Today we have an interview with John Jordan who placed 2nd in the latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest.

Check out his pictures:

This is how you gotta show up to get second place.

You don't have to pay for a studio and a professional photographer if you don't want to; you can take great pictures at home.

John’s transformation was quite impressive and he has a reason to be happy and proud of himself.

At first he wasn’t sure what to expect, but since he worked out really hard, followed his diet plan and did everything he could to show his hard work in his photos he placed second in the transformation contest.

And it’s absolutely natural to have doubts about your progress and not be sure how you are going to end up. Especially if you have never done anything like this and you really have no idea how well you will look once you lean out and get a tan.

The only way to find out is to do your best, take the pictures and see.

You can’t really tell a lot at the beginning, you may start seeing some minor changes about a midway through, however most people see the results right at the end in the final week.

And if you don’t have much to go, maybe just a couple of pounds to lose, build a bit of muscle and basically get photoshoot ready, you won’t necessarily notice any changes on daily basis. You see yourself in the mirror all the time and those daily changes will be subtle and require patience on your part.

…But when you take the final pictures after 12 weeks that’s when you get blown away by the overall change.

One of the few metrics or tracking tools you’ve got that can help you determine whether you are building more muscle or not is an increase in strength. Strength usually comes first followed by a change in the size/shape/look of your body. You can be strong without necessarily gaining more muscle at first. Gaining strength means that you are on the right track and will ultimately translate into visibly more muscle mass.

John says he didn’t feel any change at the midway point of the contest…then he noticed some really good strength improvements in the gym.

That feeling of strength helped him stay the course and push through to the end of the contest.

The Illusion of Being Bigger

How many pounds did John gain?

Not how many pounds of muscle, but how much heavier do you think he is in his after pictures?

Really…pick a number before reading any further, you might be surprised by the actual answer.

So, how much do you think?

10, 15 pounds?

And remember we are talking overall weight, not muscle alone.

Well, whatever number you had in mind, it was wrong.

Why is that?

Because he didn’t gain any weight, not a pound. John actually lost several pounds to get to this shape. That being said, it doesn’t mean he didn’t gain any muscle at all.

The point is that to look really good, you need to gain only few pounds of muscle, not 20 or 30 like some supplement claims say, which in most cases is impossible without any pharmaceuticals.

A few pounds of real muscle gained in the right places and in the right proportion will make an incredible difference. Most people don’t even realize how much or how big one pound of muscle can actually be or look like. Little note, next time you go to a grocery store, take a pound of steak and put it next to your arm to really see this.

Once you see that that pound is the size of your whole biceps you will understand that expecting to gain 30lbs of muscle is a bit ridiculous and the only people that can gain so much are in their teens or early 20’s and have never worked out before.

And since John got totally shredded he had to lose several pounds.

Without boring you with the math now, when you’d calculate this he actually LOST WEIGHT to get to the shape in his after pictures…even though he looks significantly bigger and most muscular.

This is the illusion of leanness and well-proportioned muscles. Once you get in shape and really lean…six pack lean, when other people will see you without your shirt they will constantly guess that you weigh more than you do. The goal isn’t to actually BE heavier, it’s to LOOK heavier.

Just Do It

The concept of a fitness contest was completely new to John, but he was so impressed with the transformations of the previous winners that he decided to jump right in and give it a try.

In the entire 12-week challenge he never missed a workout.

He understood why he was doing what he was doing.

He always woke up at 5am and did the workout first thing in the morning, so he couldn’t make excuses about being tired later in the day.

He followed the Muscle Building Foundation from Adonis Index Workout, trained from Monday to Friday and took the weekends off.

Before AI, John had no rest time incorporated in his workouts. This time he had a pretty specific program and like he said he did way better on a fully designed workout that gave him exact amount of seconds in between sets, so he wouldn’t rest for too long.

He improved week after week, and for the first time in his life he viewed the time spent in the gym as “training” and not just a workout.

At the end he showed everyone his pictures and got great feedback from his friends and family. His mother told him that she is glad he is doing something healthy for himself. His sister noticed he lost weight, was really impressed with his results and wanted to know how he did it.

Take home message from John:

• Get a program that has a good structure, is specific about what you should do, has exact set/reps/rest scheme laid out
• Focus on building a specific shape, don’t just aim to get big, you can actually create an illusion of being big by being ripped and having proportioned muscles
• If you have a program, you have to be consistent and stick to it
• Early on you may not see dramatic changes but stick with it and they will come later
• Take your measurements weekly so you have some objective data that you can compare and analyze
• Believe in what you are doing
• There is a difference between the look you have shirt on and shirt off
• Keep it simple, goal oriented, know why you’re doing this and JUST DO IT

Useful links:

• Adonis Index Workout – Here are the original workout plans that have been responsible for some of the most amazing transformations online.

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Today we bring you an interview with Kerry Hopkins who placed  6th in the latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Calorie optimization combined with a good workout program can have magical effects.

If you want pictures like this, make sure you take action and do what you hear Kerry talking about in the interview

Kerry started working out when he was 16. However, his workouts lacked any structure and it was just about working out rather than really training. And there is clearly a difference between just showing up in the gym and lifting some weights compared to going there with a specific goal, a good workout plan, and training with some dedication.

Unfortunately most guys in the gym usually end up chatting with other people, boosting their ego on the bench press and pumping their ‘mirror muscles’.

For Kerry it was always about doing just a few sets here and there two times a week.

And after a while due to a lack of motivation he stopped going to the gym all together.

Kerry's back shot.

…Then He Found Adonis Index

For about a year Kerry was reading all the blog posts and listening to all the podcasts here at the Adonis Index, because he loved the science behind it and the simple approach. Everything made sense to him.

However, it still took him a year to really get on board and take action. It wasn’t until he saw some previous contest winners that he realized he needs to take action…just reading about this won’t be enough.

And this is really important, if you don’t take action based on what you read about then you can’t expect any results, can you?

You haven’t learned anything if you can just cite pages from a book, it’s when you change your behavior and take action on that knowledge.

You learn when you change your habits, take action, start acting differently and put the theory in practice.

After a year of working out Kerry noticed that not much had changed, so he decided to take action. He tried the contest and was unsuccessful due to a few set backs, he didn’t even bother submitting pictures, because he knew he didn’t change.

He made several mistakes like following the advanced Adonis Index workout the Triple Stack while he was on a very low calorie diet. As a result he got burnt out after a month.

That’s when Kerry learned that you can’t pull off a big caloric restriction when you are already pretty lean while following a really challenging and tough workout.

He decided to get back to AI 3.0, which he found worked the best to cut and build at the same time.

Kerry fasted once or twice a week, had just a coffee in the morning maybe with a piece of chocolate. Later on he would eat half of the dinner with his family and that would be it for the day.

He just didn’t want to sacrifice his social life, so he decided to save his calories during the week and enjoy his weekends with his friends.

The point is to have a social life and still look good.

Then after 12 weeks he took the after pictures and just couldn’t believe what he saw. And here’s the thing, in a mirror you can see some new lines and may notice some improvements along the way. Day to day you will seem to look pretty much the same and it’s hard to tell how much you’ve really changed.

However, when you put the before and after pictures side by side that’s when you can actually see a big difference.

Kerry is around 9% bodyfat (just a guess) and like he said the model body doesn’t seem unattainable anymore. It’s just about building a bit more muscle. As long as he is consistent with the workouts the muscle will continue to come.

Since he still has juvenile muscle growth on his side he can build some significant muscle mass over the next few years.

Luckily for him he found Adonis Index early on in his life and was spared all of the crap like bulking and cutting, eating six meals a day or overdosing protein supplements. So, he can actually spend his best years being in shape rather than bulking up and being fat.

Patience Is the King

Kerry would receive skinny comments at the beginning, his mother would worry about whether what he was doing is healthy and he even failed in his first attempt to place in the contest. However, he didn’t give up and decided to stick to the program and be patient.

Sometimes it just takes time and people don’t want to believe it can take longer than they expected and wanted.

Especially at this early age patience is not very high priority skill we want to learn.

And once you don’t see results the next day you are wondering if you should try something else, or whether the grass isn’t  just a bit greener on the other side of the fence.

But if you can push through this feelings of doubt and be patient and consistent then your hard work will pay off.

Dealing with this is important, because patience is the key in gaining muscle without excess fat.

Most guys want quick results so they fall for supplements, high protein diets, bulking and all sorts of crap.

Ironically every experienced guy who has successfully built a great Adonis Index will tell you that following these ‘shortcuts’ will end up taking you much longer to get the body you want.

Take home advice from Kerry:

• Sometimes you do things you shouldn’t, that happens, just get back on track, don’t stop
• Stick to the plan, you will get there eventually
• Talk is cheap…Stop talking about what you are ‘going’ to do or ‘want’ to do…shut up and do it! That’s when you really get the results
• If you are skinny and young just hang in there, it’s worth it to stay lean and build muscles, don’t fall for the idea of ‘bulking up’
• Your body and the pics are the pay off, which come from your hard work and patience
• For the young guys…if you get the right program now, you will save years of struggle and won’t have to correct any bad habits in the future
• If you don’t take action nothing will change

Links from the Interview:

• Adonis Index 3.0 and Muscle Building Foundation (aka MBF) – The basic Adonis Index workouts that are responsible for the best online transformation.
• Adonis Triple Stack Protocol (aka ATS) – An advanced version of Adonis Index workouts.
• Anything Goes Diet (aka AGD) – Diet program without any rules. Eat anything you want, anytime you want, anywhere you want.

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS