In my last post, “40 Minutes a Week to Buff” Part 1, I made the claim that through proper signalling one can lose fat and gain muscle at a steady pace with only two twenty-minute workouts a week coupled with a restricted carbohydrate diet. I also go into detail how the Hystrength (sm) program works. In this blog, I will share some of the success stories.
Poncho:
Poncho started the Hystrength(sm) program in early April and stuck with it to late July 2015, about four months in all. He weighed 180 lbs and he was around 28% body fat. He did leg presses with 140 pounds and dumbbell presses with 25 lbs when he first started. Four months later, Poncho weighed 160 pounds and he was leg pressing over 600 pounds and he did dumbbell presses with 55 pounds for 12 reps. I did not get a chance to check his body fat level later, but I would estimate that he was around 17 to 18% by the way he looked. He lost 20 pounds of scale weight, and I would bet that he gained at least 3 to 4 pounds of muscle too.
He did all of this with 2 workouts a week and a low carbohydrate diet in the span of four months.
Star:
Star also started the Hystrength(sm) program at the same time as Poncho, and she stayed with it for the same amount of time…from early April to late July 2015. Star weighed 135 lbs and her body fat was approximately 36% when she started. After four months, she weighed 121 lbs and she increased her strength dramatically. On her first workout she was using 70 pounds on her leg press and 15 lbs for her dumbbell presses. On her last workout with us she did the leg press with 350 pounds and she was able to do 14 repetitions. Moreover, she did dumbbell presses with 25 lbs for 10 reps.
Like Poncho, I did not get a chance to check her body fat before she moved on, but I would guesstimate that she was under 30 percent, maybe even more. Additionally, I bet she gained about 1 to 2 pounds of muscle during her time working with us. She really noticed the difference in her body by how her clothes started fitting. She dropped 4 sizes, from size 8 to a size 4.
Just like Poncho, she trained only twice a week and focused on a low carbohydrate diet the whole time.
The Hystrength(sm) training program is the most efficient way to achieve a healthy fit body. We can customize an exercise plan just for you. Click on the image to learn more.
Paul:
Paul started with us in March 2015, and he is still training with us today (Sept 2015). Here is what he accomplished so far:
In March he weighed 202 lbs and was approximately at 28% body fat. He also had a 39 3/4 inch waist. We took formal measurements in July 2015, and Paul weighed 186.5 lbs and his body fat was 25%. Paul also had a waist measurement of 36 1/5 inches. Paul, at this juncture, lost 15.5 lbs of scale weight and over 3 inches in his waist. It gets better, for Paul weighed 182 lbs in early September. He also increased his strength tremendously, for he now leg presses 690 pounds for 12 reps and he can do dumbbell presses with 55 pounds. He started on leg presses with 140 lbs and dumbbell presses with 25 pounds. I would bet that Paul gained about 3 to 4 pounds of muscle during this time as well.
Paul did this with three workouts a week and a low carb diet.
Larry:
Larry also started with us in late March 2015, and he is, too, still training with us today (Sept 2015). Larry weighed 244 lbs when he first started, and when we took his measurements in late August, he weighed 221 lbs. Larry lost 23 lbs, which averaged a loss of over 4 and 1/2 lbs a month. He also lost over 3 inches in his waist. As for strength gains, Larry started with 140 lbs on the leg press, and now he is working out with over 800 lbs. Concurrently, he increased his weights on the dumbbell presses form 20 lbs when he started to 57.5 lbs even as we speak. That is remarkable because he has shoulder problems from his work, and we were able to overcome it with some rehab protocols and proper positioning on the ball. I’d say that Larry gained close to 5 lbs of muscle while losing the scale weight that he did, and if I am correct, he actually lost closer to 28 lbs of fat in the process.
Larry made these gains from twice weekly workouts, all of them in under 30 minutes combined with a low carb diet.
Spotlight:
I have three people who worked with me for at least 8 months, and we have before and after photos of them. These photos show what can happen if someone the Hsytrength (sm) program a part of their life. I want to share them here.
Alex:
Alex was part of the cellulite study I conducted at the beginning of 2015. In the first three months that she did the study, she lost over 17 lbs of fat and increased her strength markedly. She has stayed with the program for another five months and she has seen tremendous gains. Here are the photos:
Before After
Alex lost a total of 33 pounds. She went from 202 lbs down to 169 lbs. What is most noticeable is that her waist measurement dropped from 41 inches down to 32 1/5 inches. She lost 8.5 inches around her waist, along with a total loss of 23 combined inches around her arms, chest, waist, hips and thighs. She got stronger too. She started with 130 lbs on the leg press, and now she works out with 600 lbs. She is still making steady gains. You will also notice that her cellulite is getting better the leaner and stronger she gets. She will have a completely different body in another year of training.
Josh:
I’ll start with the photos.
Before After
Josh weighed 240 lbs when he started the Hystrength (sm) program over three years ago, and now he weighs 180 lbs, so he lost 60 lbs of fat. As you can see, he has gained a good amount of muscle along with the fat loss. The numbers back it up: he leg presses over 800 pounds and he does dumbbell presses with 75 lbs for 12 to 14 reps on any given day. He, too, like the rest of our clients, trains only twice a week. He was slow to adopt the low carb approach, for it meant breaking some long-held eating habits, but he stuck with it. Now he eats “paleo” regularly and enjoys his carbs every once in a while.
Josh was so pleased with his results that he decided to go through the Hystrength(sm) certification program, and he now works at Urban Pump helping people get into shape. We are very happy to have him on board.
Sharon:
For the grand finale, I introduce my wife, Sharon. She did the Hystrength (sm) training program for over 7 years now, and she keeps getting better. She is lean, strong, well-defined, and shapely. Here are her photos:
Before After
It is sad for me to say this, but I did not take her measurements when she first started working out with me. I wish I had, because the changes are unbelievable! In the first photo, you can see that she had the “menopot” going on. The rest of her looked skinny, but she had no tone and definition. If I were to guesstimate, I believe that she was over 30% body fat when we started. She is now around 17%, which means she lost over 20 pounds of fat, and I bet she gained about 7 to 10 pounds of muscle.
Sharon is also a good example of hot not to work out too. At the time of her before photo, Sharon was exercising regularly and eating what she thought was a good diet to lose fat. She would go on 20 mile bike rides every weekend, jog three to four times a week for 3 to 4 miles, and she lifted weights three times a week spending an hour and a half in the gym each time. As for her diet, she ate the typical low-fat, high carbohydrate diet that we are told is best for fat loss and good health.
She spent a lot of time on her exercise program and essentially got nowhere. She was desperate to changer her body when we met. She wanted the shapely body very badly, but she just did not know how to achieve it.
Under my tutelage Sharon changed both her diet and exercise program. She now works out only twice a week for less than 30 minutes. She no longer goes jogging or for long bike rides, and she switched from a high carb eating plan to the low carb way of eating, and she has been able to stay and strong ever since.
Sharon also went through the Hystrength(sm) certification program, and she is both a personal trainer and my business partner.
Conclusion
Most fitness professionals still design diet and exercise programs with the primary focus on keeping the body in a negative caloric balance. They try to accomplish this rather daunting feat by keeping caloric intake low and total weekly exercise high, in spite of a large body of research demonstrating a better…more sensible way. In my opinion, sending the proper signals to the body to burn energy from the fat stores coupled with telling the body that building and maintaining a high level of muscle is far more efficient. Through proper signalling, a couple of brief but effective workouts are all you need.
Regards,
Gregg Hoffman
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