Today we have an interview with Ross Goldsack who won the Open category level 1 in the latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Ross looks great and he was really happy with his look and how the pictures turned out.

Here’s one more:

Ross has a very common story and experience with fitness. A few years ago he decided to work on his physique and started going to the gym with his buddies and also started consuming fitness information, mainly the fitness magazines.

The workouts became a habit and he was really enjoying them.

And like everyone else in this position he naturally wanted to improve, so he progressed into reading bodybuilding magazines and started reading more about various ways to build more muscle and lose fat.

However, he felt victim to the traditional fitness advice and made a lot of mistakes.

Let’s discuss a few of them.

Mistake No.1 Consuming Lots of Fitness Information

Fitness industry is full of companies making billions in revenue.

The goal isn’t to get you in shape though. The goal is to continuously have you buying their products.

And as a result, you start to feel that you absolutely have to get the new magazine, full of the latest tips that nobody knew about four weeks ago, or the new “functional workout” protocol, or the new protein supplement that just came out promising those amazing gains in the first three weeks… and we could go on and on.

If you have been in this industry for a while, you are probably overwhelmed by all the fitness information and various approaches. At this moment you should take a completely different approach. You should detach yourself from the fitness industry and focus on doing the simple things that will get you the most results.

Mistake No.2 Comparing Yourself to Bodybuilders

One of the biggest mistakes Ross made at this early stage of fitness, before finding Adonis Index, was going through the bodybuilding magazines and comparing himself to the photos in them. The issue with this magazines is that they are full of pictures of professional bodybuilders.

With the transformation contests here at Adonis Index, you’ll get pictures that can be compared with fitness covers, because we give advice on how to make yourself look bigger or leaner by posing, show more muscle definition with a tan or water deplete. However, comparing yourself to bodybuilders is a bit ridiculous if you are not willing to take the “extra” mile.

Yes, that would mean taking steroids.

If you are not taking anything beyond supplements, why are you comparing yourself to guys, who inject themselves with stuff you have never heard about and in a dose that would scare off a horse?

Mistake No.3 Doing the Bulking & Cutting Stuff

A few years back Ross got caught in the conventional bulking and cutting approach.

Ross got to a point where he would weigh about 210 pounds. He could fill out a large shirt, but still not have the look he desired.

Like he said, he looked like crap. He was feeling bigger, but fatter.

And no surprise, because what he gained was all fat, he was basically trying to eat his way up to bigger muscles, which is a bit ridiculous and biologically impossible.

There is nothing wrong with being big in a shirt, but most guys will probably prefer looking good shirtless than in a shirt.

So, what will it be shirt on big and shirt off fat or shirt on fit and shirt off ripped?

Make a choice.

FYI when Ross did the cut down and lost the fat, he lost the exact amount of weight he gained during the bulking phase.

So, he went through the misery of gaining fat and losing it again all for nothing, muscle mass as we would expect did not change at all.

What’s the point of that?

Slowly Re-Focus on Building a Natural Body

After finding Adonis Index through Eat Stop Eat, Ross started listening to all of the podcasts and reading every article at Adonis Index he could get his hands on.

He realized that he is not interested in stepping on stage or becoming a bodybuilder, so he re-focused on building a body that is lean and masculine, not big and bodybuilder-bulky.

Ross cut off all of the other streams off fitness information and decided to just follow one simple fitness approach – eat less, workout more.

This worked pretty well. In one year he lost about 20 pounds and got ripped (take a look at the pictures above).

At the age of 30 he got to the best shape of his life.

Take Home Message from Ross:

• If you are spending hours every day consuming fitness advice, but look the same month after month, then realize that you don’t need any more information, you just need to take action
• If you take the photos correctly, they will represent the effort you’ve put into diet and workouts in the past 12 weeks
• If you do a fitness photoshoot expect to shoot hundreds of pictures, but choose only a few
• Take pictures today, even if you don’t like the way you look, you will regret not having the before pictures later when you will want to compare your progress
• As you progress, lose fat and get closer to your ideal body towards the end of the photoshoot or contest, the fat loss will happen at a much slower rate
• You will not get anything from discussing your approach with other people, so don’t
• There are talkers and doers, which one are you or which one would you like to be?
• Find what works for your and stick to it
• Don’t make your life about fitness, balance the other aspects of your life, don’t be the “fitness guy”, the point is to be fit, not obsessed with fitness
• Switch from relax and maintenance mode to contest mode once or twice a year for a few months, enjoy the rest of the year looking good
• Gain muscle and stay lean
• Find the source that you want the information and advice to come from and then block everything else
• Do your own testing, don’t rely on other people
• If its works, keep doing it and don’t stop!
• Get into the Adonis Index Community and post your measurements every week or month to keep yourself accountable

Links from the Interview with Ross:

Theory Of Ideal Male Body – Build your natural ideal body shape

Adonis Index Workout – The Main Adonis Index workout responsible for the most amazing transformations online

Adonis Index Community – Hang out and talk to the Adonis Index winners, workout authors and ask your most pressing fitness questions

Eat Stop Eat – Lifestyle approach to get lean and stay lean all year round, by Brad Pilon

Read Ross’ experience with Adonis Index in his own words

The contest has turned out to be great and I feel I have followed through on my plan and I am hoping that I can find a nice equilibrium post contest. I did AI 3.0 and loved it! It was so cool to just turn up, open the page and just follow it as written. I liked the variety and the timing of the program; it meant that I never got board.

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Listen to the interview here:

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Today we have an interview with Phil who won the latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Phil started lifting weights after graduation, he didn’t think he had favourable genetics, but he had the “hard work genes” as he says.

However, the issue was that he was doing the same exercises and routine for the next 20 years. And it wasn’t until the Adonis Index that he realized you can do more for your biceps than just a curl.

When you look around in the gym, you will notice that people are doing the same stuff over and over again, then they go drink some protein shakes and do the magazine promoted post workout things etc. This doesn’t change throughout the years, the issue is that they just look the same year after year. However, they believe that what they are doing works and this approach is what will get them the results. Phil was exactly the same way until he started training with Adonis Index.

However, let’s take a look at his rather unbelievable story before finding the Adonis Index.

Phil started working out and was in the gym on and off throughout the years, but not having any workout program wasn’t the biggest thing.

At first it started with his career getting too crazy which led to being a bit sloppy with his workouts. And when you don’t have any consistency in your workouts, thing will go into a downward spiral. Next thing he knew was that he started gaining weight and at being 6 foot tall he would get to 190 pounds by 2006.

Then his wife got pregnant with not just twins but with quadruplets! This resulted in a massive stress, because the doctors were telling them that she can’t make it and the other two kids were too weak to survive.

Unimaginable stress.

After this was over, the economy crashed and for somebody who relied on Real Estate and Hollywood jobs, this meant massive life problems. Another insane stress in his life, almost unbearable.

And like it wasn’t enough, one of Phil sons was diagnosed with Leukemia and they almost lost him.

Just ask yourself, what would you do in his place?

Maybe your struggles aren’t so big when you compare them to other people. Just because your boss yelled at you, you had to stay at work for an hour more and got stuck in traffic for 30 minutes afterwards doesn’t mean you can’t go to the gym tonight.

At this point he felt like he had lived a life of a 60 year old, but in reality he wasn’t even 40.

It was a time for a change.

Phil got all the way up to 212 pounds, he decided that if his son has to work hard to survive, he should start working hard on himself too.

At first he tried the zone diet, running and got back to weight lifting, which worked to some extent.

While his son got better, Phil stalled at 180 pounds and couldn’t figure out why, which frustrated him.

Frustrated with Your Results? Change Your Approach…

At this point Phil finally decided to do some research online. One of his jobs was in Hollywood, so he decided that he wants to build a body like Brad Pitt had in his famous movie Fight Club.

He wanted to know what he has to do to build a shape like Pitt.

Here comes the shocker, he found out that Pitt was only 150 pounds at 6 foot. This got Phil thinking, being 6 foot too no wonder why he wasn’t satisfied being 30 pounds heavier than Pitt.

After doing even more research on various workouts and fitness programs, he found Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat, which ultimately lead him to Adonis Index and the free podcasts. He downloaded every single podcast and started listening right from the beginning. And we are talking about years of recording podcasts, so that took some time to get through, but the advice Phil gained was priceless.

As he told us, everything was broken down to simple terms. And this ‘nuts and bolts’ approach of talking about fitness without sugar coating anything helped him understand how this really works and this ultimately gave him the roadmap to build a body of his dreams.

He calculated his calorie intake and when his bodyweight came down to the 150’s he could finally see his abs. He felt like a completely different guy. Phil achieved something he did not think was possible. Before the transformation, he felt like an old man, he had stomach and knee issues and never thought he could look like this and feel like he does now.

Then he decided to invest in the Adonis Index workouts and that took his transformation to the next level and won him the first place in the Adonis Index contest.

One of the important things this transformation gave to Phil is that if he ever gains weight, he knows how to lose it again, so he can easily and quickly get back in shape, if some challenges arise, there is nothing stopping him from overcoming them.

Today Phil has four kids and four jobs to support his family and despite all this, he still manages to find time to work out EVERY day.

The approach he is following now is different, he is doing things he has never even seen anyone else do in gym and he is working out hard. After his workout he’s done no fancy post workout rituals, while other guys run to take a protein shake, because there is supposed to be some “magic window” after the workout.

As Phil admits, the Adonis Index workouts are special. Not only because you have a certain body shape to shoot for, but your muscles will be shocked by the workout structure and will be forced to do stuff they have never done, leaving them with no choice but to grow.

After years of doing the same over and over, this was unbelievably refreshing.

Dudes Are Supposed to Be Big…Eh, Are They?

Not only that Phil was pretty surprised that Brad Pitt was only 150 pounds in his fight club, but he also found out that in the Rocky movies the weight they say “Rocky” is in the ring is actually almost 40 pounds more than Stallone actually was.

Phil basically found out that the dudes he thought are heavy and big are actually much lighter.

And this comes down to the simple concept of: permission to be light.

Most guys have this believe that we should be enormous and anything below 200 pounds is girlish. Well, if you are not at least 6’2” you are not going to be ripped at 200 pounds. Well, at least not without any “extra” help.

So, it really comes down to whether you wanna be big or look good, which one will it be?

Once Phil realized this fact, there wasn’t any barrier standing between him and his physique goal.

Advice from Phil if your life is too stressful for you to even think about fitness:

• You can do it, it’s not your circumstances, but your excuses that prevent you from achieving the body you want
• If you want to eat, stop for a moment and ask yourself whether you really want some food or if it’s not just your reward system trying to get something tasty in you
• You don’t need any insane cardio plan, it can help, but usually a few hours walking per week is enough, diet is the key
• Don’t tell other people what you are doing, they will discourage you, most won’t believe you and will try to hijack your goals or tell you that what you are doing is bad for you
• The best way to reset and calm down your reward system is to either go to sleep or go to the gym
• Sugar free candies, coffee, diet coke can help you with cravings
• You can eat virtually anything as long as you limit the amount
• Do a water deplete before the photoshoot to better show your body
• If you want to be ripped you have to overcome your limiting beliefs about weight and give yourself permission to be light
• If you want change in your life, your body has to change too
• Keep yourself busy and focus on your work rather than food, you will be productive and lose weight, that’s a win-win outcome
• No matter what happens in your life, or what you are going through, you can and also should get in shape
• The physical transformation will translate into being a better person overall
• When it comes to achieving a good looking body, it’s really all about achieving a quality lifestyle
• Listen to the podcasts, implement the advice, figure out what suits you the best and keep doing it until you get your desired results
• The way you will see yourself after the physical change will be remarkable
• Lots of people eat out of boredom and use it for entertainment, realize this and avoid it
• Just do it

Links from Phil’s interview:

• The main Adonis Index Workouts – Here are the original workout plans that have been responsible for some of the most amazing transformations online.
• Eat Stop Eat – Diet and lifestyle protocol that will help you stay on track with your weight loss while enjoying social eating events at a same time.

Read Phil’s experience with Adonis Index in his own words:

I thought the best years of my life were behind me.  In retrospect, it was one decision, one month prior to my birthday that truly changed my life.  I decided that I didn’t want to turn 37 feeling like a “chump.” That decision would begin a research process that would land me square in the middle of what I would come to know the Adonis Lifestyle.  The following is a sample of what I learned…

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