Lean Bodies Consulting

Oh, I’m back with more for ya:

I talked to “trainer’s name here” and again he made sure i understood that i need to get that 2 hours of cardio in … and more if possible.

So last night i did 2 hours … and add that to my 30 minutes in the morning … 2.5 hours of cardio yesterday on top of my shoulder workout! I already feel leaner! Silly i know, but i know that is what is going to get me the smallest … and hopefully the muscles will show as i lean out more

Come on!

When are people going to wake up and get it? How is this fun? Training 3 hours a day? 20 hours a week? For how much progress? Seriously?

Sure if you eat few enough calories and exercise enough you’ll lose weight. That’s certainly not rocket science.

Here’s what I think of this:

How about this one?

Fitness trainer at my local gym told me that I should drink only 2 cups of water a day until Friday if I want to look cut. But I’ve decided to go with reducing sodium intake method. If I,

A. consume less than 500 mg of sodium per day.
B. do cardio and sauna
C. drink more water
D. cut down my carbs by 30%

would I be able to look somewhat cut?

The fitness trainer says to drink 500ml of water/day in the final week. Wow! So the girl isn’t going to do that and appears to make a better choice when she says ‘drink more water’ - but I don’t know what that technically means, but for sure it’s better than the ‘fitness trainer’ advice she received.

500mg of sodium per day for the final week? That one is going to backfire.

Sauna? No, no no!

You know, it’s when people aren’t in good enough shape that they’re banking on final week voodoo magically transforming their body. And the truth of the matter is, it doesn’t. Add to that, any visual effect is really only apparent if you’re lean enough in the first place. If I were to run myself through a prep week, you know what would happen? Nothing. LOL! I’d look exactly the same at the end of it.

Focus on getting in great shape and using those last few days to polish things up, not try anything crazy that you’ve not even experimented with before.

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.

So I often rant and rave about contest prep strategies that I think are silly - nonsensical even - yet sadly, oh so commonplace in our competitive circles. I think people get in shape in spite of some of this stuff, not directly because of it. The internet is a gold mine for examples and so are clients of mine, who hear and see what their friends are doing.

I pride myself on rying to do it the ’smart’ way - at least I consider it the smart way; at the very least, the sane way. Now don’t be offended if you do something that you see me make fun of. Hey, it’s your choice.

But you know what? Here’s something that’s really sad - competitors who do a show, even do well - great transformation, good placing in the show, etc. - and decide to give it up. Why? Because they just can’t see themselves going through that prep again. All the cardio, the extreme restrictiveness, the big post-contest rebound, and so on. And because it’s such a common methodology, they’re lead to believe it’s the only way. I mean, hey, I don’t blame you. I’m pretty sure most competitors start off on their competitive trails for multiple reasons - one of which is that they think it’ll be fun to do a show. An overall enjoyable experience. And then … it’s just not. Now I’m not saying it’s ever going to be easy getting in contest-ready condition, because surely, it’s never easy. It IS hard, it DOES take sacrifice. But in the end, you should walk away with a good experience. Most are never going to make a living being competitors; it’s a hobby for many. Hobbies are fun.

I had a client who I have now worked with on three separate occasions, who decided she wanted to give it a go; she wanted to do a show. Of course, I was all for it. And here is a comment she just sent me via email that sums it up - see? Fun. Great experience.

I just don’t think I have the words to tell you how grateful I am for this experience. I have grown so much and learned so much about myself. Being so committed to achieving this goal has given me such strength and built a lot of character for me. Something just clicked for me in this prep and I’ve been happy the whole way through. Part of it was not worrying (too much anyway) because I knew I was in the best possible hands to get me to where I needed to be – the smart way. And part was my mindset. I chose not to alienate myself or avoid social situations that involved food (done that many times before!). It then became more about the people in my life and not the food. I felt more connected and supported, which is important to have when you’re doing something difficult like a contest prep. And the last part was just having a goal to work toward. I have realized that usually the things that are tough are the things that are worth it in the end. And this competition experience was definitely was worth it! I’m so ready to do another one because I know I can do even better! Thank you thank you thank you!!!! Mwah!

There IS another way.

Disclaimer - apologies (only small ones) if this offends you.

It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon (yes surgeon :lol:) - or a smart contest prep coach for that matter - to get fat off someone if they starve them enough and get them to do enough cardio. How does that make a trainer … awesome? 14 hours of cardio a week? 21 hours of cardio a week? 1200 calories while doing that amount of cardio? This isn’t the program recommendations of a great trainer, IMO - it’s the program directions of someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing - who has one tool in his or her toolbox. Eventually everyone will get in shape if they eat few enough calories and do enough exercise for long enough. And people pay for this?

What? You’re not losing fat? Hmm, we’ll we’re already doing an hour of cardio a day. Let’s double it. Two hours a day now. We’ll also drop your calories to 9x BW too.

Two weeks later

Nothing? Alright then - 8x BW in calories and you get no carbs but vegetables and you get no fat either. And you only get nearly fat-free protein sources - egg whites and orange roughy for you. Wait, make it two-and-a-half hours of cardio a day. I also want you to do walking lunges - no weights - every day for 20 minutes - to spot reduce the fat off your glutes and legs of course.

Weight starts falling.

What? You’re hair is falling out? Suck it up, you’re a competitor. Hardcore!

Brilliant!

I’m sorry but you have to diet extremely hard and do hours upon hours upon more hours of cardio per week to lose what? You better be getting Biggest Loser results and dropping pounds of it each week. I mean, a pound of fat has a whopping 3500 calories. Unless you’re crawling on the treadmill and you have the math skills of a 2-year old (subsequently adding up your 2500 calories and thinking it’s 1000), then it’s NOT working very well now is it? A pound a week? (Because you know you’re not dropping 3lbs per week and you’re not even dropping 2/week if you’re pretty lean), then that’s not success. You have to do ALL THAT for a pound of fat? Come on now. Your body is broken if that’s what it takes. Actually let me correct that - that’s not what it takes. For anyone. Do you really consider that a winning formula? Because you might have “won”?

And another thing - those that don’t do their prep this way? Those that get in shape with sane dieting and sane amounts of cardio? They aren’t just genetically lucky. They work just as hard as you do. They just work smarter. There’s nothing special about you that deems it absolutely mandatory to do 7, 14, 21 hours of cardio per week to drop a small amount of fat per week. I mean, if a pound of fat is 3500 calories and you’re doing all that cardio and you’re dieting hard, don’t you think something might be a tad wrong there?

Get ready for your rebound. I have been saying this for quite a while now - those who do the most cardio in their preps are invariably always the ones with the most horrendous post-contest rebounds. And I think this is separate from the psychologically influenced rebound triggered by retardedly restrictive contest diets where you get only 5 foods. Of course, you’re going to start eating after that. Sheesh.

But the cardio? It’s almost as if it’s programming you for fat storage when the calories become available again. Whether it has to do with an efficiency phenomenon or something else entirely, the bottom line is that cardio junkies rebound terribly, more often than not. I don’t really care why it happens – just that it’s happening. There is far too much empirical evidence in contest circles to deny this.

Why do you think 30 minutes of cardio stops working and becomes 45 minutes? And 45 minutes per day becomes 60 minutes? And 60 minutes becomes 90 minutes? Something is happening there for you to have to be continuously adding more and more cardio. So what happens the next time you diet? Do you have to do even more? I know of competitors who return a previously successful contest prep program (successful meaning they got in shape) and it doesn’t work for them - nothing happens. Hmmm

The prep methods of many competitors are in my mind, nothing short of downright silly. It’s sad really - to see what some people believe they have to do in order to compete. And it’s not even the competitor’s fault - it’s the people they entrust themselves to. I can’t believe some of the stuff I’ve read. Boiling chicken breast in distilled water? What? People still do that? Cutting sodium a full week out? I’m sorry, but what the heck? Fish and vegetables 6x a day? 3 hours of cardio? A day? And it’s not like competitors are coming up with this stuff on their own - they’re being instructed to do this and they’re paying for it!!

And never mind how silly and just beyond explanation it is; it’s downright damaging. I can’t tell you how many competitors I’ve worked with now that have come from the above and my first order of business is getting their bodies responsive to diet and training again and correcting the damage done by their previous trainer. Many times over now.

Listen, being a hamster on a treadmill is not the only way to get in contest shape. Hamsters aren’t even cute.

There IS an easier way. No, not easy – as getting in contest shape will never be easy, but it’s easiER. And it can be a far more enjoyable experience. Man, there’s some troopers out there. Girls who go through this every single contest season. You have to hand it to them – that’s seriously some hardcore dedication. Hey, if you like it - more power to you. But …

There IS another way.

Comments? Agree? Disagree?