Transcription
If you're training to get ripped, low body fat, looking jacked, but you've been at it for a while and nothing's really changing, I'm going to show you the five stages me and my clients went through to hit 10% body fat. We didn't mess around either. All of these results were done in 12 weeks on average.
This is the part where coaches say it's not about working harder, it's about working smarter. I'm going to tell you right now that getting lean, like 10% body fat, is hard. It's going to take some grit, but once it's done, it's easy to maintain. It's been 3 years since I did this. And not to brag, but this shape is just normal for me now. And I can go and eat ribs or enjoy a few beers whenever I feel like. So I'm not living this boring and restricted life. Some people naturally find getting lean easier than others based on their genetics and body weight. Lucky bastards. I'm one of them. But still, it's a difficult task that requires effort and willpower. Payoff is huge. So, it's well worth it because I honestly believe if you make the effort to go to the gym and push yourself, then you should be able to get in any shape you want. And that's what I want to help people with.
Stage one isn't fun at all. It's hitting your low point. This was me 3 years ago. And by the way, I was training 12 hours a week here. I was doing Olympic weightlifting, 2 hours a session, 6 days a week. Did that for 4 years. I eventually burnt out with the amount of time I was putting in for the return I was getting. Unfortunately, training 12 hours a week doesn't guarantee you a better physique. I know it's man. I was full of injuries. I was really unfit and I began to hate how I looked. As a guy, if you've got boobs, it really hurts because you're constantly reminded of it. Just finding a nice t-shirt that doesn't exaggerate them is a nightmare. And you pretty much have to wear hoodies or black all the time. I know I'm wearing black now, but I just love how soft these t-shirts are. I've got sensitive skin. Okay. A few years ago, I was in Spain with my wife Vanessa, and whenever we were sitting by the pool, I'd have to drape my t-shirt over my chest because I could feel them hanging down. It felt uncomfortable, and it just pissed me off. I thought, I'm doing all of this training and I feel more self-conscious than ever. Every picture Vanessa took, I'd look at it and I'd say, "You are so at taking pictures." Turns out I just didn't like what I was seeing. I mean, I look creepy as hell. Yeah. It was after this holiday that I said, "That's it. Something's got to change." I was due to get married in 3 months and I wanted my confidence and energy back because I can't remember when it left but it had been gone for a while and while it sucks at the time this is the best thing for you because once you've suffered enough you're forced to make a change. You've got no choice in it. Your body and your brain will just tell you it's had enough. Let's do something about it. And that's the first thing myself and every one of these lads found out for themselves. They reached their limit. And this is a very powerful thing. Have you reached your limit yet? I hit this shape 3 days before my wedding. By the way, it was a turning point of my life.
Now, having this drive to do something is great, but you'll get lost without a map. You know, when you go to a park and you've got the board at the entrance and it says, "You are here." This is the equivalent of taking your first progress pictures. It's so important you capture this moment. It's the first thing I asked all of these guys to do. Trust me, when you look back on this after you've smashed it, and you will if you follow my advice, you'll be on a high for months. You'll be so proud of what you've done. And not only that, you could inspire someone who's feeling how you were before you started. Finding a way out of taking these pictures is you subconsciously preparing for failure. If you notice your brain is trying to justify not taking them right now for some reason, it's a trap. There's a part of you that doesn't want you to succeed. We all have it. It's a part of human nature, but you've got to fight back. So, set your phone up, put it on a timer, or just hit record and take a screenshot of front, side, and back. Then take one every single week for the next three months before you think every week. That's a bit annoying. You can take your picture 12 times, can't you? You probably take that many more in one day taking pictures of your lunch. If you want more specifics on transformations, you can sign up to my 20 days of insights and ways to change your physique. You'll get a short email a day of pure value. It's free. Just go to the link.
Stage three, commit to the cut. There comes a time during fat loss where you look in the mirror and you question if it's working. It's like when you're growing your hair and it goes through that phase where it just looks awful. It's not short, but it's not long. It's hanging over your ears and you just want to shave it off, but you've just got to push through because on the other side is the hair of your dreams. I'm past that now. I'm starting to recede. Well, it's the same when you want to get ripped. You don't look lean yet, but because your muscles are depleted and empty, you don't look muscular either. This is where 99% of guys give up. They panic and think they're losing muscle. The result is a mediocre cut at best. That's me being nice. You might have seen two abs and a bit of bicep vein, but you left. You thought things were about to get good. Building muscle on a foundation where there's still a lot of body fat. You barely look like you train. 4 to 6 hours of gym a week just to look average. That's not what we signed up for. Commit to the cut. See it through to the end. That's why we put a time frame on it. 12 weeks is short enough to go all in without it dragging on too much. 3 months of work for a new body. Come on.
Stage four, training to get shredded. Every one of these guys lifted weights at least three times a week. The majority was four. Personally, I think that's the sweet spot, but everyone is different. With lifting four times a week, you can do two upper and two lower with that kind of split. If you're not that bothered about your legs, you can hit those once a week and spend the other three on upper body. Just make sure you don't look like Spongebob. Push yourself in that one leg session at least, please. But honestly, if you're pushing those workouts hard, four a week is plenty. You will be sore and tired. And remember, you need energy to hit high steps every day. And you've got to make time for cardio as well. Overall daily energy expenditure accumulated over the 3 months has the biggest impact on getting your body fat lower. So if you're lifting 6 days a week, but you barely move outside of that, which was the mistake I made when I was Olympic lifting, you won't be any closer to getting in the shape you want. The best way to make sure you're building muscle while dropping body fat is the way you lift. Focus on being super controlled during every working set. Try a 4-second eccentric or negative phase of each lift you do with a 1-second pause in the deepest range of motion you can manage, followed with a powerful concentric every time. Even when you're fatigued and the rep speed obviously slows down, still try and push the weight hard. So for a squat it would look like this. For a press it would look like this. For a pull it would look like this. And for arms it would look like this. If you aren't used to lifting this way, just making these changes could give you a beginner gains effect because your body isn't accustomed to these times under tension. You might get really sore and it can help you build a better mind-muscle connection so you improve the control and feel of your muscles. This way of lifting is something I encourage most of my clients to do in our 12-week transformation program. The next way we solidify making gains is through intensity. Should you train to failure or not? A recent study found no significant difference between going to failure and stopping one to two reps short. By the way, stopping one to two reps short of failure is still a tough set, but if you never go to failure, it's hard to know what one to two reps left in the tank actually feels like. So, try going to failure on your last set of every exercise. Probably a good idea to stick to machines to be safe. Don't let technique get messy. Control the negative as best as you can to maximize gains. And when you can no longer complete a full rep, squeeze out a few lengthened partials just to empty that tank that little bit more.
Stage five, nutrition. Now, I know you know how important nutrition is. Deep down, you're aware that eating donuts every day probably isn't going to get you ripped. Although you could eat a donut every day and still lose weight if calories in are less than calories out. There was this nutrition professor who lost something like 27 lbs in 10 weeks eating Twinkies. Now, because I'm British, I didn't know what a Twinkie was. A Twinkie is what you call junk food. A highly processed sugary cake thing that if you bought one today, threw it in your cupboard, and looked back 2 years later, it'd still look the same. But just because you can lose weight eating junk food, doesn't mean you should abuse that. If you want to boost your chances of losing fat and building muscle at the same time, you need to prioritize foods that are going to aid your performance in the gym. So, an adequate amount of carbohydrates from starchy things like potatoes and rice, but also from some sugars as well. I consumed around 50 g of sugar every day during this because I was eating things like blueberries, strawberries, cherries, melon, bananas, all the good stuff. These are high-quality foods. It's not the sugar that's making you fat. It's more calories going in than what's being burned. You also want foods high in protein to support building muscle while you're losing weight. Here's a protein cheat sheet I send to clients just to give them an idea. So, feel free to screenshot this. I've found that if you can hit 40 to 50 g of protein for breakfast, you're much more likely to hit 150 g plus by the end of the day. For some context, I ate 200 to 250 g of protein a day during this cut. Some might say I didn't need that much and I could have enjoyed more carbs or fats, but it's just the way I did it and it worked. You also don't need to eat bland, boring food either. If I see someone with a Tupperware box that contains plain chicken and broccoli, I just want to slap it out of their hand. My brother eats like this when he's trying to get in shape and he hates it and I tell him every time it doesn't need to be like this, but he doesn't listen to me. Maybe it's cuz I'm the youngest brother, but god damn, your meals should be colorful and packing flavor. Get some sauce on there as well. Don't be eating dry. Go for a meal on the weekend, just make good choices or save more calories so you can enjoy free courses and still stay on track for a sick transformation. It's really simple. All my clients are encouraged to limit. Remember, limit doesn't mean cut out entirely. Limit these and focus mainly on these. If you want some ideas for recipes, cuz I'm quite the cook and I am keeping in mind things need to be simple, fast, and tasty, sign up to that email I mentioned before because I'll drop the occasional recipe in there as well.
If you really want to transform how you look and see some big changes as we move into spring and summer, focus on the five main steps I've just shown you. Follow those and you'll be well on your way. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next one.