โThe photos are quite telling, and at first, I was wondering what trickery you played with them. I didn’t realize how drastic my own results were as I see myself in the mirror every day and forgot where I started.โ
โ
This comment from Phil put a huge smile on my face.
โ
It was also an invaluable insight.
โ
We can get so wrapped up in the day-to-day that itโs easy to forget how far weโve come.
โ
So though usually I only send clients comparison photos of themselves at the end of a cut/bulk phase, Iโll now be sure to do it more often.
โ
I asked Phil, โWhat do you feel was the most valuable part or lesson learned?โ
โ
Phil: โI have worked with trainers before as part of contest prep, both in bulking and cutting phases.
โ
โMuch of their info was consistent with what I had known and believed for years in that you need to eat numerous times throughout the day. โ Preserving mass is best done with pre bedtime meals, and you always want to get post-workout nutrition into your system within 45 minutes to maximize progress.
โSo, when you put me on 3 meals a day, I was expecting to starve (and admittedly it took some time to adjust) and expected to quickly plateau in the gym and have a harder and harder time recovering since we were not using a post-workout shake or doing pre-bed meals to avoid catabolism.
โTo my surprise, I made consistent gains in the gym, and measurements in the naturally lean areas that I already had moved very little during the 14 weeks, telling me that we preserved muscle mass pretty well.
โSo the biggest lesson I learned was I don’t need 7 meals a day to meet my goals.ย It simplified my life a great deal.โ