It was December 23rd, 2017 and I leaned over to pick up a Ledger Nano S and my gut was so big it got in the way and impeded my movement. I had been going non stop looking at crypto and making content about crypto oftentimes eating food from Taco Bell. It was a real low point. Around that time I went to go play basketball and got super out of breath and was a step slow and had no bounce. I weighed myself and it said 223 and I thought the scale was legitimately broken and went to another scale on the other side of the gym and it was confirmed.

223 lb. I was like, "What in the actual FUCK?!?!?" And that wasn't a solid jacked 223 lb. That was a severely Bloated To The CORE 223 pounds. :-(

The point is we can get out of shape extremely fast before we even realize it and getting back in shape is extremely painful mainly because at that point you are going to have to put yourself in a caloric deficit.

In doing that you will feel like you are starving and you will be hungry.

You will see cupcakes and other treats and it will be brutal to stay away from them. Your best bet is to eat clean, drink a lot of water, wear yourself out at the gym by lifting weights and doing something like playing basketball, and sleeping a bunch.

Lifting Vs Cardio

A lot of people make a lot of mistake when trying to achieve their fitness goals. Usually people have a certain person they are trying to look like or a certain physique they are trying to obtain. Oftentimes I see them doing something totally different than what it would take to obtain that look. Before I go any further there are a lot of physiques that aren't obtainable without the use of drugs. I know how to spot these people pretty well. People that haven't lifted a lot or been around athletics get a super skewed perception of what is naturally obtainable.

Here is an example of a physique of someone who is on drugs. This is Bradley Martin who is on performance enhancing drugs but it becomes an unspoken thing and then his whole brand and YouTube channel revolves around being inspirational but in reality he would never pass a drug test for the NCAA or any professional sport. He simply isn't an athlete. Bradley doesn't claim to be natural so at least the lie doesn't go that far. So whether you are a guy or girl you shouldn't shoot for a look that isn't obtainable without drugs unless you are willing to go down that road of spending all the money on performance enhancers and risking the side effects. You don't need that stuff. You can get a good physique naturally it will just take longer.

Back on topic! To have a muscular physique you are going to have to lift weight or use your own body weight in many different ways to build muscle. If you only do cardio all the time like run on a treadmill you are unlikely to get the results you are looking for unless you are training to run distance races and look like a distance runner. That is fine if that is what you are trying to do but if you are trying to look like a sprinter then you have to train like a sprinter.

Sprinter just don't sprint. They do cleans, snatch, plyometrics, squats, lunges.....etc. You can't get that type of muscle structure if they just ran on the treadmill for 30 min a day.

So keep that in mind and be realistic. If you see a physique you are aiming for you can't be super far outside the realm of what a person would have to do to obtain that.

My Go To Exercises To Get Lean / Jacked

• Cleans (Power and Hang) Cleans take so much energy and are a whole body movement that if you are doing enough reps and sets you will break a sweat. That is sort of key when you are trying to get lean but still be powerful. If I just bench press and take a ton of time in between it is unlikely I'm break a real sweat.
• Front Squats - These take so much effort to engage your core and maintain form that they really are a lot of work.
• Pullups - It takes so much energy to do a couple sets of pullups

Everything else like bench, bicep curls, tricep extensions....etc is just high reps and almost going to failure on everything. Like sets of 12 or 15 on bench and just really making my muscles burn. I mainly just try to keep up the intensity and not cool down too much in between exercises when I'm trying to get lean.

If I'm tying to build my power levels way up it is totally opposite. I take a ton of rest in between sets and it is more calculated to ultimately lift larger amounts of weight on a future date.

Can Everyone Have A Six Pack?

Actually the answer is no. People's abs are sometimes configured differently and no matter how lean they get they might not be able to show what people would consider a symmetrical six pack. Also some people's abs never seem to develop as well to really show all the separation. Mine are pretty well developed so I don't have to be super lean to start to show abs. I have seen people who are way leaner than me and weren't showing hardly any definition in their abs. It was more like they had a flat stomach but not a six pack.

George Rush St. Pierre is a good example of someone who is lean with abs but he doesn't have the symmetry that you would typically expect.

It is an odd subject for sure because you would think in general people's abs would be fairly similarly laid out. Also race doesn't seem to matter when looking for the symmetrical six pack configuration. The symmetrical configuration seems to exist in all races of people around the world.

The only way you can find out if you can have a six pack is to get that lean for them to show up. A lot of people have never been that lean in their lives to see any kind of ab structure show through.

How Low Does Your Body Fat Percentage Have To Be?

There is no definitive answer for this. There are all kinds of misconceptions about what people's body fat percentages are. I used to actually think my body fat percentage was 7% based on skin fold test which aren't accurate. In the after picture above I could be anywhere from 12% to 16% if I had to guess but the only way to really know is to do a DEXA scan. I have never had one of those. Now some of you might be shocked that I'm saying that is 12%-16% but even though I'm fairly lean where I have some vascularity I'm not really shredded like I would be if I tried to dehydrate myself or something.

That is more of an athletic weight. The lowest I have weighed in at is 208 lb and I'm 6' tall. 205 to 210 seems to be a pretty good athletic weight for me. If I tried to cut down more I would feel scrawny and I would probably be dehydrated and just pull a muscle trying to play basketball.

The X Factor

When I work out real hard I have to sleep a lot. Sometimes 10 and even 12 hours. During that time I don't eat so I'm not stuffing myself full of cupcakes. I also drink tons of water. I don't force myself to drink water I just always feel like I'm thirsty especially here in Arizona where it is so dry.

My resting heart rate is only 36 beats / minute so when I sleep I'm more in a coma state. I honestly think that if my body only required 6 hours of sleep that I wouldn't be as lean because usually if I have too much food around the house I'm always grazing on something before I realize that I just ate 7 granola bars in the course of 20 minutes. So I try not to keep as much food at the house. If I'm asleep I can't eat the little bit of food around. No fun right? Honestly sometimes it isn't. If you have to go in a caloric deficit it can be painful. I'm not going to pretend it isn't.

Really when it comes down to it I'm more concerned about athletic performance and I know what weight my body is powerful, explosive, and quick. Once I feel that slipping usually the way my body looks is slipping as well.

Good luck in your fitness goals. I hope this post helped!

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