In the world of modern fitness, people are frequently turning more and more to social media stars and “influencers” than the professional athletes and bodybuilders they would have followed in the past. This means, with the right marketing, anyone can become a sensation seemingly overnight.
From Facebook and Instagram to TikTok and YouTube, managing to get your videos “trending” can slingshot you into superstardom in an instant. Now, while anyone can indeed make the most of this trend, those who have a history of competing themselves do have a greater chance of doing so.
One such example of this phenomenon at the moment is Ryan Humiston. Through his unique videos and incredible physique, Ryan Humiston has been able to build a YouTube channel that has amassed 1.4 million followers and which is currently the fastest-growing channel of its kind on the platform.
As word of mouth and video sharing have helped both his channel and business to continue to grow, more and more people are trying out his methods. The question is then, just who exactly is Ryan Humiston, and are his workouts and videos really as effective as people would have you believe?
Well, that is just what we hope to establish in today’s article. So, if you want to know how to train like Ryan Humiston and what results you can hope to achieve by doing so, this is the article for you.
Who Is Ryan Humiston?
Despite his career meaning he has to be in the public eye, Ryan Humiston is an extremely private man, and surprisingly little is known about him. What we do know for sure is that he is a personal trainer and fitness influencer, as well as a former competitive bodybuilder.
The height of his competitive career came when he competed in the National Physique Committee (NPC) championships. A competition run by an amateur bodybuilding organization, he competed for a minimum of 5 times between at least 2007 to 2013, and his best finishes were both 2nd place bows.
He got his 2nd place finishes in the 2008 Border States Bodybuilding Figure and Fitness Championship Light Heavyweight contest and the 2010 Atlantic States Heavyweight contest. His weight was listed as at least 202 pounds (91.6 kg), while his height is listed as either 5’10” or 5’11” (178 cm – 180 cm).
We also know he has been a vegan since around 2018, he is at least 35 years old, and he got married at some point in 2021, with most reports saying the wedding was in September. Beyond this, all else about Ryan Humiston is shrouded in mystery, which is quite impressive for a public figure in this era.
Ryan Humiston Workout Philosophy
Ryan Humiston comes from a pure bodybuilding background. His philosophy is to always be aiming to grow muscle. While getting stronger or losing fat as a result of the routine can both be a nice bonus, they aren’t the main goal. The goal is to grow muscle mass and that’s it.
The most daunting thing about Ryan Humiston’s workouts is the unique approach to training that he uses, which includes extreme amounts of volume. The idea behind this is that it pushes your body to its limits, ensuring you make noted improvements in a short period of time, usually around 30 days.
His style embraces isolating the muscles and using principles like a high volume of reps, time under tension, drop sets, giant sets, training to failure, and adding orchestrated mechanical disadvantages to make the muscles work harder and force them to grow.
Ryan Humiston Diet
Much like everything else with Ryan Humiston, there is very little known about his personal diet. Unfortunately, he also doesn’t include specific nutrition guides with his workout programs, which can make it difficult to know how to achieve the best results from them, especially for newer lifters.
However, in one of the recent videos he posted on his YouTube channel, he did give a rough outline of the structure he uses and suggests his clients use when designing a meal plan. While you will need to do a little maths and choose the right foods, this does at least give you an idea of where to start.
He starts by saying that a diet must consist of around 45% protein, with the aim being to keep you at the “sweet spot” of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Knowing that 1 gram of protein has 4 calories will also help you to determine the number of calories you personally need to eat as well.
He then goes on to state that your daily food intake should be split into 6 meals, with the protein split roughly equally between them. These should then be consumed every 2 and a half to 3 hours.
Meal 1 will consist mostly of protein, and the majority of your carbs will be consumed in meals 2 and 3. You will then split the bulk of your fat intake evenly out across meals 4, 5, and 6. Your workout will be placed between meals 2 and 3, to allow you to make full use of the carbs available at this time.
Beyond this basic structure, you unfortunately will have to figure out the rest of the specifics on your own. That said, he does cover diet in his YouTube videos from time to time so, if you want to follow his routine as closely as possible, you will need to scour those for more tips on how to plan your diet.
Ryan Humiston Workout Plans
When you sign up to one of the Ryan Humiston workout plans, you won’t be getting a physical copy or a PDF to download. Instead, Ryan’s programs are built directly into his website and, once you buy a plan, you will be granted access to log in and see all of the workouts contained within it online.
There is a choice of 3 programs, the Swole 30 Day Full Gym Program, the 30 Day Program: Garage Style, and the Ryan Humiston PPL Program. All 3 are advanced programs that cost $19.99 and use super high rep ranges of around 20 to 50 reps that are not recommended for newbies or the faint of heart.
You will often be going to failure and using mostly isolation exercises, with little equipment needed.
Both 30-day programs will also build mental strength and commitment as you only do one routine, training one muscle group for up to 1 and a half hours. It is only 30 days, so you can’t expect too big of a change in your physique, but it is able to stimulate changes much faster than other methods do.
Swole 30-Day Full Gym Program Review
The Swole 30-Day Full Gym Program is a body part split routine where you train one muscle group a day. By training just a single muscle group to the maximum in each workout you can give it your complete focus, and all of your energy, and train all of the fibres through their complete range of motion.
The workouts are a 5-day body part split that includes arms, shoulders, back and traps, chest and abs, and legs. You will hit each body part once per week, but you will be destroying it in that one workout with extreme volume and aggressive principles, so you need to get ready to be sore after.
Among these principles there are giant sets, where you will do four exercises all targeting a specific muscle back to back and do 20 reps of each. You then have century sets, where you will do sets of 100 reps, and then there are rest pause sets and drop sets, which allow you to train past failure.
30 Day Program: Garage Style Review
The 30 Day Program: Garage Style is a body part split routine that uses what is often referred to as a bro split. It will see you train one muscle group each day, with the split being a day each for arms, legs, shoulders, back and traps, and chest and abs, and then two days off to rest and recover.
The objective of doing this type of routine is to train a muscle to its limits and force it into maximal growth. The first week utilises giant sets, the second week uses extreme volume, the third week uses drop sets, and then the fourth week uses a combination of all three of the previously used principles.
The 30 Day Program: Garage Style differs from the Swole 30 Day Full Gym Program as almost all of the program can be done with just an adjustable bench and a set of dumbbells that range from 5 to 50 lbs (2.25 kg to 22.5 kg), which makes it a great choice to use as part of a home gym training program.
Ryan Humiston PPL Program Review
The Ryan Humiston PPL program is Ryan’s personal take on a traditional PPL routine. It has a push day, a pull day, and a leg day like regular PPL routines. However, unlike regular PPL routines, you will only use a few exercises in each session, as some of the exercises need to be completed for 40 mins.
It has 8 options for each of the push, pull, and leg days, each of which comes with a video guide and a link to a google document with written instructions to follow. Ryan suggests the PPL routine can be done either 3 times a week for 60 days or 6 times a week for 30 days, then you take a break from it.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)
Before we wrap up our guide on how to train like Ryan Humiston, I quickly want to cover a few of the most frequently asked questions people have about him. This will hopefully help you to fill in a few of the blanks on this very private man and determine if training like him is right for you or not.
Is Ryan Humiston A Natty?
Ryan Humiston is not a natural bodybuilder. He has regularly used synthetic testosterone and other steroids in his career and has been open about this in many of his videos. This may put some people off, but his honesty at least gives you realistic expectations and tells you what is required to succeed.
Does Ryan Humiston Have An App?
The swoleaf.thinkific.com website that Ryan runs his training programs on does have a linked Swole App that you can download. This lets you take, store, and share your progress photos directly in the app, and gives you access to the course resources, so you can stay on top of your goals at all times.
Is The Ryan Humiston YouTube Channel Any Good?
The Ryan Humiston YouTube channel is good for a range of reasons. His physique is what will draw you in, but his personality, honesty, and humour are what will keep you there. While his videos will not be for everyone, he is one of the fastest-growing fitness channels on YouTube for a reason.
Does Ryan Humiston Do Personal Training?
All of the links on Ryan’s website and YouTube send you to the courses he sells if you are looking for help with your training. That said, he is listed as a personal trainer and there are reports of him doing online sessions so maybe reach out to him on his Instagram if you are interested in that sort of thing.
Final Thoughts
Ryan Humiston’s workouts are undoubtedly able to produce great results, but they definitely won’t be for everyone. The extreme methods used require incredible levels of commitment, while the sheer volume will likely be too much for less experienced lifters and could even cause them an injury.
His steroid use may also put some people off, as they feel they can’t replicate his results if they don’t do the same. In this case, you may be better off following someone like Aubrey Marcus. His traditional bodybuilding style won’t be right for those who prefer principles such as calisthenics training either.
However, if you have been training for a long time and have hit a plateau and want to kickstart your growth, or even if you want to burn calories on a cutting plan, it could be worth giving it a try. After all, even if it isn’t for you, at just 30 days and $20, what do you really have to lose by giving it a shot?
Steve is a retired professional wrestler with over 10 years of experience in the personal fitness industry. He is a certified personal trainer working with a wide variety of athletes as well as a fitness writer.
I am currently doing Ryan’s PPL… I’m 64 and suffered a stroke 2 years ago. I was skinny fat and have used Ryan’s you tube videos and now PPL program for 6 months. I lost 50 lbs… gained muscle… and lifting has become my religion. His style of building muscle is tough …I’m sore most days…lol…but this journey has been worth it….I’m thankful for my one off day on Sunday😂…all in all… great programs if you are dedicated. As Ryan says… get after it