Has Bulking Ever Worked for You? Try the Opposite

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

Check out his pictures:

Adonis Index - John

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

Adonis Index - John

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:

Save Yourself Years of Struggle and Learn about This Now

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

Check out his pictures:

Adonis Index Contest Kerry

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

Adonis Index Contest Kerry

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.

Adonis Index Contest Kerry

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?

Let’s make a quick test. Do you know when you’ve actually learned something? Little hint, learning is not just accumulating knowledge.

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.

And then on the weekends since it was easier to overeat while he was out eating and drinking with his friends, he would eat back up to maintenance.

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:

Listen to the interview here:

You Might Be Just Two Contests Away from Your Best Shape

Today we have an interview with Al Sandoval who placed 6th in the Open category in the latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Adonis Index - Al

You can take a picture like this at home, you don't need to hire a photographer and pay for a studio.

Adonis Index - Al

Do you want to have pictures like this? It's not as hard as you think.

And in case you forgot how Al looked when he originally started, check this out:

Adonis Index - Al Before

Compare these two photos with the pictures above.

This was Al’s second contest. He won the transformation category in a previous contest.

There really seems to be a pattern in this. It looks like guys get rid of a few pounds, get into a contest, get lean and then they focus on building more muscle and moving towards a specific shape.

If you’re like Al, you might actually be just two contests away from your ideal body shape.

Al’s Insights from His Second Contest

Al was very proud of his final pictures and incredibly impressed with his first change. He wanted to take some time off, but convinced himself to do next contest.

What is is like going from one contest to another one?

Hard, but doable.

He says motivation was tougher this time. Which is understandable, because putting so much energy and focus into this for so long without any break is really tough.

It doesn’t mean that you will do just one contest and then you are done for the rest of your life, no not at all, you obviously will have to maintain your look and will still have a lot to work on, but getting ready for a fitness photoshoot requires way more energy and attention, which is why most guys don’t do two back-to-back contests.

When you take some time off and just work out and eat to stay where you are, your desire to take your physique to the next level and compete gets bigger.

But Al decided to give this a shot and showed up with some amazing pictures.

During the preparation for the first contest he would look at his before pictures and at his “hate handles” as he calls them to keep himself motivated and to stick to his diet plan. This time he knew he looked good, so there was the temptation to slip a bit, since it wouldn’t do any damage.

And that’s exactly it.

Just because you get from overweight to a decent shape, it doesn’t mean all of your life problems and everything will be solved. No, that’s not how it works.

Once you get over one challenge the next one will appear and so on, this is how you move forward and with a bit of determination you can get some amazing results. Most people will give up after a while, even if they get past the first few challenges…and with that said “most people” don’t have extraordinary results and don’t live extraordinary lives, do they?

Once Al got in shape, his new challenge to face was finding a reason why he should continue when he already looks good, what goal should he aim for.

He decided that he want’s a six pack, because that is something he never had in his life and that’s a goal worth pursing. And even now he is still on track and determined to get to that goal.

The Leaner You Get, The Harder It Is to Lose Weight

To get decent muscle definition and a six pack, you need to be willing to persist and take it further than most people.

This is a point where we are seeing similar feedback from pretty much all the contestants. The leaner you get, the harder the fat loss actually becomes.

When you have to lose 50 pounds, it will be quick and pretty easy compared to slow progress of going from average/lean to ripped/shredded.

Water plays a huge role in this. When you are overweight, your body retains literally pounds of water that wouldn’t normally be there. Second reason why it’s easier at first is because your body has enormous energy storage that it can use. When you get to about 12% bodyfat, this changes. Suddenly there is very little bodyfat on you, your desire to eat increases because your body wants you to eat at your energy expenditure and it’s really hard to limit your calories intake.

On top of that when you get lean, certain metrics like the scale or waist measurement suddenly become useless.

This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get ripped, it just means it’s a bit harder and there are different challenges you will face along the way.

You may have to reduce the hours of your fasting, you may have to optimize your calories on eating days closer to your maintenance and probably use exercise to create the deficit.

It will take a longer time and will be harder to measure, but you absolutely CAN get there.

Another thing that goes hand in hand with this is the idea of maintenance. Once you go from overeating to eating for fat loss, the only way of eating you need to learn is eating in a way to keep you where you are. Sounds simple, but is tricky.

There will always be some ups and downs, however the idea is to be in striking distance to your contest body.

If your waist is 34, but for the contest was 32,5, you should be able to get there in 4-5 days if you were going to the beach or vacation.

Maintenance allows flexibility in your diet, enjoying more food on a few days and limiting yourself on others a bit.

Take home message from Al:

  • Maintenance is a work in progress, a way of living your life
  • Muscle takes years to build
  • You can get your weight under control in a matter of weeks and months
  • Diet should help you condition your body for less food and bring your appetite to its optimum
  • After contest aim for staying in ‘striking distance’, meaning you should be able to get to that exact state in several days
  • Your new you will be incredible and awesome,  you are gonna be happy with yourself once you transform
  • You can still enjoy the food you like, Al still eats ice cream, chocolate, just keep the amount in a healthy range

Useful links:

Listen to the interview here:

Golden Ratio Is the Key to Building an Ideal Body Shape

Today we bring you an interview with Vivek. Vivek placed 3rd in the latest Adonis Index Contest in the Transformation category.

Adonis Index - Vivek

Vivek lost weight and now he can just focus on one goal, building muscle.

Adonis Index - Vivek

Getting to this level of leanness requires some serious effort and commitment..

Adonis Index - Vivek

This is an awesome progress!

Vivek started with no experience or knowledge about exercises whatsoever. If you told him that bench press is for building bigger legs, he would probably believe you.

From a diet stand point it wasn’t so much different. Vivek is vegetarian, but he had no idea what any of the diet claims meant. Calories were basically just something the brand put on the label along with the logo.

Until 2011 dieting and exercising were unknown concepts for him.

Finally he decided to get in shape and lose some weight. He went with the conventional fitness approach and started eating “healthier food“. For two months he was basically eating brown rice, fruits and vegetables. However, since he wasn’t paying any attention to calories, he didn’t lose any weight at all. He was basically eating the same amount of calories, but from different sources of food and so called healthy sources. This “healthy eating” made absolutely no difference in how he felt or how much he weighed.

Like he said, Vivek wasn’t obese, but he was a bit overweight and needed to lose a few pounds and since eating ‘healthy’ wasn’t working, he kept looking for something different.

What Does an iPhone and Your Body Have in Common?

Vivek has an IT company, so working with software and technology he understands that the golden ratio is an important aspect in developing any application and that aesthetics are the key. Just take an iPhone, you would have a really hard time finding a phone that would be more aesthetically pleasing than the one from Apple. And it’s no coincidence either. The developers used the concept of a golden ratio in the development process. Same ratio that Vivek uses. Same ratio that Adonis Index workouts are designed to shape your body into.

When he stumbled across the Adonis Index he was excited because somebody actually  quantified and put some science around the concept of aesthetics, took concepts he knew and applied them to building the ideal body shape.

Seeing the same concept he used in technology development, for shaping his body was incredible revelation to him and he immediately knew it made sense.

He started studying the program and implementing the advice. The implementing part is important, because you don’t learn by gaining more knowledge, you learn when you change your behavior and take action.

Learn to Use the Metrics

Vivek made an interesting observation, and that is people have a poor understanding of how to use metrics, they either don’t use them at all, or they don’t use them correctly.

He created a spreadsheet, tracked what he ate and realized that eating “healthy” is not an answer. Despite what the fitness magazines, personal trainers, dietitians and other “certified experts” say, in order to lose weight you can eat whatever you like, but you have to stay in a caloric deficit.

Eat a balanced diet, with lot’s of vegetables, but stay in caloric deficit, then you will lose weight, the answer is not by eating some magic, “healthy” food.

Next thing is that your daily fluctuation will show on the scale, so the only way to know whether you are progressing or not is to measure your weight on a weekly basis. And that’s exactly what Vivek did, he looked at what he ate on weekly basis only.

He calculated his RMR multiplied it by seven and had a number of calories he burned each week without any additional exercise. And for every pound of fat he wanted to lose he would subtract 3500 from this number, being left with the calorie budget for that given week.

At the beginning he pressed for a larger deficit when he had the most fat to lose and ate really low calories the first few weeks.

It was way easier and simpler and the only thing he did was to log what he ate. He didn’t eat six meals a day, didn’t over-consume protein, didn’t count macro-nutrients, didn’t weigh food, didn’t cook all of his meals at home, non of those, just ate lower calories.

He knew that it was just a guesstimate and that there will be errors in his calculations and in what is on the food label. In order to find out how many calories her was burning he even got his RMR clinically measured. This test only cost around $100.

Now he knew the hard numbers and could work from there.

And if you though that other people knew what he was doing, you would be wrong.

Are you anxious about telling other people? Are you afraid of what they might think of your goals or approach? Well, you don’t have tell them. They won’t even notice.

Vivek didn’t tell anyone what he was doing, all people saw was the end result.

One of his goals was to be able to have a good social life while doing all of this. He didn’t want to look weird when he was out with clients or had dinner with friends.

And that’s what this approach allowed him to do. Since he could eat anything he wanted and still keep losing weight he kept this to himself and nobody knew. Then when they saw the results it seemed like magic.

Vivek made a huge transformation for this contest, but interestingly enough he actually lost 20 pounds before it even began. Before the contest started he already went from 200 to 180 pounds.

It’s about how you change, not how well you place in the contest. If you are considering entering in the next one, don’t wait start today. You will have momentum that others who wait will not have.

What seems to work the best for most people is to lose the fat first and then focus on building muscle.

Here are two points to consider when thinking about building muscle first:

  1. Muscle building takes time, especially if you are not in your teen years
  2. Your muscles won’t be visible until you lose the fat that is covering them

This is why it’s better to focus on losing fat first, get it over with as quickly as possible and build muscle afterwards.

That’s where Vivek is now. He can just eat at his maintenance level, have lots of energy and focus on pushing at a gym.

What to do to transform your physique:

  • Find a pattern that works for you and stick to it
  • Track whatever it is you are doing
  • Analyze your progress every week
  • Record your weight in the morning to keep the water and food fluctuation to minimum
  • If can afford it get your RMR clinically measured
  • Expect your RMR to be lower than you want it to be and don’t lie to yourself that you can actually eat more and not gain weight
  • Eat normally when you are out with friends or clients and watch yourself when you are alone and nobody is looking (The opposite of what most people do)
  • Be rational not emotional when it comes to success, especially building the body you want, because emotions keep you from the truth and support beliefs molded by media and marketing
  • Remember that your mind will try to justify any action you take or don’t take, so take actions that will ensure your personal growth
  • Be brutally honest with yourself when tracking your metrics
  • Have long term and short term goals
  • Deal with your problem now, later never comes and there is only so many tomorrows in your life
  • Don’t deny what happens, because then you get in trouble. People that ignore the results, get in debt and gain fat

Words & phrases mentioned in the interview:

Listen to the interview here:

Never Quit: Adonis Index Success Story with Keith Taylor

Today we have an interview with Keith Taylor who placed fifth in the Open category in the latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Adonis Index - Keith

Everyone can get in shape, it's a matter of determination.

Adonis Index - Keith

You need to get really lean to show your muscles.

Adonis Index - Keith

Keith's side chest shot.

Never Give Up, Ever!

Keith started lifting as a kid, all of the big guys were going to the gym, so it seemed like a good idea. He was basically mirroring what they were doing, which wasn’t so hard considering they lacked any structure and always just picked the weights and pushed them up as many times a possible.

There was very little back or shoulder work, basically it was just about working the “mirror muscles” – biceps and chest, and then they tossed in some squats for good measure.

After high school Keith tried going to a public gym, but he didn’t like it very much, so he decided to invest in a home gym.

Back then he was just following advice from magazines and pretty much working out like he did at high school, without any structured program.

He got stronger, but he didn’t gain any size. You could look at him and tell that he was fit, but he was never ripped.

Keith was also eating a lot and ate his way up to 170 pounds, which at height of 5’4” is not exactly shredded.

Then a few years later in 1991 he injured a nerve in his back while trying to lift something at work. As a result of this injury he couldn’t do any lifting for the next 20 years.

Yea, you read that right, it wasn’t until 2011 that he was able to get back to weight training.

And if that wasn’t enough, he also had asthma.

He couldn’t run or do any high intensity training.

So, if someone had a good reason to pity himself and blame the world for what has happened it would be Keith. Well, that wasn’t what he did. Keith didn’t give up and started researching for a way to get rid of his asthma.

Then one day as he was looking for something that would help with autoimmune issues he found fasting. It didn’t take long that he stumbled upon Eat Stop Eat.

He didn’t think twice about it and immediately tried it. And believe it or not, he got better in just 30 days.

Keith just couldn’t believe how much better he could breath after 30 days.

It worked, he significantly improved his asthma to a state that he could do some physical activity.

Determination Is the Key

Next step was to work on his injury. He would try to start working out every year since the injury, but it was always the same, he just couldn’t lift the weights.

Then in 2011 he noticed a difference, he could finally lift something. Not that he would be strong, but the pain was bearable and he could move the weights. This was great news.

He knew that in the Eat Stop Eat manual was a link to a workout program, so he went home opened the book and clicked on it and got to the Adonis Index website.

Since he could lift some weights and improved his asthma he decided to jump on board and give it a shot.

He started with some shoulder specializations and worked his way up to the regular workouts. After a while and with a few adjustments he could handle the volume and follow the full training program, for the first time after his injury.

Keith’s Diet and Interesting Findings about Gluten

Last thing he tried was dropping gluten. And in just 30 days he lost about 20 pounds. This basically meant cutting out most of the refined and processed stuff, but since he likes to cook, he didn’t mind. He wasn’t sure that it was really the gluten, so he decided to put it back in his diet and he got worse and started gaining again. This was an obvious proof that it worked, so he decided to cut it out and keep it that way.

He stayed away from gluten and could keep the fat off and asthma in control. Ultimately he figured out that he can have gluten a few times per week, but only a few times, because he is highly sensitive to it. And that’s how it works, most people don’t have any problem with gluten at all, some are completely intolerant, and some are just very sensitive to it. If you don’t have any issues, then good for you and you don’t have to change anything in your diet, if you do then you can try taking a similar approach and see how it works.

As a result Keith’s medical test came back at 90% of his full lung capacity and function, which was his highest number so far. And he got there just by using Eat Stop Eat and cutting gluten.

Other than cutting gluten he didn’t change much, and there was no reason to, because eating less and fasting twice a week did the job of losing weight pretty well.

He ate a lot of vegetables and about 70 grams of protein per day, which sounds pretty reasonable for someone his height. And in general, you don’t really have to consume insane amounts of protein.

And since he likes to have a large meal, he experimented with volume a bit and was trying to find the best choices that would be as low calorie as possible. At the beginning he was eating one meal a day and tapered it up later on.

He was eating more towards the end of the contest. He was basically using the principles from the new Transformation Diet protocol. He started eating low at the beginning of the contest and as things got harder and more intense, he started optimizing his calorie intake for his maintenance.

This is a pretty good approach, because a lot of fitness models try to go as extreme as possible at the end of their prep for the contest, but they often times end up gaining as much as 30 pounds afterwards. And that’s just plain stupid and ineffective, it should be about looking good, not winning a contest. So, for most people it seems like a better choice to just eat more towards the end.

This worked and at the end Keith was even shocked that he placed in the contest.

Take home message from Keith

  • Lots of guys try to over analyze things, keep it simple and do what the successful people tell you to do
  • Keith barely read the manual, he just went to the workouts and started there because he likes to learn from experience. He takes action!
  • Nobody cares what you weigh, it’s about how you look
  • Keith rarely took any measurements or weighed himself, he just takes a look in the mirror…when you get really lean the mirror will likely be your only accurate measure of progress
  • Be sure that whatever approach you try it really works. Keith saw that cutting gluten works, but he wanted to be sure, so he tried adding it back up for few weeks just to be certain.
  • Eat less than you burn and fast on a regular basis
  • Take action, do the work, try the program, nobody can tell you what will it do for you until you try it yourself

Programs that Keith used to get in the contest shape:

Adonis Index Workout – 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.

Listen to the interview here:

 

Do You Want to Be 200 Pounds?

Today we have an interview with Shan Hefley, who placed second in the Open category in the latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his photos:

Adonis Index - Shan

Shan might be just 5'7'', but he is very muscular.

Adonis Index - Shan

Most guys that are in their twenties would kill to look like Shan.

Adonis Index - Shan

If you want to show your abs on a picture, you need to get a dark tan like Shan.

“…I Just Wanted to Get Bigger, Then I Read Adonis Index.”

Shan started working out at an early age and since he gained some weight in college he dieted down and eventually got skinny. His weight fluctuated as the years passed. Being 5’7” lead to the conventional “wanna get big” guy mentality.

Shan never wanted to look like a bodybuilder, but since he didn’t have any specific goal, was skinny and had average height, he thought that getting bigger, and specifically ‘heavier’ would help him get a killer looking body.

He started working out, subscribed to several fitness magazines and read every issue.

He believed in everything they said. And he aimed for the look of the cover models.

After years and years of working out and following the advice from the fitness magazines, he stumbled upon the Adonis Index.

After countless visits and calculating his ideal proportions over and over again, he finally got on board and decided to get the program.

And it proved to be a pretty interesting concept. Shan like most of the guys never really thought about proportions or specific shape, it was always just about getting bigger.

Shan was fascinated by the idea of proportions. He also started understanding that a 5’7” guy can’t and even shouldn’t try to get to 200 pounds. He realized his genetic limits at his height wouldn’t let him reach a body weight of 200lbs unless it was due to an excess amount of fat or drug induced muscle growth.

This was quite a different concept compared to the articles in all the fitness magazines he was following till now. Which if you’ve ever read in the past, you know that there is not a word about proportions. Usually it’s headlines such as ‘100 new tips how to grow your bicep’ or a pitch for a new magical supplement that is supposed to help you pack on 30 pounds of muscle.

Since Shan has taken some art classes, it made sense to him that there is something more to it than just getting bigger at all costs and that it may not be about being big, but rather it’s about looking big, which if you don’t know are not the same things.

If you build a broad back, wide shoulder and a shredded waist then you will create an illusion of being bigger than you actually are.

Usually he is pretty skeptical, but the Adonis Index was so thoughtful and truthful he went right into it, after that he read Eat Stop Eat and everything just clicked.

Now he had tools both for building a specific shape and how to diet down to a low bodyfat.

He wasn’t fat nor did he feel like it, but it was remarkable that after skipping a few meals he could see big changes in muscle definition. Like he said, the bodyfat fell off pretty quickly. And in his own words:

“I discovered muscles I never knew were there and they were under a layer of fat I never knew I had”

There are lots of guys like Shan who are only 10 pounds from ripped, but they screw it up by trying to put on another 20 pounds of muscle. They fall for all the conventional fitness crap and pursue goals they can never achieve, which just results in spending money and effort to remain in the average, ‘ok shape’ looking zone. They just don’t know how close they really are…

Wearing a Big Shirt Doesn’t Mean You Are More of a Man

For Shan this wasn’t just a physical transformation, but also a mental one. A big part was that he went from wearing large to small shirts.

Smaller clothes now really fit him, just take a look:

Adonis Index - Shan

Don't you agree that this smaller size T-shirt really fits him? Can you say the same about your wardrobe?

What about you, do you have an issue with wearing a small T-shirt? Does it make you feel anxious?

Most guys can’t get over the fact that they look better in a small and fitted shirt. They almost think that just because they wear smaller size clothes it means they are not that manly and feel “emasculated”. This seems to correlate with the never ending pursuit of getting big at all costs.

Advice from Shan?

Dump that belief.

Wear what really fits your physique and shows it off!

It’s hard to accept it, but it’s really just a number on an article of clothing manufactured by someone who has never seen your body type…in reality that number doesn’t mean anything. If you are under six foot, then there is no reason for you to wear and extra large shirt. If medium seems to fit the best, then buy mediums only. And if you want to feel good about some number that would tell other people how you look, just focus on your AI number instead of your shirt size.

It’s just like body weight. What shows on the scale is just a number, it doesn’t indicate if you are healthy, or the proportion of your body. The truth is nobody knows how much you weigh either and  nobody really even cares. The only one that is obsessed with it is you.

This comes to a central theme of the Adonis Index and that is the permission to be light and really accept that a great looking 5’7” body is not going to be 200 pounds.

If it’s kind of hard to grasp right now, then don’t worry even Shan had big issues accepting this. On some days he was on a scale thinking that he should weight more, and was skeptical of losing weight, but he couldn’t argue with the numbers AI gave him. If the AI that is based on precise math is telling you that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, then you shouldn’t want to weigh any more and you shouldn’t try to weigh more.

Just like women think they need to be as light as possible and that men are only interested in a muscle-less tiny woman, men think of exactly the opposite. Just imagine a skinny woman without any shape, would you be attracted to her?

Probably not.

This is exactly the same and big guys without any proportion or shape.

That’s why the Adonis Index is so powerful. It gives you the proportions and goal to shoot for.

And like Shan said, you just can’t argue with the numbers. What looks visually appealing  doesn’t necessarily translate to a specific and heavy weight.

Take home message from Shan

  • Don’t be afraid to go light, give yourself the permission to be light
  • It’s about the shape you will build and the measurements you will have, not the weight
  • Aim for your ideal Adonis Index
  • It’s not about building lots of muscle, but rather making specific muscles bigger, changing clothes and presenting yourself in the best way possible
  • In pictures you look differently than you do in reality, that is why you need to play with tanning, lighting and posing a bit
  • It’s possible to do Adonis Index workouts at home
  • When you undergo a body re-composition, it doesn’t necessarily have to show up on the scale
  • Remember that just a few pounds of muscle will make a big difference on a lean body
  • It is about how you look, not how much you weigh or how much you can lift
  • As you age, the changes take longer

Programs that Shan used to get in contest shape:

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

Eat Stop Eat – Pilon’s revolutionary lifestyle and diet protocol.

Adonis Index Community – You will never find a more supportive, outgoing, and RESULTS based community like you’ll find with the AI “Insider’s Club”.

Listen to the interview here:

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