www.bodyblitzz.com

I’ll update and continue from there.

It seems that woman get the bulk of bullcrap when it comes into this domain, supportive friends can be a bane to their psyche.

These supportive friends have good intentions but they don’t realize that they’re just making it worst for the woman who listen to their advice and humble opinion which doesn’t amount to anything anyway.

So female A wants to go on a diet because she thinks she fat, which she is anyway, she’ll of course make an announcement to her friends telling them she is embarking on it.

Supportive friend comes along and remarks that she is still slim with the a little obvious love handle and slight muffin top, female A gets a warp sense of security with regards to her supportive friend’s view of things and decides to trust her opinion.

A few months later Female A starts to really get out of shape but still have a supportive friend behind her, serenading her bullcrap.

Moral of the story, supportive friend isn’t really supportive of goal getting and somehow or rather the wrong person to trust anyway.

My point being is that, if you set up to go on a diet to lose weight and look better, it is your own choice and your own decision. Unless a psychologist advise you against your will and you’re not skin and bones suffering from anorexia then nobody is qualified to tell you what you can or cannot do.

Vanity is something unique about being a woman, nothing wrong with being vain. Hell, most men are vain. So keeping those love handles in check might be a good thing after all, even if you believe you’re not “that” fat.

Routine fat trimming is just cutting back on calories and maintaining your normal physical activities as per normal, but it seems the stigma of “going on a diet” means to torture yourself by haphazardly starving yourself.

It is not true as I’ve said before that a calorie deficit is not starvation in a literal sense, and to prove that I’ve been going against long held beliefs of “clean and unclean” food.

I’ve set up a base line caloric requirement of 2000 calories a day and try my best to increase my caloric out put, taking into consideration weight training and protein intake. I’ve been eating 2 double cheese burgers a day with 1 liter of milk and some eggs and fish, I can imagine the horror and frowns on people’s faces which is all the more fun thing to do just to piss against the tide.

Results was that I’ve dropped almost 5kg and learned that it was really easy to follow because double cheese burgers tasted so damn good and it was easily accessible anywhere – I thank macdonalds to be a diet Saviour sometimes because for 4 bucks I could have 860 calories/50grams of protein and a lot of fat which helped me stop being hungry and stopped me from thinking about food constantly and all this within 10 mins or so, without the need to wash up or prepare my food.

I’ve been sharing these techniques and work arounds in dieting with busy clients who have meetings all day and have to work a long day, and it seems that they gave me the same replies as to what their colleagues and friends thought of what they’re doing.

“not healthy.” “not really good.” ” weird.” and a whole bunch of other stuff they can concoct to try to make themselves feel better that they have no clue on what they’re commenting on.

I just tell my clients to ignore them, because looking good in their skinny jeans and looking fabulous is all that counts to you, who gives a crap of what they think of you, it is your goal and your motivation and your body that you control.

So a quick note to those “supportive” people out there, unless you’re friend is anorexic and is a pile of skin and bones, please don’t comment on how skinny they are already because chances are if they feel fat, most likely they are.

And those who wish to get feed back from people about their image, get a few opinions from people who are brutally honest, it’ll shatter your fragile ego but at least you know the truth.

My job is to make life easier and not worst for them, and one of the problems they face is getting their nutrition down during their heavy work schedules. Their usual complaint is that they just don’t have the time nor the energy to dedicate to nutrition while trying to solve the problem of their weight gain.

And I understand completely, because if i were to be bogged down with so many things concurrently, the last thing on my mind is to worry about food.

Often the problem is most of these people have not even a slightest clue about calories, macronutrients and everything else. This often leaves them  helpless as they do not know how to make the correct decision to impact on their progress and when motivation fails and hunger kicks, they give up on their nutritional regime to reach for their comfort food which is easily accessible to them.

Putting myself into their shoes, I would have done it too because being constantly hungry and eating the same food over and over again for the last 3 weeks plus stress of your job and family and commitments is a serious drain to your life.

I’ve thought about it and came to the conclusion that a solution need not be optimal but it must be 100% practical.

If a practical solution can fix this recurring problem, this will ultimately help them in their progress and helping them get to their goals better. Compliance to a nutritional regime with sound principles will work, if not you’re not doing it right.

I’ve drawn inspiration and musings from Martin Berkan’s Intermittent Fasting model and Lyle Mcdonald’s Flexible Dieting and with some research and verifying, it is one of the easier way for busy people  to get through the day.

So whats the problem?

50 work week, hardly have time to spend sleeping, come home totally drained and have no energy left to cook or prepare your food.

Your works place  is filled with caloric dense food choices and you’re suppose to have only 1600 calories as your caloric requirements?

What do you do?

Solution 1 -

Drag yourself into the kitchen at night after long crappy day, cook your meals prior and pack it away into a tupperware into your fridge.

Take that cold food to work the next day and find a microwave, reheat and eat.

Solution 2 -

Divide your calories into 4 parts – 400 calories per meal.

Eat at home for break fast and lunch  packed or pre-made and eat the last 2 meals at home.

Solution 3 -

Split it into two meals and have breakfast and dinner, the fast the rest of the day while sipping on black coffee or plain tea to tame the hunger with the caffeine.

Solution 4 -

Fast throughout the day and go home and cook yourself a meal and consume all your calories within that meal.

I could go on and on with diverse solutions but I’ll just stop here.

The recurring theme is this – You do not have to eat 5-6 meals and if you have no time, don’t worry about food. Work out a feeding template so that you can adhere to it and keep within your caloric requirement while having ample proteins.

This works especially well for small females who have caloric requirements of only 1000 calories a day for losing weight.

If you split it into 5 meals, thats 200 calories per meal and rather pathetic if you think about it. having 500 calories per meal of 2 or 1000 calories in 1 big meal is much more satisfying and there is much lesser room for error to unknowingly over consume  your caloric requirement.

The next problem is fairly common even happens to me.

Friends calls you on Thursday to tell you that there is a gathering on Friday evening for a dinner meet. You are dieting and thinking it you should go or reject it. You don’t want to say no because deep inside you, you want to catch up and hang out.

Solution 1 -

Turn down your friend’s request and reject them. Stay at home and keep your TV company.

Solution 2 -

Blow your diet, have fun and couldn’t care less about it.

Solution 3 -

Budget your calories – have all your protein intake within the day and budget at least 500 calories for the dinner.

Solution 4 -

Fast throughout the day, go on an all out feast at dinner only

Solution 5 -

Go out with your friends but don’t eat anything, just have a diet coke and watch them eat and talk to them.

Again I could go on and on but I’ll stop here.

But as you can see, its possible to not blow your diet and still enjoy a social life. Of course if you do blow your caloric cap, at least it is still not too bad.

Solution 4 and 5 worked the best as its sometimes not polite to not eat at a dinner of a hosting party’s house.

End of the day, make life easier for yourself not worse. Life isn’t a bed of roses nor will it always be what you believe it should. When in doubt or have any problems – minimize and simplify, don’t over think and make it overly complex.

What do we really know about metabolism and the effects of which it has with your body recomposition? From the way people use it, almost none. But it seems like a cool word to use, so most people who have no clue what it is like to throw it around to show they know something.

But what do we really know?

I’ve spoken to many people and read many forum posting regarding this “metabolism” and all of them seem to point vaguely at it slowing down with hunger and revving up metabolism with exercise and all that.

It seems there is many misconceptions surmounting it and it becomes a game of “broken telephone” where the original message becomes distorted and far from the original meaning.

So what is metabolism?

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in living organisms to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolism

Metabolism in short is a rejuvenation process that allows your body to function; repair and fuel itself for its task of staying alive. Which means, it is as it is, seldom will the variables change unless the changes are pertaining the variables itself. We as humans, use the Basal metabolic rate (BMR) to determine how much energy is required to keep us alive and functioning just to stay alive, the variables/factors of which that determines this, is all your major organs and muscles.

Basal metabolic rate (BMR), and the closely related resting metabolic rate (RMR), is the amount of energy expended while at rest in a neutrally temperate environment, in the post-absorptive state (meaning that the digestive system is inactive, which requires about twelve hours of fasting in humans). The release of energy in this state is sufficient only for the functioning of the vital organs, such as the heart, lungs, brain and the rest of the nervous system, liver, kidneys, sex organs, muscles and skin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate

BMR is like your pulse; your heart will beat continuously whether you like it or not. However unlike your heart, it doesn’t fluctuate unless you’re played around with the variables. And the variables are mainly your lean body mass  and that hardly changes unless you’ve suddenly gain or lose muscle mass over night or are 1000 years old – both almost impossible feats from a physiological standpoint.

A person with more lean body mass would have a higher BMR as explained by the Benedict Harris equation for BMR -

Metric BMR Formula

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) – ( 6.8 x age in years )

I have explained earlier that with a simple calculation BMR don’t change very much with age. So there is no way to boost metabolism with exercise and a certain “food selection”; most people mix up activity multiplier and Thermal Effect of Feeding into this definition of Metabolism.

When most people say, “I have a slow metabolism”, it usually means I don’t move very much and are mostly sedentary.

Again If you examine lifestyles of most office workers where most people are having this common complaint that they have very slow metabolism, they’re akin to a slug. They don’t move a lot, most of the time in front of their desk without doing anything but moving their fingers and shaking their legs.

They over eat their caloric requirements easily and that contribute to their weight gain.

Metabolism do not slow down unless you’re in a extreme situation where starvation is prolonged, and starvation is not a  ”I’m hungry, I want to eat” kind. It is where the body have so scarce nutrient that it breaks down your lean body mass for its energy requirement.

Most people in modern society where food is abundant and readily available for cheap, would have given up on such a diet unless they have a mental disorder such as anorexia to ignore such strong signals from the brain.

I’ve tried it once – my caloric requirement was 2800 calories a day for a moderate amount of activity, I’ve slashed that into 1300 a day for 2 weeks

Within 2-3 days, I couldn’t stop thinking about food. When I smelled food near by, I was immediately salivating and ready to grab it off someone to shove it into my mouth.

By day 4, I had very bad insomnia and often wake up in the middle of the night thinking about food. I could feel my libido drop to a new low because even porn didn’t entice me, I was happily staring at pictures of food.

My blood pressure dropped and any sudden movement from a lower to higher position ( squat to standing) would leave me almost blacking out for a minute while the world spin around me . It was a very traumatic experience and seriously It was extremely miserable.

When I stopped after 2 weeks, and finally tasted the food that I’ve been craving for, I almost cried because it tasted so good.

If you really want to go in depth with metabolism and starvation, read about Ancel Key’s Minnesota Experiment – where he starved his subjects for 6 months. One of them went crazy and cut off his finger just to get out of the experiment.

So how does metabolism tie into fat loss and muscle gain?

BMR has very little to do with it as it seldom change, when people recommend to exercise to “boost” your metabolism, what they really mean is to actually chalk up more caloric burn.

More movement, more energy required – more intense the exercise, the more fuel needed to keep up the intensity – The longer and more intense your physical activity is, the more calories you’ll expand.

With regards to food choices, protein has a thermal effect of feeding of 30% of its total calories, Carbs 5-10% and fat almost none due to rate of digestion. What it means with Thermal Effect of  Feeding is that your body has to spend some energy just to break down the food for absorption.

But seriously don’t bank on it, because end of the day the numbers is not significant. And if you wish to use it create a caloric deficit, most likely you’d be over eating your caloric requirements by alot to create something significant.

So It is that simple – This simple word of metabolism is not some mythical folklore but a very logical and actually quite docile information that doesn’t stir much controversy,  so don’t allow anyone to hype up some exercise or food to “boost” your metabolism because chances are, it doesn’t.

cliff notes -
Adrenaline fatigue

Zinc

Betaine HCL

More discussion here -

http://stronglifts.com/forum/jim-wendler-seminar-some-interesting-points-t19803.html

Enjoy!

I was anti-trend, I strived extremely hard to be different from the rest – this also meant that I was seeking out “cool” stuff to do in the weight room that made me look “hardcore”.

Looking back now, I’m glad I’ve matured from all this nonsense and also because many people think I’m hardcore or acting hardcore. Well yeah, no.

Well I’m going to bring up one such nonsense that I used to do, interval training for cardio -

The internet suddenly caught on with the whole Interval training and High intensity Intervals etc, as the next revolution to fat loss. I was not spared from this, and for a point of time really believed that you could build cardiovascular fitness from just 4 mins of 20 seconds of hard work and 10 seconds of rest.

I believe in it so much that, that was all I ever did and thought I could really take on anything that needed aerobic endurance with just 4 minutes a day.

It was the most dumbest thing I’ve ever believed in and without a doubt I learned it the hard way.

My endurance test for the armed forces 1.5 mile/2.4km was a disaster, I failed so badly that I was wondering what went wrong. Little did I know that 4 mins of conditioning is really nonsense if you’re task is to complete 2.4km within 12 minutes.

I realized one thing and that sometimes what might seem boring and takes a really long time to achieve is sometimes the best and only route. There are no alternatives and you’d simply have to do it.

On the flip side, I was doing intervals like a crazy person who’d thought it was the epiphany of fat loss – the draws of hormonal response and all that jazz was great but sadly more marketing nonsense from alot of people.

4 minutes a day isn’t going to chalk up enough caloric expenditure to amount to anything substantial, in reality its really insignificant that you’d spit at the results from it.

I’ve measured with my gowearfit that it only accumulated to less than 100 calories per session of intervals within the 4 minutes span – and I was breathing my lungs out. Knowing that it only came up to less than 100 calories, I’d rather just walk around a shopping mall slowly if my goal was purely fat loss.

So to answer the question if I was hardcore? Yes when I was dumb and didn’t know any better. Now? I’m just that mellow guy who’d tell you to go brisk walking when you want to lose weight.

Don’t get me wrong I still do intervals but not so insanely big on it, and it largely depends on what you’re trying to achieve but I won’t use it as a default method because it is not needed. It is also not the be all end all that everyone preaches, because that’ll be forcing square pegs into round holes.

Cardio for fat loss and conditioning are two separate stories altogether, one is to increase your caloric expenditure and the other one is to increase your work capacity. However there are draw backs to either methods that you use, however both involve time and recovery.

To make it simple for anyone to understand I’ll just give a simple explaination -

Cardio for fat loss is for caloric expenditure, it takes a significant amount of time >30 minutes of brisk walk/kicking a ball around with your friend leisurely or even window shopping to chalk up the calories.

Some people don’t have the time but they don’t have the significant fitness capacity to do the same for intervals, which is why this option is always good.

When you’re on a caloric deficit, recovery takes a longer time than usual for the obvious reason and doing such low intensity cardio is actually beneficial as it gets the blood flowing.

Intervals are for conditioning, It can be quick and painless – though painful when you do it, but extremely hard. Because it is so fast before you blow your load and get totally exhausted, you can’t chalk up enough caloric burn to warrant anything significant.

It is for conditioning and conditioning only, which is to increase your work capacity – doing more work within a shorter time. The biggest draw back about doing conditioning during a caloric deficit is that you cannot do it often enough and you’ll need to recover from it which means you’d have to plan it in as a workout.

Moreover you’d need to have at least some competent fitness level to start, which is not effective for the average gym rat who’d fail in between the set.

The biggest BS that i’d ever believed was that intervals have cross over quality to aerobic fitness/capacity, and 4 minutes of conditioning isn’t going to help you in an endurance event.

For the simple fact that you’re going to be moving constantly and it won’t last for 20 seconds or 4 minutes only.

What about afterburn? or EPOC – exercise post oxygen consumption?

I was a big believer in this and until recently when I measured it with the GWF, I couldn’t find any sign of it.

My caloric burn spiked during exercise – 2.1 to 11.1 then it dropped down to 4-6 cal/minute. Got home washed up and changed, and when I was at rest again, it dropped to 1.9 within the span of 1 hour.

In all honesty, I was more amazed to see my caloric spike when I ate a big plate of fried rice and started sweating profusely with my caloric burn spiked to 3.8 – 4 cal/min by just sitting there.

So to answer if I am hardcore? Yes when I was young, stupid and didn’t know any better. Now with better grasp of the things I did and do, I’m just that mellow person who’d ask you to go brisk walking or window shopping if you don’t have time to exercise to lose weight.

What I’ve learned is that everyone is not spared from stupidity by ignorance but if you choose to ignore the evidence that contradicts your beliefs  and stick to your guns and  not to admit that you’re wrong in your practices then it’ll only make you retarded with your growth and understanding.

I guess we know many who are retarded.

This is evident that nobody wants to be told what really happens and most people like a good science fiction with regards to their progress and growth.

If you visit amazon.com, you’d find that there are thousand and one nutrition books out there with a different theme. All of these themes revolve around a superficial selling point and claims to be the next best thing known to men. I am fond of telling people this, in a diet there are only 3 factors involve – calories, 3 macronutrients and 24 hours a day – no matter how much you twist and turn it around, it’ll be the same thing over and over which is why nutrition is a very boring and also which is why advance of nutrition is very slow and most of the time its just confirmation of what most people are speculating and upgrade it from anecdote to truths.

The recent T-mag anaconda protocol is one such nonsensical fairy tale that shows how far marketing claims can be pushed. If you don’t know about it, you can always visit here to learn about it.

Supplement companies such as this, would go as far as employing big names to endorse their brands and try to hype up the claims to epic proportion, there are many whom are in the field that rejected such claims as its just pure bullshit.

If I was branded a hater, so be it. But my bullshit alarms started ringing ever since the start of the whole marketing campaign, this was further confirmed by one of the author of T-muscle, Christian Thibeaudeu when he was on the bodyrecomposition forums -

1. They never claimed that gaining 28 pounds in 10 weeks was typical. The original article mentionned (if I’m not mistaken) 15 lbs in 10-12 weeks. Which is something we’ve seen and many of the users on the forum seems to be reporting a rate of gain exceeding that claim.

2. I used steroids when I was 19 and playing football. That was 12 years prior to the Anaconda experience. So it has no bearing on results. And as I mentioned, because of my medical condition I couldn’t take steroids or growth hormone even if I wanted to.

I mentioned in several T-muscle thread already that I trained guys who were using steroids and guys who were that used the program. Those who used steroids still had better gains then when they also used steroids but didn’t use the protocol.

Of the people I worked with DIRECTLY (as in training them myself one on one) the average user gained close to 23lbs in 10 weeks while the average natural gained 14lbs in 10 weeks. The lowest gainer I had was 9lbs in 10 weeks. And the guy was a 60 years old firefighter competing in Firefit games (won 4 medals, 3 golds at the World Police and Firemen Games) and who did tons of interval and GPP work with little actual hypertrophy training.

http://forums.lylemcdonald.com/showpost.php?p=73729&postcount=85

Opinions sometimes regarding these fairy tale has been tainted by financial interest, if not a respectable author who have seen and train many in his day, wouldn’t claim such bold numbers. Which is why many are trying to write a book to “help” people yet give information that is unrealistic and often not verified, all in a bid to sell something to someone.

Even CT has indirectly said that he is under such influence and this post confirms it -

To be honest this isn’t TOO far off. Although I do not really want to discuss my source of income. Just some modifications.

1. From what I understand they don’t pay a flat rate AND extra for articles. It’s one or the other. The numbers seems fairly accurate otherwise, I don’t know what the others are making though.

2. I hardly consider supplements care package as ‘pay’. Yes of course it is something I’m getting (like Dan John, Chad and most regular writers, heck even some non writers are getting some) but they can’t pay the mortgage or weekly groceries.

Anyway… if it is like all the guys on this forum are saying and that the supplements are junk, then what I’m getting isn’t worth anything  I’ll admit that getting the supplements is actually a better deal than getting a pay. But doesn’t that actually shows that I do not merely ‘endorse’ the products but actually use them and believe in them?

Do you think that I would put my reputation on the line for such a small retribution if I didn’t REALLY believe in the products? I’m not a good businessman (heck, I’m not a businessman at all) but I’m not a complete idiot either. Putting your stock in a supplement company, regardless how good, is not the best move especially with the current government actions.

So I wouldn’t risk my reputation, thus drastically compromise my potential income by doing so, if I didn’t believe in something.

It would be like playing football for pennies: you risk injuring yourself and losing some income capacity if you do so, for next to nothing. You don’t do it unless you really are passionate about it.

If you engage in something that could potentially hurt your income capacity, that ‘something’ has to allow you to make a lifetime of income in a very short period of time. That’s one of the reasons why athletes are paid so much.

I’m expecting a child, have a mortgage, my wife doesn’t work and the income tax rate in Canada is close to 50%. So I do need an income of at least 75 000 a year to get by. For a potentially ‘career threatening’ activity to be worth it, it would need to provide at least 20 years of income in a short period of time… let’s say 2 years. Which would be around 750 000$ a year. And that’s a minimum.

And I’m sad to report, much to the displeasure of conspiracy theorists, that I’m not even making the interests of that sum 

So it’s either that I made the worst career move in the history of mankind and I’m a huge idiot OR that I really believe in the products.

And I like to think that I’m not an idiot, at least not a huge one!

If you want to follow the whole discussion, you can do it here, unmoderated and without any censorship unlike many boards who will delete or close threads immediately if it wasn’t in favor of their products and/or philosophy.

So the bigger question regarding why would people want to believe and buy into a fairytale?

Its the same reason why people do stupid things when they’re in love or believe in something that isn’t logical; reality is a one true bitch.

Nobody wants to be told that it isn’t possible, nobody wants to be branded as imperfect and everyone wants to achieve the same things that others who have better circumstances have. Which is also why soap operas are so popular with some people as they take away the crappy reality that most are living in.

Although I don’t really give a crap about what people wish to believe in as long as they don’t bother me and as its their choice, I believe that it isn’t ethical to sell something to someone based upon a lie knowingly and still sleep at night.

So draw your own conclusions and make your own judgement, but as a public service announcement, you’ve been warned that what you see on the internet is not always what you get. There will always be an ulterior motive and there will always be a biased view regarding a certain product – be skeptical and always put on your critical thinking cap before you buy into such fairy tale.

It always cheaper to be wrong about something.

I have received many comments regarding what to expect, so I’d share it here so I don’t have to keep replying the same message over and over again.

All clients go through the same phase and programming regardless if they’re advance or beginner to training, the only difference is that advance trainee would progress faster along the line rather than slowly building up their fitness/strength level.

This plan is for the general population and not meant for athletic pursuits, as my clients are from young adults to middle age baby boomers (30 years old – 47 years old)

My overall philosophy with regards to training is “Getting the job done,” I do not care which methods I use or where I’ve learned/adapted it from, as long as it works I’ll use it.

However safety is always a priority, I have a clean track record (read zero) with regards to injuries with training my clients and I will not tarnish it. I’d rather stop a lift even if you’re feel you can hit a new personal record/best than seeing you get injured.

I hold myself to a very high standard with regards to my service, and constantly invest in my career by doing a lot of reading and buying books and DVDs to enhance my professionalism.

Who I am when I work with you -

I am a person who is responsible for your progress, I take great pride in my job and am accountable for it and I will see that you surpass your expectations and that progress can be measured and is tangible. I will not baby you and hold your hand like going for a stroll in the park, I will push you even if you scream at me to stop If I know you can get that last bit of improvement.

I will not be your friend who will joke and count your reps when you train, most of of the time I’m focused on assessing your form and looking at what you need to improve. I will not be lenient with your mistakes and sound you out immediately, I will not entertain excuses not to push yourself  if I know its not true ( I’ve been doing this long enough to tell).

But once out of the gym, I will be your friend and a person you can rely on if you need help with your training goals and diet. I will readily hand out information to educate and teach you to be empowered with your decision and choices. As I hate to be always reliant on people, I want my clients to be independent and not to rely on me. If they can do it on their own and do not need my services, I am very happy for them.

Training Phases -

After much tweaking and playing around with program designed for the past 3 years with personal experience/experimentation and with training clients, I’ve managed to refine my approach.

My philosophy towards training is “KISS” – Keeping it simple silly. Reason being that most people unless they’re a special population or injured need not do more than a certain set of simple exercises.

It’s easier for them to understand and to follow, Its easier for them get better at these fundamental movement and branch out to other movements however the basics is the basics – everything else is just parameters and variables and skill.

So if you’re the kind who suffers attention deficit disorder with regards to exercise variety, look else where, this isn’t a dance or a bodypump class.

The training phases are broken up into 3 phase -

1. General Physical Prepareness (Bodyweight)
2. Advance General Physical Prepareness (External Resistance)
3. Specialization – Strength or Endurance

Phase 1 – Bodyweights/General physical prepareness (GPP)

Phase 1 is body weights only because everyone needs to learn how to be more conscious of their body movement and learn control.

Simple exercise are going to be used -

Anerobic/Strength -

Air squats, 1 legged squats(Pistols), lunges, single leg step ups.

Ring rows, push up, handstand push up, Chin ups

Overhead squats with water bottles.

Aerobic/Cardio -

Jump ropes , running and basic circuits

There will be no need for a gym in phase 1, as long as there is a chin up bar or a place to hang my gymnastic rings, you’re set to go.

The whole idea is relearn the basics of movement and to correct form and technique, it is pointless loading you with bad technique because it’ll just fester like an open wound.

Once technique and control is achieve, its just a matter of time and tweaking of technique to get stronger by loading you with external weights.

Overall duration for these phases is 6 week – 8 weeks of consistent coaching – at least 2 times a week and a lot of practice on your own.( 2 hours a week isn’t going to make miracles without practice)

In fact, I highly encourage clients to practice on their own by giving them homework on their form and technique.

Phase 2 – Eternal Loading/Advance GPP

Phase 2 will be exactly like Phase 1, the only difference is that it’ll be with external loading.

I will introduce one more exercise which is the Turkish Get up and Step ups will be changed into Deadlifts with dumbbells or barbells.

All the other exercise will be that of what you’ve learned from phase 1 -

Push up – Bench press

Ring Rows – Dumbbell Rows

Handstand push up – Shoulder Press

Chin up – Chin up

Squats – Front/Back or Overhead squats

Step ups – Deadlift

Cardio -

Jump ropes/Running and advance circuits

The whole idea is to keep the transition similar and not keep changing the programming as it’ll confused and also it serves no purpose using any other exercise outside these basic 5 (unless you’re a rehab patient).

Technique will always be refined and tweaked for the best performance – getting stronger while doing it safer.

The purpose of adding external resistance is to build base strength prior to any specialization be it strength or endurance. Base strength serves most people well in their daily lives and is the primer to everything else.

The estimated time for this phase is around 1 to 2 years with consistent training and a lot of practice on your own.

Specialization Phase – Strength or Endurance

Strength – I like the welder 5/3/1 and I think it’ll make a very effective and safe template for strength specialization for the general population.

Endurance – I like Arthur Lydiard template for running.

However If its out of my scope, I’ll refer out should clients at this stage wish to turn competitive atheletes.

Training Phase cycle flow chart -

After Phase 1, there is seldom a need to go back to it unless you wish to specialize in Gymnastic, of which I cannot offer that because I have no experience nor the facility.

The next cycles of Phase 2 and Phase 3 will be alternating, as you cannot always be specializing and will need to recover for a period of time from the abuse.

Phase 1 -> Phase 2 -> Phase 3 -> Phase 2( during break) -> Phase 3(another specialization from the first one)

Nutrition -

Nutrition will always be covered along the way, my goal is to educate rather than lecture you. I’ve always have open table talks or small talk in between or after sessions dedicated to nutrition. With regards to the choices that they make, the schedules they have and to make a better choice which ultimately get to their goal.

I am not a self righteous person to tell you what you can or cannot eat, ultimately it is your choice and personal freedom which I respect. However I will remind you of the consequence of making such choices and how you can work around it rather than avoid it.

I do not believe in diet plans because ultimately people will not eat what they don’t like to eat, and some of the diet plans are not suitable for Asian cultural practices. I will help you plan your own diet and instilling in you the principles behind it. In short I’d rather pluck my hair out and teach a man to fish or rather be caught dead then giving a man a fish.

Also I do not base my recommendations based upon folklore or anecdotes,  I’m extremely skeptical when it comes to nutrition and am a big believer that there is empirical evidence behind it. If you’re skeptical, then challenge me to produce the science behind it, and If I don’t deliver, fire me and ask for a refund – you can quote me on this.

Summary -

If you think that I can work with you, then please email me via bodyblitzz@gmail.com.

I offer a no bullshit no marketing gimmick solution, only objective opinions and consultation and coaching.( notice no * to anything posted)

My charges vary from $80 to $100, depending on how much work I have to do and/or how many people involve (group of 3 max). My session vary from 60 to 90 mins depending on how much I have to teach, I will not cut short a lesson unless I have a very tight schedule.

I offer 100% money back on any training plans you have with me, if you acted upon my recommendations and followed it religiously yet failed to see results. No questioned asked because I’d be more embarrassed and frustrated to being employed by you with my failings.

However please don’t bargain with me with the prices, I’ve pegged my prices to reasonable market value and also need to earn a living. I’m committed to my own education and invest in equipment and that cost money too. If you find my rates too expensive or unreasonable, I’ll be happy to give recommendations within your budget.

Today I was thinking, what makes a dieter tick. Why do I subject myself to hunger pangs, feeling lethargic and still soldier on eating the same food almost everyday for the past 6 weeks.

I mean to me its just a means to an end, yet to an average joe on the street, this concept of eating the same thing over and over again plus the anxiety attacks of eating lesser calories and subjecting themselves to “torture” seems like a foreign concept.

I realize that successful dieting psychology can be simplified to a carrot and a stick, all that motivational jazz doesn’t seem to work for most people.

Its a nice thought to be comforted to be encouraged by friends and family, draw inspiration from others but what really works is something that slaps at the back of the head and an attractive goal which results from keeping in line.

It may sound rather authoritarian at first but just like the Pareto principle which is apparent in economics, this is the why most successful athlete/dieters or anyone reaches their goal.

A rich man’s ambition carrot would be gather as much wealth and be successful while his stick would be fear of being poor or being left behind in the race. An athlete’s carrot is to be the best they can and win medals and their stick is to not winning that medal they’ve set out to get.

Put that thought in your head and ask yourself, what is your carrot and what is your stick?

My carrot is simply achieve the desired results that I wish to set out to do and my stick is failing and not living up to my standard that I’ve set out to do achieve.

Is it that simple? Yes!

However even though everyone has their carrot and stick, the problem really comes down to discipline and accountability.

We all have resolutions and goals we set for ourselves, but we don’t follow through because at some point we see no point in doing this nonsense we subject ourselves against.

I believe no one likes to be hungry for so long and would be insane to think that it’ll last for 8-16 weeks. So I thought to myself, why do I do it?

Well because I hate looking tubby and overly fat and this self loathing is a great mental trick that I’ve been subjecting myself to.

I find that no one ever changes if they’ve accepted a certain level of comfort, because we feel no need to change how we even look or feel about ourselves. When I expressed the intention to my clients that I was too fat and needed to diet down, they told me I looked fine. Well to an average joe on the street, I might look great, but in my mind I know its far far far from the standard which I’ve set myself to.

To put it simply, a man starving will do anything to improve his situation to secure his next meal when he’s desperate to feed himself compared to a man who has everything and is complacent.

And with that thought, I really felt fat and I didn’t like it. I looked myself in the mirror and seriously hated the way I looked even though I don’t have a bulging gut which most people would consider fat.

This self loathing or reverse psychology trick was what makes me subject myself to “torture” that I’ve been putting myself through and I believe everyone needs to get slapped in the face and be insulted once in a while to wake up from their comfort level.

Try it, you’d be suprized how effective it can be to motivate you to endure hardship.

First of all absolute statements only serves to prove someone’s opinion correct, even though it might not serve as useful advice to someone else.

Recently Mike Boyle’s proclamation that back squats is bad for you and that he stop using it resonated like moving tectonic plates causing a stir in the fitness world, was one such event.

I understand Mike’s point of view and I’ve seen his views developed over the years on Strengthcoach.com however that is his point of view and applies to his context. I respect his opinions but realistically it won’t work for the average folks whose community gym’s do not have heavy dumb bells or a platform for unilateral work.

However this is within HIS context and often it becomes spiral out with his legion of fans to say that back squat is bad for you, it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I like Mike’s stuff but I don’t have to agree with anything and everything he say, because I just cannot see it being logically in my context.

There are many people who uses back squats, power lifters to weightlifting to get themselves stronger lower bodies. They do so because they aren’t bogged down with the flexibility issues with their wrist for a front squat and or logistical issues  with heavy dumb bells as compared to weight plates.

The biggest reason Mike has denounced back squat is that it allows people with inflated egos and lousy form to cheat and injure themselves, which is in that context true for many ego busting nuts who believe they’re superman.

Those who know their limit and know how much they can go will have no issue with it, and this is an opinion not a fact because it hardly results to more injury.

So Mike has a point in his reasoning but I’m not going to buy it nor should you quote others “Cause mike said so,” as a reason why it isn’t a great exercise when it still is.

Supplements has always been hot topic for everyone – what to take, when to take and which to take?

Everyone is marketing a concoction of special brew which will help you gain 100% more muscle and all that jazz.

I don’t buy it, neither should you. But knowing that the majority of the crowd are the “I don’t care how you do it, just give me the results” kinda crowd, everyone would want to market something special to them in hopes to empty their wallets.

T-nation is one such place where bullshit resides, so many controversies and marketing claims have not been verified yet because some jacked guy said something about it, it must be true.

Well what if the jacked guy is on steriods? Would you want to do steriods too?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against drug  use. In fact if it helps you get what you want and you can do it safely with knowledge of its side effects, then it’s like a kitchen knife – it could harm you but still it helps you do alot of useful stuff too.

I may one day have to turn to drugs in my senior years when my body isn’t functioning optimally, to me its an avenue and an option.

But when you mention drugs to the same crowd wanting that special brew of supplements, their faces changes in horror, like their modesty being outraged.

So its funny how things change, and yes drugs do work and will give you an edge whether you believe hard work will trump all and all that baloney.

Then there are so many hyped up diets which promising you burn fat and build muscles, and it is true… if you’re a newbie or wish to build less than 1kg worth of muscle.

The fact is this, building muscles cannot be done with wishful thinking. If you want to build something outta thin air and tried to show it off, you’d be branded as crazy because it’s just imagination. That that same crazy people will go out and buy supplements and search for a diet plan promising them good gains while losing a ton of fat.

Crazy isn’t it? Crazily ironic I’d say.

Muscle building requires calories lots of it, and you’d need to be in surplus for most of the time when you’re trying to gain muscles. In an ideal world, all calories will be used to build muscles and all weight loss will be from fat reserve/ bodyfat. Well too bad its just fantasy, because it doesn’t happen like that.

When you’re in surplus for a constant period of time, you’d gain fat. Genetically superior or not, there will be fat gain, the question is how much fat will be gained.

When you’re in a fat loss mode, you’re in a caloric deficit. So when you say you want to lose fat and build muscles, it is akin to say that you want day and night at the same time, it simply isn’t happening.

I have to admit there are plans which works well to try to minimize fat gain but there still is some gain in fat overall.

So when someone says that you can build muscles and lose a ton of fat, raise your bullshit alarm because theres a classic for you there.