When starting a fitness/fat loss routine, one needs to establish their ultimate goals, the truth is fitness and fat loss, or more specifically acquiring an amazing physique are not synonymous with one another. Strictly speaking, a 100m sprinter is technically nowhere nearly as fit as an Ultra Marathon runner or a Cross Country Skier, but I would wager that is a damn side healthier with a far more pleasing physique. Some incredibly fit individuals have shockingly average body’s, and I’d even go so far as to say, not pleasing to look at in the least.

There is also an assumption that they are healthier….nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the side effects of these activities include, but not limited to:

Elevated Cortisol (which is immunosuppressive)

Low Human Growth Hormone

Low Testosterone Levels

Elevated C-Reactive Protein

Exposure to ROS (Rogue Oxygen Species)

So are you training to be fit, or are you training for a slamming body? There is a decision to be made. If you want to achieve a beautifully sculpted physique, then you have to follow a protocol which will help you achieve this. And this is where most people lose their way. They take up activities like Switch, Sweat 1000, Barre, Warrior Race, and possibly the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard of, Aerial Yoga! I can only assume they partake in these activities to meet other people, like a quasi-dating agency, because they’ll do exactly NOTHING to change your physique!

A Vox article referenced over 60 studies to show that exercise did very little if anything for fat loss! http://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11518804/weight-loss-exercise-myth-burn-calories So why would the exercise we advocate be any different to any of these? Two reasons, one, is that we focus on food, specifically for the reasons referenced in the Vox articles, your fat loss is mostly driven by a net carbon deficit, and the most effective way of achieving a net carbon deficit is by decreasing carbon intake. Secondly, our goal is to add muscle, and in the case of women who think they’ll get big, NO, we’re talking about replacing fat with muscle, not trying to make you bigger!!! This only happens with progressive resistance, ie. Lifting heavier. Muscle doesn’t get bigger because you lift weights, it get’s bigger when you lift increasingly heavier weights. It will only respond to a stimulus on the threshold of its capacity! Most people train at most, maybe 4 hours a week, maybe a bit more if they’re enthusiastic. There are 168 hours a week, why does anyone think that 4 hours exercise out of 168 hours will make any significant impact. Well, it won’t if you lose muscle by doing cardio based nonsense. However, if you add muscle, you’ll be increasing the size of your engine. This means for the other 164 hours of the week you’ll be burning more fuel doing nothing, simply because bigger engines burn more fuel than smaller engines…….even at idle!

Establishing Goals