Summary: Today we have an interview with Johannes Platz who placed 6th in the Open Level 1 category in our latest Adonis Index Contest. Check out his pictures: Johannes is a musician which requires him to sit for long hours on end during performances and rehearsals. He was never physically active growing up and combined with his work as a musician he began to experience issues with back pain which prompted him to pursue more of a fitness lifestyle, specifically weight lifting. However, Johannes journey into fitness was not without some setback and disappointment. At first he went to a therapist, who got him to do some basic bodyweight exercises and later on prescribed a weight lifting program consisting of a few exercises of 3 sets with 15 reps. After six months he saw some decent results. It wasn't exactly a complex fitness program, but at least he began to exercise regularly and was able to eliminate his back pain. Be Aware of Goal Hijacking When Johannes relocated to to Switzerland; he was away from his therapist and began to seek out a new fitness routine. He jumped on a few weight lifting programs and got into a decent shape, but he fell victim to the conventional "eat bit to be big" approach. After a while he realized two things: He never wanted to be huge like bodybuilders He gained muscle, but he became "pudgy" in the process That's what we call goal hijacking - you have a goal (getting in shape in this case) and you start moving in a right direction, but you fall off track on your way there (ex.: by aiming for the bodybuilder type of look). The whole purpose of the programs Johannes tried was to get bigger by gaining a ton of muscle - you know those claims like "gain 30 pounds of muscle over summer" programs. Even though it worked to a certain degree, he had to prepare and eat meals up to six times a day, which is pretty time consuming, considering the fact he didn't like the way he looked. It wasn't until one day when he discovered new role modes of an ideal shape from images of guys like Taylor Lautner and Ryan Gosling. From that point, he realized that this is the body shape he wanted to achieve. Through a few referrals he found Eat Stop Eat, the Anything Goes Diet and lastly the Adonis Index. He immediately started following the nutrition advice and doing the workouts. Eat Stop Eat helped him understand that it's okay to skip meals and he found it very freeing. Anything Goes Diet was a relief as well because somebody finally told him that he doesn't have to worry about the food he puts in his mouth, and that there is no evidence of high caloric diet supporting muscle growth. It even got him into cooking, which is something he never did before! And once he saw Andrew Peter's pictures he decided to jump in and participate in one of the contests and take his physique to the next level. Tips from Johannes: If you aren't exercising. start weight lifting ASAP There are a lot of fitness programs, but none of them are as flexible and simple to follow as Adonis Index (plus this one actually works) Take before and after pictures to really see what amazing progress you have done The little bit of bodyfat you drop can make a huge difference in pictures People start noticing that you are in shape roughly at AI 1.5 Don’t compare yourself to others, it’s just your progress, everyone is different from genetic potential standpoint Competitors are often times very genetically gifted and in some cases on drugs, so don't take their bodies as your ideals There is always someone who looks better than you Be consistent with your effort in the gym Stay in your calorie budget Don't be afraid of cooking the food yourself Links from the interview: Adonis Index Main Workout - Workout program that is responsible for the most amazing transformations online Muscle Building Foundation - Adonis Index workout for building muscle mass
