Transcription
I am almost 50 years old. Actually, next month I turn 50 and I'm in the best shape of my life. The best shape of my life as defined by I've been able to accrue the most muscle and maintain the lowest body fat that I've ever been able to do. And I'm going to give you the five things that have allowed me to do this. I want to share with you some of the mistakes I made along the way. And I want to give you some tools so that you can reach the physique that you want and maintain it forever.
Hey guys, what's going on? This is Paul Revel from prophysique.com and today's video is just going to be some lessons learned over the course of my life as a person who was always interested in adding some muscle and losing body fat. And if that's you and you're looking for a coach, I have a link below if you want to set up a consultation with me. But today's video is about the things that I've done over the years and the things that I continue to do on a daily basis to learn and evolve. I've never stopped kind of progressing through this process. Um, I became interested in improving my body composition early on through sports. So, I want to talk to you about five things that I think are essential to look the way you want to look.
Now, for me, my first look that I really thought was awesome was when I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger on the the big screen in the movies when I was a kid and I thought, "Okay, that's that's pretty awesome." And of course, I started buying the magazines and I started getting into the gym. I got the modern bodybuilding encyclopedia by Arnold. So I think first and foremost, if you want to have a physique that looks good, in my opinion, you have to do some type of resistance training. Okay? So that's that's first and foremost. I don't think that's going to come as a surprise to anybody.
Now, my interest in lifting weights started early on, 16, 15 years old, continued all the way until I was 32, at which time I did my first bodybuilding show. So it was an interest that only grew over time. And it would it would you know depending on what phase of life I was in I would be more dedicated or less dedicated. But I have not been undedicated since I was 32. 32 31 when I decided to do a show. I have been in the gym 3, 4, 5, 6 days a week since then. 16, 17 years now. And we're going on 30 years of me focusing on resistance training. And I was always an athlete as well. So first things first. If you want your physique to look different, you have to apply a stimulus to it. And if you hate lifting, turn this video off because there's there's probably nothing I'm of value I'm going to provide. A lot of people, you know, I and I've come across them, they just don't enjoy the process. They don't enjoy going in the gym. They don't enjoy resistance training. They think of it as torture. And you're going to hear one of my things to avoid at the end of this is directly related to that.
Now, for years, I was great at lifting the weights, but I didn't like the way I looked. And it's because there's a correlation when you start this process that you need to get big. Eat big to get big. And so, I avoided things that I don't avoid anymore. So, one thing for me to stay at 10% body fat year round that I do now, I do cardio every day. And before you shut the video off, let's talk about what the definition of cardio is. Cardio is just any rhythmic activity that increases your resting heart rate. I know what you guys are thinking. Lots of sex, right? No. But the idea is like just walking is cardio. And it's become in vogue to talk about step trackers. The thing that I did that was great for me was I got a piece of equipment for my house that I can use at a moment's notice. Now, if you have scheduling conflicts and you can't dedicate your life to being Steve Reeves or Arnold Schwarzenegger or Frank Zane and you actually have to do other things and be productive, time is going to be your biggest enemy. So, if there is a barrier between you and cardio, you're probably going to skip it. For that reason, I got a treadmill for my house and it's been amazing ever since.
Now, I've done some extreme things like as much as an hour or more cardio a day for long periods of time for months to get body fat very low to compete and win bodybuilding shows. Now, I do a minimum of a 30-minute walk every day. And this allows me the freedom to eat how I want. I still feel very good in the gym. It actually makes me feel a little bit more vibrant and energized each day. So the second thing that I would say like the biggest life lesson if I could go back and talk to myself early on was keep cardio in my life. Some form of cardio every day. This just helps with body composition. It helps with your mental clarity. It helps with digestion. There's just so many benefits to cardio and I think a lot of us think of it as a bad word. So whether it's steps, whether it's a treadmill, whether it's a bike, whether it's you're doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes, being active is just going to be good for you long term and it's going to help you with body composition.
The next thing, and I don't want to get too bogged down in nutrition, but we know that obviously nutrition plays a role. The amount of calories we take in is going to determine how our body responds. How are we able to add muscle? Are we able to burn fat? Are we going to store fat? And I knew at an early age that nutrition was important, but I was also kind of thickheaded. I wasn't really ready to commit to that process. At 31, when I hired my first coach, he gave me some macronutrient goals. That was very intimidating for me. I was like, how do I hit these macronutrient goals? Now, there's a lot of really cool apps that are going to help us along this way. But what I would like you to do is focus on hitting a daily protein goal and a daily calorie goal. These two things in combination are going to really give you the ability to kind of manipulate the way you look and feel on a daily basis. Um, and if you don't really understand anything about nutrition or macros, I've got a free calculator if you go to prophysique.com/cal that will, if you plug in some information, give you goals based on your age, your height, your weight. It's going to give you a range of macros to hit. And you should follow that for about a week and then adjust based on how it goes. It's not going to get everybody's perfect, but it's a great starting point. Um, and I put a lot of effort into this thing. So, and it's something that I want you guys to use as a tool because as a coach, what I do is I I really dig in and get to know my athletes. But if you just want to have a place to start, hey, that's where you should start.
If you don't know how much protein you're taking in, it's probably way too low. If you're not intentionally trying to hit protein goals, it can be difficult. Protein is something that you typically have to prep at home and keep, right? You have to cook yourself some lean meats and store it. Um, if you go out to eat, usually like if I go out to a restaurant, I have to ask for extra protein to hit my protein goals. Protein powders like whey and isolate are great. I am allergic to those, so I use a vegan protein powder called Core Pro. If you're interested in that, I'll put a link to that in the description box as well. Um, it just makes my digestion great. But the macronutrients are wonderful. It's basically just protein with a couple trace carbs in there. Um, but the idea being hitting your protein goals is going to make that first thing that we were doing really help us respond better. Protein is great for not only building muscle, but it's also great for satiety. So, when you're focusing your calories on high protein, you're going to find out that you're not as hungry and you're not as snacky. What's a good protein goal for you every day? I tell people their their goal weight. Whatever you envision yourself, let's say you're a 250 lb guy and you're like, man, I'd love to weigh 200. 200 grams of protein is going to be great for you.
This uh this next one is something that I did an experiment with in 2023. So, I decided I was going to do a bodybuilding show at some point in 2023. I started the year by walking every day for 1 hour. Lost about 10 lbs in a month. I did a whole video on that. Actually, got a lot of views. Maybe I should do it again. Comment below if you think I should do another walking video. But what I found was that year I decided I was not going to drink alcohol for one year. And I didn't took the whole year off of drinking alcohol and it was pretty remarkable to me how much better I felt. I felt better in the gym. I felt better when I traveled. I slept better. I just became a better version of myself. And so if you're not going to try cutting alcohol out completely, I think minimizing it at the least is going to have a positive effect, especially if you want to maintain a physique. This physique that I maintain year round, I rarely drink. If I do, it's usually two drinks and it's at an event, but I rarely drink alcohol. There is just something profound that alcohol does to the body that is hard to describe. And especially with men as we get a little bit older, I think it can compromise some of our hormones um and our recovery, which you know, I've never done TRT. Um my blood work looks great at 49. So, it's not something that I'm really interested in at this time. And for those that aren't aware, once you start TRT, it shuts down your body's own production of of hormones like testosterone because they're getting it exogenously. So it's basically once you start it's very difficult to stop probably impossible if you're you know if if you're not able to rekickstart your own testosterone production. So for me alcohol was a big choice and it was an experiment that I'm really glad that I did. It really taught me just how great I feel without alcohol. Now had you told me that in my 20s I probably would have given you the finger.
So, this all comes down to relative. At my age, almost 50, maintaining, like I said, the best physique I've ever maintained, even though in my 20s, I probably had a better ability to train and recover, but my lifestyle didn't match what I what I currently do. Um, and the final thing that I want to say that allows me to look and feel this way is I've learned not to take an extreme approach. Okay, what do I mean by that? People will often ask me, "Hey coach, what if I fast for a week? What if I what if I do a no carb diet? What if I do something like the carnivore, right, where you you don't really worry about your calories so much, but you stick to specific foods that are very heavy in protein and fat, like steaks and eggs. Um, and people seem to see a lot of success on this diet. And and I'm not saying you can't lose weight on those diets. I've also done extreme things and I've I've seen people do lots and lots of high-intensity cardio. Um, and I did that myself. So, what I'll say about all those things, if you want to get to and maintain a physique that's, you know, that you're excited about and proud about, what I have found is that you have to find a way to obtain that physique through methods that you enjoy and you want to continue. Otherwise, when you reach your goal, you're just going to return to your previous habits and approaches, and it's going to lead you to put the body fat back on, and you're going to feel like it probably was a waste of your time, you know? And this is something that I dealt with off and on. If I show you pictures of me like like here where I was very heavy, I had a lot of lower back fat. This was the result of me pushing my body extremely hard, getting extremely shredded, like 5% body fat, and then coming out of that and just not continuing with any of the things that I was doing like hit cardio or now in 2023, the last time I competed, I got down and got shredded. I've never put that body fat back on, right? I'm maybe 10 lbs over what I weighed on a bodybuilding stage when previously I would get to 30 to 40 lbs over what I used to weigh. So, you can imagine that's quite a bit different. Um, and it's because I'm telling you, the treadmill, the daily cardio, keeping that in, not being so specific on my macros year round, but really still focusing on making sure I'm hitting my protein goals and my calorie goals, and also avoiding alcohol. you know, alcohol, it's, you know, it's going to inhibit your decision-making. You're going to make some silly decisions. You're going to probably eat some more food than you want to eat. And I'm telling you, your recovery, it's messed up for a few days. And there's just going to be some things that happen hormonally that as a as an older guy like I am, I just don't enjoy anymore. It's just it's a it feels good to feel good all the time, you know? And that's something that I've noticed when if and when I do have a drink, I'll definitely know for a day or two like, "Yeah, I don't want to do that again for a while."
So, you know, these are the big things that my routine is like. Um, if you guys would be interested, I I could probably do like a a week, a full week in the life, including meals and training and cardio and just routine just to kind of show you guys what it looks like. Um because I think sometimes we feel like it's unrealistic to maintain a lean 10% body year round. It's not. Especially as we get to a place in our lives where, you know, we're just more consistent with our routine. My routine is so consistent with, you know, between cardio and the gym and my diet. Those are the three pillars of my day. Then I build into that obviously work, you know, time with the kids, the business, whatever it is. But those pillars are there for me. I know I'm going to eat well. I know I'm going to train. And I know I'm going to do some cardio. And then I fit everything else in around that. So I think as we get to a place in our lives where that's more possible, looking and feeling like this all the time are certainly more possible. So hopefully those help you. And again, if you want some help and this is something that you're interested in, you know, I'll say this, getting body fat off can be very challenging. But the method that we use to get the body fat off is going to determine if we keep it off. And that's my expertise as a coach. So, hit me up for a consult if you're interested in that. Um, you know, it's going to require us setting a deadline. So, I think the bodybuilding show for me was always a great deadline. Transformation challenge are always a great deadline. Vacations, weddings, whatever it might be. We have a deadline and you have a goal. We can get there. All right, guys. I hope you enjoyed this video. Please comment if you have any questions or there's something you want to know. and I'll talk to you tomorrow.