AT6 Final Pictures Coaching Call

The 6th Adonis Index transformation and open contests are in the final stretch and it’s time to get prepped for your final pictures.

All of the poses from the posing tutorial are mandatory if you think you have a chance at being placed in the open category.

You can review the posing tutorial video here:

POSING TUTORIAL VIDEO

We’ve outlined some ideas to consider for your final pictures in a previous podcast that you can review and listen to here:

TAKING ‘AFTER’ PICTURES

I strongly encourage you to listen to some interviews of past winners to get an idea of how to take an effective after picture.

What needs to be submitted:

1. All mandatory poses including front, back and side shots with the front page of the current days newspaper visible in at least one shot. You will also need to do all the poses from posing tutorial video if you think you have a chance of placing in the open category of the contest.

2. Label each picture with your first and last name as well as the pose ex: “John_Doe_Front_Pose”

3. Write a 250 word essay describing your experience with our system and through the contest

4. Complete the contest data chart that you downloaded at the start of the contest, this includes your waist, height and shoulder measurements from before the contest and your final measurements, along with your ideal AI measurements for your height and how close you got to them.

5. Re-size your after pictures so they are approximately 500 pixels in height for the ones you submit (make sure you keep the original picture in it’s original larger size for your records, also if you end up winning our cover model competition we will need the bigger picture file as well)

6. Compress all of these materials in a zipped file and send it to my email johnbarban (at) gmail (dot) com no later than midnight EST Nov 23rd.

John

 

He Got Ripped without Counting Calories or Doing Cardio

Brad Greyeyes Brant has a very interesting name, but what is even more interesting than his name is the fact that he placed 4th in the Adonis Index Contest specifically in the transformation category.

He went from being lean to being ripped, just take a look:

Brad B Adonis Index Transformation Back

He has achieved a great muscle definition, just look at his shoulders.

Brad Adonis Index Transformation Front

From average to ripped.

When Brant first got interested in getting his physique handled he was 260 pounds. Even though he is 6’5”, 26o pounds is a lot. At this point even taking stairs was starting to be an issue. Just take a look at how Brant looked at this weight several years ago.

Brad_before_working_out_and_Adonis_Index

This is a picture of Brant at a body weight of approximately 260 lbs.

After looking at himself in a mirror Brant decided to get in shape. And he started as most guys would, he found some muscle building and fat loss programs designed by a bodybuilder, he signed up for them and followed it for about six months.

He was doing about an hour of cardio each morning seven times a week. He was training at specific times of the day, if the program said go to the gym at 5 p.m., he would go at 5 p.m.

He was timing his meals to the minute, always made sure he ate every three hours no matter where he was or what he was doing.

Even though his wife was very supportive, this approach was incredibly inflexible. Could you imagine not being able to eat your birthday cake? Or have a Christmas dinner with your family? This is exactly what he did.

Brant is the type of guy who is all out or nothing at all. He though that his approach was a sign of dedication, but in reality what it really was, was an obsession.

He Found Out He Can Enjoy His Life & Look Good at the Same Time

After a while Brant came across Brad Pilon’s blog and once he read what Brad eats during his day he was completely confused. Because Brad is in exceptional shape and he eats like an average person (some would even say like a kid), brownies, pizza and pasta are regular foods in his meal plan. In his schedule there was nothing about eating every three hours, having protein with each meal or preparing his meals upfront. Brad was just saying that he is enjoying his food and that the only thing he aims for is to limit the amount of calories to keep lean.

On his blog he noticed the workout Pilon was doing and he decided to give it a try. He bought the Adonis Index Workout and started following it.

Brant never wanted to look like a huge bodybuilder, so the Adonis Index philosophy of building a proportioned body with lean waist and visible six pack abs was something he was interested to build for himself.

He gave the workouts a shot and after seeing the results never looked back

It’s all about what you truly want. Is it a really good looking body or do you want to be strong and focus on performance? What do you really want?

Brant has chosen the look and even though he made this choice ironically he is stronger than ever.

However, you still need to know what you are after. Most guys really want to just look good, strength and performance is secondary but many guys cannot separate the two ideas.

If you have the same problem with getting over the goal of becoming stronger, you need to understand something. Strength is relative and specific to only those exercises you do on regular basis. For example you can get really good at incline dumbbell press, but completely suck on regular barbell bench press. Another example, Brant’s dad is incredibly strong, because he is used to doing physical work, however he can’t do a pull-up. On the other hand Brant is not as strong as his dad overall, but pull-ups are not an issue for him. Strength is relative.

And if you are not a competitive power lifter then there is no point in aiming for strength for it’s own sake. Set the goal of improving your physique and the strength will come along with it.

Brant’s Tips to Get Contest Ripped

Brant placed 4h in the contest and that is an incredible accomplishment and requires a big amount of effort. Let’s take a look at what it is that Brad did that was different from other contestants.

Because in the past he was obsessed with fitness and over complicating things, he took a very simplistic and flexible approach this time. From a diet stand point he followed the Anything Goes Diet and decided to just guess the amount of calories he eats and keep it really simple.

He calculated that his BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is about 2500 calories, so he has a budget of 2500 x7 calories per week.

The way he was guessing his calorie intake was that he calculated things in 500 calorie chunks. This way he is not obsessed with counting calories and still knows what he puts in his mouth and never overeats. This approach seems to work quite well for people with high BMR’s (however if your BMR is 1600, you might need to adjust it to a smaller chunks).

Brant usually eats whatever he wants during the weekend and just creates a deficit during the week. If he happened to eat a little bit more, he would notice it in the mirror.

Today Brant is leaner than ever, he is in the best shape of his life and with significantly less time invested in fitness than before. He can eat what he is served when he visits his father in law who is Italian and makes delicious meals. He can enjoy birthday parties and doesn’t have to sneak away on Christmas to eat his protein rich, “clean” meal.

He doesn’t do any cardio, and his workouts are focused on building muscles.

He also stopped caring about what other people think in the gym about him and the weights he lifts. This is a very important aspect of your training, in order to really train properly you need to focus on yourself and let go of your ego.

Brant went from being called skinny to getting compliments on his shape. Suddenly he is confident wearing fit clothes and can look great and feel great as well.

Body weight is also no longer an issue.

The only thing he cares about now is how he looks in a mirror.

Here is the take home message from Brad:

  • Keep it simple as long as it is working
  • Do what you want to do, as long as you are happy with your results keep doing it
  • Weigh yourself before and after, not during the contest, get to learn your body, you will see whether you are moving forward or not, the scale can mess you up and can tell a different story than the mirror or your clothes
  • In order to build muscle, you need to train really hard
  • The quickest way to lose fat is to eat below your BMR
  • Getting and staying in shape is a lifestyle and it doesn’t have to be complicated
  • Your body measurements are much more important than your body weight, especially if you are very tall or short
  • In order to get great results you need to enjoy the process of getting in shape, so find your way to do so
  • The path will be as difficult as you make it
  • You can grab a slice of pizza instead of steamed vegetables even now and then, it won’t mess you up as long as you account for the calories

Listen to the interview here:

Al’s Fat Loss Journey: Math Doesn’t Lie

Al Sandoval placed FIRST in the Adonis Index Contest in the transformation category. Al found a way to lose fat that he put on in the last 20 years. At the end of 12 weeks he managed to beat everybody else and win the whole transformation contest.

Take a look at what it took to win the fifth Adonis Index Contest:

 

Al Sandoval - Adonis Index Contest Transformation Photos

Al's back looks really good, his back muscles are starting to show up. And he finally god rid of the love handles or how he calls them the hate handles.

Al Sandoval - Adonis Index Contest Transformation Pictures

Al's front pictures. He is obviously very satisfied with his transformation. Well, who wouldn't be, he got in a great shape.

 

Al is somebody who was used to follow the conventional fitness advice. However, after his wife Naomi got in shape with the Venus Index all the proof he needed was right in front of him and he could no longer say that what she says doesn’t work. She proved him that what he was doing was not working and that she knew what to do to get in shape.

His Lean Wife Showed Him How Fat Loss Really Works

She showed him that what he hears in the gym and on TV is not really true. And he could not really argue with her since she got in shape and he still looked the same.

His wife made him to be honest with himself. Al would always carb up before the workout and that was what he believed would help him lose fat and build muscle. After his wife told him that is not true, he asked what he should do instead. The answer was something that he didn’t want to hear. From the fat loss stand point it all got down to diet.

He was scared of dieting. He didn’t know what being in deficit means, he also didn’t know what this would mean in the gym. Would it mean that he won’t probably be able to hit the same weights in the gym that he normally does? That would not be so much fun anymore, would it?

Well, it came down to what he truly wanted and losing fat won.

Losing fat may be simple, but is definitely not easy to do. And once you gain some fat, you have to diet otherwise you will carry it for the rest of your life. There is no accidental fat loss. If you were slowly gaining fat for the past 20 years it will obviously take some effort. This is was exactly were al was before the contest.

Once his wife started coaching him and he was doing what she told him, his body was slowly transforming and he was getting in shape.

His wife Naomi who already had this handled introduced him to intermittent fasting by simply telling him to skip breakfast, lunch and eat only dinner. Because she was always cooking for him, she made sure he had a low calories dinner after each fast. This way he had only several hundred calories each day he would fast.

Then he would throw in few maintenance days just to keep sane during the whole 12 weeks.

So there were basically three types of days he was cycling during the week:

  1. Maintenance days
  2. Fasting days
  3. Low calorie days

Then for the past 10 days he was drinking a gallon of water each day and eating only tuna and sweet potatoes.

12 weeks of dieting is tough and most people won’t do that. However, it is worth noting that most people are not in good shape and will probably never look like Al.

He started following the Adonis Index Workout and found out that it is all based on math and science and since those two don’t lie it must be true. And after 12 weeks of following this approach that also seemed most logical he arrived as a winner in the Adonis Index Contest. The only problem he encountered was that the dieting was so hard that Al had to stop working out three days before taking the photo shoot, because he just didn’t have enough energy for it.

Now he doesn’t care what other people in the gym are telling him about bulking up and carbing up, because it all comes down to how you look and since he looks ten times better than his buddies he choose to stay away from their influence and do what he knows works even though it goes against what everybody else is saying.

Once Al took those pictures he was surprised how good he looks and that he finally got rid of his love handles or how he calls them the hate handles. Because even though we don’t see our backs much often, other people do. And know like Al said he can enter the room looking good and leave the room looking good as well.

 

Here is the take away for all guys who are frustrated and are hitting the wall and really want to lose fat:

  • The step number one is being honest with yourself and facing your current situation, 99% of the journey is the mental shift, the rest is easy
  • Frustration comes from not getting results by following the wrong approach (ex.: Bulking up myth for muscle building)
  • In order to lose fat you need to create a caloric deficit through diet, while cardio and workouts will help you lose fat, you can’t out train a bad diet
  • Accept that it is okay to be light and that being heavy just means fat, muscles won’t show up if they are covered by fat
  • Focus on simple math – how many calories you burn and how big of a deficit you need to create in order to strip fat
  • Math doesn’t lie, if you want to lose pound of fat a week, you need to create a deficit of about 4000 calories a week
  • Don’t calculate someone else’s calories, calculate yours – your BMR
  • Complex approach like spreading out your meals into 6 and carbing up before your workouts is not going to help you lose fat

 

Listen to the interview here:

He Could Eat Hamburger for Dinner and Still Lose 18 Pounds of Fat

Nick Yarbrough placed second in the Adonis Index Contest in the Open category. Nick’s after pictures are incredible. You would not guess that he is only 21 years old. His muscles really show in these photos and he is living proof that with effort comes great results.

Take a look at what it takes to place 2nd in the Open category:

Nick Yarbrough - Adonis Index Contest Transformation Pictures

You would say that Nick was in a pretty good shape even in his before pictures. However, he had to lose about 18 pounds of fat and water to get from a pretty good shape into an amazing shape.

 

Nick Yarbrough - Adonis Index Contest Transformation Pictures

Nick has achieved an amazing condition.

Nick has been working out for some time now. He played football and started lifting weights when he was 15. But because he played football, his workouts were based mostly on improving his performance and gaining strength and not on improving his physical look.

All he wanted was to get bigger. So Nick started working out 3-4 times per week. That would not be so bad if he had a good workout. Unfortunately his workouts were anything but good. When he was in a gym he would just do random lifts and not really plan ahead. One day he would go to the gym and do bench press, a few curls, some rows and go home. Next day he would do some squats and maybe bench press one more time and once he go tired he would go home.

After a year of eating ‘like hell’ he gained 25 pounds and went to up to 190 pounds. At the end he achieved his goal, he got bigger. But not in a way that he liked. He thought at 190 pounds he’d be big and ripped, not big and fat (his own words).

After a while he found the Adonis Index and just out of curiosity calculated his own Adonis Index ratio. The ideal ratio of your shoulders to your waist aka Adonis Index is exactly 1.618. Nick said that he expected to be around 1.5 or at least 1.4. Well long story short his real indicator of how good shape he was in was much lower, it was 1.2. Despite the fact that he worked out and had some muscle mass on his shoulders, his Adonis index ratio was still incredibly low, this was due to the fact that he carried a lot of fat around his waist. Finding this was tough. He couldn’t believe that he had to lose that much fat to get in shape.

However, if he wanted to get to the golden 1.618, his lifestyle had to change. He committed to his goal and dropped to 175 pounds. After losing that much fat, his shoulder-to-waist ratio of course went up.

After this weight loss transformation he got to a pretty decent shape. Now if he wanted to take it to the next level he would have to undergo a similar transformation. However, he didn’t want to lose more fat, because he was actually afraid of being too light. He thought that he had to just lift harder and muscles will show up…eventually. This lasted for about a year. Then he saw the transformation the other guys made in one of the past Adonis Index contests. After seeing this he decided to diet again and dropped down to 157 pounds. He went back to his high school weight, only this time it was mostly muscle mass not fat mass.

Once he got there he was amazed by how good he looked. He didn’t expect his muscles to be so incredibly defined and still couldn’t believe how light he actually was at the end. His friends think that he is at least 180 pounds. All from the illusion that he created by getting ripped and to a golden Adonis Index ratio.

Nick’s Fat Loss Plan to Get Super Cut

You are probably eager to know what Nick did to get to that super cut shape.

Fat loss is all about calories in and calories out. You need to create a long term caloric deficit to see noticeable results. What varies from person to person is the approach – and how quickly are you going to achieve that deficit. We are all different and what might work for you might not work for Nick.

The way Nick did it was that he split the week into two types of days.

  1. Workout day / Low calorie day
  2. Rest day / Higher calorie day

On the workout day, he wasn’t hungry at all. So this was a low calorie day for him, the day that he would use to create a big deficit. The next day he would rest and eat little bit more, he would use this as a “refill” for the next day, because he wanted to have enough energy for the upcoming workout. What this means is that he ate the night before to feel better during his workout the following day.

Here is an example. If he happened to work out on Monday, he would fast until the workout, do the exercise and go home. Usually he would not be hungry until a couple of hours afterwards, so he would fast for about 20-24 hours every second day. After the fast he would eat a low calorie dinner, some chicken breast or fish, roughly around 1000 to 1500 calories. If he went to work after the workout, he might throw in a protein shake before the dinner.

If Monday was workout and low calorie day, Tuesday would be rest and higher calorie day. On this day he would try to fast as long as he could and then have a big dinner, for example some pasta or a hamburger.

The way he looks at this is that on the day you don’t work out, you eat more, because you are getting ready for the workout. On the other hand workout day is the burn day. This seems like a good idea, because on the day you work out it is easier to control your appetite. You also don’t want to overeat and “spoil” your day, because you already did some work in the gym (no matter how ridiculous this sounds, you probably know this from your own experience, simply put exercise affects your diet). However, on the day you don’t work out, you need to satisfy your appetite and also refill for the next workout to be able to push hard.

Nick took this approach and you saw his great after pictures.

If we look at those two days in total, Nick would burn about 4000 calories and eat only 3000 calories. This is about 45000 calorie deficit in three months, roughly around 12 pounds fat loss. Because Nick was also working out he burnt some extra pounds just from the workouts itself. Nick went through about 50 workouts in those 12 weeks, he burnt another 6 pounds of fat (and water) just by creating a bigger deficit from this physical activity. In total you get almost 18 pounds of fat.

When Nick saw the pictures he was surprised by how 157 pounds looks like, he thought it would look way skinnier. This is a common misconception. It would even seem that being too light is not very manly and that in order to get in shape we would need to give ourselves permission to get light to get lean.

Nick ended up at the weight he was in high school, but obviously the muscle-fat ratio was completely different. This is just proof of how body weight tells nothing about how you look in a mirror.

At the end Nick completely abandoned the concept of eating big to get big. Because you can’t really eat your way up to bigger muscles. First of all, muscle growth is a response that is stimulated by working out not eating (that’s a shame, wouldn’t it be nice to build your chest just by eating more chicken?). Second, there is a limit on how many pounds of muscle you can build, the only difference is how quickly you can do it.

 

Here is the take away for guys who are interested in building more muscle and losing those last few pounds and getting ripped like Nick:

  • You never know how you will look like after you finally lose the fat and get lighter. And if you don’t like it, you can always eat your way up (that is the easy part)
  • Building muscle takes time, so be patient, you just have to stick to your workout
  • Don’t do the whole bulk up thing, muscles are built in the gym not in the kitchen
  • Don’t listen to what other people they say about diet, do what you know works – creating a caloric deficit for fat loss
  • If this is what you wanna do then do it, no excuses
  • You already have six pack abs, but they may just covered by fat. Getting rid of that fat is all about diet

 

Listen to the interview here:

Build Muscle From Just 52 Grams of Protein Powder: Interview with Calvin Chen

Calvin Chen is one of the younger guys who entered the Adonis Index Contest. He placed 5th in the transformation class.

Apart from Mike, who was interviewed last week and was focusing mostly on fat loss, Calvin needed to build muscle and that’s exactly what he did.

12 weeks is a very short period of time to build muscle. Calvin had the advantage of juvenile muscle growth.

You can check it yourself, here are his before and after pictures.

 

Calvin - Adonis Index Transformation Front

Calvin obviously put on some muscle. Just check out his arms and shoulders.

 

Calvin - Adonis Index Transformation Side

Calvin's side shot.

 

Calvin - Adonis Index Transformation Back

Look at Calvin's back, this is a pretty big difference after just 12 weeks.


It’s obvious that Calvin has built bigger shoulders, this is because Adonis Index Workouts are focused on building upper body width.

Calvin is a college student, so he doesn’t have much of a training background yet. Before he found the Adonis Index, he started like most young guys. He was lifting some dumbbells at home, he didn’t have any good program to follow, he did everything just learning from fitness magazines. He trained only his bicep, triceps and chest.

This is probably one of the most common mistakes – not having a proper workout program to follow. If you look around yourself in the gym, you will see that most of the guys don’t look that good and don’t have a quality plan at all. Obviously this training is good only if you want to lift something…anything, but if you want to actually see any change in muscle mass, you have to take a different approach.

What you need is this, a workout program that:

  • Is designed to help you achieve your goals (performance OR look)
  • Has variety of reps and sets
  • Has fixed rest periods (This makes a big difference as far as intensity goes.)
  • Requires mostly free weights (dumbbells and barbells)
  • If the purpose is to look better, it should focus more on your shoulders and back rather than arms and legs.

During the 12 weeks Calvin did the most difficult task – build muscle. It’s easy to strip off the fat in 12 weeks, but to build muscle? Not so much. Usually you will see only little change in muscle growth in such a short period of time. Building muscles takes years of dedicated training. Calvin’s advantage was through his juvenile muscle growth. If you are his age (19) and you are not yet working out, you should start as soon as possible, because this is when you can get the best gains. This is as close to a steroid effect as you can naturally get. A lot of older guys beat themselves up, because they started late, the difference in the possible physique if you start young is huge.

Average Protein Intake Was Enough

Nowadays almost every guy is obsessed with protein intake. It seems that we are so affected by advertisements that we feel something Brad Pilon calls protein guilt. It’s really hard to avoid this. Most of the guys try to eat as much meat, eggs and protein foods as possible and supplement it with protein shakes on top of that. But is this really necessary?

Calvin views protein intake differently. He was following Pilon’s advice from the book How Much Protein. He didn’t watch or track his protein intake, the only thing he knew exactly is that he took 52 grams of protein powder each day and that’s it. Based on his diet, his protein intake was around 80-100 grams, which goes against the conventional wisdom of eating 150-200 grams a day to build muscle.

Calvin didn’t even worry about calorie intake. To prevent from gaining fat, he was eating mostly fruits and vegetables and regularly fasting.

Not exactly something you would find in a fitness magazine.

And all this obviously worked for him. He gained several pounds of muscle, and is no longer called skinny and is definitely on the right track.

Here is the take away for skinny guys who are interested in gaining more muscles in a short period of time:

  1. If you don’t have the experience don’t create your own workouts based on advice from fitness magazines and bodybuilding forums, find a professional workout program that is designed to help you achieve your goals
  2. Be consistent with your workouts
  3. Focus on your lifting form rather than lifting as heavy as possible with crappy technique
  4. Push hard, don’t be afraid of doing the hard work
  5. Follow the workout as it is written, if it says do 10 reps, pick the weights that you will be able to do only 10 reps with perfect form
  6. Take creatine every day, protein supplement might also help a bit
  7. Don’t worry about the protein intake so much, if you get about 80-100 grams a day, it’s enough. Focus on the training because that is what will force your muscles to grow

Here are few questions that you will get answers to during the interview:

  • How fast can I expect my muscles to grow?
  • How would I know if I plateaued on muscle growth?
  • How many years I have before muscle growth slows down?
  • If you don’t eat enough protein what will happen to the muscle?
  • How can weight training help my body become more efficient at protein consumption?
  • Do I have to count calories every day?

 

Adonis Index Coaching Call

It’s been approximately 4 weeks into the 6th Adonis Index transformation contest and it’s a perfect time to do an inventory of what has been working and what needs some work.

If weight loss is your issue you have to remind yourself that the process is not linear. Some weeks are going to go really smooth and others are going to be a lot bumpier. Muscle building is the same thing, some weeks just feel like a lot more progress is happening than others.

It's time to find your exercise groove just like Meatwads 'powerwalking'

This is sometimes tough to deal with as your  daily and weekly effort seems to feel linear and consistent even though your results are not. The key at this point is recognizing that the path has it’s ups and downs and to be consistent over the long term. Twelve weeks is going to go by in a flash. Finding a groove is important and sticking with the parts that are working is going to keep you moving forward.

Give yourself some room for change, but don’t try to change everything at once. Review your list of what is working and what needs changing, pick the one or two most important things that need to change and make a plan. Give it about 1-2 weeks to see if what you’re changing is working then move on. If something doesn’t work, discard it and try something else.

Remember that this process is not perfect or smooth, it’s a controlled stumble forward.

In todays coaching call we’ll cover what to do at the quarter contest point and how to set up your inventory list, and how to think your way through the next 4 weeks of the contest.

John

LISTEN TO THE COACHING CALL:

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