Superhuman Results: Part 2

Back in the beginning of 2006, most of my fat loss clients were losing about 2% bodyfat per month.  We all thought that was pretty good.  But some of my clients, who I was doing a horrible experiment on, were losing 3% bodyfat per month.  These experimental clients were being put through a bunch of kettlebell circuits.  I tried it out on the rest of my clients with good results.  I've tuned it up, and tuned it up and tuned it up.  In the last year, I've made it more user friendly, and I've made the workouts self regulating. 

By the end of 2006 I found that if I reversed one of my philosophies, I could make the workouts ten times simpler.  Making the workouts simpler was the first update I made to my book, The Stubborn Seven Pounds.  Funny thing, when the workouts got simpler, they worked for more people, more often.  I bring this up because most of the time when we think of getting better results, we look for more complicated programs.  I have found the reverse to be true.  The simpler the workout programs get - the more time we focus on basics - the better the workout programs work.

Lately, I've had some clients that lost 4% or even 5% bodyfat in a month.  This is another huge step forward in results.  Of course they were totally compliant on the The Stubborn Seven Pounds meal plan, they hammered all of The Stubborn Seven Pounds workouts.  of course they did these things.  These were the basics that my clients who were losing 3% bodyfat per month did.  So once again, I had to ask myself - what is different about these clients?

In all of the cases, the answer was the same.

It was so simple, that I almost didn't see it.

It's so obvious, that I am concerned that you will dismiss it.

It works so well, that most people don't do it.

You can do it today, and you don't have to buy any books or fancy gym equipment.

It's been working for thousands of years.  In fact, it's the reason that your grandpa who worked on a farm was totally ripped.

Here is the sccret:

They increased their activity level outside of the gym.

Some of them have a BodyBugg™, so they can track their calories burned.  Then, like a video game, they make a game of seeing how many calories they can burn.  They usually do this in really mundane ways:  Walking places they would normally drive, washing the car, mowing the lawn.  Going for a bike ride.  They didn't consider this working out, many of them considered it meditation or thinking time.

Some of them started competing in something.  On top of the workouts, they started training for a sprint triathlon.  They basically switched their mindset from being sedentary to being an athlete.  Next thing I new, when I asked them about their weekends, instead of talking about the bar they went to, they were talking about hiking, biking, snowboarding or kayaking.  This wasn't considered a workout, this was stuff they were doing for fun.

It's shocking I know, but if you had an awesome workout, an awesome meal plan, AND you just became a more active person - you'd get extra superhuman amazing results.

By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.

National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES),
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC)

© Joshua Hillis 2007