Today we have an interview with Carl Thomson who placed 5th in the Open Level 1 Division in our latest Adonis Index Contest.
Check out his pictures:
Carl has built a great body shape with a nice set of abs.
At the beginning Carl was like most of the guys, he was skinny and wanted to put on some muscles. He went on the web and found a local gym.
Over the years he tried several different programs, but his upper body shape remained unchanged.
But this wasn’t everything.
Carl also did a powerlifting workout program, where he was supposed to progress every week on his bench press and squats, having a specific weight target he needed to hit workout after workout.
Considering the fact that Carl could squat 395 pounds and deadlift 440 pounds at the age of 14 he was a bit inclined towards the powerlifting type of training. He is also 5 foot 4, so his height is ideal for this sport as well.
However, after a couple of weeks, he couldn’t even fit into his jeans, his legs were huge.
He started researching some ways to measure his legs, so he could buy more fitting jeans. And searching for measurements and proportions he ended up at the Adonis Index website.
Why Adonis Index Style Is the Way to Train
What Carl really liked was the fact that the main workouts were mostly dumbbell based thus easy to do and he wouldn’t have to wait for equipment in his overcrowded gym. The powerlifting program he was using was very difficult to do, because if he didn’t get to the gym early he wouldn’t be able to get his exercises done.
And like he said the workouts were fantastic. The phase he enjoyed the most was the strength endurance and the progression to hypertrophy of the main module. After a couple of weeks his body shape finally started to change in a way that he wanted.
Carl realized that powerlifting isn’t his primary goal, but rather having a good looking body is. Shortly after reading the Adonis Index and experiencing the change he realized that there are different body shapes you can get yourself into.
Think about it for a while.
Just by working out in a specific way you can change the way you look and completely transform your body shape. Just think of the various shapes in the different sports you see like cycling, swimming, tennis, soccer, sprinting, marathons, football, hockey…every player of those sports has a characteristic body shape that is defined by their sport.
HOWEVER, the important factor is that they look the way that is best for their performance in that given sport!
Swimmers have really developed shoulders, rowers have well developed backs, marathon runners are extremely lean and have less muscle than the average person, however this undersized body helps with their run performance.
Do you see the point?
Those physique’s are all performance based!
At no point have I mentioned whether the physique looks good or not. Your form is built by your function, so you must choose your function wisely.
And this is an important thing to realize.
Carl did both powerlifting, and endurance training for marathons, but the training he loved most was physique training with the Adonis Index.
And that’s the question. Do you want to be an athlete and allow your function to dictate your form or train for a specific look and have the lifestyle that goes along with a good looking, healthy body?
If so, then the training isn’t the goal, the outcome, your body shape is. It only makes sense to focus on improving what looks the best, which is a muscular, lean body with a dominant V-taper shape (perfect AI ratio).
Once you are on this path and aiming for the perfect V-taper, you will see some amazing changes, your body will transform and people will act differently around you. And once you build a solid body shape you can also focus on your lagging muscle groups or even stop training those muscles that are already well-developed. For example Carl will never have to train his calves or thighs very much from now on, take a look:
This is sick, most skinny guys would kill for those calves!
Carl’s legs are huge, he often has random people taking pictures of them (listen to the interview for some fun stories).
However, he never had such a well developed upper body as he does today, that’s what he’s focusing on now.
People Will Notice Your Change
Carl had people commenting on his look almost every day. One day even the gym manager walked up to him and asked what program was he doing because he looked so good. Carl recommended the Adonis Index and that manager bought it immediately.
The point is that whether it was in the gym or at work, people were noticing and commenting on his physique.
People were suddenly changing the way they behaved around Carl and how they talked to him, everyone was impressed and some even jealous.
And this is exactly what the Adonis Effect is all about. Once you get in shape and purposefully focus on building your golden AI ratio, people will act differently towards and around you.
And Carl’s wife?
She loved his transformation and today she trains with the Venus Index.
Take home message from Carl:
- Start by calculating how many calories you are eating each day and how many you need to eat to lose weight, adjust your lifestyle
- Trust the system, it works
- Don’t talk about what you are doing or get into discussions with other people about fitness, lead by example
- Understand that lots of people are insecure and when you get in shape, despite how illogical it sounds, they will unconsciously take this as an act against them, don’t get discourage by this and realize that it’s about them being insecure and that you’re not doing anything wrong
- Racing, marathons and other endurance training will exhaust you and it will not build the body you want, be smart about where you put your time and energy
- Being super strong doesn’t usually translate into looking good, those are two different things/skills
- Get in shape and your mood will improve instantly
- Don’t structure your life around fitness and training, that’s no way of living
- Work on your physique and have fun with it
- Abs are made in the kitchen not in the gym (you need to be in a caloric deficit)
- If you are a runner, then you will still benefit from the Adonis Index workouts, you will look better, be healthier and cross the finish line sooner
- Don’t change the program and stick to the plans as they are designed
- Use the community, the guys are great and the advice is golden
- Listen to the previous interviews and older podcasts
- For the photoshoot, get a tan and do a water depletion, otherwise your physique won’t look as impressive on the photos as it does in reality
Useful links from Carl’s interview:
- Main 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
- IXP Workout Protocol – The advanced muscle building workout
- Reverse Taper Diet – Diet program that will not make you lethargic or overeat after you lose the fat, it’s cure for the yo-yo diets
- Eat Stop Eat – Lifestyle approach to get lean and stay lean all year round, by Brad Pilon
- Venus Index – The program Carl’s wife started using after seeing his amazing progress with the Adonis Index
Read Carl’s experience with Adonis Index in his own words:
19/2/12 Today was a special day, the gym boss came up and said how Sharp I look and asked what kind of training I was doing. Later 2 more people asked me a similar questions and it made me feel good about myself, many thanks to AI.
18/3/12 My stats have been the same for about 1 month but my looks has changed. More and more People in the Gym have said that I look a lot more muscular and leaner. My wife had taken some picks which looked very good.
Listen to the interview here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
About Allen Elliott