at the thighs, arch your back and tilt forward, keeping your core tight. Once again, make use of ladders. Have your training partner direct you to hit their hands at various levels, such as waist, chest, or eye level. Pose between exercises for more time under tension. This increases blood flow and time under tension for rounder, fuller delts. Recommended poses are crab most muscular, hands on hip most muscular, and side chest.

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When creating supersets, pair horizontal rowing moves with vertical pulls. Hany's choice with Jeremy is low cable rows paired with straight-arm rope pull-downs. Know your hand position. To focus on lower lats, use a reverse grip—pulling with your ring finger and pinky all the way back to your waist. For the upper back, turn your hands and pull with your index finger. Keep your arms out of the movement. When you pull with your arms, you tend to not contract any portion of the lat. Focus on the muscle you wish to work, and squeeze the scapula together to create extra flexion and more detail in the mid back. To create more intensity, hold the peak-contraction position for 1-2 seconds on the last 2-3 reps of the set. Once you hit failure, partials work great with both moves. Control the negative. Letting the weight snap back without controlling the momentum increases the likelihood of injury and lets your arms do the work instead of your lats. Flex between supersets for 5-10 seconds, pulling the lats out wide to increase blood flow. Practicing the front-lat spread and rear-lat spread help prepare you to naturally bring out your lats on stage.

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Supersets aren't necessary with traps. Just get on a machine or grab a pair of dumbbells and go to town. If you're trying to build your lower traps, tilt slightly forward. Lower traps give you more depth right above the rhomboid to bring out those back details in 3D. Do not roll your shoulders forward, as this puts more strain on your rotator cuff and your AC joint. Go straight up and straight down, squeezing for up to 5 seconds at the top on the last few reps. Traps can grow with both weight and repetition, so there's no need to overload this muscle group. Try not to go too heavy—Rambod recommends keeping it in the 10-15 rep range. Rather than adding weight, increase intensity by pausing 1-2 seconds at the top on the last 3 reps. On your final set, complete 5 partial reps at the end to pump every bit of blood into the muscles before the final flex. To pose the traps, hit the crab most muscular. This pose flexes the upper traps as it stretches the lower traps. Holding it for 5-10 seconds increases the already massive pump in your traps.