Last year, 2020 – the best year of my life – was The Year of Training.
When the pandemic hit I started working out every single day and over the course of the year created a unique style of training that completely redesigned my body.
A few months into it, I also completely overhauled my diet, fasting during the day, training on an empty stomach and consuming a single meal at dinner time (massive meal, mind you).
These two radical strategies revolutionized my understanding of the human body.
I knew nothing would ever be the same again for me.
But it was far from ideal if we’re talking results. And we’re always talking results.
This year, 2021, is The Year of Growth.
This year, we pushed the envelope in a different direction.
Employing a new set of nutritional tools I was able, for the first time in 20 years of training, to build high-performance muscle without the accompanying fat gain.
I discovered how to properly fuel my body for superior results, inside and outside of the gym.
I say ‘discovered’ because it was truly a breakthrough moment that changed my outlook on dieting and performance nutrition, changed my perception of what the human body is capable of.
And it’s nothing like the run-of-the-mill advice you’ll get talking to your nutritionist or a trainer at your local gym.
I had gotten results before. But nothing to write home about.
Worse even, these mediocre results came at a high cost. A price I wasn’t willing to pay anymore.
Sure, you still see me in the gym every day. And I’m still fasting daily till late afternoon/dinner.
But I have actually loosened up quite a bit.
I eat what I want and how much I want. I never force-feed and never restrict my calories for more than a couple of days.
If I do bring calories down, I do it HARD, but only for a very brief stint.
On the majority of days, I polish off so much food it leaves people speechless. My calorie intake is off the charts.
But not every day. And this is key.
Over the years, after hundreds of nutrition experiments, I learned that cycling periods of high-calorie eating with periods of undereating/fasting produces far superior results to more traditional dieting.
No comparison.
The way I eat and train is something most people deem “unreasonable”, “extreme” or “unhealthy” (lol).
Extreme sounds just about right to me.
Moderation Is Where Results Go To Die
How would you like to pack on a solid 10-15 pounds of muscle and completely redesign your body?
We can make it happen, no problem.
Building muscle is anything but complicated.
Go to the gym, lift some heavy weights, and – Boom! – you’ve stimulated growth.
Prefer bodyweight training to lifting? More power to you. Do a couple of hard sets of push-ups and squats and you’ll have primed your body for muscle gain.
Now, eat enough, get plenty of sleep and that initial stimulus will manifest as actual muscle and strength.
Train, eat, sleep and repeat. Easy peasy.
So what’s the problem? Why are so many men (myself included) struggling to build a herculean physique?
Are we missing something here?
Well, I’m not going to talk about the guys who lack the fortitude to get to the gym and beat the sh*t out of themselves for months on end, because frankly, there’s no hope for them.
I’m referring specifically to individuals who put in the work consistently but can’t seem to build an appreciable amount of muscle and strength, can’t seem to ever reach their goals.
It’s not genetics, let me tell you.
It’s one of two things: They’re under-eating or under-training.
And in many cases, they’re guilty of both.
You either fail to stimulate growth due to lackluster training or you’re not eating enough to support recovery and the synthesis of new tissue.
Nothing we can’t fix. The solution is, again, very simple. But here’s the deal..
I don’t follow or condone a moderate game plan.
Nothing I do is moderate.
I don’t recommend you ‘eat a lil more’ or ‘train a lil harder’. That’s not going to get the job done, trust me.
Moderation is where results go to die.
I want you to bring the sledgehammer to your workouts and eat like a Viking warlord at your mealtimes.
Eat massively, train massively and occasionally starve yourself massively.
And after a few months of following my lead, you’ll agree…
It Pays To Be an Extremist
Predators in the wild are extremists.
They cycle periods of feast and famine, periods of maximum exertion and full compensation.
Nothing they do is moderate or ‘balanced’.
The pre-agricultural man was no different.
He certainly didn’t eat 3-4 moderately-sized meals spaced evenly throughout the day. Life was much too erratic, too unpredictable, too spontaneous to allow for such routine.
Today, on the other hand, you can sit on your butt morning till bedtime while having your food delivered to your doorstep.
Nothing inherently wrong with that. I can appreciate a little comfort as much as the next guy. But needless to say, this is far from being a health-promoting lifestyle.
Your body was built for extremes.
It was built to grow stronger during periods of food scarcity and physical hardship. And though we look more like rollie pollies today than fierce hunters our body’s genetic program remains unchanged.
No.
This is not an invitation to go live in the woods and eat bugs in an effort to mimic the days of old. This is a friendly reminder that you have vast untapped potential living inside you.
Waiting, longing, demanding to be unleashed.
Granted, it takes a seasoned veteran to understand how to apply different stressors, different training and nutrition tactics, when to push hard and when to take a step back, when to load up on food and when to restrain yourself.
You can certainly crush your body by pushing the gas pedal too hard in training and failing to compensate at the dinner table.
I see this a lot with dedicated individuals.
But the take-home message is this: Whether we’re talking training or nutrition…
Don’t be lukewarm.
If you’re gonna do something, do it properly. Do it to the best of your ability. Do it maximally.
Or don’t do it at all.
And let me make something perfectly clear here:
I wouldn’t waste your time (or mine) talking about something that has no relevance, no ground to stand on.
I firmly believe these strategies will make you a superior man, in more ways than one.
You will build a stronger, healthier and better body while, perhaps for the first time in your life, enjoying true freedom in your diet and exercise program.
“Experience freedom by fasting long hours and putting myself through the meat grinder in training?”
Precisely.
Complete Freedom
What’s the secret to health, super-human performance and longevity?
There is none.
We uncovered how to eat, how to train our bodies, and how to live to maximize human potential.
And while I am certain we will never fully understand the intricate details of the human body, the overarching principles of health and performance are well understood.
We have the knowledge and the tools to optimize health and rid the species of chronic disease, yet here we are getting fatter, sicker, and more impotent every year.
Losing the ability to move, to think, and to overcome.
We know better. We don’t do better.
I believe one of the main reasons is because we don’t want to give up our sense of freedom along the way.
I can put you on a state-of-the-art fat loss program today, but if it strips you of your sense of freedom, you’re not going to last more than a couple of weeks tops.
Not because you lack the willpower or discipline. But because you’re going against your nature, against your instincts.
And that can never work long-term.
On the other hand, if I equip you with tools and tactics adapted to your unique situation, there’s hardly a limit to how far you can go.
What’s more is it’ll hardly feel like a struggle.
I keep telling people on here and on my social how the last 2 years have changed the game for me personally.
And though I run the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll keep saying it till I drop.
My current routine is so much easier to follow and so much more REWARDING than anything I’ve ever done in the past.
These days, I can get away with stuff that was unthinkable for me just a couple of years ago. Particularly when it comes to my diet.
I enjoy the liberty to eat what, how much, and when I want, without stressing over calories, macronutrients, and whether my steak is organic or not.
More than satisfying a deeply-rooted instinct to do so, I am getting vastly superior results to when I was restricting myself every day, micro-managing my diet, and getting carried away with meaningless details.
I want you to experience the same results (or better). But more than that, I want you to enjoy the same freedom.
Because without the freedom to live your life the way you want to, you’re not going to stick around long enough to see real results.
It’s only a matter of time before you find yourself back at square one. Damn shame, I tell you.
We can do much better than that.
Till next time.
V
