Adonis Index Systems

Today we have an interview with Kidafi Byer who placed 2nd in the Open Level 2 Category in the latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures: Kadafi is no newbie to weight training or to the Adonis Index Lifestyle. He has been with us for a while now. And this wasn't his first Adonis Index contest either. From last contest he successfully maintained his fitness and even managed to gain a bit of lean muscle mass without putting any fat mass on, if anything he got more ripped! And that was exactly the point - get in shape with one or two contests and use the next one to find out how to maintain your body and get even more ripped. Decide, Plan, Act When Kidafi saw Allen Elliott's winning pictures in one of the contest he knew he would be a worthy opponent and that it will be hard to beat him. He decided to take his time to strategize, prepare and then put in as much effort as he could into building the Adonis physique for the contest. This time he wasn't fasting very often, just a few times in the last four weeks prior the contest. Rather than fasting he used the Reverse Taper Diet principles and tapered his calories up towards the end of the contest. In his diet he didn't change anything, he ate pretty much exactly what he did last time, just a bit more since he wasn’t really cutting much. And that’s what you can expect to happen. If you’ve been eating too much in the past and gained a bit of fat, then you need to start eating less. However, once you lose the fat and you get lean you can slowly increase your calorie intake closer to your maintenance. At this point dieting becomes super hard and cutting is a really big challenge. Basically your body will have very little fat stored and it will force you to eat more calories more often. This is why fasting at 8% bodyfat it's almost impossible. Can You Take the Pictures Yourself or Do You Have to Pay for a Photographer? For the photoshoot itself Kidafi recommends having someone else take the pictures. You can either have a friend/spouse take it or pay for a professional photoshoot. A lot of our contestants like to schedule the professional photoshoot, because it helps you with accountability and also gives you a clear deadline to shoot for. And since you are going to put a lot of effort into all this, you might as well capture it professionally and have the pictures for life. However, a professional shoot is not necessary to win a contest. We've had quite a few people take amazing pictures at home or on the beach. Kidafi's pictures are great and he did them by himself! Just realize that taking pictures is an art and there is a whole niche of photographers who specialize in fitness, so don't be surprised when your pictures aren't magazine cover quality when you take them yourself. But why would you even take the pictures? Well, even if you are not comfortable taking pictures right now, that will change once you get in shape. It's worth getting a real photoshoot to really see what you got. Kidafi's Approach for Building the Adonis Physique This time around Kidafi didn't care about his weight. His goals were to get a bit leaner, gain more muscle if possible and generally have more of a "fuller" look while remaining injury free. He is not the biggest guy in the gym, he is not the heaviest, but he is ripped and he loves the look. Apart from the fact that weight is irrelevant and doesn't tell the whole story, if you weigh yourself on a daily basis it's guaranteed to mess with your head. There simply aren't any big changes you're going to see day to day besides water fluctuations. In his workout Kidafi shifted from lifting heavy to concentrating more on the lifting technique. He gave himself  permission to lift light and focused on the squeeze and tension of his muscle contractions instead of just lifting heavy weights up and down. The feeling after the workout was very satisfying,

Today we have an interview with Andrew Tullio who placed 3rd in the Open Level 2 Category in the latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures: Andrew had to re-think everything. He had to figure out a new way to eat and what would be the best time to have each meal. He was always used to have big meals. He was never a fan of working on eating smaller portions. However, when you eat three times a day, it might not be a such a good habit to have, because it's very easy to eat too much food. Most people can get away with eating one big meal, some can even get away with two big meals, but almost no one can eat three large meals every day, and still be lean. And this need to figure out a new way of eating is not the first time we've heard about it. It's actually a recurring theme. It's great if you have figured out how to lose fat and you've got lean. However, if you also want to STAY lean, you have to figure out a whole new way to eat to maintain your new body. If you start overeating or get back to your old eating habits you will start gaining fat quickly and you will erase all your progress in a matter of weeks. There are three basic ways of eating: The one that gets you overweight The one that makes you lose fat The one that you need to learn to keep your new lean body Since the old habit Andrew had wouldn't help him lose weight and keep it off, he had to do some thinking. At this point he only knew how to eat to gain weight and how to eat to lose weight, but nothing in between. He had to figure out how to eat in a balanced way so he would stay lean all year round. He tried a few things that mostly revolved around having multiple meals and just counting the calories. However, like he told us, it was just too much counting and he couldn't enjoy the big meals he loved. Then, he figured it out. What really worked for him was having one big meal at the end of the day. This way he would stay in a deficit, because there is only so many calories you can eat at one sitting. and he didn't have to count calories, so it was a win-win. Now Andrew doesn't have to count anything, he doesn't worry about maintenance or gaining weight. It's all taken care of with one meal a day. He can still eat big with just a small compromise on his part. But is it really that big of a compromise? Sometimes he might allow himself a snack, but usually he just eats a big dinner. Snacks are good, if you can keep the calories in check (think of fruit as a perfect low cal, but tasty snack). The issue with snacks is that most people snack on high calorie options and they don't stop at just one. Another issue is that the moment you start eating, your appetite goes up and you will want to eat more. FYI this is one of the reasons why eating breakfast is NOT a good idea. Why One Meal a Day Works and What It Can Do for You? Assuming you already understand the benefits of intermittent fasting, eating one meal a day has a bit more to it as well. Not having to count calories You can have snacks if you limit the frequency and the amount You can enjoy the weekends a bit more You can eat "normally" at some unexpected social eating event, because you are in a slight deficit You can eat a really big meal every day! You can finally focus on something different than food during your day - that's the productivity cure you were looking for the whole time You will have more energy during the day and you won't feel tired as a result of eating every three hours Andrew would have a big meal and small piece of chocolate with it almost every single day. What other diet will allow you to have chocolate every day? Not that many, right? Obviously you have to choose the right foods, you can't eat nothing but cake, but still it doesn't have to be "clean" by the conventional fitness standards. You really can have chocolate or pizza if you want.

It's no secret that I believe in training for shape and proportion vs training for massive size and bulk. I've been down the 'bulking' road in my younger days and although I was strong it also left me fat and totally out of shape for years. Looking back it seems like such a waste of time...so many years spent out of shape. Even though it took me a while I eventually figured it out and learned that it's just not possible to 'big' your way through life. It's been years since then and the Adonis Index system and philosophy is how I transformed myself and my entire approach to working out, 'fitness' whatever that means, and what it means to be 'in shape'. We've got solid metrics that are rooted in science and art history and have proven to be applicable for everyone. This goes for both people on our system as well as people who aren't necessarily following our system. The point is you can build a golden Adonis Index ratio more than one way. The workout programs I've built are my best shot with what I know about program design to get you to your golden AI as quickly as possible. But workout design is an art form, almost like composing music. You can make an infinite number of songs while still using the same selection chords, musical scale, instruments, notes, keys etc. The only thing that limits what can be produced is the imagination of the artist. The same thing goes with working out. Even though there are a finite number of exercises, set and rep schemes, and number of workouts you could possibly do in a week, there is almost a limitless number of ways to combine them into a workout that will get you to your goal...as long as the workout designer has their eye on the same prize. Enter Scott Tousignant. He's an artist with his eye on the same prize. A perfectly proportioned body. Scott has been a friend of ours for a while now and he's is very familiar with all things Adonis Index. He has a very similar outlook on what has gone wrong in the diet and fitness industry and how a mindset shift towards proportion, shape and maintaining a low body fat level is the real goal for working out. We both agree that the 'get big at all costs' mindset is fading and for good reason...it looks terrible. Setting a bodyweight goal, or a maximum strength goal, or any other performance or overall size metric is all secondary to the true answer we're all looking for...and that is a perfectly proportioned body for our height. In todays podcast Scott and I talk about working out and the mindset shift that must take place to start training for proportion and shape instead of overall bulk and size. Scott is living proof that there is more than one path to a golden Adonis Index ratio. He designs his own workouts and used them to get into the shape in the above pictures in this post. He's lean, muscular and has a golden Adonis Index ratio. Thats just about as good as it gets. So would I ever do Scott's workout? You bet, in fact I need to do other workouts just to get out of my head. Let me explain: If you've ever built workout programs for clients or for athletes/teams it can become very mentally exhausting to follow your own workouts for too long. I become very hypercritical of how my workouts feel, if something should be upgraded, or tweaked or modified. I actually have a very hard time following my own workouts without being somewhat stressed about them as I want them to be perfect. This is of course irrational as there is no such thing as a 'perfect workout' but nevertheless this is what ends up happening to me when I follow my own program for too long. I get caught up in my own head and struggle to 'just do it'. This is something that everyone who follows Adonis Index workouts can do with an AI workout...except me! I use Scott's workouts as part of my ongoing workout cycling to allow myself the freedom to go to the gym and 'just do it' for a while without analyzing my own workouts.

Today we have an interview with Allen Elliott who won the Open Level 2 category in the latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures: Allen is kind of our lifetime achievement winner. Whatever contest we threw at him, he won it. Improving and...

Today we have an interview with Jeremy Inabnit who placed 2nd in our latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest. Check out his pictures: And here is one more: Jeremy was working in California and had a pretty good job. As things started to spiral down in 2006 he decided to sell some stuff and travel. He was tired of his lifestyle and of working for less and less money. This desire to travel lead him to some amazing placed like Kenya or Republic of Georgia. He traded one lifestyle for another. As he was changing his lifestyle and overall approach to life, he also began searching for ways to improve his diet and training. This lead him to Eat Stop Eat, which he incorporated almost instantly and shortly afterwards to Adonis Index. He didn't jumped right into the program and instead just started listening to the podcasts. At that time he was still following his old workout routine, but searching for a better, more efficient way of training. After listening to dozens of the Adonis Index podcasts he realized that this is the right choice for him. And he decided to give the workouts a shot. He was teaching, doing volunteer work, was constantly around tasty food and thought he wouldn't be able to follow the program. But he decided to stop making excuses and jump right in, and the rest is history. Small Sacrifices Can Lead to Big Benefits Jeremy actually competed in AT6, but he didn't like the pictures, so he didn't submit them. He worked on improving his approach and entered AT7. For AT7 he used the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle and fasted a few times a week and followed the Adonis Index 3.0 program with some specializations. What was really interesting was his diet. Jeremy decided to become a vegan and he stayed vegan during the whole AT7 contest. This is a big one, because most people would think that not eating meat, eggs and all the usual sources of protein would lead to strength and muscle loss, but if anything Jeremy GAINED muscle. And as you can see on his pictures he is far from skinny. So, if you were curious whether you can be a vegetarian or vegan and still pack on some muscles and get ripped, well the answer is yes, you can. As stated in Brad Pilon's book How Much Protein, you really don't need that much protein in your diet as some fitness marketers would have you believe. From research we know that once you are above the average intake it just doesn't make any difference. Jeremy wasn't concern with his protein intake during the whole time, why? Well, why would he...he wasn't feeling weak. Quite the opposite and he liked what he saw in the mirror, so there wasn't any need for him to worry about protein at all. What we are also getting from research is that as you progress in the gym and gain more experience, your body actually becomes efficient at how it's using protein. As a result you will need less of it, not more. Quite contrary to the conventional bodybuilding myth huh? What Jeremy also noticed is that not only he could continue building muscle while being vegan, but he even lost cravings for all the sweet stuff. And that's huge, because this just proves that you can condition yourself in or out of food cravings. Test this yourself, try eating a donut every morning at 9am for 30 days. At day 31 stop and write down how you feel about not having your regular donut. Chances are you will want that donut and will do anything to get it. Jeremy freed himself from cravings by being a vegan. He threw in some protein shakes just to keep the protein intake in check. You would think that's already more than enough changes and "sacrifices" to make even more. Well, he made one more. Jeremy completely eliminated alcohol intake. This is something most people are not willing to give up. What you eat is your personal choice and no one should tell you otherwise (just limit the amount), so even if you enjoy steaks and ribs, that's fine. However,

Today we have an interview with Todd Burgette who placed 4th in the latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest. Check out his pictures: Todd is 6 foot tall and was 240 pounds. He lost 60 pounds over the course of 14 weeks. That's a pretty big...

Today we have an interview with Robert Robinson who placed 4th in the Transformation category in the latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures: You would say that a 30 year old guy who works in a lab and is getting a job as a teacher AND planning for his wedding in his spare time will be pretty busy (and maybe too busy) with his life to be concern with getting in shape or even entering a fitness contest. As impossible as it sounds Rob proved to us again that it can be done, no matter how busy you are and how stressful your life is. Rob told us that contrary to what we would guess, a busy life provides structure and it's actually easier to get things done when you have very little free time. You may have noticed this yourself, that on some days when you have a lot of work, and need to get your workout done, you are really productive, because you have so much planned out, you have to keep going until it's all finished, no laziness or looking for ways to kill time - productivity only. Most people would consider being 'busy' as an excuse and would complain about how they have no time to go to the gym or eat properly. Not Rob, he saw an opportunity in this (that's the spirit!). Before we dig into his approach, let's look at his diet and training history (expect some interesting stuff). Everyone Expected Rob to Be Big for the Rest of His Life Believe it or not, but at one point Rob was 300 pounds! He was big, but like he said he wasn't big like bodybuilders, he was big and overweight. Back then he didn't think about the look of his body and since it didn't affect his work, he didn't concern himself with it. He loved Arnold's movies, so he thought being big is a good thing. It was also sort of expected from his family. Then he had a moment when he visited a friend of his who had Arnold's encyclopedia of bodybuilding. After reading it and going through the pictures he realized that he doesn't look the way he wants or should and he needs to change. Using some diet approaches he found on the internet he got down to 216 (from 300) and basically lost 80 pounds in six months (pretty impressive). And then he stalled at that point for a while. After some time he got even further down to 180 pounds, but he wasn't sure what was causing the results. Which is pretty interesting, because even though he managed to lose that much weight he was still afraid of gaining the weight back...this is because everyone who lost weight he knew always gained it back. At first he thought that just because he was eating a diet low in carbohydrates he was losing fat. Later  after finding Adonis Index he realized that what really caused his massive weight loss was a reduction in calories, combined with a drastic increase in activity, and most importantly - consistency in these two areas over time. He lowered calories somewhat unintentionally since he though that carbs are the bad guy or he would do hours of activities and not realize hoe many calories it was burning. Being Big vs. Being Ripped Rob was glad he lost all that weight, however like he said he was skinny-fat, he had (in his words) "no muscles at all" at that point. At the beach when he would take off his shirt, he would just be smooth with no muscle definition. He was low in bodyweight, but not satisfied with his physique, he simply didn't look the why he envisioned for himself. This is further proof that there is a huge disconnect from how you look and what the scale says. People don't understand this concept and get scared as soon as the scale number gets low (in their opinion). The truth was that Rob never focused on developing any muscle mass, so it doesn't come as such a surprise when you think about it. We are so culturally focused on the number on the scale, but completely ignore the "quality" or the "whole picture" that makes up the look and health of our body.

Today we have an interview with Adam Murphy who placed 4th in the Open Category Level 1 in the latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures: Today Adam looks at training and lifting differently, they are two different terms. Before fin...

Today we have an interview with Matt Misiurak who won 5th place in our recent Adonis Index Transformation Contest. Check out his pictures: Matt has been with Adonis Index for a while, he even placed in the AT3. In just 11 weeks he lost 35 pounds. He got to a bodyweight of 162 pounds and lost 9 inches on his waist going from 42 to 33 inches. However, despite making the transformation, he gained the fat back and got all the way back up to 190 pounds. This was as he puts it "pretty bad", he knew something was obviously missing in his mindset. And here is the thing, having a great body is not an outcome or final destination, it's not a point in time, but rather it's the result of a continuous effort. It simply has to become a part of your lifestyle. Now, this doesn't mean you have to eat six meals a day, weighing your food, doing two hours of cardio in the morning and working out for three hours in the afternoon. If you are not preparing to compete and step on a live stage you never need to go to those extremes. However, here is the truth, getting in shape is a process not a destination and not only that, but it has to be a lifestyle. This is why we preach flexible and long-term sustainable options, here are a few of them: Intermittent routine periodic fasting Low calorie weekdays as a way to 'bank' calories for weekends 3-5 workouts a week on average Focusing on flexibility, balance and freedom in your diet ...and choosing these options over the more inflexible and obsessive patterns like carb cycling or macronutrient optimizing, and obsessing over good vs bad food lists. Our system is meant to get you in shape while still having a life worth living! Matt learned the hard way that getting in shape is only the first step. The second step is all about figuring out how to stay in shape. You have to continue working out, keep progressing, finding  new goals and new ways of balancing your life with your fitness. When he saw the 190 pound mark on the scale he realized that for the past few months he was moving backwards in his life and that needed to change. In your life you must move forward to feel satisfied, happy and fulfilled. There needs to be constant improvement, you have to strive for a better life in order to enjoy it no matter where you currently are...we can all do a little bit better each day if we choose to. "I Always Wanted a Six-Pack, At 29 I Finally Have It!" What Matt did to start moving forward again was "shadowing" one of the contests we had at that time to get back in shape. He decided not to compete officially, because he was afraid of taking it too extreme and rebounding again. Everything was going well, so he entered the AT7, well the results are amazing. Here is one more picture: This time Matt took a much more sustainable approach and changed his body for good and lives the Adonis Lifestyle. And that's what this is about. The goal is to get in shape and STAY THERE. Stop looking for excuses and start finding reasons why you can do it and why you deserve to have the AI body. If It's Something You Wanted to Achieve Your Whole Life, Why Haven't You Done Anything About it? Sometimes you get caught up before you get started. Matt talks about asking yourself 6 basic question to determine what to do to achieve your goals and have the life you want, here they are: When - It should always be RIGHT NOW! What - Build a great shape Why - Why do you want to get in shape? What will it change in your life? Where - Where ever you are RIGHT NOW Who - Yourself, YOU will always be the priority in your life How - Eat less, follow the AI workouts and train consistently This will sound way to simple and stupid to most people, but if you take a few minutes and really think about the answers you will be much clearer on what should you do next. Once you find answers to all these questions you will understand why you want to achieve your goal.

Today we have an interview with Carl Thomson who placed 5th in the Open Level 1 Division in our latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures: At the beginning Carl was like most of the guys, he was skinny and wanted to put on some muscles. He went on the web and found a local gym. Over the years he tried several different programs, but his upper body shape remained unchanged. But this wasn't everything. Carl also did a powerlifting workout program, where he was supposed to progress every week on his bench press and squats, having a specific weight target he needed to hit workout after workout. Considering the fact that Carl could squat 395 pounds and deadlift 440 pounds at the age of 14 he was a bit inclined towards the powerlifting type of training. He is also 5 foot 4, so his height is ideal for this sport as well. However, after a couple of weeks, he couldn't even fit into his jeans, his legs were huge. He started researching some ways to measure his legs, so he could buy more fitting jeans. And searching for measurements and proportions he ended up at the Adonis Index website. Why Adonis Index Style Is the Way to Train What Carl really liked was the fact that the main workouts were mostly dumbbell based thus easy to do and he wouldn't have to wait for equipment in his overcrowded gym. The powerlifting program he was using was very difficult to do, because if he didn't get to the gym early he wouldn't be able to get his exercises done. And like he said the workouts were fantastic. The phase he enjoyed the most was the strength endurance and the progression to hypertrophy of the main module. After a couple of weeks his body shape finally started to change in a way that he wanted. Carl realized that powerlifting isn't his primary goal, but rather having a good looking body is. Shortly after reading the Adonis Index and experiencing the change he realized that there are different body shapes you can get yourself into. Think about it for a while. Just by working out in a specific way you can change the way you look and completely transform your body shape. Just think of the various shapes in the different sports you see like cycling, swimming, tennis, soccer, sprinting, marathons, football, hockey...every player of those sports has a characteristic body shape that is defined by their sport. HOWEVER, the important factor is that they look the way that is best for their performance in that given sport! Swimmers have really developed shoulders, rowers have well developed backs, marathon runners are extremely lean and have less muscle than the average person, however this undersized body helps with their run performance. Do you see the point? Those physique's are all performance based! At no point have I mentioned whether the physique looks good or not. Your form is built by your function, so you must choose your function wisely. And this is an important thing to realize. Carl did both powerlifting, and endurance training for marathons, but the training he loved most was physique training with the Adonis Index. And that's the question. Do you want to be an athlete and allow your function to dictate your form or train for a specific look and have the lifestyle that goes along with a good looking, healthy body? If so, then the training isn't the goal, the outcome, your body shape is. It only makes sense to focus on improving what looks the best, which is a muscular, lean body with a dominant V-taper shape (perfect AI ratio). Once you are on this path and aiming for the perfect V-taper, you will see some amazing changes, your body will transform and people will act differently around you. And once you build a solid body shape you can also focus on your lagging muscle groups or even stop training those muscles that are already well-developed. For example Carl will never have to train his calves or thighs very much from now on, take a look:

Today we have an interview with Ross Goldsack who won the Open category level 1 in the latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures: Ross looks great and he was really happy with his look and how the pictures turned out. Here's one more: Ross has a very common story and experience with fitness. A few years ago he decided to work on his physique and started going to the gym with his buddies and also started consuming fitness information, mainly the fitness magazines. The workouts became a habit and he was really enjoying them. And like everyone else in this position he naturally wanted to improve, so he progressed into reading bodybuilding magazines and started reading more about various ways to build more muscle and lose fat. However, he felt victim to the traditional fitness advice and made a lot of mistakes. Let's discuss a few of them. Mistake No.1 Consuming Lots of Fitness Information Fitness industry is full of companies making billions in revenue. The goal isn't to get you in shape though. The goal is to continuously have you buying their products. And as a result, you start to feel that you absolutely have to get the new magazine, full of the latest tips that nobody knew about four weeks ago, or the new "functional workout" protocol, or the new protein supplement that just came out promising those amazing gains in the first three weeks... and we could go on and on. If you have been in this industry for a while, you are probably overwhelmed by all the fitness information and various approaches. At this moment you should take a completely different approach. You should detach yourself from the fitness industry and focus on doing the simple things that will get you the most results. Mistake No.2 Comparing Yourself to Bodybuilders One of the biggest mistakes Ross made at this early stage of fitness, before finding Adonis Index, was going through the bodybuilding magazines and comparing himself to the photos in them. The issue with this magazines is that they are full of pictures of professional bodybuilders. With the transformation contests here at Adonis Index, you'll get pictures that can be compared with fitness covers, because we give advice on how to make yourself look bigger or leaner by posing, show more muscle definition with a tan or water deplete. However, comparing yourself to bodybuilders is a bit ridiculous if you are not willing to take the "extra" mile. Yes, that would mean taking steroids. If you are not taking anything beyond supplements, why are you comparing yourself to guys, who inject themselves with stuff you have never heard about and in a dose that would scare off a horse? Mistake No.3 Doing the Bulking & Cutting Stuff A few years back Ross got caught in the conventional bulking and cutting approach. Ross got to a point where he would weigh about 210 pounds. He could fill out a large shirt, but still not have the look he desired. Like he said, he looked like crap. He was feeling bigger, but fatter. And no surprise, because what he gained was all fat, he was basically trying to eat his way up to bigger muscles, which is a bit ridiculous and biologically impossible. There is nothing wrong with being big in a shirt, but most guys will probably prefer looking good shirtless than in a shirt. So, what will it be shirt on big and shirt off fat or shirt on fit and shirt off ripped? Make a choice. FYI when Ross did the cut down and lost the fat, he lost the exact amount of weight he gained during the bulking phase. So, he went through the misery of gaining fat and losing it again all for nothing, muscle mass as we would expect did not change at all. What's the point of that? Slowly Re-Focus on Building a Natural Body After finding Adonis Index through Eat Stop Eat, Ross started listening to all of the podcasts and reading every article at Adonis Index he could get his hands on.

Today we have an interview with Phil who won the latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest. Check out his pictures: Phil started lifting weights after graduation, he didn't think he had favourable genetics, but he had the "hard work genes" a...

Today we have a very special interview with Vaclav Gregor, he's agreed for us to refer to him as Greg. Some of you might recognize him from a previous contest. Greg is now a member of the Adonis Index team and works with the Brad's and I to keep the AI...

Today we have an interview with John Jordan who placed 2nd in the latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest. Check out his pictures: John's transformation was quite impressive and he has a reason to be happy and proud of himself. At first he wasn't sure what to expect, but since he worked out really hard, followed his diet plan and did everything he could to show his hard work in his photos he placed second in the transformation contest. And it's absolutely natural to have doubts about your progress and not be sure how you are going to end up. Especially if you have never done anything like this and you really have no idea how well you will look once you lean out and get a tan. The only way to find out is to do your best, take the pictures and see. You can't really tell a lot at the beginning, you may start seeing some minor changes about a midway through, however most people see the results right at the end in the final week. And if you don't have much to go, maybe just a couple of pounds to lose, build a bit of muscle and basically get photoshoot ready, you won't necessarily notice any changes on daily basis. You see yourself in the mirror all the time and those daily changes will be subtle and require patience on your part. ...But when you take the final pictures after 12 weeks that's when you get blown away by the overall change. One of the few metrics or tracking tools you've got that can help you determine whether you are building more muscle or not is an increase in strength. Strength usually comes first followed by a change in the size/shape/look of your body. You can be strong without necessarily gaining more muscle at first. Gaining strength means that you are on the right track and will ultimately translate into visibly more muscle mass. John says he didn't feel any change at the midway point of the contest...then he noticed some really good strength improvements in the gym. That feeling of strength helped him stay the course and push through to the end of the contest. The Illusion of Being Bigger How many pounds did John gain? Not how many pounds of muscle, but how much heavier do you think he is in his after pictures? Really...pick a number before reading any further, you might be surprised by the actual answer. So, how much do you think? 10, 15 pounds? And remember we are talking overall weight, not muscle alone. Well, whatever number you had in mind, it was wrong. Why is that? Because he didn't gain any weight, not a pound. John actually lost several pounds to get to this shape. That being said, it doesn't mean he didn't gain any muscle at all. The point is that to look really good, you need to gain only few pounds of muscle, not 20 or 30 like some supplement claims say, which in most cases is impossible without any pharmaceuticals. A few pounds of real muscle gained in the right places and in the right proportion will make an incredible difference. Most people don't even realize how much or how big one pound of muscle can actually be or look like. Little note, next time you go to a grocery store, take a pound of steak and put it next to your arm to really see this. Once you see that that pound is the size of your whole biceps you will understand that expecting to gain 30lbs of muscle is a bit ridiculous and the only people that can gain so much are in their teens or early 20's and have never worked out before. And since John got totally shredded he had to lose several pounds. Without boring you with the math now, when you'd calculate this he actually LOST WEIGHT to get to the shape in his after pictures...even though he looks significantly bigger and most muscular. This is the illusion of leanness and well-proportioned muscles. Once you get in shape and really lean...six pack lean, when other people will see you without your shirt they will constantly guess that you weigh more than you do.

Today we bring you an interview with Kerry Hopkins who placed  6th in the latest Adonis Index Transformation Contest. Check out his pictures: Kerry started working out when he was 16. However, his workouts lacked any structure and it was just about working out rather than really training. And there is clearly a difference between just showing up in the gym and lifting some weights compared to going there with a specific goal, a good workout plan, and training with some dedication. Unfortunately most guys in the gym usually end up chatting with other people, boosting their ego on the bench press and pumping their 'mirror muscles'. For Kerry it was always about doing just a few sets here and there two times a week. And after a while due to a lack of motivation he stopped going to the gym all together. ...Then He Found Adonis Index For about a year Kerry was reading all the blog posts and listening to all the podcasts here at the Adonis Index, because he loved the science behind it and the simple approach. Everything made sense to him. However, it still took him a year to really get on board and take action. It wasn't until he saw some previous contest winners that he realized he needs to take action...just reading about this won't be enough. And this is really important, if you don't take action based on what you read about then you can't expect any results, can you? Let's make a quick test. Do you know when you've actually learned something? Little hint, learning is not just accumulating knowledge. You haven't learned anything if you can just cite pages from a book, it's when you change your behavior and take action on that knowledge. You learn when you change your habits, take action, start acting differently and put the theory in practice. After a year of working out Kerry noticed that not much had changed, so he decided to take action. He tried the contest and was unsuccessful due to a few set backs, he didn't even bother submitting pictures, because he knew he didn't change. He made several mistakes like following the advanced Adonis Index workout the Triple Stack while he was on a very low calorie diet. As a result he got burnt out after a month. That's when Kerry learned that you can't pull off a big caloric restriction when you are already pretty lean while following a really challenging and tough workout. He decided to get back to AI 3.0, which he found worked the best to cut and build at the same time. Kerry fasted once or twice a week, had just a coffee in the morning maybe with a piece of chocolate. Later on he would eat half of the dinner with his family and that would be it for the day. And then on the weekends since it was easier to overeat while he was out eating and drinking with his friends, he would eat back up to maintenance. He just didn't want to sacrifice his social life, so he decided to save his calories during the week and enjoy his weekends with his friends. The point is to have a social life and still look good. Then after 12 weeks he took the after pictures and just couldn't believe what he saw. And here's the thing, in a mirror you can see some new lines and may notice some improvements along the way. Day to day you will seem to look pretty much the same and it's hard to tell how much you've really changed. However, when you put the before and after pictures side by side that's when you can actually see a big difference. Kerry is around 9% bodyfat (just a guess) and like he said the model body doesn't seem unattainable anymore. It's just about building a bit more muscle. As long as he is consistent with the workouts the muscle will continue to come. Since he still has juvenile muscle growth on his side he can build some significant muscle mass over the next few years. Luckily for him he found Adonis Index early on in his life and was spared all of the crap like bulking and cutting,