Family Pack To Six Pack

Family Pack To Six Pack

How I Went From A Lazy Fat ****

With A Pot-belly Sagging Over My Waistband

To A Lean, Fit, And (Dare I Say It) Ripped Dad

Giving Gerard Butler’s ‘300’ Abs A Run For Their Money

And You Can Too In Just 90 Days – Using The 2.2% Nutrition & Training Plan (What?)

If you’re a builder by trade, nobody’s surprised when your own house is always an unfinished project.

How about a mechanic that drives a rusty old shed with bald tyres? Standard.

Financial adviser with a massive mortgage and underfunded pension? Well, financing that Benz for client cred is a higher priority.

A chef who wolfs down McDonalds on their break? They’re lovin’ it.

Or a dentist with a less-than-perfect set of choppers? Maybe this will scare off some people…

In most businesses, it’s a given that your energy goes into serving your customers first, and sometimes your personal projects are lower priority.

But in the fitness business, that s#!t doesn’t fly.

It’s an image-obsessed industry, and the people are often a bit judgey.

Certainly, fitness people expect each other to be in an optimum state of health – and if that’s not possible, to look the part at least.

And when you represent a brand as a company owner, you are the face and voice of your business – so your customers want and expect you to be a walking case study for success.

Failing that? You’re expected to put a paper bag on your head and just pay Instagram influencers to rep your product. No thanks.

If you’ve ever been to a fitness expo or bodybuilding show, you’ll know it can be quite an intimidating scene, with every trick and illusion of vanity on proud display:

  • Spray-tans that turn a pasty complexion into a shade best suited for antique furniture
  • Cartoonish silicone breast, ab, and calf implants supposedly ‘making up’ for god’s second-rate handiwork
  • The awkward contortions of out-angling competitions in front of every camera
  • Bleached-white teeth, hair, eyeballs (and allegedly some bumholes)
  • Dehydration levels that would qualify as ‘enhanced interrogation’ at Guantanamo Bay
  • And grotesquely swollen traps leaking more synthol oil than a grounded BP tanker.

As the founder of UK’s leading at-home strength training equipment brand, you might reasonably expect me to have this all sussed out, and be in great shape.

Sadly, for a long time that wasn’t quite the case…

Pitching up to these shows in a condition that could be charitably described as ‘not-quite photoshoot ready’ can be a humbling experience – but it’s an important part of the business to go.

So in Spring 2017, it was time to make a drastic change in my life – and seriously get my s#*t together with training and nutrition.

The process involved a total body recomposition (you might even say transformation) – losing 29 pounds of useless body fat, and layering on some new, dense, and lean muscle mass.

But the biggest deal for me personally was the conditioning:

I dreamed the impossible dream… and FINALLY got me some six pack abs

Sorry, just my Dad joke – the before image is actually on the right.

Not bad for a thirty-something family man with lots of responsibilities, right?

All Done While:

  • Not sacrificing any family time (in fact I became a better dad)
  • Chowing down on delicious steak, lamb, bacon and shrimp
  • Spending exactly 3.6 hours TOTAL per week ‘at the gym’
  • Increasing my work productivity
  • Even enjoying an occasional beer, glass of wine or chocolate bar
  • And all without ever leaving the house…

Confused? You should be.

You see, like any proper Englishman I take more than a little pride in my eccentricity.

And the approach of the 2.2% training plan goes totally against the grain for the mainstream of society.

But it got me what everyone wants – results.

In fact, and if I do say so myself – sexy results.

And the best part? You can do it too.

These methods are available to anyone who:

  • Pays for a gym membership and would like to save some money
  • Can create a bit of space somewhere at home – in a spare room, garage or even a shed…
  • Has a decent-sized fridge
  • Enjoys working out, eating great food or looking good (ideally all 3)
  • Has assembled at least 1 piece of Ikea flat-pack furniture in their lifetime

But before delving into the finer details, or getting all hyped up bragging about my success getting jacked – let’s take a step back to look at the mess I was in before starting on this program, so you can fully appreciate what was involved…

Why Am I Writing This?

At first, selfishly, I wanted to shout from the rooftops “look what I did!!!” – because I was so f*#*ing proud of myself.

Before it was done, it really didn’t seem possible for me.

This is called ‘Special Snowflake Syndrome’ – a very sneaky form of negativity almost everyone has, but we hardly ever notice.

In the back of my mind, I thought I wasn’t going to make my goal.

That I would just ‘do my best’ and maybe, possibly continue after three months to try and get abs.

That wasn’t necessary.

The body change didn’t show out for a while, but during the second month it became obvious when comparing the weekly photos.

This is totally achievable for you too – even if you think you don’t have the time, the right equipment, or the ‘know how’ to make a big, lasting change that improves your health, quality of life and longevity.

I succeeded despite not really believing 100% in myself at the time – so Tony Robbins and whoever wrote ‘The Secret’ can bugger right off.

And Why Should You Care?

Good Question –

First, no matter what stage you’re at in life, there’s almost no downside to putting in a consistent, sustained effort to become stronger, fitter and leaner.

And putting aside all the talk about getting abs and building muscle – my #1 priority when I made this change was to be able to play on the climbing frame with my kids without being a sweaty, out-of-breath mess.

If you’re a dad, or intend to be one, you’ll probably want the same.

And you’ll be surprised to know just how not-difficult it is to do.

Believe it or not, these were the results of training at home.

Yes I did train 5 days a week – but for no more than 43 minutes per session – that’s only 3 hours and 35 minutes per week.

Back when I trained at a commercial gym in town, getting less work done took 10-12 hours per week.

What’s more, I was dodging all forms of cardio other than walking Doris the dog for 20 minutes a day and playing with my kids.

Your takeaway here is:

For a muscular, ripped physique, focused intense strength work (with a smart diet) can get you into incredible shape fast – even if you hate doing cardio and have very little free time.

And I did it all using nothing but my very own beloved Ironmaster Home Strength Training Equipment:

✅ Quick-Lock Adjustable Dumbbells

The last set of dumbbells you’ll ever buy – and the only ones you’ll need for the rest of your life:

  • With a weight range of 2kg right up to a massive 74kg each (148kg per set ????????)
  • Suitable for everyone from absolute beginners to IFBB pro bodybuilders
  • Practically indestructible too – these monster dumbbells have a Lifetime Warranty
  • We’ve smashed them with sledgehammers, ran over them in cars and even shot ‘em up (legally) with guns, but they still survived – just watch for yourself:
✅ The Ironmaster Super Bench

Yes, this is the world’s most adjustable weights bench – and an incredibly strong, versatile one, with a 10-year Warranty.

And it has features that no other bench on the market can match:

  • Thick steel welded construction, and a massive 2.5 inches of dense, firm padding on the benchtop
  • Supports up to 450kg – so you can invite Ronnie Coleman around for a sesh in total confidence.
  • An 11-position range of angle adjustments(more than anything else on the market) make this bench suitable for every possible variation of flat, incline, decline or upright seated exercise with dumbbells and barbells
  • The custom attachments are mind-boggling. When fully accessorised, using this bench you can also do:
    • Lat pulldowns
    • Chinups
    • Pullups
    • Dips
    • Bench press
  • Good lord, what’s next?
    • Preacher curls
    • Leg extensions
    • Hamstring curls
    • And even more when it’s paired with the IM2000…
✅ The IM2000 Self Spotting Machine

‘Self-spotting machine’ is not the most descriptive of names. Sadly, the English language is not expressive enough to simply convey in words, all that this machine and its attachments can do – because it’s way more than just a “Smith Machine”.

It’s a:

  • 450kg rated spotting bar (Hi again Ronnie!)
  • 159kg Lat pulldown machine (Hey Dorian – come on over!)
  • Smith machine
  • Low-row machine
  • Leg press machine
  • Overhead pressing rack

Sweet Jesus, there’s more:

  • Pullup and chinup frame
  • Dip station
  • Free bar bench press and squat station
  • Weight rack
  • And even more stuff I haven’t figured out yet…
  • All contained in an ultra-efficient footprint of only 4×4 feet / 122x122cm
  • With a perfectly-engineered and lubricated action that’s smoother than Idris Elba AND George Clooney put together
  • By the way, this one has a 10-year warranty too

Anyway, Let’s Go Back To The Start

27th Feb 2017. The result of 20 years ‘on and off’ training – clearly not enough ‘on’:

Day 1 – We’ve Gut Got Some Work To Do

As we all do, I had a few go-to excuses lined up:

Imagine blaming this little ’un for skipping leg day

Sure, it’s not called a ‘Dad Bod’ for nothing.

And yes, I’ve also read about permanent male testosterone decline after fatherhood.

But #realtalk guys: women do the hardest part – most of us men can’t honestly use this one…

So I’ll Blame My “Other Baby” – Ironmaster UK

If you don’t yet know much about Ironmaster, it’s an American brand I discovered years ago while setting up my first home gym – after looking around in the UK market and not finding anything that fit the bill.

Before 2007, like most people I was training at a commercial town gym and doing my best to just get on with it, ignoring all the annoyances like:

  • Braindead fools goofing around on their phones between sets, while occupying the squat rack doing curls (back in ‘07 it was Snake on a Nokia, but no less annoying than Instagram in 2019)
  • Cheesy suburban ‘bad boys’ with phantom-lat syndrome(#helpfindacure), training nothing but arms and chest, strutting around on their skinny little chicken legs delusionally imagining they’re Dorian Yates
  • ‘Filthy Petes’ – the soap-dodging, BO-humming, unwashed swines, too lazy to bring a towel and wipe their putrid bacteria-laden sweat off the benches
  • Regular ‘Out of Service’ signs on cable machines from donkey-like ‘Full-Stack Freddys’ banging the living $#!t out of Every. Single. Rep.
  • ‘Shoeless Joes’ thoughtlessly deadlifting barefoot and spreading fungus-rich foot cheese all over the mats
  • Laughably clueless, and actually de-motivational, in-house ‘personal trainers’ – several of whom were borderline obese. (Why would you take advice from someone who gets $#!t results for themselves?)
  • Restrictive opening hours set around the operator’s convenience rather than customers needs
  • Crappy pop music playlists on an hourly loop, blaring through cheap tinny speakers
  • Gross changing rooms with self-opening lockers, slimy floors and pebble-dashed toilets

But looking back at that time now, I’m almost nostalgic – in those pre-iPhone days we had yet to experience the great Insta-THOT tsunami of 2012…

So I just got in, head down, trained and got the hell out – until one day the gym receptionist told me that my subs weren’t paid and refused me entry.

Fuming, I went home and got a bank statement to prove I was fully paid up, but this ‘Computer Says No’ bell-end still refused to believe me and let me in.

I cancelled my membership there and then.

It was time to clear out the garage full of crap I didn’t use (who actually keeps a car in their garage?), but couldn’t be bothered taking to the tip – and set up a home gym.

Time to start working out how and when I wanted – with no irritations or distractions.

But surprisingly, getting equipment proved to be the trickiest part…

Commercial spec gym gear was so big and bulky that it didn’t make sense for a home setup.

Plus it was eye-wateringly expensive. The pricing only made sense as a money-earning asset for a gym business.

I didn’t need a whole lot of kit for every possible exercise – my approach was to focus on intense strength training using the classic techniques that guys like Arnold and Franco Columbu were already using back in the 70s:

  • Big compound lifts including rows, squats, deadlifts, and pressing movements
  • Unbeatable bodyweight exercises like leg raises, dips, chinups and pullups
  • Low-impact, high-resistance work using cable weights for controlled muscle-group targeting
  • Dumbbell and kettlebell complexes for core-focused full body activation

However, the ‘home-workout’ options on offer were just a joke.

Badly designed, with cheap construction, flimsy materials and wonky operation – only suitable for absolute beginners using the lightest weights, and barely even that.

After a lot of research on the bodybuilding.com forums, it was clear the Ironmaster brand had a fanatical following of people training at home and I was blown away with their product quality and durability – strong enough to come with a 10 year warranty.

What really made Ironmaster shine though, was the clever design that went into each bit of equipment. I could see that a lot of time had been spent figuring out how to make everything functional, versatile and strong, while keeping the footprint small so not much space was needed.

But it wasn’t for sale in the UK so I emailed Ironmaster in the US, who wrote back and told me they didn’t have a local agent.

That was a lightbulb moment.

I was sure there would be a market for it among people like me here. So I found a price for a shipping container from the US and called them up.

Surprisingly, I was able to speak to the owners right away.

Rather than a big corporate operation, it was a family-owned business that had been creating, refining and optimising equipment exclusively for at-home gyms since the 1970s. No wonder their designs were so good.

2 weeks later Ironmaster USA appointed me as their exclusive distributor and seller for the UK and Europe.

There wasn’t a masterplan, I was just young and dumb enough not to know better, ready to take a chance and give it 100%.

And there was good luck in play too – before the big crash in 2008, banks were literally throwing money at people.

I signed up for a small business loan and ordered a container of stock to be delivered to my parents’ house as there was no more space at my place (sorry for hogging your garage so long Mum! xoxo).

Then I spent the next 5 weeks scrambling to figure out how to sell things on the internet…

Sometimes not knowing what you’re getting into can be a blessing in disguise, as it allows you to take decisive action without overthinking things.

In the end it took 2 years of working around my 9-5 job before it was possible to go full-time on Ironmaster UK, but it’s turned out to be a life-changing decision.

Getting Back To The Point –

Despite Being In The Business Of At-home Fitness, Serving My Customers Lead Me To Neglect My Own Training

10 years later, I had a great home gym, but was hardly using it.

Despite now being heavily involved in the fitness industry, I was more of a “do what I say, not what I do” kind of guy.

In short – working all the time made me into a massive hypocrite!

The dumbbells got picked up a few weeks before a trip to the beach or a fitness trade show, then I’d all out attack the weights in the hope of making some gains.

(Or don The Ironmaster costume and hang with Kai Greene)

And then the good habits would quickly slide again…

Plus my eating was a mess, sleep inconsistent, and schedule all over the place.

After 20 years lifting weights I was nowhere near my initial goals when I first started training – and knew very well this wasn’t the right way to go on.

Daydreams

Something had to change.

It was time for a bit of radical honesty – and committing to sort myself out with 3 goals:

  • Lose the beer belly
  • Gain lean muscle
  • Get proper six pack abs for the first time in my life

I set myself a 90 day challenge to go balls deep on getting in the shape of my life – and make the most dramatic change possible. Here’s what I was shooting for:

Actor Chris Pratt – you might have seen him in movies like Jurassic World & Guardians Of The Galaxy.

The idea was to be a case-study for what you could achieve through correct training at home with minimal strength training equipment and very little cardio.

(If I’m being honest – I also wanted to see myself standing proud at the top of one of those ‘before and after’ pages on a body transformation business. You know the ones I’m talking about right?)

To avoid making excuses I told everyone – so I’d look like an utter twat if I slacked off.

I set up a WhatsApp group of close friends and family, then spammed them daily with a photo of the scales in the morning, everything I ate and a photo of my daily training log after I had trained.

This spurred a few to up their game… and some others to block me for a while 🙂

But fear of shame is a great motivator!

There was a big chunk of positive motivation too – wanting to be the role model my children looked up to.

The fit Dad who could still give his kids a good run around in the park without getting into a sweaty, out of breath mess.

And to do this, I knew the only way I’d succeed was to be told EXACTLY what I needed to do.

Two of the UK’s leading fitness and nutrition brands were able to give me that expertise:

  • Ultimate Performance provided me with a personalised training and nutrition program, so I knew exactly what I needed to do every day to reach my physique goals.

These guys and girls are all about astounding results

  • Muscle Food supplied me with all the fuel I’d need for balanced nutrition to keep my body working, training, healing and growing throughout the next 90 intense days.

After a heavy workout, this feels like a million quid!

My Favourite Delivery

Let’s talk about food first:

Muscle Is Activated In The Gym

Built In Your Sleep

And Revealed In Your Kitchen

Everyone harps on about how diet is the most important thing when it comes to changing the way you look – and I couldn’t agree more.

Being in the fitness equipment business, it hurts a little to say this, but –

When it comes to focused, intense body recomposition for fat loss and muscle gain:

The 80/20 rule applies.

80% of the progress comes from a smart diet and good sleep habits.

I won’t put too much about sleep here, other than to say the actual ‘muscle growth’ happens while you are lying in bed. So try to get 7-8 hours a night. If that’s not possible, sneak in a couple of 20 minute naps during the day.

Every little helps.

The other 20% – your workouts – are essentially an activation method for the body’s in-built healing and growth processes.

Without the right nutrition plan, you can’t just lift weights, chow down, and expect to get much below 15% body fat – unless you’re a genetic mutant.

#myostatin

And if you’re doing any kind of regular training, a good diet involves carefully measuring the fat and carbs in each meal, minimising salt and sugar, then substantially increasing your protein intake.

Throughout my entire journey, I tracked every single bite of food that passed my lips using a handy app called MyFitnessPal

Extreme? Yep – but it was the simplest and easiest way to maintain enough discipline for this idea to work.

I also – being a little bit obsessive- took a photo of every meal. Here’s a timelapse:

Tracking What I Ate Did Two Things:

#1 It Built New Habits

By taking photos of everything I ate, it made me question my food choices.

This created a habit of being conscious of what’s on my plate, and allowed me to have a great idea of portion sizes and macros for the future – so I wouldn’t have to use MyFitnessPal forever.

And believe it or not, this is still something I do to this day, even though I’m not trying to achieve any kind of drastic body goal right now.

I’m now in autopilot mode, maintaining the body I’ve built.

It’s fast, easy, and fairly low-effort.

I don’t have to do some psycho meal plan where I’m waking up at 3am to snack on boiled eggs – or food prepping for 6 hours on a Sunday, with nothing but chicken-shakes to look forward to all week.

No ta

#2 It Gave Me Flexibility

I don’t care what anybody tells you; making something flexible is the only way to long-term, sustainable success.

Ever tried to follow a ‘strict’ diet?

Ruin relationships because you’ve got no social life?

Feel cranky and tired all day long, obsessively thinking about your next meal?

Surely that’s not the way to live your life right?

Diet doesn’t need to be super complicated – and in fact the simpler it is, the better your chances of sticking to it.

At the end of the day, weight loss comes down to one thing – and one thing only:

You Must Be In A Calorie Deficit

Your body is a vehicle, with your heart as its engine and your muscles as the moving parts.

Your digestive system is the fuel tank and fuel pump.

And your brain is the operator who controls the whole system.

As the operator, it’s your responsibility to keep that tank supplied with fuel of the right type – and in the right amounts.

But the quantity of food matters much more than the quality.

Once that’s done – ideally using a tool like MyFitnessPal as a guide – you don’t need to think too much about eating anymore, and can put more focus on training and rest.

So, by counting my macros (albeit like an army drill sergeant), I could eat whatever I wanted – within reason – and STILL melt body fat.

The ‘2.2% Training Plan’ That Kept Me On Track

Getting 5x workouts done per week
In less time than some people spend on the $#!tter
Scrolling Facebook on their phone…

When I first got in-touch with Ultimate Performance, I told them I wanted a program that would help me drop fat, build muscle and be the most efficient program humanly possible.

That meant it had to:

  • Be easy to do with minimal equipment
  • Show visible results in the shortest possible time
  • Suit working out in short blasts of no more than 45 minutes

And here’s what the Ultimate Performance coaches came up with:

A Training Program That Took Up A Tiny 2.2% Of Each Week

  • 5 workouts
  • 43 minutes per session
  • Total 3 hours 35 minutes*

*That leaves 164 hours and 25 minutes remaining in the week

And This Is Why Having a Home Gym is So F***king Awesome

Working out at home, it’s easy to do 5x intense strength workouts a week in under 4 hours total – while your buddies down the gym waste an extra 5-7 hours driving, parking and queueing for the squat rack, while picking up the odd verruca in the changing room for their trouble.

Here’s absolute every reason I could think of why it’s a winner:

Money

Let’s get this one out of the way first, as it’s the most widespread concern:

  • According to the BBC, the average UK gym member spends £40.53 a month on their subscription – that’s almost £500 a year
  • Using that figure, a typical Ironmaster home gym setup has paid for itself in 2 – 4 years
  • Plus, we offer 0% interest finance so you can get started today without a big upfront investment – it’s just like paying your monthly gym membership, except you end up owning the gym! #WINNING
  • And we warranty our equipment for a minimum of 10 years – because we know it’s built to last for 20+ (we get less than 2 warranty claims PER YEAR)
  • So the lifetime cost of even our craziest custom setup is still less than 35% of a gym membership
  • This doesn’t even factor in additional savings made on travel…
Time

When you train at home you save so much time:

  • No travel time (or cost)
  • No waiting on equipment to be available
  • No getting stuck in a lame ‘weather chat’ with people you’d rather avoid
  • No wasted minutes entering, exiting, using changing rooms and general faffing about
  • It all adds up to an intense 43 minute session + shower and dress taking under 1 hour total at home – when the same workout may cost you 2.5 hours at a commercial gym.

Freedom
  • Want to blast Rammstein, psy-trance or Beethoven loud enough to make your amplifier smoke and tear up your speaker cones?
  • Re-enact the final scene from Scarface by throwing chalk all over the room?
  • Get in touch with your animalistic side, grunting like a Tuscan pig hunting truffles?
  • Hang a 60 inch LED TV on the wall and put all the Rocky movie training montages on infinite loop?
  • Squat more than your bodyweight ass-to-grass in nothing but mirror Ray-bans, a Union Jack Speedo, and a bright pink suede weightlifting belt with chrome buckles?
  • Good news – you can.

    With a home gym you are now master of your own destiny, and captain of your soul.

Hygiene

Remember Mr fungus-feet, Shoeless Joe? What about smelly no-towel Filthy Pete?

Screw those guys, they’re assholes – get them out of your life.

Your own gym means no more barnyard odours, changing-room warts, athlete’s foot – or other charming fungi (and let’s assume you keep your home shower and toilet spotlessly clean ????).

Focus

Once you have a place where you control all the variables, and have the equipment setup just how you like it with no interruptions or inconveniences – you can expect to start setting new lifting PRs in short order.

Avoid Idiots

Have you ever visited a gym that didn’t have at least a couple of dickhead members? You know the type who indulge in moronic behaviour like:

  • Hogging equipment while ‘resting’ with a phone
  • Not re-racking the weights or wiping off the benches
  • Intimidation and other insecure macho nonsense
  • Taking hundreds of group selfies while loudly chatting more breeze than a school bus full of teenagers
  • Staring at other people’s bodies so creepily it’s almost eye-rape
  • Chat-up attempts that are borderline sexual harassment
  • Doing stupid $#!t that breaks the equipment
  • Worst of all – curling in the squat rack
  • When you have your own gym at home, you can kiss all that nasty bull$#!t goodbye.

Privacy

If you’re into bodybuilding or competing in fitness shows, you need a place to get a solid pump going and practise your poses or routine with some privacy.

That’s not really happening at your typical Pure Gym.

Or maybe you just want to roll out of bed early in the morning and bust out a set of pullups in your PJs to kick off the day?

Now that dream is a reality.

Convenience

There’s nothing more convenient than having a gym in your home – you’re in TOTAL control of everything that goes on there.

You can train twice a day with ease, at any time you please, and you’re never more than seconds away from a workout.

If you’re into fitness and love an intense hardcore session on the regular, it’s truly life-changing.

There’s just nothing quite like it.

To Be Fair Though, There Are 2 ‘Negatives’ About Having A Home Gym:

No Excuses

  • I don’t have time
  • The gym is closing soon
  • It’s too far
  • I haven’t got a babysitter
  • I have to work late tonight
  • I’m up early tomorrow
  • It’s cold outside
  • When you have your own gym, you can’t lie to yourself anymore!

    You just bloody well GET IT DONE.

Bandwagon Jumpers

Once your mates see how much better you have it, they’ll be banging on your garage door to get in – and you’ll probably have to let them…

Let’s Talk Supersets FTW

To squeeze the most juice from each session we used what’s known as Supersets on pretty much all the exercises.

So what’s that?

A Superset is when you group 2 or 3 exercises together and do them back-to-back with no rest in between.

Simple but highly effective.

The important thing is that each of the exercises should hit a different group of muscles or area of the body to avoid muscle fatigue.

So you can do back/chest, arms/legs, push/pull, abs/shoulders or any other combo you can think of.

Then you can continue to do 2 or 3 supersets at a time without stopping for rest in between.

There are almost infinite variations you can create for yourself, but here are some Superset examples you can link up to create a killer session:

  • 10x Dips + 10x Hanging Leg Raise
  • 10x Bench Press + 10x Lat Pulldown
  • 5x Squats + 5x Pullups
  • 10x Dumbbell Curl + 10x Tricep Rope Extensions
  • 8x Bench Press + 8x Bent Over Row
  • 8x Leg Extensions + 8X Leg Curls
  • 5x Deadlift + 10x Dumbbell Side Raise
  • 5x Squats + …5x More Squats ????


Training like this is a great way of hitting every major muscle group in a full body workout and completing each session in a fraction of the time.

If you’re training 3-5 times per week, 43 minutes each session is plenty of time to do everything you need.

Another benefit of supersetting is the extended period of activity between rests keeps your heart rate higher.

This means you get most of the benefits of fat burning and heart-strengthening cardio work, without spending any time on a boring treadmill.

Together with the massive energy demand of heavy weight training, this spikes your metabolism, helping your body to continue burning more calories all day long.

And the Results?

Not much to say really

In A Quick 90 Days:

  • I became the physical role model I’d always wanted to be for my kids
  • I dropped 29 pounds of useless, unhealthy, and – let’s face it – ugly body fat
  • My waist shrank by 15% – from 40 inches / 102 cm to 34.5 inches / 87.5 cm
  • I got visible six pack abs for the first time in my life – at age 35!

Challenges On The Way

Without wanting to sound like an arse – honestly?

I didn’t face any challenges (other than the challenge itself ????)

And here’s why –

When you’re:

  • Focused on what you want
  • Have a clear vision of what success will look like
  • Set an ambitious-but-possible deadline to achieve it
  • Write it down in a plan
  • Get the correct equipment to do the work

…It really is mindblowing what you can achieve in the comfort of your own home gym.

Everything will work out – all you have to do is follow the plan and be consistent.

And remember:

“80% of success is just showing up”

There’s that 80/20 idea again…

Takeaways (not the edible kind) On The Quest For A Better Body

#1 Flexible Is Sustainable

A flexible diet is the key to long-term sustainability.

That means not restricting or banning any type of food.

With experience, you’ll understand diet a lot better, and things become second nature.

You end up at the stage where you can eyeball a plate of food and know roughly how much protein, fat and carbs are on there.

By monitoring (or tracking) your calorie intake, and focusing on ‘nutrient-dense foods, you can still eat your favourite ‘junk food’.

Once it’s in moderation and fits your calorie target of course…

But if you have one too many red wines, or munch an entire slab of dark chocolate?

No worries, don’t beat yourself up too much – just account for them and move forward 🙂

Allow it

#2 Consistency Is King

Shoot for a plan you can see yourself following 6 months from now, at least 80% of the time.

Just keep on doing it, and if you slip up, again it’s not a big problem.

Momentum is powerful, so the key is always to get your routine and schedule going again as quickly as possible.

#3 Enjoy It

Enjoy everything:

  • Mastering the challenge
  • Developing the discipline
  • The changes in your body
  • The adrenaline rush of a great pump
  • Noticing you’re attracting some sexy side-glances
  • Proving people wrong
  • Making yourself a better, stronger, more resilient person
  • Enjoy life more – it’s there to be enjoyed, and fitness makes it better

Final Thoughts

Right now, my only goal is to keep the results I’ve achieved – which isn’t as hard as it sounds thanks to all those newly ingrained habits I talked about earlier.

Changing the way you look (and feel) doesn’t have to be confusing or difficult – and let’s face it – if this Cockney geezer can do it, I bet you can too!

It all comes down to making smart choices, being committed, and having the willingness to get after whatever it is you want.

Thanks for taking the time to read my story.

If you have any questions, Email me – I read every email and always respond (though it might take a few days).

And if you’d like to check out the strength training equipment I used for this body transformation, just click here:


Update: What Happened Next – Almost 3 Years Later…

I wrote this story some time ago, and I’m glad to report that the methods described are 100% as valid today as they were in 2017.

Maintaining the training routine and eating discipline has been fairly easy – mainly because of the ease, efficiency and ‘no-excuses’ nature of having a pro-quality Ironmaster gym at home.

Although the intensity of training hasn’t reduced, the duration and frequency has dropped a little.

Nowadays it’s more like 30-40 minutes, 3-4 times per week for maintenance – and I still follow a short, intense approach to training based around Supersets.

Then when I’ve a holiday coming up or a trade show to attend, I’ll up the frequency and tighten the diet for 4-6 weeks to give myself a bit of a ‘polish up’.

So yep – if you’re looking to make that change in 2019, 2020, or even 2030 – I’ll still heartily recommend a home gym and the 2.2% training plan as the way to go.

All the best,

Cheers,

James' Signature

James- Founder

IronmasterUK Logo

PS: That prediction I made about ‘mates banging on the door to get in’ has come true – my home gym has become an important part of my social life. It’s now a place for friends to regularly visit and train with me too… the only downside is sometimes it’s hard to get the buggers to go home!

Sold Out

Super Bench

Original price was: £419.00.Current price is: £399.00.

Quick-Lock Dumbbell Set 75 lbs (34 kg)

£698.00

IM2000 Self Spotting Machine

£1,799.00

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *