After 4 Years in the “Fitness Wilderness”… Finally on the Path of The Adonis Lifestyle

Here’s your new interview with one of the winners from the 8th Adonis Index Transformation Contest.

Today John talks to Miguel Garcia who placed 10th in our last 12-Week Transformation contest.

Check out his transformation pictures:

Miguel never trained in his life until recently. He began his fitness journey about 4 years ago when he  joined a gym and began working with a personal trainer.

He created a workout routine for Miguel that was all about endurance (why endurance?!?)…but even after 6 months of doing this intense training routine he didn’t see any changes, so he dropped out of the program.

After that he started researching on the Internet wanting to learn more about fitness and training. And since 99% of the websites talked about bulking and cutting philosophy it seemed like  the next logical step for him.

He noticed a few changes, but it was only with his shirt on. He gained weight, but he still wasn’t satisfied with the way he looked. The regiment of eating five times a day and  just wasn’t sustainable for him.

It felt like another job for him and truth to be told, that’s really not how it’s supposed to be.

Miguel never wanted to be huge and live a bodybuilding lifestyle. He just wanted to be in shape with defined muscles.

So he started researching again.

He believed his chances of achieving  a body he would like would be near impossible.

So instead he focused on being more healthy, he took on running and jumped on the famous P90X workout. He finished that program, but he told us that by the end the only thing he wanted to do was to break the DVDs, that’s how difficult it was to get through the program.

He gained musle, lost fat, and could run faster, but it still wasn’t what he expected; let alone the enormous amount of effort it took for him get there.
This just reinforced the belief that it was extremely difficult if not impossible to get in shape, at least for him.
It was at this point that Miguel hit an all time low.
He dropped off everything and was done with fitness, he was just so beaten up and disappointed that he didn’t want to exercise anymore and he started eating a lot.

He gained lots of weight, and it wasn’t even the bulk look, it was just plain fat.

One day he looked at himself and became concerned he was losing control and that his health was at risk.

He found another workout program, finished it and saw no results and no change in his body shape yet AGAIN.

And on top of that, because it was a pretty intense program it stimulated his appetite and pushed him to eat more.

It was a lot of work with no pay off.

He started researching again and FINALLY he found the Adonis Index.

At first he thought it was some kind of scam, which doesn’t come as such a surprise considering he came from hard work, no rest, bulking philosophy approach and here at Adonis Index we contradict almost everything that you hear from the conventional fitness media.

But since he never got any serious results, he gave it a shot and after 12 weeks of the mid-term contest for the first time in his life he started seeing some good change, just check out the photos at the top of the page.

Today he is on the path of getting the body he wants… So what about you? Where are you on the path to achieving the body YOU want?

Moving on, let’s hear a little more from Miguel.

Tips from Miguel:

  • Be social during the weekends and just prepare for it during the week
  • You can go undercover with your approach, my girlfriend was the only one who knew what I was doing
  • Progress is progress, even if it’s just baby steps
  • Seriously try something and make up your mind after you do it, not before– give it an honest go, then you will be able to say if it worked or not
  • Trust the program and take measurements along the way

Links from the interview:

  • Muscle Building Foundation – Do you think you are too far from even think even ideal body shape? Do you want to build some mass first, try the MBF
  • Anything Goes Diet – Diet program that lets you eat the foods you love, it’s time to dump your “can’t eat that” list and start enjoying your food while getting leaner
  • Eat Stop Eat – Diet Lifestyle protocol designed to help you to lose fat and regain freedom in your food choices
  • Adonis Index Main Workouts 3.1 – The original AI workout responsible for the best male online transformations
  • Adonis Index Specializations – Bonus workouts designed to help you boost muscle growth in weak and lagging body parts

Listen to the interview here, and please “like” it when you’re done:

Achieve Single Digit Body Fat Levels while Eating the Foods you Love

Here’s your new interview with one of the winners from the 8th Adonis Index Transformation Contest.

Today John talks to Simon Bernard who won 1st place in the 12-Week Transformation.

Check out his transformation pictures:

Simon’s results after 12 weeks of the contest.

Simon has entered  a couple of our  contests but never  achieved his desired results. He stands at 5’7” and was about 145 pounds before finding the Adonis Index; today he weighs 127 pounds.

For this particular  contest,  he change his approach slightly.  What he decided to do differently was what  Adonis Index  preaches all the time – lose fat first, build muscle afterwards (or in the process).

Here’s his whole Adonis transformation:

Simon’s overall progress with Adonis Index.

Simon shared with us that while growing up he was always referred to as “the chubby kid”.

He had this idea of losing fat first and then building muscle already in his head in the past, but once he got involved in the fitness community his thinking became skewed. He was lead to believe that he should focus on getting bigger and bulking up. The industry convinced him that “mass & bulking” is the goal he should aim for and that excess energy will simply be converted into muscle tissue.

However, it really makes sense to get lean first and go from there. You can lose fat pretty quickly, it’s building muscle that takes some time. And since you can’t really eat your way up to bigger muscles, it doesn’t make sense to get fat in the process of  attempting to “put on” more muscle.

Another thing most people don’t realize is that you can actually do both!

You can build muscle while being in a caloric deficit. It won’t be that much and you won’t impress any bodybuilder with it, but if your training is good, then you can do it.

And since your energy levels and calorie intake will get better once you get lean you don’t really have to worry about the speed of building the muscles.

Focus on what you want, don’t let the fitness industry dictate your goals.

“Getting in Shape is Complicated and You Will Suffer in the Process”…Oh Really?!?

When it comes to mainstream media, people often lose touch with reality which results in the disbelief that getting in shape could be simple.

According to most fitness “experts” fat loss revolves around hormones, pills, special foods and supplements…it couldn’t possibly be about calories; a concept so simple even an eight year old could figure it out.

People try to  overcomplicate things, look for excuses and then wonder how they never manage to get in shape.

Simon did several 24 hour fasts during the 12 week contest period, he ate almost anything he wanted  and never skipped weekend social eating events full of drinking, eating at restaurants and snacking on “unhealthy food”.

During the week he ate a little less to prepare for the weekend in order to remain in the “fat burning zone”.

During the day he ate two meals – his first being breakfast and second, a late night dinner.

He kept it simple.

He didn’t even count calories;  simply guessing how much he ate.

Many will wonder how someone like Simon comes along and  makes a stunning transformation while eating pretty much whatever he wanted.  It appears magical when it’s actually just how your body works.

Once you understand the process, it’s just about finding a way to make it happen for you within your own  lifestyle.

Tips from Simon:

  • Keep it simple
  • Be consistent
  • Follow the program as it is written, don’t change stuff
  • Don’t involve too many people in the process (when you talk to people even if you are explaining things in the right way, most tend to be jealous and will question to your methods despite the fact that you may look better than them already)
  • Prepare for your social eating events in advance (you can use intermittent fasting for example)
  • Nobody has 12 weeks of perfection, you will have your ups and downs during your journey/contest
  • I  have two different jobs and still managed to have time to got to the gym almost every day, it’s more about your mindset and  not the “in-depth” mechanics of your lifestyle

Links from the interview:

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

When I think about it, I’ve always wanted to have a great looking body. As a kid, it was probably more to resemble my favorite actors, like Shwartzenegger, or Van Damme… Later, I just understood all the benefits (health and social status) related to looking good. The only problem was I spent too much time philosophing and playing music rather than playing sports and ended up rather chubby. I tried many different approaches and…Continue reading here

Listen to the interview here, and please “like” it when you’re done:

Are You Satisfied with Your Body Shape?

Here’s your new interview with one of the winners from the 8th Adonis Index Transformation Contest.

Today John talks to Lester Sing who placed 4th in the 12-Week Transformation.

Check out his transformation pictures:

Awesome progress in just 12 weeks, what do you think?

Lester was always lean, at least till he got out of high school. That’s when he started gaining weight – and it wasn’t muscle.

This is pretty common, most people get out of school, stop doing sports, and begin living a sedentary lifestyle.

Lester gained quite a lot of weight and at his height 5’4” he got up to 180 pounds.

This is something that happens when you stop paying attention, start eating more, start attending more social eating events and stop exercising.

Lester realized that he had to do something about this so he invested in a couple workout programs and tried several different approaches.

He dropped to 139 pounds (achieved his goal) and decided to stay active.

However, he still wasn’t happy.

Even though he improved his body, he wasn’t comfortable taking his shirt off, yet.

As he said, he didn’t think he could see his abs again.

…Then he noticed an online ad for Adonis Index.

He jumped on board, got the workout plan, got into the community and started training.

He wanted to test out whether the program can produce any results for him.

And he was very surprised when he saw his final pictures.

Results Come with Patience

Lester played around with fasting and Pilon’s 24 hour fasting protocol called Eat Stop Eat.

What worked for him the most was fasting for 15 hours and then having the first big meal of the day.

It took him a lot to get from eating every 3 hours to eating just once a day.

And if you are experiencing something similar, then understand that changing your eating habits may take up to two weeks.

Your body needs to get used to eating less often. You will experience a hunger pang followed by a strong urge to eat.

It will take some time and effort to get used to it, but after about two weeks you will be comfortable with having an empty stomach and it’s at  that time when you will begin seeing the results.

The first week you will think that what you are doing is wrong, it will feel uncomfortable, because it’s simply something new.

…And your body subconsciously fights when you are trying new things.

But after you get over this initial first bump, you will feel great, you will feel alive, more in control.

It’s necessary to go through this, because it’s probably the best way to learn how to manage your food intake, you will just learn so much about yourself and about food and your eating habits that it’s impossible to describe it (even though Pilon did a pretty good job in his latest ESE book).

Tips from Lester:

  • Dedication and consistency are necessary for you to succeed
  • It’s a slow process so how much you want it will determine the results you will get
  • Take lots of photos and then put them side by side
  • Fat won’t come out all at once
  • You will eventually get there it just takes time and patience
  • You have the time to work out, and even if you miss a tv shows, so what?
  • If you are used to eating at certain times (same goes for food choices) it will take a couple weeks for you to change it
  • Don’t eat 6 times a day, it’s easier to track the calories when you have just two big meals
  • Keep track of everything – weight log, strength log, measurements, photos
  • Don’t be afraid to be light, it’s nothing to be ashamed of and quite frankly nobody gives a sh*t
  • If the weight is messing with your head then don’t even bother, the mirror/photos is what matters

Links from the interview:

  • Main Adonis Index Workout 3.1 – The workout that’s responsible for the most amazing transformations online
  • Adonis Index Community – The friendliest and most helpful fitness community in the world
  • Eat Stop EatDiet Lifestyle protocol designed to help you to lose fat and regain freedom in your food choices

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

Right after AT7, I had a binging frenzy and gained about 7lbs from 129 to 136.

Granted i’m short, but that 7 lbs made me look like I gained about 15lbs. The biggest mistake I think I did was restrict myself too much cutting calories down to 1200 a day throughout the contest, causing me to binge a lot of times in the weekend.

This time around my plan was to Continue reading here

Listen to the interview here, and please “like” it when you’re done:

Former Special Forces Officer Admits He Just Wants to Look Good

Today we have an interview with Pete.

Pete follows the Adonis Index workouts but has not competed in any of our contests, however his fitness lifestyle approach has rewarded him with a remarkable “contest-ready” physique.

Because of his amazing results we decided to interview him to learn more about how he achieved this “elite” level of fitness.

Check out his pictures:

Pete’s awesome transformation.

Pete’s background is ex-military; where he served as a Special Forces Officer.

We quickly discovered from Pete that the time, effort, and training that went into becoming a Special Forces’ Officer was simply mind-blowing.

However, when Pete left the army he continued his workout regimen as if he was still active duty.  His motivation to continue training was simply to be fit; not because he wanted to run marathons or go on long-distance rucksack  marches.  He continued his training because he wanted to look good  and believed this was the best way to maintain his conditioning.

Pete was very fit, his endurance and strength never dwindled.

But despite his level of fitness, he was carrying an undesirable amount of fat.

This is a perfect example of when being fit doesn’t translate into good looks.

Pete was hoping that one day all the hard work of his training would show up, but sadly, that day never came.

Adonis Index, Revelation or Disappointment?

Then Pete discovered Adonis Index.

He was fascinated by the concepts of the golden ratio, ancient Greek mythology, and loved the fact that everything was made based upon art and science.

After going through the materials  he decided to drop all the other fitness products,  tuned out all the other so called fitness “experts”, and gave this new program an honest try.

And the result?

Let’s ask him:

After getting out of the Army, I was still eating like I was in the military but my calorie intake did not equal my volume of training.    I slowly put on weight over a period of 5 years; the weight really increased when my son was born 3 years ago.

I can safely say now that not only have I returned  back to the body I had ten years ago,  but its even BETTER LOOKING!  I am well-proportioned and not just ‘functional’.

Sure, these days I would find it harder to carry a heavy pack for 30km, but who cares? I don’t NEED to, lol.

 I mentally struggled with this concept for a long time because the army style of training was so heavily ingrained into me – I was still training for function: a function I was no longer required to perform.  I’m so pleased to have found AI and apply their training concepts.

I signed up for immersion and never looked back.

Pete realized that the Adonis physique is what he really wanted this whole time, he just never knew how to train for that sought after “look”.

Cardio was always one of Pete’s greatest strengths, but he just wasn’t satisfied with the way he looked.

The results he longed for did not occur until he made a fundamental change in his attitude towards training.

He accepted the fact that looks were important to him; there is no reason why you should hide the fact that you want to look good.

Almost everyone in the gym tries to improve their max on bench press, increase their vertical jump for basketball, train for stamina and endurance and all the other sh*t while 99% of those guys really just wanna look good, that’s the reason why they got into “body building” in the first place, so why hide it?

If you are not willing to admit to yourself that that’s the reason why you work out, you will never build a good looking body.

It’s similar to people who want to build wealth for themselves and their family, but they believe having lots of money is wrong.

If you think focusing on training for looks and not performance is wrong, you will not be able to build a body you can be satisfied with.

Think about it, if you actually want to change the shape of your body, you must change your attitude.

Is the Fear of Overtraining Real?

Before you listen to the interview there is one more thing I feel like we should talk about and that’s the fear of overtraining.

On Friday we already discussed that it’s very unlikely you will overtrain and that training intensity and frequency is really just a matter of conditioning.

If you haven’t read that article, just go here: Are You Overtraining with Adonis Index Workouts?

Most people don’t realize what overtraining really means and today you are going to get information on this subject from the best source possible – former military.

Pete did 28 days of extreme training in the field. He performed all day/night field exercises while operating in a food and sleep deprived state.

This was actually a limit-breaker for Pete and it pushed him into a “over-trained” state where his body literally just crashed and shut down.

Although this is an extreme example of over-training, you can compare and contrast to your optimized diet and sleep with a couple of hours spent in the gym.

The lesson?

Don’t be scared of pushing what you think is your limit and get someone else to help you find what your limits are, hint – they are further than you think.

What would Pete advise himself a year ago:

  • Don’t wait for the contest to start, just start getting in shape today
  • Take this seriously
  • Do the program as it’s laid out including the intensity, don’t second guess it
  • Listen to all the podcasts
  • Don’t’ talk about fitness or what you are doing, make the change first
  • Put the energy into working out and what maters not discussing fitness
  • You should never have to explain yourself
  • Use the community and start posting updates there, benefit from the knowledge and support in there
  • Don’t try to push things towards the end
  • Follow the workout as written
  • Be consistent with workouts, measurements and diet
  • Take pictures
  • Ignore the scale
  • Trust the system

Interview links:

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

I was very fit aerobically but I couldn’t seem to get below 210-215 lb though. I was ‘stuck’. I mean, I was eating…Click Here to Continue Reading

In the interview Pete talks about lots of useful techniques. He also shares what supplements he takes, how he measures food intake, how to prepare for a photoshoot and set up your home for the shoot and also his DEXA numbers.

Listen to the interview here, and please “like” it when you’re done:

Why Weight Lifting Is Just Like Playing Music

Today we have an interview with Johannes Platz who placed 6th in the Open Level 1 category in our latest Adonis Index Contest.

Check out his pictures:

Johannes is Ripped!

Johannes is a musician which requires him to sit for long hours on end during performances and rehearsals.  He was never physically active growing up and combined with his work as a musician he began to experience  issues with back pain which prompted him to pursue more of a fitness lifestyle, specifically weight lifting.

However, Johannes journey into fitness was not without some setback and disappointment.

At first he went to a therapist, who got him to do some basic bodyweight exercises and later on prescribed a weight lifting program consisting of a few exercises of 3 sets with 15 reps.

After six months he saw some decent results.

It wasn’t exactly a complex fitness program, but at least he began to exercise regularly and was able to eliminate his back pain.

Be Aware of Goal Hijacking

When Johannes relocated to to Switzerland; he was away from his therapist and began to seek out a new fitness routine.

He jumped on a few weight lifting programs and got into a decent shape, but he fell victim to the conventional “eat bit to be big” approach.

After a while he realized two things:

  1. He never wanted to be huge like bodybuilders
  2. He gained muscle, but he became “pudgy” in the process

That’s what we call goal hijacking – you have a goal (getting in shape in this case) and you start moving in a right direction, but you fall off track on your way there (ex.: by aiming for the bodybuilder type of look).

The whole purpose of the programs Johannes tried was to get bigger by  gaining a ton of muscle – you know those claims like “gain 30 pounds of muscle over summer” programs.

Even though it worked to a certain degree, he had to prepare and eat meals up to six times a day, which is pretty time consuming, considering the fact he didn’t like the way he looked.

It wasn’t until one day when he discovered new role modes of an ideal shape from images of guys like Taylor Lautner and Ryan Gosling.  From that point, he realized that this is the body shape he wanted to achieve.

Through a few referrals he found Eat Stop Eat, the Anything Goes Diet and lastly the Adonis Index.

He  immediately started following the nutrition advice and doing the workouts.

Eat Stop Eat helped him understand that it’s okay to skip meals and he found it very freeing. Anything Goes Diet was a relief as well because somebody finally told him that he doesn’t have to worry about the food he puts in his mouth, and that there is no evidence of high caloric diet supporting muscle growth.

It even got him into cooking, which is something he never did before!

And once he saw Andrew Peter’s pictures he decided to  jump in and participate in one of the contests and take his physique to the next level.

Tips from Johannes: 

  • If you aren’t exercising. start weight lifting ASAP
  • There are a lot of fitness programs, but none of them are as flexible and simple to follow as Adonis Index (plus this one actually works)
  • Take before and after pictures to really see what amazing progress you have done
  • The little bit of bodyfat you drop can make a huge difference in pictures
  • People start noticing that you are in shape roughly at AI 1.5
  • Don’t compare yourself to others, it’s just your progress, everyone is different from genetic potential standpoint
  • Competitors are often times very genetically gifted and in some cases on drugs, so don’t take their bodies as your ideals
  • There is always someone who looks better than you
  • Be consistent with your effort in the gym
  • Stay in your calorie budget
  • Don’t be afraid of cooking the food yourself

Links from the interview:

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

I found the adonisindex site a while ago, but didn’t buy the program until last summer. Before that I had a long journey going through different fitness programs, but I think I finally found what works best for me (…yours J).

The first time I was searching the web for muscle building I found…Continue reading here

Listen to the interview here, and please “like” it when you’re done:

9 Pounds Muscle Gain Since His Last Contest

Today we have an interview with Vivek who placed 3rd in our latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest.

The topic of this interview is muscle gain and how quickly it can happen.

Check out his pictures:

Make sure you set up good lighting or book a studio for the shoot.

This is the second time Vivek has placed in one of our contests.  To make matters more interesting, this is Vivek’s first year of weight training.

After the first contest, Vivek was very lean, however,  his  muscles were still undefined  and his abs weren’t visible.

For the second contest, he chose to focus on muscle gain; ensuring that any future weight gain would be from muscle and not fat.

He followed the Main AI 3.0 workout for the contest followed  by MBF.  He also recorded his DEXA scan measurements every four weeks to track his progress.  His training efforts  yielded a steady increase of 1-2 pounds  in lean body mass every month during the contest itself.

Vivek’s philosophy was, “you don’t know the change if you don’t know the data.”

Unfortunately, despite Vivek’s progress,  he developed tennis elbow and had to stop training to recover completely.  However, he continued his DEXA scans and observed that there was no change while he was receiving from the elbow issue, which is proof that muscle growth doesn’t occur when your body is resting, but only as a response to training (like some so called “experts” would have you believe).

Your muscles remain in an anabolic state because of the work performed and not your protein intake.

All that matters is the amount of work you did on that muscle group.

With this realization and experience, Vivek decided to do 10 workouts a week. Why? Simply because more work equals more muscle.

For his morning routine, he did the Hyperthrophy and Strength modules from the main workout; in the afternoon, he chose Strength Endurance and Specializations for his weaker areas like abs, chest or hamstrings.

Lots of people do some kind of cardio in the afternoon, however if you take away the health benefits, then you are really doing it for the calorie burning, so why not add some weight training instead since the usual cardio doesn’t stress the muscles?

And the bonus is that you will still get some health and conditioning benefits from the Strength Endurance workouts too, so it’s kind of win-win.

Double the Work, Double the Gains

Vivek doubled the work, made sure he followed the rest periods and took DEXA scans every four weeks to track progress.

Did double the work translated into double gains?

Since we interviewed him a few month after this contest he was prepared to share the results…

And the answer is…YES!

In the first month of doing this he gained 2.9 pounds of lean body mass, he kept doing that for another month and he gained another 3 pounds.

This was after the contest, but still part of his Adonis transformation and the results are just astounding.

And Vivek is not the only one who tried doing the workouts more often, one of our previous contestants Adam Murphy did the same thing.

Now, should you also work out twice a day?

Well, the answer is “It depends”.

If you are just starting out then the regular program as it’s laid out will be more than enough, also if you follow one of the more advanced protocols from the Adonis systems, then you won’t be able to add much more on top of that.

But if you went through the AI workouts at least once and you are familiar with how they work, then you can play with it, and maybe just like Vivek, do two per day instead of one, well at least if your lifestyle allows you to do that.

Ice Cream as Pre-Workout Meal?

Vivek has a pretty unique pre-workout routine. He likes to grab an ice cream, for no other reason than that he enjoys it. Now if we take the regular ice cream that Vivek gets it’s roughly only 150 calories (about two apples worth), so no big deal, but he was driving people nuts in the gym. Imagine everyone pounding protein shakes and pre-workout drinks and then Vivek walking in the gym at less than 6% body fat and ice cream in his hand.

What they didn’t realize was that their shakes probably had more calories than his small ice cream.

The point is, you can eat whatever you want. If you keep some balance in your diet and limit the amount, then there is no reason why you couldn’t have an ice cream before your workout.

Forget about the bad foods goods foods dogma and focus on the basics that really matters.

Take Lots of Photos

Here are a couple more photos of Vivek:

Vivek’s back muscle development over the months.

…And a few more:

Once you are at it and doing the photoshoot, make sure you take some pictures with your casual clothes, those photos can be handy.

Tips from Vivek:

  • “Use the permission to lift light approach”
  • “Make it a goal to stay away from injury”
  • “Lighter weights (still challenging though) in the combination with high reps can help you keep your joints healthy and will improve your strength endurance”
  • “AI approach works, at 38 years old I’m experiencing growth that’s similar to  juvenile muscle growth that only guys in their teens and 20s typically get”
  • “If your lifestyle and fitness condition allows it, train more often”
  • “Stop killing your time in front of TV and get to the gym, it’s a great stress reliever”
  • “Focus on building muscle without gaining fat mass”
  • “The name of the game is TRACKING, if you’re not tracking you’re likely not progressing”
  • “Learn the basics of dressing and body language to present yourself and your new body properly”

Links from the interview:

  • Main AI Workout – Workout protocol responsible for one of them most amazing transformations online
  • “MBF” – Muscle Building foundation is designed to help you gain size and optimize your AI ratio

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

Competing in AT7 was essentially the challenge of increasing muscle mass while still keeping my fat mass low.  I had lost a lot of fat and had very low body fat percentages by the end of AT6. 

I started off with MBF right after completion of AT6, the week after thanksgiving.  Being able to eat at maintenance gave me a lot of energy to give it all I had with MBF.   When I started off MBF, my squat and Bench numbers were relatively low.  However by the end, I had almost doubled…Continue reading here

Listen to the interview here, and please “like” it when you’re done:

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