Vaclav Gregor: It was May 2007 and after months of thinking about it I finally decided to go to the gym. Or at least check how it all works in there. The first day I had to go with my friend, because I was pretty scared of all the big guys who are going to be there.

The first day was pretty simple, I went there, saw all the scary machines, barbells and dumbbells. However, I was determined to start going to the gym, so I asked what I need in order to start working out and went home. Two days later me and my friend finally went to the gym to have our first workout.

We asked the staff to show us which machines should we use (yes we thought machines are the best way to build muscles, but hell it was our first day), how many reps and sets should we do per each exercise, what body parts to train in each session and how to breath during the lift.

I was used to playing lots of sports, but lifting weights was something completely new to me and the stress that this movement with additional weights had on my body was enormous. My muscles were completely shocked.

I was sore for the next two weeks, just from this single workout session. But that was to be expected, because I was only 15 at that time and like I said I never lifted weights in my life. I was weak, without any natural strength and lacking muscle mass big time.

From Skinny to Buff – the Beginning

The first three months were just an introduction to weight lifting and meant basically getting comfortable with the weights. I learned how to breathe correctly and I started evaluating my strength better. Meaning I was better at picking up the right weights to the lifts based on the give amount of sets and reps.

VIDEO: Are You Targetting the Right Kind of Muscle?

I was going to the gym twice a week and doing full body circuits, one exercise per body part, three sets with ten reps. This would not be so bad for the beginner level in the early age.

Two Problems

First there is no timing of your rest time. Second in my early training days I was lead to believe that machines are better because they are safe and easier. Well, I was wrong. Machines are the worst thing to work out with.

And not only this, my lifting technique was also terrible. I was going to failure, lifting more than I should and not doing a full movement. Today I could have way more muscle mass if I knew what I know today back then.

I remember that when I was doing a bench press my friend did more work on his bicep than I did on my chest. It was just pathetic.

From Skinny to Buff – Working Out vs. Training

It always makes me cry when I see guys doing the same mistakes over and over again. From my friend John Barban I learnt that there are two types of guys who go to the gym. The first group goes there to work out and lift weights and the second group goes there to train.

My guess is that you don’t really see a difference between two groups and words like weight lifting, working out and training sounds the same to you. Well, for me they are not.

Going to the gym to work out and lift weights means that you don’t care about the workout and what effect it has on your body. You want to push something heavy on the bench press and see your biceps pumped from the curls in the mirror. This is how 96% of guys spend time the gym.

They go there to have fun, to improve their ego by trying to lift enormous weights while having their buddies sweating blood from helping them push the bar up. Then they rest for ten minutes and go do few sets of bicep curls to failure followed by some stupid crunches.

I know one thing for certain, if this is how you would describe your workout day, you are preventing yourself from building a good looking body. Here are few steps to correct this:

• Go to the gym with purpose of training not just working out. This little shift changes a lot. If you treat your workouts like this, they will suddenly have a purpose, become important, you will make sure you do everything right.
• Time your rest periods, usually something around 60-120 seconds works the best, it really depends on the workout intensity, but it’s a good start to take a timer and just have 90 seconds rest periods.
• Don’t use machines if you work out for longer than three months. If you already know the gym environment, go and pick some dumbbells and barbell. Free weights are the way to masculine body, not some fancy machines you see on TV.
• Get a workout that is designed around these principles, if you don’t have years of training experience, let somebody else who already does design your workouts, just make sure they know their stuff.

If you don’t look the way you want, it may not be your fault, nobody taught you how to train or eat. However, it’s now your responsibility to learn how to do all this to get a killer looking body. Nobody else will, you have to do the work to get the reward.

I worked out with no workout plan, without timing my rest and with terrible form for almost three years. And surprisingly enough, I looked the same. After three years of going regularly to the gym.

There was definitely something wrong. At first I thought that there must be something wrong with me. I said to myself: I’m working out like everybody else, but I still look the same, so there must be something wrong with me and I must have screwed up genetics, right? WRONG.

I May Not Have the Genetics of Arnold

but that doesn’t mean I can’t build a masculine body. It was something else. After weeks of self-pity and bitching about my crappy genetics, something shifted inside my mind and I decided to give this one more chance.

If what I am doing is not working, I must try something else. So, is instead of reading bodybuilding magazines, talking to personal trainers and spending time on bodybuilding forums I took a different approach.

I started studying biology and anatomy. I started talking to women about what muscles are attracted on men. I started researching different workout styles, especially those that are under the radar of the average fitness enthusiasts.

And instead of following advice from bodybuilders, who have exceptional genetics and are on steroids are decided to follow advice from a friend of mine who looked like an action movie star and always have his gorgeous girlfriend waiting for him after the workout.

I made friends with few female models and got into discussion with them about masculine guys. I started learning from guys who have about 15 years of experience, knew the behind doors stuff in professional bodybuilding and supplement industry. I got a workout that has very strict structure and was mainly focused on shoulders and back. After following a completely different approach I transformed my body immensely.

On the before photo I already had about three years of workout experience. However, I looked exactly the same as I did three years before taking that shot.

What to Do to Go From Skinny to Buff

It may or may not come as a surprise to you, but professional bodybuilders are not really attractive to women. I doubt that Alessandra Ambrosio fancy Jay Cutler and I also doubt that Megan Fox spends her days by thinking about Ronnie Coleman. This is just not how it works.

If you take a closer look at what is physically attractive on guys, you will notice that the guys who have the natural masculine body have dominant shoulders, and back muscles. And also happen to date the most gorgeous women.

If you want to build a good looking body, try to aim for the look that natural fitness models, swimmers, gymnasts, action movie stars have. The body shape that is shoulder dominant.

In my muscle building journey I have learnt that if you structure your workout around shoulders, back and chest you will be amazed by the results and will build the body you want. Let’s say you have a workout plan for three days a week, here is how it can look like:

• Monday: Biceps/Shoulders/Chest/Abs
• Wednesday: Triceps/Shoulders/Back/Abs
• Friday: Legs/Shoulders/Chest/Abs

And here is an example of a Monday workout session:

Biceps

• Barbell Curl (3 sets x 8 reps x 90 sec rest)
• Hammer Curl(2 sets 12 reps x 70 sec rest)

Shoulders

• Military Press (5 sets x 8 reps x 90 sec rest)
• Barbell High Pull (3 sets x 8 reps x 90 sec rest)

Chest

• Incline Dumbbell Press (4 sets x 10 reps x 80 sec rest)
• Flat Dumbbell Flye (3 sets x 14 reps x 60 sec rest)

Abs

• Renegade Rows (4 sets x 6 reps x 30 sec rest)
• Hanging Leg Raises (4 sets x 10 reps x 60 sec rest)

This is just an example of a workout structure, there are many variations, but I recommend this one as a starter. You can use this structure and apply it on all of your workout sessions yourself or you can get somebody else to do it for you. My advice is to find somebody who looks the way you want to look and get his workout.

What Were The Physical Requirements?

Rafi: I can’t go into exact details about the requirements for the unit and what you need to go through to get in. But what I can tell you is that whether or not you’re accepted is much more a question of your mental endurance than your physical endurance. If you’re mentally strong, they can always build you up physically later. That being said, research has shown that exercise can actually make you mentally tougher and someone in amazing shape definitely has an edge.

What Kind Of Physical Training Did You Do?

Rafi: I did a few things. First, I didn’t do any serious weight training outside of some free weight training. I stuck to mostly bodyweight exercises like different kinds of push ups, pull ups, dips, rings, leg ups, and sit ups. I was also using a pull up bar that was extremely thick, which helped my grip tremendously. If I remember right, I was able to do double the pull ups on a normal bar that I was able to do on the thick bar.

I was also living in a very rural place, where we had a really hilly dirt path that was around 2 kilometers or 1.2 miles that you could do laps on. I would run there around 3 times a week with a friend of mine. The best part of the path was there were these crazy guard dogs chained up in the middle of it who would run after you when you passed them, which is a great motivator to help keep your speed up.

Another thing I did was I used to go on long hikes with weight. I would fill up a big pack with these huge water containers. I think each container weighed 10 kilo or 22 pounds when full. Then I would put on some boots and just hike for kilometers/miles to practice what it would feel like in the army.

What Happened Once You Got Into The Unit?

Rafi: I was originally recruited to a normal infantry brigade, and then after some tests was accepted into a special operations unit attached to that unit. Sort of like the Marine Recon unit in the U.S. I ended up going to combat medic school to be one of the CM’s for my team, but unfortunately I ended up getting a bilateral knee injury and had to leave the unit before I finished training.

[I didn't want the post to get super serious, so here are some sexy IDF girls in their uniforms. To the right: Natalie, a IDF Naval Telecommunications expert.]

I got a serious case of bilateral patellar tendinosis. I’ve written about it before on my blog and I’ll probably write about it in the future as well. Basically, I was on crutches for months and had to go through some serious treatments to avoid surgery, and I’m still doing rehab today to recover. I understand what doctors say now when they talk about how hard it is to heal a tendon.

How Are You Rehabbing The Injury?

Rafi: To avoid surgery which would have meant a year off my feet, I originally received prolotherapy treatment, which is injecting the tendon with dextrose solution to encourage inflammation and healing.Then after I received platelet rich plasma therapy, where they spin down your blood to get the platelets for the healing properties and inject it into your tendon.

For the exercise part of rehab, I do a mixture of stretching, biking, eccentric squats on an incline board, lifting some very light ankle weights on the leg, and cross friction tendon massages. I actually find the cross friction massages to be the most helpful in stimulating healing, but everything is important.

Looking Back, What Would You Change?

Rafi: Definitely. For one, instead of worrying so much about running, which you can improve at drastically within 2 months, I would have focused on putting on some weight. I was super-lean before the army and I think it contributed to my injury. You have to lug a lot of gear on you, especially as a combat medic, and having some weight on you makes it a lot easier.

The second big thing I would have done differently is I would have worked a LOT more on leg strength. Besides for hiking with weight and some bodyweight stuff, I really didn’t do close to enough work on my legs. I learned the hard way that not only is leg strength critical for functional fitness, but the muscles keep the pressure off your knees and will help prevent you from getting injured.

[To the left: Gal, former Miss Israel, and a gymnastics and calisthenics instructor in the spec units. To the right: Nivit, whose specialty was top secret!]

If I would do it again I would have spent much more time doing weighted squats and lunges. That’s actually something I really plan on working on once my tendon G-d willing heals up completely and I’m able to lift heavy weight again.

What is your training experience?

Well, like many things in life, we experience something we don’t like before we decide that we MUST have its opposite. I was no exception. It was a feeling of being too skinny that drove me to want to start building some muscle.

My training system (called THT training) is built around the most fundamental principle of building muscle – Progressive Overload. Basically this means that you must increase the weight lifted and/or the reps completed on as many sets as possible on successive workouts. Building muscle needn’t be as complicated as some people make out – obedience to this principle WILL bring success, you just have to learn how to OPTIMIZE it – that’s where the other THT principles come in.

The WHOLE system is completely free and can be picked up at my sites Free Weight Training Program or Free Bodybuilding Workout Program.

Why 8 to 12 repetitions for muscular growth?

This is one part of the optimization I’m talking about. Getting stronger through progressive overload is the key, but what rep range should we reach ‘muscular failure’ in? My research would indicate that failure on the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th rep in EVERY set produces most growth. So in each set you may have to adjust weight to achieve failure in this anabolic rep range.

Lower rep ranges work best for those prioritizing strength gains as opposed to muscle size. Higher rep ranges activate the aerobic pathways (rather than the desired anaerobic), and also ensure that successive sets are less than optimal due to the rapid fatigue they produce.

8-12 reps produces more structural adaptations over neural ones. I want to train to be bigger and look better naturally, so this is where I stay.

Why ‘Go To Failure?’

The necessary muscle stimulation to FORCE muscle adaptation occurs in the last few reps of a set. You have to give your muscles a reason to grow. Continually reaching failure at higher and higher weights ensures that you are providing the MAXIMUM anabolic signal to the muscles worked.

Which exercises do you recommend?

Man, there are some really silly exercises out there, I stick to the basics. I’m sure some of your readers will have experienced the following scenario…

You begin working out and follow the basics i.e. basic exercises and working on beating your last performance every time – you’re building muscle at a good rate.

Then as time passes, you meet some gym rats and/or buy some muscle mags (rags) that convince you that you’re doing it all wrong and need to follow a more complex routine and weird exercises. You’re convinced they’re right and start changing things up; it’s just then you’re results stop coming. Of course you tell yourself it’s because you’re no longer a beginner and can’t expect new gains every month or so. Well, in my opinion, you just made a BIG mistake.

The basic exercises and progressive overload will force a muscle to continually grow so long as you get your diet right. I recommend a combination of heavy compound lifts for larger muscle groups and also some compound movements for smallers muscle like triceps. I only think a few of the ‘isolation’ movements are worth doing.

However, it must be stated that I have a different definition if what constitutes a compound or isolation movement. I agree with what IFBB pro Jeff Willet said in this interview I did with him,

I would consider barbell curls a compound movement as compared to something like concentration curls or preacher curls because barbell curls are a multi-joint/multi-muscle movement. This makes it a superior bicep exercise because the compound nature of it allows you to handle more weight through a more natural range of motion. Same is true for French Curls.

Jeff here is talking about performing these exercise with what is sometimes referred to as Biomechanically Optimized Form. This involves using the body’s natural biomechanics when lifting to MAXIMIZE the load that can be placed on the intended muscle and help ensure that you stay injury-free.

[Mark in 2006, after his first successful cutting cycle. He felt he was quite skinny back then but had a good foundation to build on. Had ripped abs but needed more muscle. He used the system he later outlined in the book Total Six Pack Abs.]

Lets talk about six-pack abs

There is so much misinformation about abdominal development. Abs are to built like any other muscle i.e. progressively overloading them with weighted resistance. 2 exercises I especially like to get the job done are weighted decline sit-ups, and weighted lying leg raises.

However, building abdominal muscle is only one aspect of attaining the elusive six-pack. The majority of work goes into getting your body fat low enough to see those sculpted abs. This is done with diet and cardio.

My book ‘Total Six Pack Abs‘ is a FULL six-pack system i.e. it covers the following areas thoroughly…

• Nutrition – The BEST fat-burning diet
• Weight Training – Essential! Based on my THT training but tweaked a little for cutting purposes
• Cardio – Cardio is an essential part of cutting. However, no marathon sessions are needed! Short, intense bursts work best – you’ll discover why and HOW to do it.

What makes Total Six Pack Abs superior

Each one of the 3 factors above actually INCREASES in intensity throughout the program.

• The diet actually INCREASES in its fat-burning potential
• The weight training INCREASES in its muscle-building and fat-burning potential
• The Cardio INCREASES in its fat-burning potential

This is the secret of those who KEEP losing fat week on week VS those who stall, lose motivation and QUIT! Abs can be attained quite quickly if the fat keeps coming off week on week!

There are formulas in the book which will reveal the EXACT cutting macro nutrient grams based on YOUR OWN body. Grams of carbs, fat, and protein are tailor-fitted to the individuals current body make-up.

[Comparison between Mark's his first cut and his latest fat loss cycle from the summer of 2009.]

You may also find it surprising that the Total Six Pack Abs program actually allows for sweet treats every week! Inside the book you’ll discover the science of why this is the case and why it’s surprisingly BENEFICIAL for torching unwanted body fat.

Thanks for the interview, Yavor. Keep up the good work at your site!

Related posts:

1. Building Muscle – Consistency And Intensity Are Key When It Comes To Gaining Muscle Mass
2. Building Muscle – Get a Basic Strength Level First
3. Building Muscle – The Top 7 Secrets of Gaining Lean Muscle Mass

[Our lady visitors were starting to complain of too much hot girl coverage and practically no dudes. So here is a fit good looking guy... under another hot girl lol. Ok, I couldn't help it! Can't blame a guy for sneaking in pics of gorgeous girls... Plus, I know most... ok practically ALL guys actually workout because they want to hook up with beautiful women. Just reporting on a fact lol]

I Was Pleasantly Surprized

Rusty Moore, author of one of my favorite fitness blogs, came up with a free e-book in which he basically interviewed two top nutritional scientist about the truth behind the whole supplement industry. I quickly snatched the book and read it in one sitting. It was an eye opening and enjoyable read in Rusty’s usual entertaining style. But what was most important about it was the information in it.

You Need To Get Your Hands On This Information

So I shot an email to Rusty and invited him to write up a quick post and present his e-book here. Well, turns out he had an even better idea – he put together a quick little video just for the readers of Relative Strength Advantage. Watch it below

Rusty Moore’s Guest Video Post

[Rusty is a really cool and modest guy. Even in this vid he mostly talks about my site LOL. So don't get distracted and make sure to check out his site and grab his free e-book for a dose of ethical, highly entertaining and last but not least controversial information on the subject of bodybuilding and fat burning supplements.]

Here Is How To Get It

Here is the post where Rusty introduces the e-book in which he exposes the supplement conspiracy ==> http://fitnessblackbook.com/diet-tips/the-supplement-conspiracy-by-rusty-moore-exposing-the-supplement-industry/. So just go ahead and snatch it, and if you are new to his blog, I promise you are in for a real treat!

Kickass photo by Digital Sophia

Craig Ballantyne: Like most folks in the fitness industry, I played a lot of sports when I was younger. That led to weight training. From there, I realized I wanted to be a strength coach in professional sports.

I went to school for Kinesiology, which then led to a Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology. Along the way I studied what made a good NHL Strength Coach (they had Master’s Degrees and were Certified Strength And Conditioning Specialists – CSCS).

I also started training athletes, along with men and women for fat loss. Then I started working with Men’s Health in 2000. And I invented Turbulence Training in 1999, and finally put it online in 2001.

Here’s how I invented the first Turbulence Training workout.

Back in 1998-99, I was but a lowly grad student, studying the effects of androstenedione (the supplement taken by the mighty baseball player, Mark McGwire during his record-breaking home run quest in ’98).

In my study (which was published in the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology for any science nerds like myself out there), we had guys use the supplement and go through a couple of weight training sessions. By February of ’99 I was stuck in the lab, analyzing the blood samples using some fancy radio-active isotopes.

And when I say stuck in the lab, I mean STUCK. I’d get there at 7am, and record my last data point at 11pm. Sixteen hours of mad science. And if I wasn’t there, I was downstairs in the medical library, studying papers on testosterone and training.

Now coming from a very athletic background, this sedentary lifestyle didn’t sit well with me. But there I was, studying for a degree in Exercise Physiology and left with no time for exercise.

Or so I thought.

Fortunately, I actually had a 50 minute window once per day of “down-time” while the lab’s gamma-counter analyzed blood samples.

That left me 50 minutes to get to the gym (5 minutes across campus) and get a workout in the remaining 40 or so minutes. I knew that if I applied my studies to the workout, I could get maximum results in minimum time.

As a former athlete, I knew that I had to find a way to stay fit and to avoid the fat gain that comes with working long hours in a sedentary environment. And I also had to stay true to the high-school bodybuilder I once was, so there was no way I was willing to sacrifice my muscle to one of those long-cardio, low protein fat-loss plans that were popular at the time.

Instead, I had to draw on my academic studies and my experiences working with athletes as the school’s Strength & Conditioning Coach.

I knew that sprint intervals were associated with more fat loss than slow cardio, and I knew that you could also increase aerobic fitness by doing sprints (but you can’t increase sprint performance by doing aerobic training).

So clearly, intervals were (and ARE!) superior to long slow cardio for fat loss.

I had seen first hand the incredible results of sprint intervals in the summer and fall, as the athletes made huge fitness improvements and shed winter fat in a short time using my interval programs. I knew that intervals had to be the next step in the evolution of cardio.

The biggest benefit of intervals? A lot of results in a short amount of time. I knew that I only had 40 minutes to train, and therefore I could only spend 15-20 minutes doing intervals.

Question 2: Which is more important to get in shape – diet, exercise, or some combination of both? If both – which one do you consider still more important?

Craig Ballantyne: Diet is more important. You can’t out-train a bad diet. You can lose fat really fast with your diet, but only at a smaller, yet consistent pace with exercise.

But of course, if you want a beautiful body, you can’t do that without exercise. Fortunately as Turbulence Training shows you, the workouts don’t have to be long, slow, or boring.

Question 3: Is it possible to get in fantastic shape by training only at home and with no equipment?

Craig Ballantyne: Absolutely.

People have been exercising without equipment and staying lean since the beginning of time, but now all the fitness propaganda has turned people crazy thinking they have to go to a fancy commercial gym and spend big bucks each month to exercise on bikes that don’t even go anywhere if they want to lose fat.

It’s absurd!

You can do hundreds of exercises at home without equipment. Combined with a diet of whole, natural foods you can lose a lot of weight and get very fit and lean at home.

Question 4: Could you share some of the mindsets of folks that successfully transform their bodies?

Craig Ballantyne: That’s a great question. They all know the secret to fat loss which is:

“Once you accept how HARD it is to lose fat, then it becomes easy.”

Do you understand what I mean?

It’s like saving money.

Once you understand and accept how much discipline is required to save money then it’s easy to do and becomes 2nd nature to do so. You simply begin to do it automatically.

It’s the same with fat loss.

Once you understand and accept this “secret”, you’ll realize that you must…

• Plan, shop, and prepare your meals in advance…
• Do three high-intensity workouts per week…
• Keep yourself active on off days and keep your butt off the couch for at least 30 minutes…
• Develop rituals that help you avoid night-time eating…
• Take time to set goals and to plan solutions for every obstacle that gets in your way each week…

Only then will fat loss become 2nd nature to you, so much so that you couldn’t get fat if you tried!

Seriously, once you “get it”, you literally couldn’t get fat if you tried, because your mind is on autopilot to stop you from binge eating or from skipping workouts.

So work on that…apply that “secret mindset” and you’ll lose as much body fat as you want.

Heck, you can apply this to ANY aspect of your life and you’ll experience success beyond your wildest dreams.

I’d like to thank Craig for this interview. The final insight that he shared here is probably the most important. Body transformation is hard. Once you get that, you will know you are on the right track whenever training, diet or fasting seem to hard. It becomes simple. Just push hard on all fronts – eat right and train at full speed. And to get you started, here is a full fat loss body weight circuit training workout that you can do at home, riight out of Craig’s Bodyweight Manual, a training system that gives you 6 months worth of no equipment home fat loss workouts.

Related posts:

1. Fat Loss Mistakes – 7 Ways People Mess Things Up and How You Can Avoid Sabotaging Your Fat Loss Progress