Bodybuilder & Fitness Model Jonathan Irizarry Talks With Simplyshredded.com

How did you get started with bodybuilding?

One day I was approached by a local bodybuilder in the gym and he asked me if I ever thought about competing. I told him that I didn’t really know much about it. He invited me to watch a competition which he was competing in and it was the Europa Supershow in 2005. After attending the show I saw how normal sized guys could look as shredded as they were.

I told myself that this is what I wanted to do. Just about 8 months later I competed in my first show at the age of 16.

Where does your motivation come from?

My motivation comes from myself. I have always been a very competitive person growing up playing football, baseball, tennis, etc and always had the drive to be the best at whatever it is I did.

So I still take that mindset into bodybuilding and continue to strive to be the best.

What workout routine has worked best for you?

Well I honestly never followed a constant routine. I usually changed the order of my exercises up so that I can build each one equally. For example if I did chest one week and started with Incline DB press. The Next week I will do Incline barbell bench. But most of my workouts contain pyramid sets where the first few sets are high rep and as I continue to add weight I lower the rep ranges accordingly.

Sample Routine:

Monday: Chest

Incline bench 4x
Incline db press 4x
Flat bench 4x
Cable crossover 4x

Tuesday: Back

Deadlifts 4x
Bent over rows 4x
T-bar rows 4x
Wide grip pull down 4x
DB rows 4x

Wednesday: Legs

Squats 8x
Leg press 6x
Lunges 4x
Leg exts 4x
Leg curls 4x
Stiff leg dead’s 4x

Friday: Shoulders

DB military press 6x
DB side laterals 6x
Smith-machine press/ DB Rear delt fly 4x
Reverse pec fly for r delts 4x
Cable side laterals/front raises 4x

Saturday: Arms

Barbell curls/skull crushers 4x
DB curls/standing DB extensions 4x
Preacher curls/rope exts 4x
Hammer curls/reverse grip exts 4x

If you have to pick only 3 exercises, what would they be and why?

Incline Bench: Because I’m in a constant battle trying to bring up my chest
Deadlifts: Because I love the feel of lifting heavy weight & its an excellent mass building exercise
Squats: Once again because I like to lift heavy weight and you can never have big enough legs

What is your diet like?

For some reason it doesn’t take a lot for me to grow, I don’t normally eat a lot of food in the offseason because I tend to gain weight fairly quickly. Here is a sample of my daily diet.

Meal 1: 16 egg whites, 1 cup oats, 1 banana
Meal 2: 10 oz. chicken breast, 1 cup rice
Meal 3: 10 oz. red meat, 12 oz. red potatoes
Meal 4: 10 oz. tilapia, 1 cup white rice
Meal 5: 2 scoops whey isolate, 1 scoop karbolyn
Meal 6: 10 egg whites, 3 omega-3 eggs