It gives me great pleasure to share these four client stories because two of them aren’t mine. I had Ken translate every email back and forth between our Japanese clients for three years before letting him coach clients on his own. In hindsight, this may have been an overly lengthy training period, but coaching is not an exact science – you can read books on theory and principles, but there is no substitute for experience.
After having posted over 100 of these in the past this results update has been a long time coming. I hope you enjoy it!
Kosuke’s First Show
Note: You are an individual, your results will vary depending on genetics, adherence, and effort.
Kosuke came to us as a frustrated novice trainee. While it is true that he didn’t really know what he was doing with his training, the issue in his case was a lack of consistency.
People want immediate results, but results are rarely immediately apparent. When people don’t see results, they struggle to justify taking time away from work and family commitments to get the training done. So they keep training inconsistently, which won’t get them a proper training effect, and they quit. It’s a common motivation trap.
Kosuke, recognizing this, forced himself to make the time by taking the rather extreme step of entering himself into a physique competition for the summer. With just five months spare he sought us out for coaching.
This was a serious time constraint and we hesitated about taking him on as a client. The keys to success for him were three-fold:
- Keeping the calorie deficit fairly modest while leaning out. – If we had taken a more aggressive approach we would have compromised his newbie muscle gain potential.
- Setting clear expectations. – He wasn’t going to win the competition, but as long as he knew this it would function as a useful commitment tool without any disappointment at the end.
- Training with long-term progress in mind. – He wouldn’t be showing off his legs for the physique competition, but we didn’t give him the option of skipping leg work. Deadlifts and squats were still included in his training plan. His goal was to be more consistent with his training and feel in control of his physique, not to look good on stage in shorts on any single day. A well-rounded program gave him options for the future should he want to go into powerlifting or bodybuilding instead.
What follows are my translations.
******
Interview
What was your reason for hiring us?
I stopped all exercise and gained a lot of weight (got up to 80kg) when getting a job after graduating. The bloodwork from my annual checkup was bad, so I knew I had to make a change. I did what I think most people do, had a look around the internet and tried what was the most popular method at the time. I lost weight but rebounded.
After seeing some physique competitor’s videos online I realized that I needed to start training instead of only thinking about my diet. I started some bodyweight training at home last year but wasn’t really getting anywhere with it. I decided to join a gym, entered a physique competition then started looking around the internet more serious looking information. I found your site and liked that the principles you write about are heavily science-based, so I reached out for coaching.
What were your thoughts on the process?
I was struck by the simplicity of it. The counting was a lot easier than I thought. My bodyweight dropped fairly steadily, and though I worried about taking a week’s diet break as you instructed part way through, my weight loss continued thereafter.
The gym I go to has a lot of national-level bodybuilders. I remember them commenting that they couldn’t believe I was getting in such good condition while still eating 180g of carbs. All they believe in is cutting carbs and training hard. I was approached and given unsolicited bro-sciency advice every day, and they were incredulous when I ignored it. I explained who I had hired but they weren’t interested.
I had to eat out one day a week with colleagues but I still got down to a very low body fat level. I hardly had any hunger issues, I just needed to be careful about portion sizes with sweets and deep-fried foods.
How do you feel about the results?
The training plan was a relatively low volume, compound movement focussed routine. As everyone around me was training with a very high volume I was worried whether it would be effective. But it turned out to be a good balance between recovery and stress. The competition I entered had 15 people and I placed 11th. My conditioning (bodyfat level) was on point but I lacked size. I’m very happy with this though given my lack of experience. The competition was just a tool to get me to stay consistent with my diet and training. Now I’m looking forward to seeing how much muscle I can put on over the next year with your help.
******
Training details:
- Exercise selection followed the guidelines we covered for you in this article.
- A linear progression model was used, meaning the weight was increased session to session whenever possible, with deloads at any stall points. You can see an example of how to use this here.
Hide’s Story
Interview
What was your reason for hiring us?
I’d tried dieting a few times before but couldn’t get lean enough. The internet is full of nonsense and shortcuts, which is obvious now that I look back on it, but I kept using whatever method was trending and this simply ended in me failing each time. That’s why I reached out for coaching. I wanted to get it right this time and enter my first competition.
What were your thoughts on the process?
I prepared myself for a little stress thinking that learning about macronutrients in foods would be hard, but after some getting used to it was a lot simpler than I thought. It was a nice break to have my training all planned out for me. I was surprised at how simple we were able to keep things.
How do you feel about the results?
I went from 83kg to 69kg at the time of the contest. My Tanita scale estimated me at 7% body fat, though I know these aren’t that accurate. I was called forward three times but I didn’t make the final posedown. It doesn’t matter to me that I didn’t get a placing, I didn’t even think I’d get into good enough condition to compete when I started, so I surprised myself. I got as lean as any of my other competitors, and a trainer friend commented, surprised at my conditioning level this time around, that it was a shame I wasn’t entering any other competitions this year. This felt great!
What are your thoughts looking forward?
After getting properly lean for the first time I’m finally able to see that these are my weak areas. Building my shoulders and back will be my main focus over the coming year.
I have a lot more control over my diet now. Also, I feel that I have a lot more energy for my training than I did prior to when I started dieting. One of the important parts of the coaching for me was that I knew it was all backed up by science, which put my mind at ease. Ths was a great experience, thank you.
******
Training details:
- As with Kosuke, exercise selection followed the guidelines we covered for you in this article.
- A mix of linear progression, linear periodization, and double progression was used given that Hide had more experience than Kosuke. This will be familiar to those that have a copy of The Muscle and Strength Pyramid book.
Doug
152.2 lbs > 142.1 lbs
I’ve got a lot of respect for Doug. He’s a busy family man and successful businessman and there was plenty of travel for work during this time. In short, he had plenty of opportunities to make excuses for himself, but he didn’t. His commitment is unparalleled and I find his continued success in balancing these things inspiring. As of the time of writing this we’re continuing to work together with his bulk, and I’ve been coaching Doug for 8 months.
******
Interview
What was your reason for hiring me?
I was looking for accountability and someone who could take ALL the guesswork out of things and deliver the results I have been chasing for most of my adult life. I bought your books, The Last Shred and The Muscle and Strength Training and Nutrition Pyramids, but I didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
What are your thoughts on the process so far?
I couldn’t be any happier with the process you’ve laid out for me so far. I love the structure of the system and the results do not lie. It’s brilliant, based on data that backs up the results. If you follow the plan you are guaranteed results plain and simple!
How do you feel about the results?
The results are amazing…as I got lower and lower in body fat percentage I felt it became more important to have you by my side to keep me focused. There is so much conflicting and wrong information out there that it is nice to finally have found someone who knows what he is talking about and knows how to deliver the results.
What are your thoughts looking forward?
We are just commencing the bulking phase. I will say bulking is certainly more difficult (for me anyway); because you have to have a completely different mindset than cutting. For most of my adult life I have been wary of over eating, so this process of consistently increasing calories is a paradigm shift for me. I completely trust Andy and have learned more working with him in the last 8 months than the past 8 years by myself. I would highly recommend his services if you are serious about your goals.
******
Training details:
- Doug had a preference for a low variety of exercises in his routine. We used a high frequency, varying intensity, barbell lift focused three-day split. I’ve taken a screengrab of this below.
- You’ll see that ‘RPE’ (a way of autoregulating training intensity) was used. This is explained by Eric Helms and I, here.
- For his bulk Doug said he would like to change things up, so we moved a four-day bodybuilding-style split. Exercise selection has been increased, rep ranges expanded, and volume increased overall to take advantage of the calorie surplus and thus improved response to training.
Doug’s Cutting Routine
For those that have a copy of The Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid, you’ll see the principles of the intermediate powerlifting sample programming (page 154), except that you can see it is contracted over three days, and has a slightly reduced volume overall given that he was cutting. You can get an idea of his bulk routine from the intermediate bodybuilding sample programming section. Be sure to read all of the example program notes (pages 126-150) and progression rules (pages 60-89) prior to jumping in.
Darvinder’s Story
Interview
As a man that’s lost 100lbs over the course of his entire journey (33lbs shown in the pictures), what advice do you have to people with a long journey ahead of them like you had when you started?
Get super clear on why you want to achieve this goal and fully trust the system. This takes a lot of patience and your method of measuring your body and keeping a track of the numbers definitely helps in staying on track even when the weight scale doesn’t show any changes.
Also, if there are a few things causing stress in your life which are not fitness related, give them space to resolve before committing to the routine again. I had to learn it the hard way.
There are going to be many challenges and doubts. Most of those doubts have been clarified on this website (and in the comments section). Your coaching style taught me to do my best to find the answer before reaching out, and most times I was able to find them on my own. This taught me to become independent about my nutrition and training. It is harder to learn how to fish rather than just getting it from someone but it is an investment of time and effort in a life skill that will benefit you forever.
There have been so many times when I caught myself fussing about the minor details and then referring back to the main pyramid and reminding myself – adherence is key! I just focused on the adherence part of the pyramid and I am frankly shocked to see the results especially to have a six pack after doing no cardio or crunches!
I won’t lie, this is a hard thing to achieve, but an awesomely enjoyable ride full of gifts, surprises, self-discovery and growth. I wasn’t the smartest and the most consistent in my approach. Heck, I failed so many times I have lost count, but if I can do it so can anyone else.
Thanks again for all your help. I will forever be grateful. You changed my life! ????
– Darvinder
Training:
We were able to keep Darvinder’s training exceptionally basic. He had been following the training programming on the site prior to becoming a client and was happy to keep things as they were. Just click the training tab and take a look at the three-day split to get an idea.
A huge thank you to these clients for sharing and thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this you can find over 100 others on the results page.
I’ve decided to open up five more online coaching spaces. If you are a serious trainee, looking to put in the work, and interested in professional and detailed coaching, you can find out more about my services here.
Thank you for reading.
– Andy.
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