Archives for February 2012

Today we bring you an interview with Kerry Hopkins who placed  6th in the latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Calorie optimization combined with a good workout program can have magical effects.

If you want pictures like this, make sure you take action and do what you hear Kerry talking about in the interview

Kerry started working out when he was 16. However, his workouts lacked any structure and it was just about working out rather than really training. And there is clearly a difference between just showing up in the gym and lifting some weights compared to going there with a specific goal, a good workout plan, and training with some dedication.

Unfortunately most guys in the gym usually end up chatting with other people, boosting their ego on the bench press and pumping their ‘mirror muscles’.

For Kerry it was always about doing just a few sets here and there two times a week.

And after a while due to a lack of motivation he stopped going to the gym all together.

Kerry's back shot.

…Then He Found Adonis Index

For about a year Kerry was reading all the blog posts and listening to all the podcasts here at the Adonis Index, because he loved the science behind it and the simple approach. Everything made sense to him.

However, it still took him a year to really get on board and take action. It wasn’t until he saw some previous contest winners that he realized he needs to take action…just reading about this won’t be enough.

And this is really important, if you don’t take action based on what you read about then you can’t expect any results, can you?

You haven’t learned anything if you can just cite pages from a book, it’s when you change your behavior and take action on that knowledge.

You learn when you change your habits, take action, start acting differently and put the theory in practice.

After a year of working out Kerry noticed that not much had changed, so he decided to take action. He tried the contest and was unsuccessful due to a few set backs, he didn’t even bother submitting pictures, because he knew he didn’t change.

He made several mistakes like following the advanced Adonis Index workout the Triple Stack while he was on a very low calorie diet. As a result he got burnt out after a month.

That’s when Kerry learned that you can’t pull off a big caloric restriction when you are already pretty lean while following a really challenging and tough workout.

He decided to get back to AI 3.0, which he found worked the best to cut and build at the same time.

Kerry fasted once or twice a week, had just a coffee in the morning maybe with a piece of chocolate. Later on he would eat half of the dinner with his family and that would be it for the day.

He just didn’t want to sacrifice his social life, so he decided to save his calories during the week and enjoy his weekends with his friends.

The point is to have a social life and still look good.

Then after 12 weeks he took the after pictures and just couldn’t believe what he saw. And here’s the thing, in a mirror you can see some new lines and may notice some improvements along the way. Day to day you will seem to look pretty much the same and it’s hard to tell how much you’ve really changed.

However, when you put the before and after pictures side by side that’s when you can actually see a big difference.

Kerry is around 9% bodyfat (just a guess) and like he said the model body doesn’t seem unattainable anymore. It’s just about building a bit more muscle. As long as he is consistent with the workouts the muscle will continue to come.

Since he still has juvenile muscle growth on his side he can build some significant muscle mass over the next few years.

Luckily for him he found Adonis Index early on in his life and was spared all of the crap like bulking and cutting, eating six meals a day or overdosing protein supplements. So, he can actually spend his best years being in shape rather than bulking up and being fat.

Patience Is the King

Kerry would receive skinny comments at the beginning, his mother would worry about whether what he was doing is healthy and he even failed in his first attempt to place in the contest. However, he didn’t give up and decided to stick to the program and be patient.

Sometimes it just takes time and people don’t want to believe it can take longer than they expected and wanted.

Especially at this early age patience is not very high priority skill we want to learn.

And once you don’t see results the next day you are wondering if you should try something else, or whether the grass isn’t  just a bit greener on the other side of the fence.

But if you can push through this feelings of doubt and be patient and consistent then your hard work will pay off.

Dealing with this is important, because patience is the key in gaining muscle without excess fat.

Most guys want quick results so they fall for supplements, high protein diets, bulking and all sorts of crap.

Ironically every experienced guy who has successfully built a great Adonis Index will tell you that following these ‘shortcuts’ will end up taking you much longer to get the body you want.

Take home advice from Kerry:

• Sometimes you do things you shouldn’t, that happens, just get back on track, don’t stop
• Stick to the plan, you will get there eventually
• Talk is cheap…Stop talking about what you are ‘going’ to do or ‘want’ to do…shut up and do it! That’s when you really get the results
• If you are skinny and young just hang in there, it’s worth it to stay lean and build muscles, don’t fall for the idea of ‘bulking up’
• Your body and the pics are the pay off, which come from your hard work and patience
• For the young guys…if you get the right program now, you will save years of struggle and won’t have to correct any bad habits in the future
• If you don’t take action nothing will change

Links from the Interview:

• Adonis Index 3.0 and Muscle Building Foundation (aka MBF) – The basic Adonis Index workouts that are responsible for the best online transformation.
• Adonis Triple Stack Protocol (aka ATS) – An advanced version of Adonis Index workouts.
• Anything Goes Diet (aka AGD) – Diet program without any rules. Eat anything you want, anytime you want, anywhere you want.

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Today we have an interview with Al Sandoval who placed 6th in the Open category in the latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his pictures:

You can take a picture like this at home, you don't need to hire a photographer and pay for a studio.

Do you want to have pictures like this? It's not as hard as you think.

And in case you forgot how Al looked when he originally started, check this out:

Compare these two photos with the pictures above.

This was Al’s second contest. He won the transformation category in a previous contest.

There really seems to be a pattern in this. It looks like guys get rid of a few pounds, get into a contest, get lean and then they focus on building more muscle and moving towards a specific shape.

If you’re like Al, you might actually be just two contests away from your ideal body shape.

Al’s Insights from His Second Contest

Al was very proud of his final pictures and incredibly impressed with his first change. He wanted to take some time off, but convinced himself to do next contest.

What is is like going from one contest to another one?

Hard, but doable.

He says motivation was tougher this time. Which is understandable, because putting so much energy and focus into this for so long without any break is really tough.

It doesn’t mean that you will do just one contest and then you are done for the rest of your life, no not at all, you obviously will have to maintain your look and will still have a lot to work on, but getting ready for a fitness photoshoot requires way more energy and attention, which is why most guys don’t do two back-to-back contests.

When you take some time off and just work out and eat to stay where you are, your desire to take your physique to the next level and compete gets bigger.

But Al decided to give this a shot and showed up with some amazing pictures.

During the preparation for the first contest he would look at his before pictures and at his “hate handles” as he calls them to keep himself motivated and to stick to his diet plan. This time he knew he looked good, so there was the temptation to slip a bit, since it wouldn’t do any damage.

And that’s exactly it.

Just because you get from overweight to a decent shape, it doesn’t mean all of your life problems and everything will be solved. No, that’s not how it works.

Once you get over one challenge the next one will appear and so on, this is how you move forward and with a bit of determination you can get some amazing results. Most people will give up after a while, even if they get past the first few challenges…and with that said “most people” don’t have extraordinary results and don’t live extraordinary lives, do they?

Once Al got in shape, his new challenge to face was finding a reason why he should continue when he already looks good, what goal should he aim for.

He decided that he want’s a six pack, because that is something he never had in his life and that’s a goal worth pursing. And even now he is still on track and determined to get to that goal.

The Leaner You Get, The Harder It Is to Lose Weight

To get decent muscle definition and a six pack, you need to be willing to persist and take it further than most people.

This is a point where we are seeing similar feedback from pretty much all the contestants. The leaner you get, the harder the fat loss actually becomes.

When you have to lose 50 pounds, it will be quick and pretty easy compared to slow progress of going from average/lean to ripped/shredded.

Water plays a huge role in this. When you are overweight, your body retains literally pounds of water that wouldn’t normally be there. Second reason why it’s easier at first is because your body has enormous energy storage that it can use. When you get to about 12% bodyfat, this changes. Suddenly there is very little bodyfat on you, your desire to eat increases because your body wants you to eat at your energy expenditure and it’s really hard to limit your calories intake.

On top of that when you get lean, certain metrics like the scale or waist measurement suddenly become useless.

This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get ripped, it just means it’s a bit harder and there are different challenges you will face along the way.

You may have to reduce the hours of your fasting, you may have to optimize your calories on eating days closer to your maintenance and probably use exercise to create the deficit.

It will take a longer time and will be harder to measure, but you absolutely CAN get there.

Another thing that goes hand in hand with this is the idea of maintenance. Once you go from overeating to eating for fat loss, the only way of eating you need to learn is eating in a way to keep you where you are. Sounds simple, but is tricky.

There will always be some ups and downs, however the idea is to be in striking distance to your contest body.

If your waist is 34, but for the contest was 32,5, you should be able to get there in 4-5 days if you were going to the beach or vacation.

Maintenance allows flexibility in your diet, enjoying more food on a few days and limiting yourself on others a bit.

Take home message from Al:

• Maintenance is a work in progress, a way of living your life
• Muscle takes years to build
• You can get your weight under control in a matter of weeks and months
• Diet should help you condition your body for less food and bring your appetite to its optimum
• After contest aim for staying in ‘striking distance’, meaning you should be able to get to that exact state in several days
• Your new you will be incredible and awesome,  you are gonna be happy with yourself once you transform
• You can still enjoy the food you like, Al still eats ice cream, chocolate, just keep the amount in a healthy range

Useful links:

• Adonis Index 3.0 – Workout Al used
• Al’s Fat Loss Journey: Math Doesn’t Lie – Al’s first interview
• AT5 Pictures – Pictures of all contestants from Al’s first contest

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Today we bring you an interview with Vivek. Vivek placed 3rd in the latest Adonis Index Contest in the Transformation category.

Vivek lost weight and now he can just focus on one goal, building muscle.

Getting to this level of leanness requires some serious effort and commitment..

This is an awesome progress!

Vivek started with no experience or knowledge about exercises whatsoever. If you told him that bench press is for building bigger legs, he would probably believe you.

From a diet stand point it wasn’t so much different. Vivek is vegetarian, but he had no idea what any of the diet claims meant. Calories were basically just something the brand put on the label along with the logo.

Until 2011 dieting and exercising were unknown concepts for him.

Finally he decided to get in shape and lose some weight. He went with the conventional fitness approach and started eating “healthier food“. For two months he was basically eating brown rice, fruits and vegetables. However, since he wasn’t paying any attention to calories, he didn’t lose any weight at all. He was basically eating the same amount of calories, but from different sources of food and so called healthy sources. This “healthy eating” made absolutely no difference in how he felt or how much he weighed.

Like he said, Vivek wasn’t obese, but he was a bit overweight and needed to lose a few pounds and since eating ‘healthy’ wasn’t working, he kept looking for something different.

What Does an iPhone and Your Body Have in Common?

Vivek has an IT company, so working with software and technology he understands that the golden ratio is an important aspect in developing any application and that aesthetics are the key. Just take an iPhone, you would have a really hard time finding a phone that would be more aesthetically pleasing than the one from Apple. And it’s no coincidence either. The developers used the concept of a golden ratio in the development process. Same ratio that Vivek uses. Same ratio that Adonis Index workouts are designed to shape your body into.

When he stumbled across the Adonis Index he was excited because somebody actually  quantified and put some science around the concept of aesthetics, took concepts he knew and applied them to building the ideal body shape.

Seeing the same concept he used in technology development, for shaping his body was incredible revelation to him and he immediately knew it made sense.

He started studying the program and implementing the advice. The implementing part is important, because you don’t learn by gaining more knowledge, you learn when you change your behavior and take action.

Learn to Use the Metrics

Vivek made an interesting observation, and that is people have a poor understanding of how to use metrics, they either don’t use them at all, or they don’t use them correctly.

He created a spreadsheet, tracked what he ate and realized that eating “healthy” is not an answer. Despite what the fitness magazines, personal trainers, dietitians and other “certified experts” say, in order to lose weight you can eat whatever you like, but you have to stay in a caloric deficit.

Eat a balanced diet, with lot’s of vegetables, but stay in caloric deficit, then you will lose weight, the answer is not by eating some magic, “healthy” food.

Next thing is that your daily fluctuation will show on the scale, so the only way to know whether you are progressing or not is to measure your weight on a weekly basis. And that’s exactly what Vivek did, he looked at what he ate on weekly basis only.

He calculated his RMR multiplied it by seven and had a number of calories he burned each week without any additional exercise. And for every pound of fat he wanted to lose he would subtract 3500 from this number, being left with the calorie budget for that given week.

At the beginning he pressed for a larger deficit when he had the most fat to lose and ate really low calories the first few weeks.

It was way easier and simpler and the only thing he did was to log what he ate. He didn’t eat six meals a day, didn’t over-consume protein, didn’t count macro-nutrients, didn’t weigh food, didn’t cook all of his meals at home, non of those, just ate lower calories.

He knew that it was just a guesstimate and that there will be errors in his calculations and in what is on the food label. In order to find out how many calories her was burning he even got his RMR clinically measured. This test only cost around $100.

Now he knew the hard numbers and could work from there.

And if you though that other people knew what he was doing, you would be wrong.

Are you anxious about telling other people? Are you afraid of what they might think of your goals or approach? Well, you don’t have tell them. They won’t even notice.

Vivek didn’t tell anyone what he was doing, all people saw was the end result.

One of his goals was to be able to have a good social life while doing all of this. He didn’t want to look weird when he was out with clients or had dinner with friends.

And that’s what this approach allowed him to do. Since he could eat anything he wanted and still keep losing weight he kept this to himself and nobody knew. Then when they saw the results it seemed like magic.

Vivek made a huge transformation for this contest, but interestingly enough he actually lost 20 pounds before it even began. Before the contest started he already went from 200 to 180 pounds.

It’s about how you change, not how well you place in the contest. If you are considering entering in the next one, don’t wait start today. You will have momentum that others who wait will not have.

What seems to work the best for most people is to lose the fat first and then focus on building muscle.

Here are two points to consider when thinking about building muscle first:

1. Muscle building takes time, especially if you are not in your teen years
2. Your muscles won’t be visible until you lose the fat that is covering them

This is why it’s better to focus on losing fat first, get it over with as quickly as possible and build muscle afterwards.

That’s where Vivek is now. He can just eat at his maintenance level, have lots of energy and focus on pushing at a gym.

What to do to transform your physique:

• Find a pattern that works for you and stick to it
• Track whatever it is you are doing
• Analyze your progress every week
• Record your weight in the morning to keep the water and food fluctuation to minimum
• If can afford it get your RMR clinically measured
• Expect your RMR to be lower than you want it to be and don’t lie to yourself that you can actually eat more and not gain weight
• Eat normally when you are out with friends or clients and watch yourself when you are alone and nobody is looking (The opposite of what most people do)
• Be rational not emotional when it comes to success, especially building the body you want, because emotions keep you from the truth and support beliefs molded by media and marketing
• Remember that your mind will try to justify any action you take or don’t take, so take actions that will ensure your personal growth
• Be brutally honest with yourself when tracking your metrics
• Have long term and short term goals
• Deal with your problem now, later never comes and there is only so many tomorrows in your life
• Don’t deny what happens, because then you get in trouble. People that ignore the results, get in debt and gain fat

Words & phrases mentioned in the interview:

• Muscle Index – Specific calculations for measuring muscle gains
• Muscle Building Foundation aka MBF is part of the Adonis Index Workout Program
• Brad Pilon’s fat and debt analogy – Big Fat Debt

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS