How a Busy Financial Executive Lost 15 Pounds of Fat and 4.5 Inches While Gaining Time and Energy After Switching from Circuit Training to the World’s Most Powerful Fat Loss System Strength & Intervals
Andy W is another strengths and gaps success story. A busy financial executive, Andy has made major changes to his workout and lifestyle. Like many, Andy was frustrated by the lack of results before finding strengths and gaps. But with his new lifestyle, he has transformed his body just like you.
Plus, Andy has taken a huge step towards a massive career change. Soon, he would be one of the most sought after trainers in the UK. With my help, Andy has begun learning strength and interval systems to help his clients lose fat and gain muscle with quick, effective workouts.
Here’s Andy’s success story.
CB: Let’s start with a little background information, Andy. What were you trying to achieve when you got to strengths and gaps?
Andy W.:
Hi Craig, I am currently working as an Associate Director for a finance company here in the Isle of Man. It’s a fancy title for a job that keeps me stuck at my desk for long hours and brings with it a lot of stress.
I’m 35 and have always been relatively active. I make time to go to the gym 2-3 times a week and as you know I am currently pursuing a new career as a fitness consultant in my spare time. I have a keen interest in nutrition as I have been resistance training for the past 15 years with little or no results and have been incorporating most of the food I was eating at the time.
CB: So what are your current thoughts on the importance of nutrition for fat loss?
AW:
I see nutrition as a major role in getting the results you want and often tell my personal training clients that they don’t put low-grade fuel in their cars, so why should they fuel their bodies with low-grade processed foods.
Anyway, I learned a lot from my personal trainer exams and one mistake I was making was that my gym sessions were all machine-based exercises. I remember reading an article in Men’s Fitness magazine that I should focus on free weights and body weight exercises to get the results I wanted.
With limited time to exercise, I searched the net for a time-efficient resistance-based workout program and luckily came across your website.
CB: What were your pre-training stats?
AW:
When I first approached you for advice on the best workout for me, I weighed 81 kg (i.e. 178.2 lbs) and had 23% body fat. I am 6 feet tall. My waist had shrunk to 37 inches!
It was a vacation photo of me looking like a whale on the beach that made me suddenly realize I had to take action because I was on my way to my father and grandfather’s. Believe me, it’s not a good look, not a bad one, Dad!
CB: What were your workouts before? Why didn’t they work too? How have those workouts improved strength and intervals?
AW:
Before strength and intervals my workouts were completely machine based.
My local gym uses Nautilus machines and the training protocol they market is a full body machine-based workout 2-3 times a week. It consists of a circuit of 8-12 exercises and you do 1 set of each exercise and try to do 8-12 reps of each exercise. The idea is to move straight through each exercise with little or no rest in between.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it can be a safe and effective form of exercise for those relatively new to training and since it can last 20-25 minutes each session, it’s proving popular in gyms.
The problem I found was that since the machines isolate the particular muscle you are working, I would experience shoulder pain because I was lifting heavy weights that my smaller muscles such as my rotator cuff could not handle. This will hamper my training schedule as I will have to rest for a few weeks till the injury heals.
I felt like I was on a hamster wheel. I would get better, start training again, increase my weights, and then my shoulder hurt. At first I thought it was me and I was destined to be who I am.
It was only when I started reading that I started to understand where I was going wrong.
Now with the help of your strength and interval workouts, which are primarily based on dumbbells and free weights, I know I am strengthening my entire body, including all the smaller muscle groups, including my rotator cuff muscles.
I’m happy to say that since starting my first strength and interval workout I haven’t experienced any injuries and am now lifting more weights than I thought I could.
CB: Andy, you’ve learned the hard way that traditional, machine-based circuits aren’t a good fit for the masses, despite the popularity of chain gyms throughout North America.
So which workout did you start with? Did you notice any immediate effects after starting?
AW:
When I started I was keen on reducing my body fat and reducing my waistline.
Now I laugh about it because when I printed out the workout I remember thinking the workout looked easy and I wouldn’t find it beneficial. How wrong was I?? Oh I soon found out I was eating my words!! The workouts may sound easy on paper but they are challenging, though nowhere near impossible.
Because I hadn’t been doing any CV work in my workouts for a long time, I found intervals especially beneficial. My office is on a pretty steep hill and within a few weeks I found that I could walk up the hill to work as fast as before and I wasn’t as short of breath as I used to be and I still had the energy to go up the stairs!
And that’s what I love about workouts…suddenly you realize that you’re doing some everyday tasks very easily without even thinking about it.
I also liked the fact that I got a great workout without spending 1 1/2-2 hours at the gym. I lead a busy life and I need to get on with things and I know I can still do everything and work out 3 times a week.
CB: How has working out helped you? What benefits and results have you achieved? What are your gains and improvements and how do they compare to your past statistics?
AW:
Continuing my previous answer the benefits I have found are more energy, better concentration level and no minor rotator cuff injuries.
When I started my first workout I weighed 81 kg (ie 178.2 lbs) and had 23% body fat. My waist measured 37 inches.
12 weeks later:
I weighed 73.8 kg (162.36 lb)
7.2 kg (15.84 lb) loss
More importantly, I have reduced my waist to 32 ½ inches
And my body fat was 16%.
CB: How do you feel in terms of strength and energy?
AW:
I am stronger than ever and have loads of energy. I haven’t yet reached my ultimate goal, which is to get to 12% body fat, but I know I’m on my way and look forward to the journey because I know workouts make achieving such a goal possible.
Source by Craig Ballantyne
