But every year goes by faster, so you might miss your chance to get in shape like a god if you’re not careful. That’s too bad, because Liverpool’s star player Mohamed Salah has shown that being skinny doesn’t have to last and always.

The Egyptian forward joined Chelsea Football Club in 2014, but his body wasn’t very strong. He was in good shape, but his body wasn’t as impressive as Cristiano Ronaldo’s, who is eight years Salah’s older.

In 2020, Liverpool FC has changed a lot and is now 22 points ahead of second-placed Manchester City in the English Premier League. Salah has also changed a lot and now has the body of an Egyptian god. While six years may seem like a long time to train, remember that Salah has access to world-class facilities and teachers who are always ready to help him. If you stick to a training plan, you can get washboard abs too.

But what exactly would be part of that training? To find out what kind of workouts the Champions League Winner has done besides getting waxed and stretching, we talked to Dean Jamieson, owner of the Lean Performance Gym in Taren Point, Sydney.

As the personal trainer and strength coach put it, “Mo looks like he has not only cleaned up his nutrition plans but also started a strength training program because the gain in muscle mass is very clear in this photo.”

How is this possible for most guys? “Compound lifts,” like squats, bench press, deadlift, pull-ups, overhead press, sled work and drags, should be a big part of your workout routine if you want to get as big as Mo.

I think most of us have thought, “How am I ever going to change this?” when we look in the mirror and see a less-than-perfectself. After all, it can take years of hard work and commitment to working out and eating the right foods to get a really ripped middle.

DMARGE then talked to Andy Anderson, a change expert and founder of the Ultimate You Change Centres. Anderson agreed with Dean’s analysis: “The pictures show that he has definitely gained lean muscle mass, even if you don’t count the shaving and flexing (he is clearly flexing and tensing in the “after” picture).”

“Just guessing, I think he would have definitely increased the number of calories he got from carbs and protein and switched up the way he did weights,” Andy said. “As a professional football player, strength training and lifting weights would have been a part of his routine all along, but I would say he’s added more weight to his routine.”

Andy then told us, “Being an ectomorph, he looks naturally thin, so he’d respond really quickly by building muscle and losing fat, which would make him look more defined.” As a football player, he must burn a lot of calories every day. To gain that extra lean muscle mass, he would have had to eat more protein and carbohydrates.

To get in great shape on your own, Andy told us to set realistic goals and expectations. He said, “with any body transformation or program, to get that lean and be that defined and toned – you are going to have to have a reasonable timeframe in place – 6 to 12 weeks.” He also said to train “at least once a day, 5 to 6 days a week” and be “pretty strict with your nutrition.”

“Putting together a pro

Andy says, “fasting cardio in the mornings—either steady-state or sprints or a mix of both—and then weight training or a functional circuit session in the afternoons” for a more general plan to build muscle and lose fat.

“If you want to get the most out of your time, compound movements like deadlifts and squats are great because they work a lot of muscle groups,” says Andy. He also says, “you should definitely do bench press for chest and lateral shoulder raises for those defined shoulders, as well as ab work like cable crunches or hanging leg raises.”