“I chose to work with Andy because I decided that I wanted a coach. At 44 I had started training at 15 and had kept studying the subjects of exercise and diet ever since. With my frame and genetics I was never going to be Mr Olympia and my focus had been on keeping fit for my hobby of hillwalking in the Scottish mountains. I’d also picked up a few injuries over the years via squats and deadlifts so had been limiting myself to bodyweight moves in recent years.
I still had a desire to be leaner though, just to get my abs. No matter what I’d done in the past I’d never quite got there. Working with Andy gave me a very simple and straightforward template for my diet. Becoming a client also gave me the motivation to stick to the plan and simply to put my trust in what he told me. To be honest I knew all this stuff already, but putting into place this athlete / coach relationship meant that I did not have to worry about what I was doing, whether it was right or wrong. It was his responsibility so I just stuck to it and didn’t mess about swapping from one approach to another. Having a coach took the stress away – I just had to apply the guidelines.
Andy’s take on this way of dieting is so flexible that it becomes easy to apply. Of course you still need to do the work, apply the discipline, but this is not too tough. During the 3 months of the consultancy I lost my Dad and that knocked me off course in some ways, but it was easy to get back on track with the flexible approach that Andy recommends.
Looking back I now have what I have never before possessed – some abs. But I also gained something more important: an understanding of the process and the tools that have got me here. I know where to go next, what to do to get leaner or to add some bulk. All this information is out there – on the interwebs or in Lyle McDonald’s or Alan Aragon’s writing – but believe me it becomes real and simple when you commit to it and become a client. If you are considering taking that step I would certainly encourage you to do so.”
Height: 6’0′′, Age: 44, Weight: 156lbs -> 153lbs, Stomach: 32.7′′ -> 30.1′′
Chris has written about his journey in an article, “Approaching a Ripped Body?” on his website here. Chris has a popular website – Conditioning Research – which was one of Outside Magazine’s top 10 Fitness sites of 2011, is Fitness Correspondent for a popular UK hillwalking / backpacking magazine – TGO – and has written a popular ebook on fitness for hiking – Hillfit.