From Holiday Bod to Brand Ambassador
After backpacking across Asia for over 6 months and ending up in Australia, Henry had let the lack of training and poor nutrition structure carry on for too long and his physique had deteriorated with the muscle he had gone and an excess of body fat.
He was well and truly back to square one, but because he had prior experience of training and nutrition all he needed was structure. As we had worked previously together, I had a good idea on how his body reacted to food and specific types of training.
He had locked down a photoshoot with a big supplement brand and he needed to look the part with 3 months to prepare. After discussing what was realistic in terms of expectations and training frequency, we put together a higher frequency training plan that increased in volume week by week, with scheduled reloads, no cardio and started on a minor calorie deficit.
The starting point was:
- Bodyweight: 87.7kg
- Bodyfat: 15.4%
- Calories: 2900
- Training: 5 x weight training sessions
With weekly check-ins and constant form checks via video's sent through WhatsApp, we ensured progress was on track in terms of performance and fat loss. The first few weeks flew by and Henry was dropping fat at the expected rate of 1lb per week, but we hit a stumbling block at the 7th week. Performance was okay, but fat loss had stalled for a couple weeks, luckily, because Henry tracked everything in terms of his food and daily activity (steps), we had enough data to make the judgement call in either adding in cardio or taking away some calories. Henry, the food lover as he is, decided that he would rather add in 20 minutes of cardio 3 times per week instead of dropping his calories and this worked wonders. He broke through his plateau and body fat resumed dropping off again.
Training stayed the same throughout, sticking with progressive overload on the main compound movements and minor changes in variations for the accessory exercises every 4-6 weeks. The most important thing throughout these sessions was to keep intensity consistent, as the body fat dropped, naturally energy levels drop as your body is trying to conserve energy. But, for Henry, he always kept a stop watch close by to make sure rest periods were consistent and that ensured his sessions stayed at a high intensity throughout the period. A couple more adjustments, consistency and patience and we finally reached his goals.
This was the finishing point:
- Bodyweight: 78.6kg
- Bodyfat: 8.9%
- Calories: 2700
- Training: 5 x weight training sessions & 4 x 30 min cardio sessions
Henry made this a relatively easy transformation, the tracking of all data meant that we had action points we could take when he plateaued. So we stuck to the plan made adjustments accordingly and trusted the process, and as you can see below, the results speak for themselves!
If you are looking to achieve your body composition goals, please apply through the contacts page and we can organise a consultation.
Dan