Real People, Real Methods, Real Results...Part 2: Pick Your Battles

John: December 2008



To reach your ultimate goal you must have smaller goals or steps you must reach along the way. Great military leaders don't try to win the entire war in one day but try to win all of the smaller battles that comprise a war along the way. Well how many of you out there deep down inside really want to wage a war on body fat? With only about 10% of the United States population under 10% body fat, I'm going to assume it's pretty much all of you.

John (who you're familiar with from part 1) came to me in 2008 wanting to wage a personal war on body fat. We set up MANY small battles along the way. These battles included: Dietary changes day by day, week by week, meal by meal, training changes day by day, week by week, set by set. We started out with very small changes and PROGRESSED the entire time in one way or another. We progressed with the following:
-food selection (commercial meats to organic to grass fed), vegetables/fruit instead of processed carbs and starches
-one cucumber per day progressing slowly to 4-5 full salads/vegetable platters per day
-almond milk instead of skim milk
-nuts/jerky for snacks in place of cereal, etc.
-one multivitamin per day progressing all the way to 2 chelated multivitamins, chelated zinc and magnesium, high quality fish oil, and various herbal adaptogens (holy basil extract, theanine serine, cordyceps)
-drinking plenty of water during training progressing all the way to consuming 50grams of bcaa's around training

What can you learn from John's war? Pick many small battles:
-ONE meal at a time add a solid protein, fat, and vegetable source
-Replace ONE beverage per day with a big glass of water
-Replace your workout carb drink with bcaa's or plain water
-Worry about food changes before purchasing the "magic pill" (there isn't one)
Putting this together: If you make a new subtle change every day then after a few weeks you've completely changed all of your habits and will be closer to winning your personal war!


John: April 2009


To Be Continued: Stay tuned for a full synopsis of John's training leading up the the contest which will include his full program and a video compilation of his fat loss workouts.

Real People, Real Methods, Real Results...Part 1

All of you are probably pretty familiar with all of my beliefs in regards to training, eating and living. But i'm not sure how confident you may be in their ability to produce results. This is understandable because I've mainly used myself as an example. And for those of you who know me you know that I take things to the extremes. Well, i've now got an example other than myself to model some of my principles for optimal body comp. A client and friend of mine John came to my in July 2008 seeking out some advice to obtain optimal body composition by April 11th, 2009 (the day of the annual Kalamazoo Bodybuilding Championships here in SW Michigan).

John had played 5 years of college football so he was already in pretty good shape don't let me kid you. I'm not going to try to take credit for the most impressive transformation of all time but I'd like to show what it takes to go from an athletic look to completely shredded! If you're looking to get anywhere near 10% body fat (for guys) and 15% body fat (for women) then you might learn a thing or two from John.

We started in July of 2008 just making changes in his food selections (not portions, timing, or anything else). We made small changes at a time such as: meat and/or eggs for breakfast instead of cereal, water/almond milk instead of skim milk, fruits and veggies in place of refined sugars and starches, based every meal around an animal protein source, started to include fish oil and/or nuts with most every meal, etc. This led into the full on contest prep in the middle of December 2008. We got a little more specific on meals (selections, amounts, times, etc.).
We kept training real heavy in the gym on our main lifts. 6 reps and under with squats, front squats, dead lifts, push presses, bench presses, chin ups, etc... With the rest of our work being in either the 6-8 rep range or 8-10 for some accessory movements.
I didn't allow John to get on any piece of cardio equipment. He adhered to a regime of 2 moderate to high intensity cardio sessions outdoors per week for the first couple of months. This included all of the stuff you've seen in my videos (prowler, sled, sandbag, body weight drills). This progressed up to three prowler sessions per week and even a few 10-15 minute sled drag workouts on his own at his house several hours after lifting sessions.

I'll get into much greater details on each aspect of the transformation later, but this should get you thinking about the basics of attaining a better body composition.

Short summary of my recommendations:
-Eat real food (animal proteins, oils, nuts, vegetables, fruits, limit dairy, grains and sugar)
-Drink water and lots of it
-Lift weights, and use big compound lifts such as squats, dead lifts, over head presses, bench presses, dips, pull ups, dips
-Use short rest periods and still use
-Get off the treadmills and elipticals and get outside. Use prowlers, sled, kettlebells, kegs, tires, ropes, bands... These make for killer fat loss circuits and are lot funner and effective than walking on a treadmill!

John did very well for this being his first contest. He took 3rd place out of 11 competitors in the light heavy weight class. He was a drug free 198.6 pounds!

Take a look at the final product, I'll have some before pics in another post:









TO BE CONTINUED!...