Christian Guzman is the one of the web’s most popular fitness personalities, regularly flexing his Youtube muscle. Learn how he trains, eats and lives when the cameras stop rolling so you can turn your biceps into big bucks too.

 

Christian Guzman – humble beginnings

I’m 24 and was born in Houston, Texas. I still live there to this day and it was back in high school I fell in love with exercise. I was trying to eat every hour and a half, saying no to parties because I thought if I drank I’d ruin my progress. I quickly became a local fitness guru.

People came to me for workouts but when I was in college it didn’t really fit in with the lifestyle. I started to watch a lot of fitness videos by guys like Greg Plitt and, from there, decided to pick up a camera and share some of the stuff I’d learned. It was small at first, such as bicep and tricep building tips, but as I got more followers I branched out.

 

Making the leap

After a year and a half in college I dropped out to start a coaching business but I found I was making more money online that I would with coaching. The biggest obstacle was making the leap of faith. I didn’t have a lot of support in that decision, for months my mom was crying and begging me not to do it, but I did it and here I am.

 

The summer shredding

When I was 20 years old I used to do a cut every year where I’d rip down for a competition. This summer shredding event involved trying to get as many people involved in the shred as I offered $25,000 of my own money to the winners with no entrance fee.

I received 26,000 before videos and 7000 after videos. It was difficult to choose but we tried to pick the winners based on the personal journey. The objective was to get people motivated.

 

 

Christian fun fact:

INNER PEACE

In a recent YouTube video, Christian Guzman reflects on his use of time: “It’s important in life to realise that it’s not always go, go, go. Yes, work your ass off, but do not forget to enjoy the moments where you literally just have peace.

 

The key to YouTube success

I don’t have the best physique, nor do I have a crazy back story or a huge amount of financial support after college, although I have had a good family life. What sets me apart is that I’m very disciplined and have been doing it for five years.

Not one week goes by when I haven’t posted a video. It took me one year to get to 5000 subscribers and two years to get 20,000. For the first few years, things were very slow, but I stuck to it. I’m always evolving because something you did five years ago doesn’t fly now. I focus on having the best quality while staying socially aware.

The biggest thing is being open to criticism; I think I’m very aware of what people are saying. I look in comments and re-watch my videos looking for thing to adjust and improve. I’m always trying to raise the bar both in life and in things I do for YouTube. Staying complacent is the quickest way to die off.

 

Your brands

For my clothing brand, Alphalete, I was trying to make a product that wasn’t just printed. I took the time to custom make apparel, with more of a taper, so it’s tighter on the arms and I wanted people to have a soft cooling feeling when they put it on.

For Ghost Lifestyle, I was the first athlete on board with them. I like them because they put so much effort into the details. The labels have funny sayings; the supplement ingredients are top class and that speaks volumes. Plus, I wanted to do something fresh and new. They even launched a limited-edition pre-workout with my favorite flavor that had extra caffeine because I like it to have more of a punch.

Christian Guzman fun fact

MULTI-TASKING

If creating hundreds of videos for his doting fans wasn’t enough, Christian Guzman still makes time to be an Ambassador for Ghost Lifestyle and run his Alphalete brand.

Supplement stack

I’m a simple person and have one protein shake a day, so I shoot for about 200g of protein a day. I take pre-workout – Ghost Legend – every workout. I don’t know the science behind it but it gives me the kick I need. Plus, I take creatine and fish oil each day.

 

 

Training for success

My favorite split of all time is a pull-push leg routine. I’ll do that six days in a row then have an off day. If I’m not doing that I’ll do a pull-push legs, arms and shoulders. I’ll back off a little bit on shoulders on pull and push days. I’ll do those workouts for eight days in a row or four on and one off.

Keeping de-loads in mind if you take 3-5 days off each month it’s a great way to keep up your high training proficiency. I usually take an off when I feel like my body needs it.

 

Christian fun fact:

MUSICAL MUSCLE

When Christian Guzman isn’t lifting, he treats himself to a bit of musical therapy by strumming the strings of his acoustic guitar on rest days, relaxing, ready to hit it hard in the gym.

 

Up your frequency

I’m a big advocate for higher frequency and slightly lower volume so I train every muscle group every 48-72 hours as it keeps the muscles working more frequently. I’ve seen the best results with that kind of training rather than having a chest day and a back day once a week.

 

Training tactics

Every single workout has compound moves, so for a push day I’d use bench press focus or incline dumbbell press as my first movement. For leg day, I always do squats first when I’m the freshest, then I’ll back off and do higher volume stuff.

For the first move, I’ll do 3 sets of 5 reps or 5 sets of 5 or 4 sets of 6. As the workout goes on, my sets say the same, 3-5 sets but I’ll do 8-10 reps or 12-15 in the later exercises. I bring the weight down and reps up as the workout progresses.

I’ll try to stick to about 7-8 movements per workouts but don’t have a set number of moves for each body part. I suggest people look at their weak points and give those more work.

 

Christian fun fact

MULTI-TALENTED

Christian started his channel Christian Guzman Fitness on Youtube in 2012. It takes strength and personality to reach 741k+ subscribers. In terms of hobbies, Christian’s also a dog lover and Cleveland Cavaliers fan.

 

Staying consistent on the move

The most important thing is to have your macros nutrient tracking on point. I’m a big fan of flexible dieting and think everyone needs to have a phase when they do track and weigh your macros because once you do that you get a good perception of what’s what.

After six months of tracking everything you can look at a meal and have a good idea of what you’re eating. If you’re traveling you can try to get in the ballpark and don’t have to bring a scale to double check everything. You need that history of learning.

Also, it’s worth not associating cardio with cutting, so I do 2-3 sessions a week and that helps keep the fat off me all year round.

 

Taking a break

For me, I like to go hard for a certain amount of time and don’t like taking a day off, but that catches up to you. I like to take a week off a few times a year. For YouTube, this past year I took off two weeks off but I let people know so I pull back and make people miss the videos.

I hit it hard with a new routine, so every time I take time off from everything, it’s very much planned out. Taking the time out does your body a lot of good.

 

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