Arvada, Colorado USA
My Fitness Body Transformation Log
Objective: To Burn Fat Gain Muscle Mass And Transform My Body In 12 Weeks

It’s been awhile since I posted an update for my fitness body transformation. I just wanted to write quick post to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about the updates, I’ve just been busy trying to wrap everything up, measure the results and get final pictures taken. Later this evening, I’ll post an update that will take you through the 12 week body transformation training cycle and also show (through pictures) the amount of progress that I’ve made.

Currently, I’m in the middle of enjoying a “week off” from the gym (and my diet!), where even though I’m still fitting in a few workouts and keeping my calorie intake under control, I’m not following any type of structured program. I’m really excited to share the results of this last training cycle with you as the results have been even better than I though they’d be!

Over the duration of this body transformation training cycle, I’ve been implementing the workouts and tips from my training program The Muscle Mass Advantage – in order to get a first hand view of anything that might need to be changed up a bit. So far, I’m really pleased with the results, but I’ve uncovered a few things that I definitely could do a better job of explaining in the book. I’m also really excited to share with you first hand exactly what it takes mentally to completely transform your body from flabby and out of shape to muscular and fit in only 12 weeks. A lot of people can teach you the “nuts and bolts” mechanics of the body transformation process, but few people actually tell it like it is and explain what it actually feels like to dedicate yourself to building muscle mass and burning body fat in only a few short weeks.

Your Friend And Trainer,

Nick

Arvada, Colorado USA
My Fitness Body Transformation Log – Days 48 – 52
Objective: To Burn Fat Gain Muscle Mass And Transform My Body In 12 Weeks

As promised here’s my fitness body transformation week 9 progress report. As I alluded to in today’s earlier post, it felt like I started to “hit my groove” this week.  Everything form my weight lifitng workouts to my cardio sessions seemed to gain momentum and it really felt like y body was making some significant changes.  By the end of the week I really felt lean and muscular – really for the first time since starting my 12 week body transformation training cycle. Hopefully things will continue to progress like they did this week over the course of the next 2 weeks – If so I’ll smash my initial goals!

My Fitness Body Transformation Initial Goals

• To gain 25lbs of lean body mass
• To lower my body fat level from 23.2% to 8%
• To increase the size of my arms by 2 inches
• To increase the size of my legs by 3 inches
• To get killer six pack abs
• To really focus on building up the muscle in my back

My Fitness Body Transformation Week 9 Measurements

• Percent Body Fat – 9.0% (an overall improvement of -14.2%)
• Current Lean Body Mass – 178.8 lbs (an overall improvement of +27.5 lbs)
• Current Fat Weight – 17.7 lbs (an overall improvement of -28 lbs)

After today’s weight-in, I’m really excited. So far I’ve been able to achieve my goal of gainnig 25 lbs of lean body mass and I only have 1% bodyfat to lose over the course of the next 2 weeks.  As long as I can stay focused on my diet and fit in all of my workouts, I should be able to get my body fat levels down around 7%!

In order to keep the momentum going, I’m not going to change anything about my weight lifting workouts and I plan on continuing wiht my 2 cardio sessions a day schedule for the remainder of my fitness body transformation training cycle.

That’s all for my week 9 fitness body transformation progress report.

Your Friend And Trainer,

Nick

Arvada, Colorado USA
My Fitness Body Transformation Log – Days 53 – 60 Weight Lifting Workouts
Objective: To Burn Fat Gain Muscle Mass And Transform My Body In 12 Weeks

Today I’m going to summarize the Muscle Mass Advantage weight lifting workouts that I implemented during the past week (week 9 of my fitness body transformation). So far I really haven’t been too impressed with the progress that I’ve made up to this point, but something changed this week!  I can’t put my finger on it, but I feel like I made some serious progress towards my goals.  Later this evening, I’ll post my body transformation progress report through the end of week 9, so I’ll know for sure whether I my feelings are substantiated.

Last week my body felt great every single day, so I decided to crank up the intensity and frequency of my aerobics workouts, while still trying got keep my weight lifting workouts running smoothly by performing 2 separate 20 minutes cardio workouts Monday – Friday. It was a bit challenging just forcing myself to jump on the treadmill so often (especially towards the end of the week!), but I really feel that the “2 a days” helped my shed more body fat than I had the week before.

Moving into “crunch time” it’s going to take every thing I’ve got just to drop the last few % of body fat. I’ve already decided that regardless of my 12 week accomplishments, I’m going to extend my fitness  body transformation weight lifting workouts and all until I get my body fat % down around 6% – I really want killer six pack abs! At that point I’m going to increase the amount of calories I’m eating, adjust my weight training workouts and up my protein intake in order to hopefully stimulate some more muscle growth – I think I can get everything to balance out for a lean and extremely muscular body!

Week 9 Weight Lifting Workouts

Monday’s Weight Lifting Workout – Chest & Back

Chest Warm-Up:
Incline Press: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 2 minutes)
Incline Press: 3 sets x 6 reps
Dumbbell Bench Press: 2 sets x 6 reps

Back Warm-Up:
Dumbbell Rows: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Dumbbell Rows: 3 sets x 6 reps
Lat Pulldowns: 2 sets x 6 reps

Tuesday’s Weight Lifting Workout – Biceps & Triceps

Bicep Warm-Up:
Dumbbell Curl: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Dumbbell Curl: 3 sets x 6 reps
EZ Bar Curl: 2 sets x 6 reps

Triceps Warm-Up:
Skull Crushers: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Skull Crushers: 3 sets x 6 reps
Pushdowns: 2 sets x 6 reps

Thursday’s Weight Lifting Workout – Shoulders & Traps

Shoulder Warm-Up:
Shoulder Press: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Shoulder Press: 3 sets x 6 reps
DB Shoulder Press: 2 sets x 6 reps

Traps Warm-Up:
Upright Rows: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Upright Rows: 3 sets x 6 reps
High Cable Pulls: 2 sets x 6 reps

Friday’s Weight Lifting Workout – Legs

Quad Warm-Up:
Squat: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Squat: 3 sets x 6 reps
Leg Press Press: 2 sets x 6 reps

Hamstrings Warm-Up:
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 3 sets x 6 reps
Leg Curls: 2 sets x 6 reps

That’s all for the week 9 weight lifting workouts…Enjoy!

Your Friend And Trainer,

Nick

Arvada, Colorado USA
My Fitness Body Transformation Log – Days 48 – 52
Objective: To Burn Fat Gain Muscle Mass And Transform My Body In 12 Weeks

Time to whip out the body fat calipers and see what I’ve accomplished over the past week.  The past few weeks, I really haven’t been too excited to see where I’ve finished, but this week I really feel like I’ve made some decent progress toward my fitness body transformation goals.

The main reason that I think I’ve been able to “get over the hump” and finally start making some progress again is two fold…

First, I decided last week to start supplementing with AST’s micronized creatine monohydrate in order to help me move past a rather serious strength plateau.  I knew that if I continued training with the same weights that I had been using for the past 3 weeks or so, that my chances of packing on any more muscle mass were slim at best, so I figured that a few weeks of creatine monohydrate supplementation would not hurt the cause.  Instead of dosing the creatine out based on the manufacturers recommendations however, I decided to give the advice in Dr. Alfredo Franco-Obregón’s book Creatine A Practical Guide a try.  While I’ve had really good luck in the past dosing out a loading phase of 20 grams a day and a maintenance phase of 5 grams a day, I always kind of felt like maybe that was more than my body really needed.

After implementing the advice found in Creatine A Practical Guide and finishing out my loading phase (5 training days), I began to see and feel an immediate difference in the size and strength of my muscles…I was pretty excited! All in all, a few grams of creatine monohydrate taken in an intelligent way allowed my to literally blast through my workouts at training weights that I hadn’t been able to hit for years, and more importantly allowed me to continue to stimulate new muscle growth during a cutting cycle (which up until now has been almost impossible for me to accomplish).  If you find yourself ina similar situation (trying to lean out but still want to pack on some muscle mass), I wholeheartedly recommend investing in Dr. Alfredo Franco-Obregón’s book Creatine A Practical Guide and shelling out about $20 for some high quality AST Micronozed creatine monohydrate – if you follow the advice in the guide and you drink enough water and continue to train hard, your strength and muscle mass will most likely increase.

The second reason that I fell I’ve started to move in the right direction is the fact that I upped my cardio workouts a bit.  Instead of running for 20 minutes 4 times a week, I decided to start jogging 6 times a week.  This is definitely helping me strip off body fat and so far I haven’t noticed any muscle loss so I’m going to stick with it into the next few weeks and see what happens. If I don’t start to lose any muscle mass, I may start to push it a bit and perform 2 cardio sessions a day for the duration of this training cycle.

Now on to my fitness body transformation week 8 progress report…

Here Were My Fitness Body Transformation Initial Goals

• To gain 25lbs of lean body mass
• To lower my body fat level from 23.2% to 8%
• To increase the size of my arms by 2 inches
• To increase the size of my legs by 3 inches
• To get killer six pack abs
• To really focus on building up the muscle in my back

Here Are All of My Fitness Body Transformation Week 7 Measurements

• Percent Body Fat – 10.0% (an overall improvement of -13.2%)
• Current Lean Body Mass – 176.4 lbs (an overall improvement of +25.1 lbs)
• Current Fat Weight – 19.6 lbs (an overall improvement of -26.1 lbs)

As you can see, I really started to “hit my groove” and blast past the rut that I’ve been in the past few weeks.  I feels great! My strength levels are steadily increasing, my mood is stable (I’m typically really cranky while dieting) and I’m starting to strip off body fat at the same time.  If this type of progression continues I’ll definitely be able to achieve my fitness body transformation goals (I’ve already met my lean body mass goal of 25lbs!)- and probably even surpass them.

Your Friend And Trainer,

Nick

Arvada, Colorado USA
My Fitness Body Transformation Log – Days 48 – 52 Weight Lifting Routines
Objective: To Burn Fat Gain Muscle Mass And Transform My Body In 12 Weeks

Well, I put my head down and went to work on my weight lifting routine this week and before I knew it, it was already the weekend and I hadn’t posted any updates to the blog!  I knew that the closer I got to my 12 week deadline, the tougher it was going to be to keep up with my body transformation journal entries – but I’m really struggling just to keep my head above water here…sorry about that!

Today it’s going to be a “catch up” post  that summarizes all of my workouts for week 8 of my fitness body transformation.

All in all, I’m pretty pleased with how things progressed for me this past week.  Now that I’m in the middle of the 9th week of my body transformation, I’m really starting to get a little nervous about  exactly where I’m going to wind up with my body fat percentage. Even though I’ve been diligently performing my 20 minute cardio sessions each day, I’ve been falling off the wagon a bit when it comes to my diet.  While I haven’t exactly been pigging out on crap, I really haven’t followed my low carb bodybuilding diet outline to a “T” either.

Under normal everyday circumstances this wouldn’t be too big of a deal, but in this case I’ve placed a 12 week time limit on everything – so I absolutely have to commit myself for at least the last 3 and a half weeks if I really want to accomplish what I set out to accomplish. The good news is that even if i don’t hit all of my targets within the 12 week time frame,  I can still continue on with my training and dieting until I eventually achieve what I set out to achieve – it just may take a bit longer than I would have liked.

That’s really the cool thing about committing yourself to a life changing body transformation training cycle, if you see it through not only will your body have changed, but after pounding all of the lifestyle changes into your brain over the course of 12 weeks you actually begin to change your habits – from unhealthy habits that lead to the body you had, to healthy and constructive habits that will lead to greater health and a better body down the road. If you see it through, you actually empower yourself to have the body of your dreams for the rest of your life!

The Week 8 Weight Lifting Routines

Chest & Back – Weight Lifting Routines

Chest Warm-Up:
Incline Press: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6, 1 x 3
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Incline Press: 5 sets x 3 reps
Dumbbell Bench Press: 5 sets x 3 reps

Back Warm-Up:
Dumbbell Rows: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6, 1 x 3
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Dumbbell Rows: 5 sets x 3 reps
Lat Pulldowns: 5 sets x 3 reps

Biceps & Triceps – Weight Lifting Routines

Bicep Warm-Up:
Dumbbell Curl: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6, 1 x 3
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Dumbbell Curl: 5 sets x 3 reps
EZ Bar Curl: 5 sets x 3 reps

Triceps Warm-Up:
Skull Crushers: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6, 1 x 3
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Skull Crushers: 5 sets x 3 reps
Pushdowns: 5 sets x 3 reps

Shoulders & Traps – Weight Lifting Routines

Shoulder Warm-Up:
Shoulder Press: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6, 1 x 3
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Shoulder Press: 5 sets x 3 reps
DB Shoulder Press: 5 sets x 3 reps

Traps Warm-Up:
Upright Rows: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6, 1 x 3
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Upright Rows: 5 sets x 3 reps
High Cable Pulls: 5 sets x 3 reps

Legs – Weight Lifting Routines

Quad Warm-Up:
Squat: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6, 1 x 3
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Squat: 5 sets x 3 reps
Leg Press Press: 5 sets x 3 reps

Hamstrings Warm-Up:
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6, 1 x 3
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 5 sets x 3 reps
Leg Curls: 5 sets x 3 reps

Well, that’s all for the week 8 weight lifting routines summary post…I’ll be back  tomorrow with my week 8 progress report!

Your Friend And Trainer,

Nick

Arvada, Colorado USA
My Fitness Body Transformation Log – Day 48
Objective: To Burn Fat Gain Muscle Mass And Transform My Body In 12 Weeks

Today it’s time to pull out the body fat calipers, jump on a scale and measure my fitness body transformation progress through the end of week 7.  For some reason, I feel like I haven’t made the type of steady progress this week that I was making early on.  I’m not sure if it has to do with the fact that I’ve recently started cutting calories out of my bodybuilding diet or whether it’s more a function of getting over the week 6 hump, but I’m a little apprehensive about taking a look at where I stand now more than half way through this training cycle.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I might start supplementing with creatine monohydrate during the second half of my fitness body transformation in order to help increase my strength levels as I begin cutting calories in order to lean out. Today I’m going to start my loading phase so I should be able to notice a huge difference in the size and strength of my muscles by the end of next weeks workouts – I’ll keep you posted on how things are going. I’m hoping that mixing in some creatine supplementation will allow me to get the most out of the Muscle Mass Advantage workouts that I’m following.

Here Were My Fitness Body Transformation Initial Goals

• To gain 25lbs of lean body mass
• To lower my body fat level from 23.2% to 8%
• To increase the size of my arms by 2 inches
• To increase the size of my legs by 3 inches
• To get killer six pack abs
• To really focus on building up the muscle in my back

Here Are All of My Current Fitness Body Transformation Week 6 Measurements

Percent Body Fat – 11.9% (an overall improvement of -11.3%)
Current Lean Body Mass – 171.8 lbs (an overall improvement of +20.5 lbs)
Current Fat Weight – 23.2 lbs (an overall improvement of -22.5 lbs)

Well, there you have it. I felt like I didn’t make a whole lot of progress towards my goals and I didn’t.  If  I’m going to reach my initial goals, I’m going to have to kick things into overdrive over the course of the next few weeks of my fitness body transformation. Because I really didn’t accomplish any progress over the course of the past week, I decided not to post any new pictures (mostly because they look identical to the week 6 pics that I posted last week).