Abel Albonetti: A Complete Physique

At 19, he had already built such an impressive physique that other members of the gym were asking him for training advice. Abel Albonetti is an ISSA Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Model from Northwest Mississippi. When he’s not traveling to photo shoots across the country, he can be found in his local gym keeping his body in peak condition.

Albonetti started training at home on a small weight bench when he was 15 years old. He never had the chance to play football, basketball, or baseball like his friends in public school, because he was homeschooled his entire life. "Watching all my friends play sports left me wanting to do something active, so I worked out" Albonetti says. At 17, he joined the local YMCA. His persistence and dedication to transforming his body began to pay off. He fell in love with training and dedicated himself to a fit lifestyle.

By chance, the owner of a local modeling agency saw Albonetti working out and asked if he had he ever thought about modeling. So Albonetti began doing local photo shoots and runway shows, which launched his modeling career. Since then, he has had the opportunity to work for several high visibility companies such as Rue 21, Tommy Hilfiger, and has appeared in ads for several magazines. Other photo shoots have been with Luis Rafael of Miami, FL, Michael Anthony Downs of Tampa, FL, and New York-based Silver Models.

As time went on, it became clear that he would have to choose between fitness and fashion. "I did a photoshoot with a teenage clothing line, and their immediate reaction was, "Oh wow, you're bigger than we thought,'" Albonetti recalls. "I didn't fit into most of their clothing and knew I had to decide what I was going to do: model or build my physique." Industry legends like Greg Plitt inspired Albonetti to go full steam ahead on the fitness path. "I looked at bodies like his and thought, "Wow, I'd like to look like them someday,'" he says. "I really wanted to see what my body could achieve if I pushed those boundaries." Albonetti headed for fitness modeling, but adding mass didn't come easily. "There was never a time when I was putting on tons of muscle," Albonetti says. "It's always been a struggle for me to put on size. It took years for me to build up, but lifting heavy was ultimately key."

As a novice lifter, Albonetti was able to see results from a relatively unstructured training plan. "When I first started, I was doing full-body circuits," he says of those beginning days, "but then I did research and realized that training a muscle group at a time worked better." Attacking a body-part split allowed Albonetti to lift heavier to stimulate serious muscle growth. "A lot of teenagers are like, 'I'm not seeing results, and I've been going to the gym for six months,'" Albonetti says. "You've got to keep going and keep pushing. Even if you don't see the results right then, they'll come. You have to trust the process."

When it comes to nutrition, Albonetti recognizes how much of an impact diet has on his physique. While he could eat whatever he wanted as a teen, he's had to become sensible of his nutrition as he's gotten older. "From about 20-25 years old, my metabolism slowed down," Albonetti says. "Now diet plays a huge role for me in terms of building muscle, losing weight, and getting ready for competitions and photo shoots." Albonetti's go-to method for getting lean is carb cycling. Strategically cycling carbs allows Albonetti to focus on burning fat or fueling performance at specific times. "For me, carb cycling is one of the best ways to actually put on size and lose body fat," he says. For contest prep, he usually carb cycles with three low-carb days followed by one high-carb day. Supplementation is essential to Albonetti's diet. "I take protein, creatine, fish oil, CLA, and a multivitamin," he says.

Albonetti lifts six days a week, hitting his legs, calves, chest, shoulders, and abs multiple times. Monday through Saturday, he does his cardio in the morning, and his weight training later in the day. He also splits his shoulder and arm day into morning and afternoon workouts. He uses Sundays for recovery.

Albonetti’s goal is to become a nationally recognized fitness model with a future goal of starting his own gym. He has already decided on the name: Abel Body Gym. He hopes to utilize his website, appropriately named abelbodygym.com, to motivate and aid others who are aspiring to reach their fitness and health goals.

In this video Albonetti works out and talks about his life.



Albonetti's complete physique is a product of serious dedication to his nutrition and hard work in the gym. Building a complete physique takes basic (compound) bodybuilding exercises and isolation exercises. The basic (compound) bodybuilding exercises are regarded as foundational movements that build the most amount of mass in the shortest possible time. The isolation exercises create advanced muscle detail. The key is to strategically incorporate isolation exercises with the more important mass builders. In these videos Albonetti performs a wide range of compound and isolation exercises to build a complete physique.

Arm Builder Workout:



Chest and Delt Workout:



Shoulder Workout:



Back Workout:



Leg Workout:



Source: www.bodybuilding.com, www.abelbodygym.com