I am under fire often. Very rarely am I wrong and this is not because I am so awesomely smart. I am overly paranoid about being wrong and un-lazy with my pursuits. I can count on one hand the statements I have put out over the past 2 years which have been off. They were publicly acknowledged, corrected and a learning lesson towards future statements. I have even taken up writing and grammar education as a new hobby. I did not want quality information tainted due to sloppy writing. It is still a daily battle for me and something I am not talented in but I strive to get it right the best I can. I still wouldn’t take any grammar lessons from me because I am not well versed in this area. I am well versed in fat loss.
The reason I bring this all up is because something about this project with Kevin inspires the wolves to come out and play, but I say bring it on. I say if you can’t stand up to the criticism you are right to be criticized. Allow me to address one of those criticisms.
We are destroying Kevin’s Muscle?
This is Kevin at the very beginning of the program and his current standings . Between the two of us tackling nutritional and training strategies we managed to not only preserve muscle but add a little as well. The rest is simply the virtues of muscle being reveled by fat removal.
I would also like to add his 1st picture was taken while loaded with carbohydrates. His 2nd picture was taken after a four week deficit and depleted. Neither were after a workout or a “pump” session.
In the coming weeks Kevin and I will talk more about the techniques we used. They actually aren’t common from what I see in most programs. The majority of programs suffer from two severe flaws -
1. One Direction Design
2. Lack of Patience
Look for more talk on this soon.
When it isn’t muscle loss
I hear this complaint often when people are talking about “x” program – “I am losing so much muscle, this can’t be healthy.”
Conversely I often hear this – “I gained so much muscle doing this program.” This can be in both a positive and negative way.
Most of the time people are not losing or gaining muscle in any sort of noticeable fashion. If you look back at my article on realistic muscle gains you will see gaining of muscle at a fast rate is not an easy thing to come by. While some grasp this concept they seem to think losing muscle is something which can happen at the drop of a dime. Most of the time this is a loss of “swole” from glycogen. A good re-feed lift day will put you right back on track.
Always remember consistency and time folks for she is truly our mirror.
If you would like to see more pics of this weeks progress and what Kevin has to say please check out his blog here.
(On a unrelated note: All blog comments will be answered now in a quick manner. I was a bit behind for a bit and wanted to give content but was having trouble getting time to answer comments. I am back in gear now so feel free to comment/ask questions as needed. I am still going to try and back track to things I missed out on previously.)
Related posts:
Kevin is looking good. It is hard to believe he still has a good chunk of weight left to drop. Great job guys!
You know at this rate I think it might even be a little less but I don’t want to count my chickens just yet.
I started to wonder about that too…it’s not like muscle can just disappear, especially when it takes soooooo long to lose a pound of fat. I’m really proud of Kevin and I hope you guys blow everyone away with his transformation.
Thanks a lot. You know normally the common sense thoughts we have are right on target. As well if muscle is lost on small levels it is merely a matter of a 4-6 weeks before you are usually right back to where you were (if a mild loss).
Muscle and strength memory are very real.
Haters want to hate.
I have gotten 4 or 5 e-mails about how bad I look and how much the program is hurting me. OK, sent me some shirtless pictures of yourself and post under YOUR REAL F**KING NAME, and then we will talk.
Thanks for all the supportive people who clearly actually have lives and aren’t bitter. That is no way to live…
That is all.
ok unless I am missing something…How the heck is this program Hurting you? I mean really!! You have got to wonder about people sometimes!! Keep up the great work!!
~R~
I don’t know why people are hating on you Kevin. I think you look fantastic.
Another great post Leigh!
Hey Kevin, you look great and you have outlook on the whole thing as well. GREAT JOB to both you and Leigh!!! Cant wait to see the full before and after pics!
Thanks Cassondra
What does it mean? < I still wouldn’t take any grammar lessons from me because I am not well versed in this area. >
You can’t teach or nobody listens to you? How can you write about what you can’t do while lamenting about your inability in that area?
The point is get on with it and keep up with the good you do. This is more important. Don’t let anything slow you down.
The answer to criticism, you don’t like, is to price work to the criticizer at a sufficient price so that you are paid for your hurt feelings. A nice new boat or car would encourage me to be on the lookout for that kind of client!
I can’t tell if this is spam or not…
My comments about this topic:
I also notice your spelling and grammar improving; I just assumed you had hired someone to proof every single thing you write!! It’s great that you see it as something you want to learn, since I agree, there are some readers who will not get past the spelling and punctuation, and judge you unfairely as uneducated and not professional. And why have that barrier unnecessarily. Just relax about it and over time your grammar and spelling with improve as you see it as important to you. It’s just another muscle to build <G>.
I’ve always loved how your writing style is a reflection of your voice. You write like you speak. It’s totally possible to do that and be grammatical too, but the hard part is the part you have down already – the voice. Now that you mention it, I do think I’ve seen improvements in your grammar (which doesn’t mean you were awful before, just that I’m seeing fewer bloopers.) Good job!
On the actual subject of the post – it seems like we need to come up with a plan and stick to it for a while, watching the mirror for changes. Is there a good rule of thumb on how long you should watch before you decide that you’re not getting results and start checking yourself and considering altering the plan? I think it is hard to accept how long it actually takes. How long does it take before water retention stabilizes? Or does it ever (meaning, is it pretty dependent on diet and a diet bobble or change can change retention suddenly?)
Great info, as always.
Thanks for the writing comments. I always appreciate feedback on it especially since it is so hard to detach yourself from it and be objective.
To your question- Obviously it depends on the goal and where you are starting. If fat loss then you should gauge progress off of need to lose. Need to lose 30+ pounds then you should see a noticeable difference in 4 weeks (if looking for a moderate pace of loss).
I am a little unclear on the retention question. Are you meaning carb ups?
I really don’t know much about all this – I’m learning just recently about how carbs affect things. I thought I understood the carb ups to influence water retention, which is what I was asking about. But maybe my question was complete nonsense.
To try to clarify: If you’re suddenly cutting or increasing carbs, I think there’s a change in what you see (that I thought was caused by water retention) that isn’t very meaningful and you need to learn to look past it. (Correct me if I’m wrong on that, please!) I’m planning on attacking my appearance/strength through muscle training before I do any serious dieting – I’m really not strong right now. If someone (like, oh, me) is on a pretty loose diet, will they be likely to see those meaningless changes pretty often? Is a fairly tight diet necessary just to stabilize those changes?
I’m not really necessarily needing an answer – if it is too complicated, say so. I’m still learning and checking things out and I’ll dig it out on my own. I’m mostly clarifying what I was asking on the possibility that it might be easy, or that you can tell me I totally don’t get it and give me a lead about what I should be googling.
Thanks!
Kevin- I am coming from a guys view I think you are looking solid. You have more muscle than the average joe out there and I also think people forget because of your status in the field that you are only in your early 20′s. These other guys have years ahead of you in the lifting department. For every 1 hater Kevin there are 10 supporters cheering you on. Don’t let it put doubt on what you are doing, I can’t wait to see what happens at the end of this.
Well said, people do forget Kevin’s age.
Great results, cant wait to read more
Thanks anna
Kevin – I am coming from a girls view, and I think you look hot! Great Job!
I am sure Kevin will not tire of hearing that.
Nope. Never.
umm totally jealous…..this is why Leigh needs to take me on as a client!!! hahaha
You look soo great Kevin!!!!
Might be a possibility in the future
Kevin you are a hot, ignore the haters.
Leigh I would be your client any day of the week. Please start doing online work again. I just had to cancel with a very “known expert” because they caused me to get fatter and overtrained me. Help!
What no naming names?
Wow I can’t believe people would say that you were hurting yourself. I think Kevin is looking HOT!
Yeah it is a pretty silly statement but you can only educate some and ignore the others.
Talk about a double standard. If this was an obese guy who really let himself go people who be overly supportive and enthusiastic. The results are beyond impressive and people who say otherwise don’t know what they are talking about.
I am curious as to the program myself because I often train guys in Kevin’s position who need to gain/maintain mass as much as possible. Looking forward to it Leigh.
Yeah it is funny how much people will cheer on people who allow themselves to get very out of control and out of shape but let one fitness professional want to make improvements and it’s “screw you.”
Good point James. I would be happy to have a body like Kevins, I think he looks great. Leigh you are doing a great job.
Great job Kevin and Leigh. It takes a lot of discipline and will power to stick to the program. Leigh, you are the master! I wished you lived in my city.
I may be coming to a city near you soon. Well unless you are in a foreign city then I wont.
Limited release.
Leigh wrote: I may be coming to a city near you soon…
When will you talk more about this. I live is Washington DC suburbs (Maryland)
This technical change in your blog is wonderful: where the replies stay within a thread all together!!!
Yeah this function should have been working from the beginning of the blog change but for some reason didn’t and then just started working out of nowhere. Possibly because of a wordpress update?
As to when I will be traveling it will most likely start at the end of May/June. I will be doing traveling podcast and going to various placed from NY to CA. We are working out the film crew aspect right now so details are still a little up in the air. I will be making sure ot let everyone know when though.
Count me in on the Colorado portion of the coast to coast tour!
Kevin looks great – I’m excited to hear more of what you’re up to.
Kevin-nice gunz!
Everyone already stated what I was thinking. Except the tiger made me think of the movie the Hangover, and I started laughing and almost fell off the treadmill.
I can come up with a bunch of metaphorical meanings as to why I picked the picture but really I just liked it.
So I started to want to give into cravings today but I kept thinking back to Kevin’s photos and stuck to my guns, great work Kevin and Leigh!!
That is awesome, way to go Lynda. I am sure it is nice for Kevin to know he provides that sort of inspiration to some one.
Leigh, thanks for keeping it real! Great inspiration and motivation for those of us who don’t want to be average or normal. Those who exercise self discipline often find themselves the target of critics. I hear people make fun of those who are studious, those who are frugal and even those who are religious. I think critics get a short term fix in finding fault in someone that obviously is experiencing the rewards and freedom that discipline provides.
Kevin, stick with it. You’re doing great and you didn’t wait until the New Year to start.
I always say that no one just reads my blog “simply because.” This is not a main headline on Yahoo. If you are here you are trying to figure something out. Sure there are the occasional trolls but even then they are trolls obsessed with fitness industry information (for whatever reason). To be anything other than supportive of Kevin is simply moronic and shows a lack of character.
To criticize what I am doing is fine if you are really to present an actual argument other than “um yeah dat kilzz yo metablosm son.”
Opinions are like ass holes, everybody has one!!!
Ignore the jealous haters and stick to the program Kev and reap the rewards………
agreed
I don’t have much to add either, just that I find human nature truly fascinating. Amazing, how upset and heated people can get over something so ridiculous. Upset because someone wants to enhance their aesthetics. Really? Why do they truly care? And why does it get them so fired up?
Yes, Kevin, def. looking hot.
Kevin may not be single if he keeps posting shirtless pics…seems as though the ladies don’t have any issues with how he looks
Play on playa
Okay this is totally off-topic, and I’m not sure if you’ve done a post on this before (a search in the search box didn’t turn up anything.) I’d love to hear your take on the Reebok Easy Tone shoes. I had considered them (not because I think suddenly magic shoes are going to tone my butt), because they were really comfortable and felt like walking on a cloud. But after more reading about them many people find they don’t last very long, they hurt your feet if you’re really walking any distance over 2 miles, and podiatrists and chiropractors are claiming they see more people with more problems now after these shoes have been released.
Since they’re still so new I feel like people wearing these shoes may be a guinea pig for the latest “DO NOT WEAR THESE SHOES” warnings. But I was wondering if you’d heard about these shoes, knew anything about them, and if you’d be willing to do a blog post with your take on it.
Thanks!
I was asked this question inside my members forum and here was my reply.
“The purpose of the shoes is a walking “bosu” ball if you will. To throw you off balance and provide for you a slightly unstable walking surface. In doing so it may force you to counteract the balance and fire muscle groups to support. Because this is a high endurance movement you would adjust to it in a matter of a few days and it would no longer be relevant in that respect.
The real problem comes in with the positioning and if you need to use responsive movement (eg stopping yourself from a trip or even moving downwards on stairs). Reebok themselves claimed “these shoes should not be worn when utilizing unilateral responsive activity.” Technically this is walking but certainly no formal exercise. Aside from just this research shows the ideal is actually less incline and more focus on flat environmental and strengthening stabilization muscles through training.
My concern is not only does it enforce bad habits it could potential make things worse especially for someone with tight calfs/weak glutes and weak stabilization muscles surrounding the knee or weak ankles.
I have to say I would vote no on wearing the shoes.”
Thank you! That lined up with my research pretty much exactly. A lot of people have reported improvement in pain and such short term, but long term it all seems to come back and bring friends.
to add onto this shoe discussion… if you already have problems with pronation or supination at the foot, one of two things is going to happen – you’re either going to get *worse* because now you’ve removed the “flat” shoe which effectively limits the poor range of motion, or you’re going to experience pain in “the other direction” until your body learns the new motor patterns required to stabilize, at which point if you go back to any other shoe, be it tennis shoe, pump, high heel, whatever, you’re right back at square one in pain. And, this is just what happens when you’re standing still in one spot.
If you’re actually moving while wearing these shoes, things get even worse. The heel strike, in other words high impact, while walking is a signal to the rest of the body to perform a coordinated chain of actions in order to effectively make itself into a spring to achieve the most efficient movement possible. It’s as much a neuromuscular reaction as it is a kinetic one. Inducing instability at the front end of this reaction is going to hinder how everything else behind it works. Think of the last time you’ve walked through deep sand. There is no heel impact because the sand absorbs the energy, thus the energy is not returned into the body, the brain doesn’t get the signal to fire the proper muscles, no “spring reaction” occurs, and you end up stumbling your way across the beach. You’ve probably torqued your ankles in the process too, because the muscles were not fired from not receiving the proper signal to stabilize.
The shoes aren’t quite as dramatic but if you have a pre-existing issue with your hips/knees/ankles to where your heel is going to strike the ground at an odd angle already, the absolute last thing you need is a shoe that’s going to make the strike unstable.
When running your foot isn’t supposed to strike at the heel and when walking it’s really ideal if it doesn’t strike totally at the heel. Shoes have trained us to walk and run improperly. Too much shoe support of any kind is going to make the muscles in the foot weak and lazy and cause your arch to fall. Since being introduced to the easy tone I did a LOT of human biomechanical research and can say pretty confidently that a shoe like that is bad news and the more minimal the shoe is, the better… though… since we’ve been wearing more supportive shoes for so long the caveat is that you really have to slowly build up to wear of a more minimalist shoe. (minimalist shoes, least minimal to most minimal are: nike free’s (5.0 or lower), Vivo Barefoots, or Vibram Fivefingers.)
The spring action isn’t supposed to happen in the heel, it’s supposed to happen in your arch. But I agree for the most part about what you’re talking about walking in deep sand. I think actually if people didn’t wear shoes ever they would be more able to walk properly in deep sand. The issue, IMO is that most shoes encourage heel strike for running and walking and that’s just not what the heels are meant for. THey are meant for stabilization while standing and that’s about it.
Z, while you’re right about the arch being pulled into a spring before strike, the brunt of locomotive power comes from the hips and spine, not the spring in the foot. In order to get the power from the hips and spine, heel strike is imperative. Some weight will obviously transfer to the front of the foot on push-off but you simply can not pull power from the hips/butt/spine without most of the weight transferring through heel contact, nor will the pelvis and spine load properly to provide additional rebound energy. Landing on the toes, or putting the brunt of push-off force on the toes, places the load on the calves and quads. Well, the quads don’t extend the hip, they extend the knee, so there is no way a runner (or walker) can derive any kind of actual power by trying to extend their knees quickly, especially with the long lever the lower legs present.
Furthermore, the foot is a wicked lever over the ankle. The bones, ligaments and fascia in the forefoot are not strong enough to withstand taking the brunt of landing and push-off forces, especially given the amount of torque that would be transferred through the ankle because of the lever arm of the foot – it’s a tremendous amount of force. “Toe landers” are the ones that suffer from shin splints/bursitis, chronic tight calves, Achilles Heel, plantar faciitis, stress fractures, IT band issues, and quad dominance, which then leads to problems like knee pain (patellar compression syndrome). The tight calves/quad dominant/toe pusher type is also often accompanied by shortened hip flexors and issues in the upper body like rounding of the upper back which leads to shoulder problems and head forward posture.. all because a runner, or walker, unconsciously shifts their weight forward onto their toes.
Kevin and Leigh, these pictures are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
Keep it up, you look so freakin HOT!
The appearance of the lats is not so much from added muscle, but from better posing. I believe he can flare his lats even better posing that way.
Pictures don’t always tell the true story about body composition. Measurements are a better way for that.
(well that’s MY opinion anyways… does it really matter … no, as long as you look better, which he does (well some color helps as well)
The first picture was not taken to look bad. To be honest I tried extra hard to make it look good for Leigh and I knew they were going to be online.
How does his training program look like.
More on that soon…