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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Welcome to The Bodybuilding
1 Transformation System

2 The Transformation Principles

11 Understanding The Program

13 Exercise Substitutions

What’s New in the Bodybuilding

15 Transformation System?

20 Suggested Training Gear

23 Progress Tracking

26 Muscle Anatomy

34 Bodybuilding Nutrition

39 Bodybuilding Supplements

41 FAQ

47 Comments from Jeff

48 References
Welcome to The
Bodybuilding
Transformation
System
I want to start things off by saying thank you for
purchasing the Bodybuilding Transformation System! A
lot of time and effort went into the project that inspired
this program, and I truly appreciate your support. 

Before diving into the specifics, I want to cover the

fundamental principles that should guide any
bodybuilding program. If you've recently completed either
of my Pure Bodybuilding programs, this will be familiar
territory, so feel free to skip ahead to What’s New in the
Bodybuilding Transformation System. However, if you
haven’t run those programs—or if it’s been a while—I
highly recommend reading this section, as it highlights
the key pillars of an effective bodybuilding program.

The Bodybuilding Transformation System 1

The Transformation
Principles

The Bodybuilding Transformation System 2

In this handbook, you will find simple summaries of the most important factors for building muscle. As we
progress through the program, we’ll be putting these 6 key principles to use.

1 . T e n s i o n o v e r e v e r y t h i n g

Tension remains undisputed as the main driver of

hypertrophy [1]. Without tension, very little muscle
growth can occur. Tension is the force created
within a muscle as it is pulled and stretched during
lifting, kind of like a rope in a tug of war.

When the muscle senses tension, a bunch of

anabolic signals are sent, telling the muscle it needs
to get bigger.

So how do we maximize tension on a muscle?

Answering that question leads us into the remaining
5 principles:

2 . T e c h n i q u e

In order to ensure that tension is being applied to

the muscle, we need to perform exercises with good
and consistent technique. There are detailed videos
demonstrating proper technique for every exercise
included in the program sheets but, for now, here are
a few important things we’ll be focusing on:

The Negative

A controlled, slightly slower negative is a pillar of good technique. I was at the gym today, looked around, and
noticed how many people just let the weight fall during the negative. Most people seem much more concerned
with “getting the weight up” than they are with lowering it back down under control. This is significant because
getting the weight up is most likely less important than lowering it back down. Research indicates that the
eccentric (negative) phase is more important for hypertrophy than the concentric (positive) phase of a lift. So,
if you’re one of those people who tends to just let the weight free fall on the negative, in this program, really
focus on resisting the weight on its way down.

The Bodybuilding Transformation System 3

Generally speaking, we’ll be using a 2-4 second negative on most exercises. That’s a fairly slow negative
compared to what most people do, but it’s not super slow. New research on rep tempo suggests that: “the
most favorable [tempo for muscle hypertrophy] is a combination of slower eccentric movements, paired with
faster concentric movements” [2]. In other words, on most exercises, we’ll be moving the weight slower on the
negative and more explosively on the positive. A few exercises, such as cable reverse flyes for the rear delts
and cable triceps kickbacks, don’t lend themselves as well to an explosive positive, so on these, we’ll use a
smoother positive. If you’re confused about what your tempo should look like for each exercise, pay attention
to my rep tempo in the video demos for each exercise. A safe general assumption, though, would be a 2-4
second negative and a forceful positive. 

Another good cue I like to think about on the negative is treating it as if it were a “failed positive.” On every rep,
you’re not just lowering the weight, you’re resisting it . It’s kind of like you’re trying to push the weight up, but it
still keeps moving down against your might. The idea is to really feel the muscle streeettttchhhhhhhh as you
lower the weight back down. This will create much more eccentric tension than just allowing the weight to free
fall.

The Range of Motion

More and more research is pointing toward the idea that full range of motion isn’t always better per se, but
rather getting to the deepest, most-stretched aspect of the range of motion is what really matters [3]. In other
words, the stretch is, for the most part, more important than the squeeze. The bottom half of a squat is more
important than the top half of a squat. The bottom half of a cable curl is more important than the top half of a
cable curl. You need to get the muscle stretched while lifting. When performing the exercises in this program,
regularly ask yourself if you’re getting a deep stretch at the bottom. If not, you may be missing out on some
gains!

Momentum

Another thing I’ve been noticing a lot at the gym is that most people do quite a lot of cheating on their form –
too much cheating. Again, it seems as if they just want to get the weight up. It’s as if the lifters are thinking
that as long as they can get the weight from A to B, it’s mission accomplished. The problem, though, is that
you can get the weight from A to B without actually applying much tension to the target muscle. Take bicep
curls, for example. If I “curl” the weight up while leaning forward and backward (see: Bro Jeff), I’m most
definitely taking loads of tension away from the biceps and dispersing it onto the lower back. This isn’t ideal.
On each exercise, we want to always be in control of the weight. This generally means minimizing momentum
and swinging while keeping our target muscle in mind.

Form Consistency

Another point worth mentioning is that you should do your absolute best to keep your form consistent from
week to week. As you add weight or reps, it will be tempting to alter your form for the sake of “progression.”
This is a kind of fake progression though. If you just got other muscles involved by cheating the weight up, you
didn’t actually apply any additional tension to the target muscle. It’s better to keep the form in check than
increase the weight at all costs. We’re putting technique over weight in this program… always.

The Bodybuilding Transformation System 4

3 . E F F O R T

When it comes to building muscle, effort matters. But if you’re just starting out, you don’t need to push every
set to complete failure to make progress. In fact, beginners can make excellent gains without grinding out
reps or feeling like they’re absolutely spent after every set. That’s one of the big advantages of being new to
lifting—your body is highly responsive to training.

So, while it’s true that more experienced lifters may need to push themselves closer to failure to keep seeing
progress, beginners can grow muscle just fine by stopping their sets with upwards of 4 or 5 reps left in the
tank. That might not feel super intense, but it’s enough to challenge your muscles and trigger growth.

Unfortunately, research shows that a lot of people think they’re training hard, but they’re actually leaving too
many reps in reserve—sometimes 6, 7, or more—which often isn’t enough stimulus for optimal results. But,
research also shows that people are more accurate at estimating their reps in reserve when they are closer to
failure. For beginners, training with 2-3 reps in the tank strikes a nice balance: it’s hard enough to promote
growth and also helps you develop a better feel for how close you really are to failure over time.

That’s the range most sets in this program will fall into—but there are some exceptions, which I’ll highlight
later.

This is where something called RPE comes in. It stands for Rating of Perceived Exertion, and uses a 1-10 scale
to measure reps in reserve.

An RPE 10 means you had zero reps left in the tank.

An RPE 9 means you had one rep left.

An RPE 8 means you had two reps left…

...and so on.

Below is a full table that breaks down the RPE scale in detail.

RPE Meaning

10 You reached failure. You actually tried and failed to get the weight all the way up.

9-10 You didn’t actually reach failure, but you were very close. You might have been able to
add a little more weight, but you definitely didn’t leave more than 1 rep in the tank.

9 You could’ve done one more rep if you really tried. This is still a hard set.

The Bodybuilding Transformation System 5

 RPE Meaning

You could’ve done 1 or 2 more reps if you really tried. It wasn’t a brutal set, but you’re
8-9
still pretty close to failure here.

You probably had 2 reps left in the tank. It wasn’t a super hard set, but will still
8
certainly stimulate hypertrophy.

There are 2 or 3 reps in the tank here. Depending on the exercise, this is usually not
7-8
going to feel like a truly hard set.

You have 3 reps left in the tank. On most exercises, this would feel like something
7
between a tough warm up set and an easy working set.

6-7 You have 3 or maybe 4 reps left in the tank.

6 You could’ve done 4 more if you really tried.

5 You could’ve done 5 more if you really tried.

1-4 More than 5 reps left in the tank. These are warm-up sets, not working sets.

In this program, RPE is broken down into “Early Set RPE” and “Last Set RPE”. Early Sets refer to every working
set other than the very last set.

If an exercise calls for 3 sets, sets 1 and 2 are the Early Sets and set 3 is the Last Set. If an exercise calls for 2
sets, set 1 would be the Early Set and set 2 would be the Last Set. If an exercise calls for 1 set, you’ll see that
there is no Early Set RPE listed, as the first set will also be the last set, so just follow the Last Set RPE. It’s
worth mentioning that Early Sets are NOT warm-up sets. Warm-up sets are separate and to be done before the
Early Sets. Dividing working sets into Early Sets and Last Sets is simply a way for us to sometimes apply
different intensity levels to different working sets.

You may also notice that in the program I use a “~” sign before most RPE ratings to imply that your RPE
estimates will never be perfectly accurate. This sign denotes that being off by about 1 RPE unit is totally
normal. Just do your best to be within +/- 1 RPE of the assigned RPE. Also, you can use the Last Set of most
exercises to see how accurate you were with your Early Set RPEs by sending it all the way to failure and
comparing it to how many reps you got for the previous sets.

The Bodybuilding Transformation System 6

4 . P r o g r e s s i v e o v e r l o a d

The simplest explanation of progressive overload is

when you increase some training variable over time.
It’s widely accepted that progressive overload is
crucial for ensuring continued progress because you
need to continually provide the muscle with a new
stimulus to adapt to. Without overload, the muscle
will reach the current challenge level and have no
real reason to continue growing. 

There are a large number of ways to apply

progressive overload. Here are the main ones we’ll
be emphasizing in this program:

Adding reps This will be the main method of overload on exercises that give a rep range,
instead of a fixed rep count. For example, if the program calls for 2 sets of 10-12
reps on Cable Crunches (as it does), you’ll pick a weight that will sufficiently
challenge you for either 10, 11, or 12 reps. Let’s say you get 10 reps on both sets
in Week 3. In Week 4, you will try to add a rep to at least one of those sets. Over
the coming few weeks, try to max out the rep range by getting 12 reps on both
sets. Only once you’ve maxed out the rep range you should add some weight and
then reduce reps back down to the bottom of the range. Coaches refer to this as
double progression since we are progressing both reps and weight, in that order.
Adding weight
For all exercises within the program, only add weight once you’ve maxed out the
top end of the rep range, as explained above.
Improving form Even if you can’t add some reps or weight during a given week, you can always do
minor things to improve your technique. Improvements in technique cues,
especially improvements in controlling the negative, can increase tension on the
target muscle and totally counts as progressive overload!
Improving the mind- If you can’t add reps or weight, you can focus on feeling the muscle working
muscle connection better. Improving the mind-muscle connection is most likely not as effective as
adding reps, weight or improving form at increasing tension, but research has
shown that the mind-muscle connection can increase hypertrophy in some cases
[9]. It’s certainly worth keeping in mind as an overload option, especially on
isolation exercises where adding reps and weight may become impractical at a
certain point of strength development.

The Bodybuilding Transformation System 7

5 . H i g h - T e n s i o n E x e r c i s e s

You’ll quickly notice that this program is not a powerbuilding/strength program. There are many machine-
based and cable-based exercises and only a select few free-weight movements. Even the over-hated and
under-appreciated Smith Machine makes a number of appearances over a free weight barbell option (gasp!).

Why is this?

Well, first of all, the best evidence shows that machines are at least equally effective as free weights in
stimulating hypertrophy [10], and in some cases, may be superior [11].

That shouldn’t be surprising as machines and cables have a few clear advantages to free weights when it
comes to bodybuilding. Here’s a short list of a few:

Generally, you can push sets to failure more safely on

machines. If you fail a rep on a machine, the weight is
usually safely supported by the machine after you fail
a rep. On the other hand, if you fail with free weights,
there is less support for the failed attempt, which may
come with a higher risk of injury.

Good machines are also generally designed to have

good resistance profiles. Free weight exercises tend
to have much more variable resistance profiles,
meaning that the exercise may feel very hard at one
point in the range of motion, but very easy at another
point in the range of motion. Machines tend to apply
resistance more evenly, which is a good thing
because as you approach failure, the muscle won’t fail
just because it hit a tough spot in the free weight’s
resistance profile. Instead, it’ll be because the muscle
has reached exhaustion. Let’s compare the standing
dumbbell curl versus the Bayesian cable curl, for
example. With the dumbbell curl, your biceps
experience the highest level of tension when the
elbow is at 90 degrees and virtually zero tension when
the bicep is fully stretched at the bottom. Wouldn’t it
be nice if there was a way to keep even tension on the
biceps throughout the entire range of motion? Luckily,
there is a way! It’s called a Bayesian cable curl. Unlike
dumbbells, cables offer much more continuous
tension on the biceps throughout the entire range of
motion.

The Bodybuilding Transformation System 8