Bath personal trainer Chris Rogers shows you what he would do if he had to put himself on a 4-week Body transformation and fat loss plan…

Does this sound like you?

Oh Shit! Summer is here and you have run out of time. You had planned to get in shape back in January (remember?!), but after a month or so of your new regime you packed it all in. Fast forward 5 months and your belly still resembles a miniature Buddha’s, you have bingo wings that rival your  Nan’s and your summer holiday is fast approaching! HELP!

Fear not, for some of you there is still time!

I’m going to outline what I would do in this situation to get into the best possible shape so that your time spent on the beach will a time to remember… for all the right reasons!

I would look at 3 areas for the 4 weeks, lifestyle, nutrition and exercise. Now I know how important all 3 areas are to gaining the most out of the 4 weeks. But one thing most people fail to realise is that exercise alone will not change body composition (less man boobs, less bingo wings, more Abs!) in 4 weeks (even when you are exercising correctly for your goal). In fact without lifestyle and nutritional changes you can kiss good bye to any significant changes in body fat or clothing size over a period of 4 weeks. Please remember this:  If you want to lose fat you NEED to work on all 3 areas over the 4 weeks. Lifestyle, Nutrition and correct exercise protocols will get you results, miss one of these 3 out and your results will be significantly less…  GUARANTEED!

Lifestyle

This is the most overlooked factor when looking to lose body fat quickly. I’m going to cover the basics here to get you on the right track.

1. Sleep – I cannot emphasize this point enough! Lack of sleep will hamper and in some cases reverse your fat loss efforts. Sleep is when we recover mentally and physically. It’s no surprise then that a lack of sleep can limit our progress. We should aim to sleep for 8 hours a night.  Ideally from 10pm until 6am in a pitch black room with no light visible. I would also try to take a leaf out of Mediterranean countries and have a daily siesta for 20-60 minutes where possible (Any longer than this could ruin your sleep/wake cycles and fat loss).
2. Reduce the negative stress – Reducing negative stress will help you get to your goals BIG time! Once you have sorted your sleep out the next thing is to look at other areas of your life. What makes you stressed? Your job? You’re Boss? You’re so called friends? Your family? Your kids? Your personal life? Your neighbours? Your financial situation? The list goes on! Getting a better handle on things will reduce your stress and help balance your bodies’ hormonal response to situations. For instance if your financial situation is something that stresses you out then confront it instead of hiding from it, put a plan of action together and see it through. If you have a friend that you could call an ‘energy vampire’ (someone that literally sucks energy from you with their negative outlook on life, constant wining and feeling sorry for themselves) it’s probably time to see less of them or move on altogether.  You may think that this has nothing to do with fat loss, gaining muscle and being healthy but negative stress has a MASSIVE impact on the results you will get in any training program. Reduce the stress and losing fat becomes much, much easier.
3. Increase the positive stress – Increasing the positive stress in your life will decrease the impact of negative stress, impact hormonal balance and help you get results. So what is positive stress? Well to put it simply it’s enjoying yourself and taking time out for you! Write a list of all the thing you enjoy doing, here is an example taking the children to the park, reading, playing Nintendo Wii with the family, going to the beach, going out for dinner with friends, going on country walks, mountain biking, indoor snowboarding etc. I’ve left clubbing & drinking out as I take it you will be doing plenty of that on holiday and because of the negativeeffects on health. However this can be a positive stressor if done occasionally! Plan to have positive stressors in your life on a weekly basis. Having fun, laughing and recharging is the best way to be and feel healthy, aliveand positive.
4. The 4 week plan of action needs to take priority in your life. You will need to stay one step ahead to keep on track, planning when you workout, when you eat, what you eat and when you sleep and much more will mean you keep the fat loss momentum.
5. Set goals. Daily weekly and monthly. At the beginning set goals for each area I cover, goals for sleep, positive stress, negative stress, nutrition and training. Review them daily and change where necessary. A before and after picture works wonders for motivation. Another great tool is what Muhammad Ali called ‘future History’. Ali would visualise his fights, his victories down to the minute, round and how he would finish his opponent weeks before the fight took place. He continually repeated ‘I am the greatest’ until everyone including himself believed it. Every night try this – Close your eyes and visualise the change in your body, how it feels, how it looks, what people say, the new clothes you can wear, what it feels like to walk down the beach. Keep those feelings with you by doing this daily and before you know it you will have smashed your goal to pieces!

Nutrition

1. Drink 1 litre of bottled water per 20kg of body weight. Tap water is full of chemicals and is highly estrogenic. If you are drinking from plastic bottles keep it out of direct sunlight and if you find you are spending most of your day going to the toilet add a pinch of Celtic sea salt. Work on the rule that any liquid you consume should be natural and calorie free, no sugary drinks including juices and smoothies.
2. Get a quality multivitamin and fish oil supplement. The multivitamins will nourish your body and help with detoxification when you start to metabolise more fat. Omega 3 has many health benefits, one study reported that if the U.S gave every American 3g of omega 3 fish oil a day they would reduce deaths from heart disease, heart attacks and cancer by 50%. But for the next 4 weeks I would be taking them mainly for their ability to help me lose fat by aiding the muscle building process and for its ability to reduce inflammation therefore increasing recovery from workouts.
3. Eat more like a caveman and less like Homer Simpson! I would eat loads of organic vegetables, lean meat and fish, some fruit, nuts and seeds. I would cut out ALL processed foods, dairy (bar eggs), alcohol, grains, pasta, bread, potatoes etc. Caffeine would be limited to before lunchtime only. You would be eating Palaeolithic carbohydrates rather than Neolithic carbohydrates. Check out the Paleo diet for more information.
4. I would eat fresh or frozen, organic and raw where possible to get the most out of the 4 weeks.
5. If protein shakes are your thing ONLY take them after a workout.
6. As it is a 4 week plan I would limit cheating to once per week and not go overboard, ideally not drinking alcohol and going for items such as dark chocolate, rice over Pizza, donuts etc.
7. If vegetarian I would stay away from Soy, eating other protein alternatives and looking at tofu, lentils, beans and nuts as alternatives.

Watch this excellent video which I have posted before but will post again to drive the nutrition message home!

Exercise

1. I would train 4-6 times a week. Research has shown that you can improve results up to 50% when training 4 times per week instead of 3. Sessions would last 45 – 60 minutes and would be mostly with weights in one form or another. No long boring cardio, treadmills, x-trainers or bikes. I would focus on quality rather than quantity knowing that sessions lasting more than 60 minutes do more harm than good when chasing fat loss.
2. I would train ‘bang for your buck’ movements such as squats, split squats, lunges, dead lifts, pushes, pulls and twists. These would use many muscles over more than one joint giving you more results in less time.
3. I would slow down the above movements.  The best way to burn fat is to gain muscle. To do that we want to get each set to last 40-70 seconds, increasing the muscles TUT (time under tension). This will bring about the quickest change in body composition when done properly.
4. I would aim for at least 4 sets per exercise. Your body will produce more growth hormone with 4 sets of an exercise compared to the gym standard of 3. More GH = More potential muscle = increased metabolism = More potential fat loss!
5. I would add some kettlebell/strongman/boxing training into the mix to keep it enjoyable, enhance metabolic conditioning and ultimately fat loss without compromising muscle mass.
6. I would take adequate rest/recovery. This is essential and all too often overlooked. Each session would be replicated every 72 hours to allow for full muscle recovery. Stretching would take place daily in the evening in a separate session where possible. Not only does this aid recovery it also allows the muscle more room to grow. I would listen to my body. If I was weaker than the previous session I would rest. It’s a clear sign you have not fully recovered and are possibly overtraining.

 A typical week might look like this…

Beginner

Intermediate

Summary

I would need to pay equal attention to all 3 areas. Lifestyle, nutrition AND exercise all need work to get the most out of the 4 week plan. Letting one area slip means results simply will not be as good as they could be. It would need to be a major priority, one that only emergencies would keep me from fulfilling. Remember that if it’s not important to you, you simply will not do it. It has to matter… and you have to want to change more than eating the donuts, beer and Pizza you currently consume. Set goals, review daily and visualise your own ‘future history’. If it worked for Muhammad Ali, It will work for you!

What kind of results could I get?

So what kind of results could you expect from the above routine in 4 weeks? Well it depend on where you currently are fitness/size wise, but I have been able to drop over 14lbs of fat in under 4 weeks in clients that fully commit. Body fat% would be down, muscle would be up, energy levels would be sky high and you would feel pretty dam good about yourself!

How can you do this?

Training 1:1 with me can end up expensive for some, so that is where my group training packages, Bath Kettlebell Bootcamp and Fit Chicks Bath Bootcamp come in. They are Bath city centre boot camps that have proved popular, effective and life changing to many, including the before and after phtos of clients below.

If you live in or near Bath and want to make a serious change to your body AND life then the next bootcamps start Tuesday the 1^st June… Imagine how you would feel, act and do differently if you changed the way you looked in just 4 weeks?

For more info go to

Fit Chicks Bath Bootcamp– Exclusive small group female bootcamp in Bath where youy are guaranteed to drop a dress size in 30 days or less!

Bath Kettlebell Bootcamp– A fat loss and fitness Bath bootcamp using kettlebells to incinerate fat and get your body looking lean and mean!

Committed to your success,

Chris Rogers

Expert Bath Personal Trainer

http://bathkettlebellbootcamp.com

http://fitchicksbathbootcamp.co.uk

http://personaltrainerbath.com