Lean Bodies Consulting

Courtesy of Leigh Peele …

I can’t hit my diet today because I didn’t get a chance to get to the store.
I can’t do my workout today because it is cold outside.
I can’t get up right now and do my stretching because my neck hurts.
I can’t stick to this diet plan because it just asks to much of me.
I can’t stick to my diet today because I just need to get the job done.
I can’t stick to my diet today because I am tired and stressed and just need a break.
I can’t do this because I just want to live my life.
I can’t go out because I am to fat for life.
I can’t not eat when I go out with friends, it’s rude.
I can’t tell my spouse that I wish they would stop tempting me with fast food they bring home.
I can’t say outloud that this is the 2nd 3rd 4th 5th year in a row that I made a diet resolution.
I can’t tell my family that I need their help this time.
I can’t tell my friends that this time I want it to be for real.
I can’t take off my shirt and not cringe.
I can’t get it out of my head how good my life would be if I could just do this.
I can’t figure out what it is I am doing wrong.

I can’t be the person that says can’t anymore.

Well, it’s official, I’m a dad!

Most of you know we’ve been expecting our first child, and she came and introduced herself to us on Tuesday, December 16 at 4:31pm. As you can tell from the blog title, her name is Alyssa Faith Ledin. She was 10 days early (I’ll share that story below) and weighed in at 7lbs, 7oz and was 20 inches long. Interestingly enough my mother says I was 7lbs, 6oz and 21 inches long. LOL

I’m just going to cut and paste a part of my recap on the Lean Bodies Fitness boards here:

I’m at home now. Had to come home to get some sleep so I could put in some work time in the AM before heading back to the hospital for the day.

Anyway, crazy experience.

Here’s a shot of the little princess.

I just couldn’t pass up posting this gem …

So I’m in the gym today and I like to people watch between sets (what else is there to do? :lol:). So I’m sitting down and I see this pretty skinny guy talking to a pretty big guy. Big guy is giving little guy some advice … clearly.

Now, I didn’t even realize this until I heard the buzz words - ‘window of opportunity’.

Big guy says to litle guy:

“You have a 15-minute window of opportunity after your workout and it is critical that you get a whey protein shake within that 15 minutes. Critical.”

*little guy is paying attention*

“Remember, the window is only open for 15 minutes and then you lose your chance. Now the key is to have that protein shake in your 15-minute window of opportunity and then make sure you eat a meal 45 minutes later. You MUST eat a meal 45 minutes after your whey protein shake.”

*little guy is paying attention*

“If you do this, you’ll be amazed at your gains. Bro, you’ll pack on freaky size. Freaky! Watch how fast you get huge.”

Oh no! The window is closing! The window is closing!

I’m going to try it - I want the freaky size!

I am totally kidding.

1. Trainers that can’t train themselves.

Seriously. You’re a personal trainer, but I never see you train - ever. In fact, even if you did train regularly, I wouldn’t be able to tell. This really, really bugs me about the personal training industry. You’re a personal trainer yet you don’t look like you’ve applied any of your ‘knowledge’ to yourself.

Now I can understand if you have different goals - say for example, you train for strength, or performance in a sport and not for fat loss. Ok, fair enough. Then I hope you’re at least strong and better in your sport because of your training. Or maybe you’re a competitor (or even non-competitor) in your offseason, focusing on putting on some muscle. Fair enough. I’d expect that what you’re doing is getting you results - after all, you’re a “trainer”.

But if you’re instructing/training people who are interested in fat loss … and you don’t know how to get yourself in shape? You shouldn’t be teaching anyone anything. Again, fine if being lean, etc. is not your goal right now, but you should be able to get there when you want to - because you know how, right?

The trainers in my gym - they’re just your regular gym warriors - they’re not training for sport, for strength, etc. They’re ‘bodybuilders’ - you know - wanna get big and ripped? At least I assume that from watching them do the Flex magazine workouts. And yet … it doesn’t seem to be working.

Just because you have a certification, doesn’t mean you’re a trainer. We all have certifications. You know what I learned in mine? Not much, and nothing that changed my methods. I learned more from reading what other more experienced and smarter people are saying and doing. Certifications offer ‘perceived credibility’. Great trainers are built from a life of self learning, open mindedness and experience. And that should include being able to get a dedicated result in YOURSELF too.

2. “It’s all you!”

No it’s not. Seriously. It’s not. If you’re getting a spot for something (why I have no idea), and your spotter says, with his hands on the bar, “IT’S ALL YOU”, or tells you “nah man, it was all you”, you can be sure that it was not all you. Do your own reps already.

3. Upper Bodybuilders

Train your legs for crying out loud! Yes, it looks like you’ve had some success with your upper body, but geez man, you have absolutely no leg development, no glute development, no nothing. How many times can you train arms?

I think I am one of only a handful of people in my gym that train legs regularly - and hard. At the other end of the spectrum you have the guys - who when asked why they don’t train legs - say something like

“I do a few sets of leg extensions and leg curls each week. I don’t want my legs to get too big’”

Yes because it’s just that easy to get legs that are too big.

“I run”

Ok … is there a second part to that sentence?

“I play soccer”

That’s nice. We’re talking about leg training.

There’s not much more satisfying in the gym than a tough leg workout - some heavy FULL squats (not those shallow knee bends 9 out of every 10th person does … on the Smith machine), some heavy deads. This is the fun stuff. Or maybe I’m just twisted.

Got any of your own?

Ok, so we’ve established answers to the following questions in the first three parts of this series so far:

1. Would I have to do a bulk?

2. How long would I bulk for?

Alright, how about some practical steps? We’re not going to get into the training aspect of this right now as it’s a rather varied topic, so we’ll just keep the focus on nutrition - which really is what will be the final determinant of gains. By that I mean, I don’t care how hard you’re training, if you’re not eating enough to support muscle growth, you’re not going to be gaining size. Period. (exception to the rule - newbies and those new to ‘effective training’)

To go back to another point made in one of the previous posts - expect to gain at least some bodyfat. If you expect to stay lean, expect to stay the same. I’ll give you a few case examples:

1. I was emailing back and forth with a client prospect who has been solely focused on muscle gain for many, many months. She works with another trainer. In our communications, she ended up sending me her pre- and current ‘bulking’ pictures for review. First thing I noticed? Nothing. Literally, I couldn’t tell a difference at all. I asked her what the difference in weight was. The answer? One pound. I believe this was over the course of about nine months. ONE POUND. Now, it’d be great if there was some massive recompositioning here but there wasn’t - no visible changes. I questioned her on this and she said her trainer wants to her stay lean while gaining size.

The results show how effective that strategy is.

2. A client of my own who I worked with for a little over a year. We did a few cut/bulk cycles and yes she gained some body fat during the bulks. But she had a great mindset for all of it (vital necessity in my opinion) and had the big picture in front of her the whole time. The numbers will make my point for me.

November 19/07
Weight - 110 lbs
Waist - 30 1/4
Hips - 33 3/4
Thighs - 17
Chest - 31 1/2
Arms - 9 1/2
Calf - 10 1/2

Contrast that to her final biweekly:

September 16/08
Weight - 109.4 lbs
Waist - 24 1/4
Hips - 33 1/4
Thighs - 17 3/4
Chest - 32 1/4
Arms - 10
Calf - 11

The most glaring point there is that she weighs basically the same as her starting weight - but her waist is 6 inches smaller. Now that’s a recomp.

A successful bulk is obviously determined by the results gained - hopefully you’ve added some muscle and not too much fat. It’s fine to gain, gain, gain, but if you end up the same bodyweight and the same bodyfat - basically you look the same as you did pre-bulk - it doesn’t seem like you did very well. Now if you end up the same bodyweight, but you’re even leaner (see Case #2 above) then you definitely had a successful run. Gaining 20lbs only to lose 20lbs and look no different - that’s not a good bulk.

How much do I need to eat?

Enough!

You need to definitely have more energy coming in than going out. Again, insufficient food intake = no gains. Look around the gym - most people there are trying to gain some muscle, get stronger, etc. Are they? They appear to be working pretty hard and yet, a year from now, chances are they’ll look no different. Something isn’t working. Could it be what they’re doing/eating outside of the gym? Could it be that they train hard for 45 minutes (trying to bulld muscle?) and then they hop on the elliptical for 30 minutes PWO (trying to get the cuts?). It doesn’t work.

So how much food? I generally recommend that you start at an assumed maintenance intake. I say assumed because all of the predictive equations are just estimates. They’re not going to necessarily be 100% accurate, but it’s a starting place for us. If you’re not coming off a hard diet, around 15x total bodyweight is a good ball part. Pay attention to results though - if you’re gaining (beyond water and glycogen) then clearly this is not maintenance. If you’re coming off a hard diet, start a bit lower as metaoblism will be slightly depressed. Stay there for two weeks and reassess. Did the scale go up? Go down? Stay the same? Adjust accordingly. Assuming you were at maintenance, start adding calories. Again, we’re trying to avoid getting too sloppy so take it easy and just systematically raise them. Start at 10% above maintenance, stay there for a bit, and reassess. What’s happening? Nothing? Add another 10%. You basically continue to add calories until you start to see an upward trend on the scale, but not so quickly upward that it’s clear (in the context of expected rates of muscle gain) that you’re gaining too much fat per given pound of weight gain. If you are gaining too much fat, scale the calories back a bit. It’s all about a simple outcome based approach. Base your adjustments on your results.

I’ll touch on macros next time.

I have to interrupt the bulking series for a bit of randomness today.

1. There’s a personal trainer at my gym that I would like to fire … and I don’t even work there. In fact, I’d like to fire all of them. Have you ever noticed that very few - if any - clients of the average gym PT ever look any different? Ever? How about the fact that they don’t even look like they train themselves half the time? And to the clients, why don’t they clue in … that it’s not working?

Back to the guy I want to fire. Nice guy I’m sure and he’s got a pretty good physique … from the waist up. You see, I’ve never, ever seen him train legs. Ever. So then, how can a person who doesn’t train legs, teach someone how to squat? I’ll tell you how - they can’t!

Better than that - he has them squatting on the Smith Machine, with the sissy pad. Then he makes them put their feet out in front of them, and he makes very certain that those knees don’t pass the toes - you know, to prevent her patellas from exploding and cracking the mirrors. He’d get fired for that I bet.

But you know, I can almost look past this because hey, it’s really common, sad as it is. But this one girl, she looked like she was folding in half - like a lawn chair, and a cheap one at that. I wish I could put it into words. I might have to get Laura to video tape me in the gym trying to duplicate it. On her descent, she wasn’t just going down, she was practically buckling - at the neck, the lumbar, everything. All the while the PT is watching those knees and saying how good she’s doing. Fired!!!!!

If you can’t squat properly yourself, you can’t teach someone how to squat.

2. Do you ever stop and just watch people in the gym? What the heck? Sometimes you have to wonder what muscles they’re trying to train during some of their lifts. They turn concentration curls into a full body, compound exercise.

People would have far more effective workouts if they stopped and focused on training their muscles, as opposed to just lifting weights. Most of us are not powerlifters so check your ego at the door. We’re concerned with more than just getting the weight up. We’re concerned with development. And to that end, it’s all about rep quality. Make every inch of every rep of every set count. Think of your workouts as contracting your muscles against resistance. Make your reps count.

3. Kipping Pull Ups bug me.

I was going to keep going on my next point - retarded contest prep methods but I’ll save that for the next rant. (but I’m writing it now while I’m in this mood. )

One of the criticisms I’ve seen mentioned of personal trainers, online trainers or anything that might fall in between is the idea of “selling fish vs teaching someone how to fish”. That’s a cliche way of saying, telling someone what to do instead of teaching them how to do it themselves, so to speak.

I personally don’t think it’s necessarily an either/or case however.

While without clients I’d be out of business, the goal is still to hopefully impart some degree of knowledge into a client over time. Enough so that should they decide to, they can take over the reigns on their own, and continue to be successful in their fitness/physique endeavors. For some, the decision to go solo comes sooner and for others, who simply like not having to do any of the thinking themselves and enjoy the specific training and nutritional guidance, accountability, etc., it comes much later. (Note: I do however think competitors more often than not should have a coach/trainer for multiple reasons) It’s something that will vary from person to person. Take accounting - how many people do their own taxes? Some do, and that’s fine. Others, they simply don’t want to learn or be bothered and just want an established expert to handle it for them. And that’s fine too.

I received a really nice email from a former client of mine which is a testament to the fact that there’s learning (provided you’re paying attention) that comes with training with a professional. And that knowledge is something they can take with them, enabling them to stay in charge of their body, even help others with less knowledge and understanding.

Hi Erik! I just wanted to write you a note to thank you.

Thanks again,

Ok, so this has absolutely nothing to do with fitness, working out, contest prep, or anything relevant for that matter - or rather, relevant to you. It’s very relevant to me.

Laura at 22 weeks and the new Nissan GTR.

Sweeeet!!!

Kind of an odd statement isn’t it? “It’s simple, but it’s not easy.” Of course, I’m referring to the issue of fat loss and getting in great shape. It’s simple, but it’s not easy.

To clarify a bit …

Conceptually it’s simple - meaning the ‘how to’ is pretty straight forward. Practically, it’s not so easy. Meaning the application, discipline, self control, etc., isn’t easy. So we could say that physiologically it’s simple and psychologically it’s not easy. Make sense?

I want to focus for a minute on the ‘not easy’ part. More people simply MUST accept this. There is a reason … many actually … for why more people aren’t walking around with enviable physiques. It’s not easy. There’s a reason so many people are yo-yo dieters, gaining and losing the same 10 pounds year in and year out. It’s not easy. There’s a reason why people start a diet, and then quit, only to restart. It’s not easy.

You have to accept this if you want to have long-term success in taking control of your physique … and even your health for that matter.

There is a price to pay for getting in shape. It’s not free. It has a cost associated with it. whether that’s not being able to eat 8 cookies whenever you THINK your body is specifically telling you it needs cookies (it’s not by the way), or having to get to the gym when you don’t feel like it. Actually, the gym tends to be the easy part for most people. It’s the nutritional discipline that is the issue for most.

The question you have to ask yourself is, ‘once you realize there’s a cost, are you willing to pay it’? It’s another way of saying you’re going to have to make some sacrifices if you’re serious. If you’re not willing to, then stop complaining about not making any progress and looking the same all the time.

If you want to adopt an attitude that it’s always okay to cheat or be lax with your eating, then you’re going to look the same. Food will always be there. You want it today? It’ll be there tomorrow. The next day too.

it’s a mistake to have this ‘tolerance attitude’ that says ‘hey, you cheated again; it’s okay. It’s not a big deal”. And you’re right, it’s not a big deal … UNLESS you start complaining about not making any progress.

This is supposed to be hard. The sooner you accept that reality, the better off your chances of being successful. However, ‘hard’, isn’t a bad thing. It’s all in your outlook. Similarly, hunger isn’t a bad thing - unless you think it’s a bad thing. If you always associate hunger with bad feelings, whining, moaning, whoa-is-me complaining, than yeah, you’re not going to be so happy are you? However, what if you shift your thinking? What if you decide to welcome the hunger? What if you decide to associate hunger with good things - like perhaps the fact that eating in a deficit is necessary for fat loss and clearly eating less than your body wants is going to make you hungry. So two plus two equals hunger being a possible indicator that you’re on the right track.

Again, it’s all in the mindset. Choose to enjoy the process and you can’t fail. Choose to whine and complain, justify and excuse, and you can’t succeed.

Getting lean isn’t supposed to be easy. Accept it.

Read that all again.

Follow Up Blog Post #1
Follow Up Blog Post #2

How’s that for a title eh?

Nothing ‘informative’ here for you today, but I still wanted to post and share something with you.

Yesterday was Laura’s first ultrasound. This had to be one of the neatest experiences I can remember. For those of you parents out there, I’m sure you know the feeling I’m referring to. Wow. It was so cool to see a little baby … with a hugantic melon for a head. I showed the printouts to my mom who without missing a beat said, “looks just like you Erik; big head”.

I didn’t laugh.

Anyway, from head to butt, the baby is only 7cm long - 2.75 inches for you stuck in the stone age. So tiny. She (that being Laura - we’re not finding out the sex) is only 13.5 weeks they said. You could see the little hands and feet, see the heart beating, etc., etc. Really a phenomenal thing to look at.

Wow!

Onto other news, I’m off to the NPC Junior Nationals (leaving at 3am tonight/tomorrow morning), which are again being held in Chicago. We’ll have a smaller contingent at this show but a good one nonetheless. The Junior Nationals is a two-day event with Round 1 Prejudging (one-piece) being done Friday evening, Round 2 prejudging (two-piece) being done Saturday morning and the Finals being done Saturday evening. Two-day events throw a bit of a wrench into the typical strategies used for the traditional one-day shows, but being through this before, I’ve got it all figured out. Tomorrow will just be a ‘hang out’ day of sorts and I’ll do some work as well. I was debating trying to get a workout in down there, but I’m going to pass on that and just take the few days off.

Speaking of my training, today I weighed the lightest I have weighed in literally as long as I can remember - 215.8lbs. I am hoping to be done dieting fairly soon. Still have a little to go. I’ve dropped my training back to four days per week from the six days I was doing. It was interesting to see that pushing six days per week with high volume while dieting didn’t result in any negatives. I was able to push that for 8 straight weeks. In this phase, I’ll take two extra days off, but my training volume is staying on the high side.

Anyway, off to finish getting ready. I’ll try to get in a ‘live update’ from the show again some time on the weekend - with pictures even. Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed for the LBC girls.