How a busy financial executive lost 15 pounds of fat and 4.5 inches while gaining time and energy after switching from circuit training to the world’s most powerful fat loss system: strength and intervals

Andy W. is another strength and interval success story. A busy financial executive, Andy has made big changes to his training and lifestyle. Like many people, Andy was frustrated with the lack of results from him before finding strength and intervals. But with his new lifestyle, he has converted his body, just like you.

Also, Andy has taken a big step towards a massive career change. Soon he will be one of the UK’s most sought after coaches. With my help, Andy has begun learning the strength and interval system to help his clients lose fat and gain muscle with fast, effective workouts.

Here’s more of Andy’s success story.

CB: Let’s start with a little background information, Andy. What were you looking to achieve when you found strength and intervals?

Andy W.:

Hi Craig, I currently work as an Associate Director for a financial firm here on the Isle of Man. It’s a fancy title for a job that keeps me stuck at my desk for long hours and brings with it a lot of stress.

I am 35 years old and have always been relatively active. I strive to make time to go to the gym 2-3 times a week and as you know I am currently carving out a new career as a fitness consultant in my spare time. I have a strong interest in nutrition because I have been doing resistance training for 15 years with little to no results and I attribute a lot to the foods I was eating at the time.

CB: So what are your current thoughts on the importance of nutrition for fat loss?

AW:

I believe that nutrition plays an important role in getting the results you want and I often tell my personal training clients that they don’t put low quality fuel in their cars, so why should they feed their bodies processed foods? low quality?

Anyway, I had learned a lot from my Personal Trainer exams and one mistake I was making was that my gym sessions were all machine based exercises. I remember reading an article in Mens Fitness magazine that said that to achieve the results I wanted, I needed to focus on free weight and body weight exercises.

Due to the limited amount of time I have to exercise, I searched the net for a time-efficient resistance-based training program, and luckily for me, I found your website J

CB: What were your stats before training?

AW:

When I first contacted you for advice on the best workout to start with, I weighed 81kg (that’s 178.2lbs) and had 23% body fat. She is 6 feet tall. My waist had slid up to 37 inches!

It was seeing a vacation photo of me looking like a beached whale that suddenly made me realize I had to take action as I headed down the path of my father and grandfather. Trust me, it doesn’t look good, don’t be offended, dad!

CB: What were your workouts before? Why didn’t they work so well? How have strength and intervals improved after those workouts?

AW:

Before strength and intervals, my workouts were purely machine based.

My local gym uses Nautilus machines and the training protocol they market is a total body machine based workout 2-3 times a week. It consists of a circuit of 8-12 exercises and you perform 1 set of each exercise and aim to perform 8-12 repetitions of each exercise. The idea is that you progress directly to each exercise with little to no rest between each exercise.

Don’t get me wrong, I think for someone relatively new to training it can be a safe and effective form of exercise and since it can last 20-25 minutes each session, it proves popular in the gym.

The problem I found was that because the machines isolate the particular muscle you’re working on, I was experiencing shoulder pain because I was lifting a weight that my smaller muscles, like the rotator cuff, couldn’t handle. This would be a hindrance to my training because I would have to rest for a couple of weeks until the injury healed L

I felt like I was on a hamster wheel. I would get better, start training again, gain weight, and then hurt my shoulder again. At first I thought it was me and he was meant to stay the way he was.

It was only when I started studying that I began to understand where I was going wrong.

Now, with the help of his strength and interval training that is mostly based on dumbbells and free weights, I know that I am strengthening my entire body, including all the smaller muscle groups, including my rotator cuff muscles.

I am happy to say that since I started my first strength and interval training I have been injury free and am now lifting more weights than I ever thought I would.

CB: Andy, you’ve learned the hard way that traditional machine-based circuits aren’t appropriate for the masses, despite the popularity of chain gyms across North America.

So what training did you start with? Did you notice any immediate effects after starting?

AW:

When I started, I really wanted to lower my body fat percentage and reduce my waistline.

I laugh about it now because when I printed out the workouts I remember thinking the workout looked easy and I wouldn’t find it beneficial. How wrong was I? Phew, I soon found that I was eating my words! The workouts may look easy on paper, but they are challenging, though by no means impossible.

Because I hadn’t been doing any CV work in my workouts for a long time, I found intervals to be particularly beneficial. My office is situated on a fairly steep hill and within a couple of weeks I found I was walking up the hill much faster to work without feeling as out of breath as before and still had the energy to jog up the stairs!

And that’s what I love about workouts… suddenly you realize you’re doing certain everyday tasks so much easier without even thinking about it.

I also love the fact that I’ve had a GREAT workout without needing to spend 1 ½ – 2 hours in the gym. I lead a busy life and I need to get on with things and I know I can still get everything done AND work out 3 times a week too.

CB: How have the trainings helped you? What benefits and results have you achieved? What are your gains and upgrades and how do they compare to your previous stats?

AW:

Continuing from my previous answer, the benefits I have achieved are much more energy, better concentration levels and no more annoying rotator cuff injuries.

When I started my first workout, I weighed 178.2 pounds (81 kg) and had 23% body fat. My waist is 37 inches.

12 weeks later:

My weight was 73.8 kg (162.36 lbs)

A loss of 7.2 kg (15.84 lbs)

More importantly, I had reduced my waist to 32 ½ inches.

And my body fat stood at 16%.

CB: How do you feel in terms of strength and energy?

AW:

I am stronger than ever and have tons of energy. I haven’t reached my ultimate goal yet, which is to get to 12% body fat, but I know I’m on the right track and I’m looking forward to the journey because I know that training makes it possible to reach that goal.