The Adonis Transformation Contest AT-15 Will Start on September 1, 2014

Would you like to achieve the same success as these previous Adonis Transformation contest winners? You definitely can do it too – at any age!

Would you like to achieve the same success as these previous Adonis Transformation contest winners? You definitely can do it too – at any age!

 

The Adonis Transformation Contest AT-15 Will Start on September 1, 2014

We will accept contest entries starting on September 1, 2014. The deadline for entering your before pictures will be Midnight Eastern Time on September 8, 2014.

The pictures must be taken between between September 1 and September 8, 2014. The newspaper front page picture must be taken during the same photo session.

Before you enter please read the contest instructions:

Click here –> Contest instructions, rules, and regulations <– Click here

Note: The contest dashboard is only open during the

week of September 1-8, 2014

Here are the steps to enter AT-15:

1)      Login to you online Adonis account

2)      Click on the “Tracker” menu

SKITCH A1

 

3)      Click on the “Contest Dashboard” button

SKITCH A2

4)      Click on the green “Join Contest” button

SKITCH A3

 

5)      Drag and Drop your contest pictures

SKITCH-1

 

6)      Scroll down and enter your measurements with the drop down arrows

SKITCH-2

 

7)      Click on the blue “Start Contest” button

SKITCH-3

 

8)      You are successfully entered when you see the green letters that say “Before photos uploaded”

SKITCH-4

 

You will receive a confirmation email after September 8, 2014 if you carefully followed the contest instructions.

If you completed all 8 steps but did not carefully follow the contest instructions you will not receive a confirmation email and you may have to wait to enter the next contest.  Please carefully read the contest instructions before you enter the contest.

Checkout the winners of our previous contests.

GET EXCITED!! The Adonis Golden Ratio 12 week transformation contest is the first step in your Adonis Lifestyle journey!

 

Email me if you have any problems or questions entering the contests:

  Allen.E.Model@gmail.com

Stay Safe & Train Hard!

your brother in Iron,

ALLEN ELLIOTT

  • Adonis/Venus Index Transformation Coach
  • Editor-In-Chief, Adonis Index Blog
  • AI Community/Forum Administrator

My Adonis Index Transformation Story

Would you like some extra help and accountability? Click here to visit the Adonis Premiere Coaching Page 
 “It’s Not a Competition, It’s a lifestyle!” 

AT14 12-Week Transformation Winners Announced

The AT14 results are in and the transformations our guys made are simply amazing! This was the largest contest we’ve had yet… The competition was fierce and the contestants were judged in a total of five equally weighted categories:

1- Weight Loss (LBS) – 20%

2-  Adonis Golden Ratio (AGR)  Transformation Change -20%

3-  Final AGR Score- 20%

4- Muscularity- 20%

5- Aesthetics/Photogenic Quality – 20%

Congratulations to everyone who entered and completed their transformation goals!

Here are the winners:

 

Ryan Law [ShadowTiger] – 1st Place

Ryan Law 1st Place - Front Before/After Photos

Ryan Law 1st Place – Front Before/After Photos

 

Michael De Oliveira [Mike]- 2nd Place

Mike De Oliveira 2nd Place - Front Before/After Photos

Mike De Oliveira 2nd Place – Front Before/After Photos

Adam G. [driftbouncer] – 3rd Place

Adam G. 3rd Place - Front Before/After Photos

Adam G. 3rd Place – Front Before/After Photos

Jim Ferneyhough [Jimmysnsd]- 4th Place

Jim Ferneyhough 4th Place - Front Before/After Photos

Jim Ferneyhough 4th Place – Front Before/After Photos

Des Connelly [dconnelly]- 5th Place

Des Connelly 5th Place - Front Before/After Photos

Des Connelly 5th Place – Front Before/After Photos

C. Doyle [ColinD]- 6th Place

C Doyle 6th Place - Front Before/After Photos

C Doyle 6th Place – Front Before/After Photos

 

 Kenneth Wooden [kmwooden]- 7th Place

Kenneth Wooden 7th Place - Front Before/After Photos

Kenneth Wooden 7th Place – Front Before/After Photos

 

 Ream Kidane [Reamerton]- 8th Place

Ream Kidane 8th Place - Front Before/After Photos

Ream Kidane 8th Place – Front Before/After Photos

 

Brad V.[BradnMI]- 9th Place

Brad V. 9th Place - Front Before/After Photos

Brad V. 9th Place – Front Before/After Photos

 

Luke Milligan [milliganluke3]- 10th Place

 

Luke Milligan 10th Place - Front Before/After Photos

Luke Milligan 10th Place – Front Before/After Photos

 

If you are wondering about what program(s) they used then check out the Adonis Index systems that all of them followed. You can also look forward to their interviews coming up later this month. Again congratulations to everyone, outstanding job.

 

Distractions: Coaches’ Corner w/ Jason Haynes

Today’s post is our latest installment of a new series called the “Coaches Corner.”  Our Adonis Transformation Coaches will share their knowledge, experience, and best practices to help ensure your successful transformation.  To continue the series, our topic  comes from none other than AGR Pioneer,  Jason Haynes.

 

DISTRACTIONS

For the past 10 years or so all of my gym experiences been either at home gym or at small hole-in-the-wall dungeons during off hours when not many people go there.    I don’t know but I like to train solo with not many people with his minimal distractions as possible (sidenote:   if you’re ever gonna play music for a visitor to your country just because it’s in the native language of the person that doesn’t mean it’s a good choice for listing music.   I had someone once play “I’m a big big girl” while I was deadlifting!  I mean, I was on that last grinding rep when the song came on.  I just felt my testosterone flee from me and I dropped the weight).

Anyway, coming back to the US has been a trip in so many ways and certainly the gym is among one of the most interesting ones.  In my previous blog I talked about just the over abundance of highly caloric and tasty foods that you can find readily in this place, but today I’m gonna focus on the gym itself.

So here I am in Southern California.  There is a wide array of gyms and plenty of choices…most of them are open at good hours.   The place I go to is pretty much ok… it’s cheap, serves my purposes, the weight of the dumbbells go high enough, and there’s a wide assortment of machines.  So, that’s good.  At the time I go there (at about 5:30 in the morning) only a few guys are in the weight section…and these are the guys who are there are to work out.

Or are they?  A few…yes,but the others…I am not so sure. (Another blog post, maybe).

 

iStock_000028970566Small

“It’s been a process of learning NOT to be distracted by what I see around me.” – Jason Haynes

Anyway, the first time that I stepped into that place to work out was just a shock.  As I said in the beginning of this blog…the last 10 years was simple and effective.  Nothing but weights and the occasional TV in front of the treadmills.  So…I walked in the gym, and I I just stood there staring at what was nearly unbelievable to me.  I felt like I was in a panorama of big flat/plasma screen TVs…each one tuned into a different station.  I hadn’t even begun to lift a weight yet and there I was transfixed on over a dozen screens.

It was so distracting.  I think my 45 minute workout must have taken about an hour and a half because all I did was get constantly distracted.   One TV station had Big Ten football, on another one is the all sports station, yet another one had UFC fighting (oh wait no that’s every day..but on that particular day they were doing prop airplanes flying through a slalom course of probably hundred foot tall pylons.  Up until that point, I thought that stuff was only in video games).

It was reedicyoulous!

If my memory serves right:  six TVs along the cardio stations, three other TVs along the left side, there’s at least four along the right side and then there’s two or three along the other side of this building.  Each one is turned to a different station, granting a great opportunity for…say it with me..

Distractions.

"Each of the coaches there has worked hard, achieved the golden ratio, and maintained it.  We have some insight and tricks than can help you stay focused and get on track, if necessary." - Jason Haynes

“Each of the coaches there has worked hard, achieved the golden ratio, and maintained it. We have some insight and tricks than can help you stay focused and get on track, if necessary.” – Jason Haynes

It’s been a month since I’ve been going here to the gym (in fact I just renewed my monthly dues this today).   It’s been a process of learning NOT to be distracted by what I see around me. I think it was pretty easy to learn it, actually, as I have had many years of no distractions and have adapted that mindset.  I don’t know if I would have adjusted as easy if I had not had all those years behind me.

I have to tune out because I only have 30 minutes to get my training done so I pretty much ignore what’s going on around me. Yes, I am still cordial an courteous and everything else according to social convention, but I just can’t allow distractions to interfere.

Man, that UFC program that always plays at my training time REALLY challenges my focus, though.

I have to keep a mental countdown in my head every time of every second.  I don’t rely on stopwatches anything like that but the risk is always there:   a distraction.   Distractions that come in many shapes and forms….it could be people, things people do,  it could be TV sets, it can be people doing weird exercises (don’t let maybe that’ll be my next blog post).

Most of us who have normal jobs and families and commitments…our time in the gym is precious and cannot be divided amongst other things around us when we’re there.  We are there for one reason:   to train, to push our muscles, to push our limits of strength and to attain that coveted golden physique.

Distractions are everywhere…inside AND outside the gym.  Each set of potential distractions carries it’s own challenges and solutions.  If you would like help to work through your distractions and challenges, check out the AGR Premiere Coaching program.  Each of the coaches there has worked hard, achieved the golden ratio, and maintained it.  We have some insight and tricks than can help you stay focused and get on track, if necessary.

Train hard,  train smart.

Jason

When Abundance Abounds…Shred Season Begins

Today’s post is two-fold.  It is both a reflection of the Summer Season,with the conclusion of contest AT-14. Also, returning to the regular line-up,  the latest installment of the new “Coaches Corner” with Jason Haynes.

 

Shred Season: The Final Countdown of AT14

Shred Season: The Final Countdown of AT14

Enter the Shredder: Final Countdown of AT14

In the last remaining days of AT14 it’s imperative that you maintain your pursuit towards that  “Golden” transformation.   Many will be making there final preparations this weekend or have already done so.

Contest Photo Submissions for AT14 will be due no later than Monday August 11th at midnight Eastern Standard Time.  AT14 is trending to be our largest competition to date based on the number of contest entries.

For many contestants, this is the first workout program that you’ve followed consistently.  Thank you for your commitment to the Adonis Golden Ratio Program and more importantly for your commitment to your own personal goals.

The time of this particular contest in conjunction with the summer months have been unofficially proclaimed to be the “Shred Season.”  Many people begin to shred not only their clothes, but their diets in order to hit the beach looking there very best.

Win or lose, remember that your transformation is a personal achievement and you should be very proud of your accomplishment.

In a previous post, I discussed the Four Key Ingredient necessary in order to become “Photo-Shoot Ready” on command.  Those ingredients are:

1. Conditioning

2. Posing

3. Tanning

4. Photography/Lighting

Keeping these concepts in mind will help you capture some amazing images of your new & improved physique.

In conclusion, to all my brothers in Iron, I hope your enjoying living the Adonis Lifestyle and to those contestants in AT14, come August 11th, I look forward to congratulating you on your transformation!

If you have any questions on the contest email me at:

ALLEN.E.MODEL@GMAIL.COM

Abundance Abounds

To continue the series, our topic  comes from none other than Adonis Transformation Coach and AGR Pioneer, Jason Haynes.

First, let me apologize for my absence and lack of blogs these days.  We have re-located internationally and as many of you may realize, that is NO small task…and with everything that it includes, some things naturally get put off until a later time.

But, I’m back and while FAR from settled in, 75% of all the major things have been handled and thus more time is available for writing.

So the last few weeks have been a hectic mess as we settle into life in the US after moving from Asia where I had lived for the previous ten years.  While there were a myriad of challenges and hurdles to overcome while living in Asia, abundance and ease of accessibility to food was NOT among them.

Indeed, in terms of food, nutrition, and drinks, we led a rather simple life simply because of what was available to us.  We ate lots of oatmeal (with protein powder thrown in), eggs, rice, noodles, pork , yogurt and vegetables.  We ix-nayed on the high calorie cakes and comfort foods simply because they were not easily accessible and, quite frankly, most of them didn’t appeal to me (or taste that good…I mean, no offense if you like them, but shrimp flavored potato chips simply have never “done” it for me…and the bakery cakes were simply too spongey).

So, because of these reasons, getting lean and staying that way was quite simple…I would almost say it was easy.  With the exception of a bi-weekly trip into downtown where we would indulge in a stuffed-crust pizza, everything was pretty standard in our household, meal-wise.

Weekly we would buy enough “fresh” meat from the market (or wet market), some frozen dumplings, and some other staples.  We’d buy fresh eggs almost every 3 days (we would go through 24 of them in about that amount of time), and fruit and vegetables daily.

Yes, we lived in the boondocks, BTW.

So when I used to hear John Barban or Brad Pilon talking about just how abundant and ultra-convenient food is here in the US and Canada, I could totally see and understand it although the true depth of that truth was impossible to grasp.

That is, until I got back home.

I have only been here about 28 days, but I can totally see what they saw…and what many of you ( and now me, too) have to deal with in terms of struggles with the super abundance and ultra convenience of the modern world.

I mean…wow.  Walking into a 7-11 for the first time in 10 years was a jaw-drawing experience.  I just went in for a coffee…a simple cup of unsweetened black Joe…and I froze in my tracks as there were what seemed like a dozen choices….and some of them seem downright odd (I mean:  I truly enjoy blueberries, and indeed they are probably my favorite fruit, but…blueberry coffee??  Really?).  The next sight I saw was what appeared to be a 20 ounce Red Bull, but I could NOT have seen that right…I mean..sheesh.

Walking to the cooler, I was greeted by a 4-pack of pre-made Muscle Milk in small, individual serving bottles. If I remember right, it was $7 for 2 bottles.  I remember doing the math at that time…to buy the pre-made stuff once a day every day would cost 3-5x more than just buying a 5lb bottle and mixing it yourself, depending where you bought your 5lb bottle, of course.

But hey, if you can afford it and want to throw money away…it is crazy convenient.

And that is just talking about convenience…but what about abundance???

Wow.

I could go on and on about just how ABUNDANT calories are here…and high calories at that!  With the amount of choices and the accessibility to food, it is no WONDER there is an obesity epidemic.

Don’t get me wrong…there are MANY wonderful and healthy food choices available.   Personally, I have taken a liking to something suggested to me on the Adonis Forums:  greek yogurt mixed with a certain brand of chunky applesauce and some cinnamon.   Same amount of protein as a standard 30g scoop of protein, basically, with minimal caloric differences.  I’ve also re-discovered old favorites I have not eaten for YEARS such as cottage cheese.

shred season-2

“Abundance Abounds in our Western Culture… Second only to Convenience.” – Jason Haynes

 

But I must, as I assume everyone struggles with, not allow the abundance and convenience of what is available to me to cause me to stray off target with my nutrition.  Yes, I have some leeway and also some “tricks” that any and every AGR client is encouraged to follow, but it is SO easy to fall into the caloric pit that access to tasty food can trap even the most diligent and strong-willed golden physique maintainer can fall into.

It is something we all must learn “on the fly.”  We also must learn to adapt as needed. We must not allow the abundance and convenience of the foods that are so tempting to overindulge in lure us away from our path of achieving and/or maintaining that golden physique.

All of this is pretty much standard fare for those guys who hang around the Adonis Forums for long enough.  Lots of tips and tricks are freely shared there as well. If you are an AGR client, I highly recommend you go and check it out.  If a forum search does not produce the results you are looking for, then post a topic.

Similarly, if you are looking for a dedicated coach to help you design your training and nutrition needs….someone who has done it successfully for himself and maintained his success, then check out the AGR Premiere Coaching program.

Train Hard, train smart.

Jason

 

From “Skeptic” to “Sculpted”: Interview w/ AT-13 Winner Dave Johansen

Here’s your latest interview with one of the winners from the 13th Adonis Golden Ratio Transformation Contest.   Scroll down to read  how David applied the Adonis Golden Ratio System to go from “Skeptic” to “Sculpted.”

But first, check out his AT13 Pictures:

David Johansen - AT13 - 10th Place - Front Before/After Photos

David Johansen – AT13 – 10th Place – Front Before/After Photos

 

David Johansen - AT13 - 10th Place - Transformation Image

David Johansen – AT13 – 10th Place – Transformation Image

 

David Johansen - AT13 - 10th Place - Back Before/After Photos

David Johansen – AT13 – 10th Place – Back Before/After Photos

 

David Johansen - AT13 - 10th Place - Side Before/After Photos

David Johansen – AT13 – 10th Place – Side Before/After Photos

David’s Transformation Interview:

1. Have you ever attempted to lose weight/get in shape before? If so when? How long ago? What did you try? Were you successful? Did you lose weight? Did you put it back on?  

When I started the Adonis Golden Ratio [AGR]  program, I was already part way through a weight transformation that I had begun back in November 2012.  For the first six months, all I did was try to eat more of the healthy food choices and exercise.  The problem was that I didn’t also cut back on the unhealthy foods I was also consuming.  My blood pressure, cholesterol and other blood markers improved, but my weight was staying exactly the same even though I was doing cardio 3-4 times a week.  

 In April 2013 I decided to get more serious about diet and excluded bread, sugar and most processed foods from my diet without having any direction from a particular program, only a few suggestions from my wife who was following the Venus Factor program.  I was fairly strict about my eating then and lost about 60 pounds on my own over about a year’s time.  My wife purchased AGR  for me in July 2013, but I wasn’t ready and didn’t take it serious until the contest began in January 2014.  

2. What if any exercise programs have you followed in the past?  

Prior to doing the AGR program, I hadn’t lifted weights since high school.  I had been active in my earlier adult life with a number of recreational sports, but gained weights as I aged and could no longer participate.  The majority of my recent attempts at exercising involved solely cardio–mountain hiking, running bleachers and the stair mill in the gym.  I was doing morning and evening cardio for up to two hours a day!  

3. Any other diet/exercise philosophies you’ve attempted in the past?  

The only philosophy I had previously adopted was the idea of just solely eating healthy food without regard to amount.  

4. How did you find out about AGR?  

My wife purchased it for me.  When I wasn’t interested at first, my 21 year-old son used it successfully.  Watching my wife with the Venus program, I noticed that she stuck with it longer than any other diet program she had ever tried in the past.  Seeing her success in losing 100 pounds and keeping it off and winning the VT8 contest motivated me in seeing that I should look at the Adonis program because the Venus program was so successful.

5. What resonated with the Adonis message for you?  

The first thing that struck me was how practical the Adonis program was.  I liked the idea that I could eat anything, but just needed to control the amounts.  I had always thought exercise was my number one priority to get into shape, but now I realize how big a part of the equation is the calorie counting.  I suspected that if I stayed within the suggested calorie amounts, I would be successful and that is exactly what happened for me.  Though it wasn’t always easy, I stayed within my deficit and maintenance calorie numbers and was able to take a significant amount of fat off my body.  As I followed the weight loss/muscle building workouts to a “T”, I was pleased to see that I could actually build muscle at the age of 58!  Even my adult sons commented on how buff I was getting!  

6. What made you enter the contest?

 I had stalled out and plateaued in my progress and it motivated me to actually start using the Adonis program and get into lifting weights and counting my calories.  I wasn’t where I wanted to be at weight wise, but more importantly, even though I had already lost a lot of weight, I didn’t look like I wanted because I lacked muscle tone.  It was also motivating to me mentally to have the contest deadline.  

7. What was it like going through the contest? Explain challenges you faced that you didn’t expect.  

It was a challenge for me to learn to be consistent and keep picking myself up when I would blow it and to have to then get back on the horse.  I was very uncomfortable at first, being in the gym around people lifting weights.  I didn’t even know how to use some of the machines.  Over time, I watched the videos and learned the proper form and it became a lot easier and more comfortable.  The worst part for me was taking the photos because it was something I had never done before and it was not my style to shave my chest, get a spray tan and get photographed with my shirt off.  

8. What did you do for nutrition and how was our approach any different than anything else you’ve tried or heard of.  

I had never in my life counted my calories or even knew what a deficit or maintenance number of calories for my body size was.  It was eye opening to know that some of the things that I was eating that were healthy were also very calorically dense.  During my Adonis transformation, I learned to eat foods that were high in volume but low in calorie density, keeping me in a deficit, but satisfied.  Before I just guessed.  With Adonis, I knew that if I stayed within certain numbers I would lose fat. I have learned to enjoy what I eat and don’t feel deprived when I am eating healthy and in moderation.  In fact, I don’t feel well when I overindulge anymore.  Plus,  I have actually learned to enjoy many vegetables.  

9. What did you think of the Adonis exercise program and how did it work for you? 

My wife put my measurements in the calculator and it suggested I should start with Category 3:  Muscle Building and Fat Loss.  I thought it a very intelligently put together program and that it would be harder than it actually was.  But I learned through doing that I could increase my intensity over time.  I felt like the program I was on was just right for my starting capacity and, through the progression of the program, I had enough of a workout to get me where I needed to be to see my muscles progressing.   For example, I had a shoulder injury in high school that was still bothering me when I began the program.  I was able to work around that with lifting lighter weights in the beginning and progressing to heavier as my shoulders strengthened.  My shoulders have now dramatically improved.

10. What advice do you have for new Adonis members who are sitting on the fence about a contest or are simply not sure if they can get to their goal?  

Don’t be afraid to enter a contest regardless of your age.  You can get in great shape and build muscle even when you are a 58-year-old man like me!  Make focusing on the recommended calories and getting in the workouts a priority, but don’t freak out when life gives you setbacks.  You will not be 100% perfect at it, even though we really try to be.  Life is what it is.  Get back on track right away and stay as consistent as you can!  It really does become easier and a way of life.  I still enjoy what I eat, but I eat in moderation now.  

 

Editor’s Note:

Hey David,

Congrats on placing in this most recent contest.  I distinctly remember getting your contest entry as it was under your wife’s name.  Little did I know that you all would both later go on to earn Top 10 Placements in your respective Adonis/Venus transformation contests.  A job very well done by you both.

I enjoyed reading your interview and was also pleased to know that even your son was able to benefit from the AGR program.    Most importantly, I believe your transformation was just as much mental as it was physical.

You articulately explained the mental transformation you underwent as well as the challenges involved when it came to accepting the  adherence to the calorie goal combined with learning your way around the gym.  Overall, this was a family effort and I hope that you all continue on the journey towards your “Golden” ratios!

your brother in Iron,

 

 

No Training = No Muscle: Coaches’ Corner w/ Jason Haynes

Today’s post is our latest installment of a new series called the “Coaches Corner.”  Our Adonis Transformation Coaches will share their knowledge, experience, and best practices to help ensure your successful transformation.  To continue the series, our topic  comes from none other than Adonis Legend and AGR Pioneer, Jason Haynes.

No Training = No Muscle

No Train No Gain!

No Train No Gain!

 

Bodybuilding legend Vince Gironda used to advocate that bodybuilding was 80% nutrition and 20% training.

Granted, I am not a bodybuilder nor do I want to be one, but stay with me here.

This belief of “the Iron Guru” naturally leads to reason that without that 20% training you are not going to build any appreciative muscle.

Sorry, but that’s the way it is.  You can eat all the raw fertilized eggs and Rocky Mountain oysters all you want…you can mix the eggs into as much heavy whipping cream as you want (which is what Gironda advocated for muscle gaining diets), but you are still not going to gain any muscle without training.

Fact is that muscle is not going to mystically pop up on your body without putting in time and effort in the gym.

Now here is where the “nutrition only” people will want to skin me alive:  at the same time, guess what?  If you don’t watch your nutrition…if you eat like crap in more amounts than you need, but you still consistently train intensely…you’re going to gain muscle.

Now sure, chances are you’re going to get fat in the process if you don’t monitor your caloric intake…but the basic fact is that we can eat whatever we want in whatever amounts and gain muscle IF WE TRAIN CONSISTENTLY!

Conversely, if you eat 99.9999% perfectly and you don’t train, you’re STILL GOING TO BE SKINNY AND WEAK!  If your goal is to have an outstanding physique, you’re not going to even be remotely close to the physique that you desire if you’re not training consistently and with intensity.

On the contrary, I don’t care how perfect your diet is, without a properly designed training regimen that you follow consistently you will NOT…repeat:  NOT…achieve an outstanding physique.

PERIOD.

We at Adonis Golden Ratio Systems do NOT encourage nor endorse “bulking up” (i.e. eating massive amounts of calories which only end up making one fat), but the simple fact is that fat can be dieted away.  The muscle gained stays in a caloric deficit.  Therefore, as I said, if one is training consistently but eating like crap, muscle is still gained.

However, focusing purely on nutrition without proper, consistent training will make you “healthier” (what is the exact definition of that anyway?), but will get you NO WHERE on your journey to a golden physique.  I don’t care if you eat the most healthy (whatever that means) diet of perfectly measured protein, macro-and-micronutrients, and fruits and vegetables,  but if you don’t train you’re still not going to gain one single gram of muscle whatsoever.

REMEMBER: Muscles are torn in the gym, fed in the kitchen and built in bed.

REMEMBER: Muscles are TORN in the gym, FED in the kitchen and BUILT in bed.

 

Look, I am all for eating healthy, clean, unprocessed, natural foods with no chemicals.  I am still on the fence about GM (genetically modified) foods, although I am definitely more on the “No Way” side of that one.  Yet, when it comes down to it, there are two parts of the equation:  training for muscle mass and nutrition/diet for losing or controlling fat gain.

Takeaway:  without worrying about nutrition, as long as you are training and challenging yourself, you’re still gaining muscle mass.  You may look like crap shirtless…fat, bloated, whatever, but you’re still building up your muscles.

(Side note: strangely enough you don’t have to eat well to lose fat.  Look at the “Convenience Store Diet”/”Twinkie Diet” experiment by Professor Mark Haub of Kansas State University as an example.)

Anyway, back on topic, about it:  how many fat, bloated guys do you see in the gym?  Now, taking “gear” (steroids) out of the equation because they just “change the rules of the game,” how many fat but strong guys with appreciative muscle mass (but with no “cuts”) do you see in the gym?  They have muscle because they train for it.  They have strength because they train for it. But they look like crap because they are paying no attention to calories in vs. calories expended.

However, if these same guys paid attention to just nutrition but didn’t go to the gym…at best they would just be skinny…or worse:  skinny-fat…or just plain old fat.

Look, people say “well nutrition is 80% of the overall bodybuilding equation.”   Yes, I’ll agree with that.  But, that is:  if you want to be a bodybuilder.    And being a bodybuilder, by basic definition, means that you “build your body,” and that is done through using weights.

(Side note again:  are you truly wanting to be a “bodybuilder?”  Do you want to be on stage all oiled up and flexing?  If not, then you might want to consider what you are doing NOW to get to your goals instead of using the methods for those who are not after the same goals as you.)

Fact is:  Take away the work out…take away exercise…you can have the most perfect dialed in diet down to the .0001% of everything being perfect and correct…and you are STILL going to look like skinny, fat,  or skinny- fat.

Build muscle at the gym.  Lose or control fat gain through nutrition.  Period.

End of story.

If you’re looking for something to help you get that golden physique, then check out the AGR systems, which has helped hundreds of men of different ages and sizes to achieve outstanding results…numerous of them jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring.

Finally, if you need some extra accountability or any extra help with your transformation, sign up for our premier coaching system.  Each of our coaches (including myself) underwent their own personal transformations and have maintained their physiques for years.  Frankly, even professional athletes have a coach to tell them what to do.  Even the best of the best professional athletes don’t need to do it for themselves, and neither do you.

As always I welcome your comments via the AGR community forum.

Train hard.  Train smart.

Jason

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

ADONIS ORIGINS: Jason Haynes | Circa 2009-2010

ADONIS ORIGINS: Jason Haynes | Circa 2009-2010

Jason Haynes is one of the oldest members of the AGR community and has been around since he participated in the first and second AGR Transformation Competitions, of which he placed second and first, respectively.  Having found a system that he is confident in and that works, he has faithfully stuck by it ever since.  Now in his 40’s, Jason enjoys living the life of maintaining his physique easily and with little effort, thanks to the AGR system and tools provided.  He is also a coach in the Adonis Premiere Coaching program and desires to help anyone to achieve their fitness goals.

ADONIS LEGEND: Jason Haynes: May 2014

ADONIS LEGEND: Jason Haynes: May 2014

 

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