Transformation of an Exercise Coach:
6 months, No Cardio, No Sit-ups & Not a Single Supplement!
by Serkan Yimsel, CHEK Exercise Coach, NCEP Exercise Therapist

For the longest time the idea of "being professional" for me had less to do with my image and more to do with either the number of certifications I held or the results I gained with my clients. My clients respected me because they saw how I could demonstrate perfect form while teaching exercises and were interested in listening to me talk to them about some technical health and fitness jargon. As far as my appearance, as long as I left my shirttail untucked to hide my protruding mid-section and walked around looking like a bouncer (guys, you know what I'm talking about!), I still looked like a trainer.

Before: 200 lbs, 21% body fat

So I came to the following conclusion: My job is to not only know what I'm talking about, but to look like I know what I'm talking about! From there, I started my 6-month journey of body transformation. During this journey I wanted to prove to myself and to my clients that it is quite possible to have a better body; without using any of the 3 most common tactics suggested in those cliché "before/after" stories:

1. Doing some sort of cardio equipment or cardio exercise program
2. Using an abdominal training gimmick or doing classic sit-up type abdominal exercises
3. Taking some sort of fat burning and/or performance enhancing supplement.

So how did I do it? Below you will read the overall highlights of my nutrition and training strategies.

After: 190 lbs, 11% body fat

NUTRITION:

• If you were to ask me about the single most important strategy in my nutrition plan, my answer would be the overall reduction of sugars and grains from my diet. The only sugars I consumed were those that weren't manmade, like those that naturally occur in fruits and vegetables. When I consumed grains, I made sure that they were minimally processed, soaked and traditionally cooked (e.g., slow cooked brown rice or homemade lentil soup). My favorite recipe book was Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions¹.

• The next important aspect of my approach to nutrition was choosing the highest quality foods possible. For produce, I always looked for "certified organic" and preferably "local" selections. When it came to meat and dairy, my priorities were buying grass-fed, organic and free-range products. Of course, living in Southern California offers a huge advantage for me in being able to find these kinds of foods.

• The most drastically changed meal of the day was my breakfast. Before my body transformation started, I usually didn't even have breakfast most of the time! Even if I did, it was generally something very small and higher in sugar and grain content, like a grain bar or cereal with high fructose corn syrup. During this last 6 months, I never skipped breakfast and always had 20-30 grams of high quality protein such as turkey burgers or ground meats with free range eggs. I found that when I had strong breakfast meals like these, not only did I tend to cheat less on my nutrition plan, but I also had much more energy to work and do my exercise program due to better blood sugar management.

• I made sure that at least 2 out of my 4-5 daily meals included some sort of "raw" foods, meaning that I often had uncooked vegetables and fresh fruits that were unprocessed and not canned. I also stayed away from pasteurized dairy and juices and instead used raw versions in snacks and shakes. When I ate nuts or nut bars, they were also raw or soaked, not roasted or salted!

• I knew that the naturally occurring fats in most protein sources I ate weren't dangerous for my ancestors, and couldn't be dangerous for me either. So whenever I could, I chose the "full-fat" protein sources. Also, if I wanted to use added fats for cooking, I used only extra virgin olive oil, organic butter and virgin coconut oil.

• Since I didn't plan to use a single supplement during my nutrition program, I referred to the ancient wisdom that most primitive societies used to enhance their health and strength. One of them was to include some organ meats in their diet. For that, I had organic liver once a week and added free-range ground heart to my ground meat dishes (about one third of the ground meat amount in the recipe).

• I stopped eating chips, cookies, ice cream and other grocery bought snack foods while I watched television, especially after dinner. Occasionally, I popped some popcorn or had an apple with raw almond butter instead.

• The most important liquid I consumed during this transformation was pure, clean water. I drank half of my body weight in ounces of water a day. (Approx. 100 ounces per day).

TRAINING:

• We have a saying in Turkish: A tailor fails to fix his or her own rip. I think this idiom is true to a certain extent. After gaining so much information in the field of health and fitness in the last four to five years, I realized that I failed to stick to an exercise program for more than a few weeks. I believe the reason for that was because I constantly evaluated my exercises and always looked for a "better" or a "perfect" program design but forgot the most essential part: Heading to the gym and actually doing the exercises! This is why I decided to hire one of my mentors at the beginning of my transformation. While he is talking, I shut up and listened and stopped trying to evaluate or question the program he designed for me. Instead, as suggested in Nike commercials, I just did it…

• This experience taught me that no matter how good your exercise program design is, if you are not sticking to it, it really didn't matter. Even the worst program in the world could still help you progress if you get your butt off the couch and do it! My mentor's program was designed for the initial 2 months of my entire body transformation journey and it was intended to improve my postural imbalances and increase my overall stability. In other words, this program was designed to prepare me for more hardcore training during the later months. I have to extend many thanks to my mentor for this. Because of this program; my posture improved, my occasional hip pain went away and my stamina increased significantly. Exercises in this program were mostly multiplanar, unstable and static exercises such as the Prone Cobra or Supine Ball Bridge.

• After completing the first two months of my journey, I was ready to move on to higher intensity training. Despite of all the nonsense we read in various muscle magazines regarding "high rep" training for definition, I knew that our bodies break down more muscle during such training programs. Unless you have a specific goal as in my postural correction phase or you want to be an endurance athlete, breaking down more muscle is not such a good idea! So I trained 3 times a week with a solid strength training program which included plenty of free weights and whopping 70-100% intensity. My rep range was generally 6-12. Most exercises were multiplanar, multijoint and performed without sitting or lying, like Squats and Standing Military Presses.

• In the last couple of months, I introduced some form of Olympic lifting into my exercise program. These exercises are also called "explosive lifts" which lead to greatest energy expenditure per minute of practice.² They not only improve overall speed and coordination, but also bring a new variety and challenge to the trainee. Because of their higher central nervous system input, I kept the repetition range below 6 for these exercises. I had the privilege to learn these lifts from a Russian Olympic lifter, so it is very important for a potential trainee to spend extensive time building a technique base for these exercises! The Power Snatch and Power Clean were the most common explosive lifts I performed during these days.

• I didn't want to do any isolated crunches or sit-up types of abdominal exercises because first, I knew that total body training has a greater impact on reducing the mid-section than these exercises. Second, most of these exercises are done lying on your back which has so little carryover to the functional activities of daily living.³ Exercises such as the Cable Functional Pull or Cable Wood Chop helped me to integrate my upper and lower body together as well as condition my abdominal muscles.

• To recap; during my 6-month transformation I averaged only about 3 times a week of working out. My training sessions generally lasted under an hour and had some sort of resistance training work. During the initial 2 months, I did lower intensity (body weight to 40-70% of 1 rep maximum) and higher rep (1-3 minute static holds or 15-20 reps) training to improve posture and stability. The following two months, I trained with higher intensities (70-100% of 1 rep max) and fewer reps (6-12 reps) for overall strength and muscle mass. During the last two months, I added Olympic lifts (explosive, 1-6 reps) and/or jumps (body weight) for at least one out of three days. I didn't do a single cardio activity (run, bike, row or swim) or a single abdominal crunch.

Final Results

Here are the hard numbers behind my physical transformation:

Parameter	Start	End	Improvement
Bodyweight	200 lbs	190 lbs	-10 lbs
Body fat (%)	21%	11%	-10%
Lean mass	158 lbs	169.1 lbs	11.1 lbs
Fat mass	42 lbs	20.9 lbs	-21.1 lbs

As you can see from these numbers, although my conscious eating and regular exercising resulted in losing only about 10 lbs in 6 months, I lost more than twice that amount as body fat, which gave me a much leaner look (of course let's not forget about the hair cut!). This was possible due to exercising at higher intensities and fewer reps which allowed me to increase my muscle mass, thus speeding up my metabolism. This is where the "calorie balancing" theory fails. Endless durations of cardio work in spinning classes or on the treadmills in order to balance the calories you gained from the weekend meals won't necessarily speed up your metabolism which will ultimately result in failure for the long term fat loss goal.

When you decide to start on your own physical transformation journey, understand that it won't be easy. There will be many obstacles and setbacks. The real key to success in such program is not the training you do, the supplements you take or even food you eat -- It starts and ends with your dedication!

A drug-free, cardio-free, crunch-free transformation like mine is within your reach, too! For some, it may take longer to achieve good results; for others, it will take much less time. But if you stay dedicated and work hard, with a solid training program and a good diet, there's no way you can fail!