Meet Andrew. Hes a 37-year-old client of mine, who is a marketer, and father of a newborn girl. Why did he start working with us? In his words: he wanted to feel like a normal person. What does that mean? Two things:

  1. He wanted his back to stop hurting
  2. He wanted to lose weight

Fast forward about 3 months, and he accomplished all that, plus a few other benefits that he wasnt expecting.

If you want to hear Andrew tell his own story, check out the video below:

In this article, well cover:

  • Andrews history with back pain
  • The exercise strategies I used with him
  • The single nutritional strategy that I used with him to help him lose 13 lbs
  • The bottom-line results that he achieved
  • A special challenge he had along the way
  • How his life is different now that his back doesnt hurt anymore, hes stronger, and 13 pounds lighter

and if you want similar results to Andrew, you can see whether you qualify for our services, by just filling out the application form on our home page.

Andrews History with Back Pain

                Andrew was a pretty regular, average, healthy guy. But last summer, he was moving apartments, and out of nowhere, his back went out. Badly. It felt like it just spasmed, and wouldnt let go.

                As he says in his video, the pain was so bad that he needed to just lie down and barely move. Even breathing with a deep inhale made him feel his back.

                After a few days, when he could move again, he was still in serious pain, but he was now able to go to the chiropractor.

                The chiropractor was able to get him out of the acute phase of pain, but not a complete relief.

                Despite the treatment, Andrew still had a lot of anxiety about his back. It was hyper-sensitive.

  • He knew he should exercise, but he was so afraid of going to the gym for fear of doing something wrong, and going back to square one lying in bed and barely moving.
  • Even walking long distances would aggravate his back. Walking!
  • Even a cold wind could make his back spasm. So even during the summer, he had to keep his back warm when it was already warm outside.

All in all, as Andrew says in his video, he just didnt feel like a normal human being. And he wanted to feel normal. So he hired yours truly

Andrews Hesitations

                On the one hand, Andrew wanted to hire a personal trainer, but also had hesitations. He saw the benefits of personal training:

  • Safety: modifying exercises to his condition, and making sure he has good technique.
  • Accountability.

After hurting his back, he tried lifting weights by himself, but could feel the spasm coming on, and fortunately stopped before it came on.

At the same time, Andrew had hesitations about personal training:

  • He saw stereotypical personal trainers (*ahem* Goodlife trainers *ahem*), and how they were really just glorified babysitters. They had the same program for every client. They made the client fit the program. Not the program fit the client.
  • He saw that they were pushing their clients too hard. He didnt want that.
  • He saw them spewing pseudoscience. Makes sense, if theyre getting their education from Instagram. On a related note, I also wrote an article about stupid stuff I see on Instagram. Check it out
  • Plus, lots of personal trainers just stare at their phone, while their clients are exercising. So theyre not even very good babysitters (man, am I feeling cynical today)

Thats not what Andrew wanted. What he wanted was:

  • A cautious approach: one that wouldnt aggravate his already hyper-sensitive back.
  • A scientific approach: rooted in real science not bro science or pseudoscience
  • An educational approach: he wanted to understand why he was doing what he was doing. Being a thinking man, he wanted to learn how his body worked, and how to make the pain better.

So he hired me, and we got to work.

Andrews Exercise Strategies

                Andrews exercise was as much physical as it was psychological.

                You would think that if theres back pain, you need to do only back exercises to improve it. And while back exercises were involved, it wasnt the full program.

                Andrew had a full body workout, consisting of 2-3 sets of 15-20 reps of these exercises:

1-legged deadlifts

Lat pulldowns

Barbell overhead press

Squats

Seated rows

Incline pushups

Standing calf raises

                Why did I have Andrew doing exercises for other body parts if it was the back that was the problem?

                Two reasons:

  1. The back is affected by other body parts as well. As youll recall from earlier in this article, Andrews back was on the verge of pain from walking which isnt a back exercise. So Andrew didnt just need back strengthening, but better communication between his other body parts and his back, to let his back feel safe.
  2. Back pain reduction wasnt his only goal. He also wanted to go after fat loss.

But to just look at the program and think this is very simple would be missing a lot of the underlying elements. Theres elegance in simplicity. As Einstein once said, amateurs complicate. Experts simplify.

So the program you see on your screen was not a static program. It was a dynamic, evolving program. As I talk about in my article on the most important factor of an exercise program, its not the exercises its the progression model. Its the subtle adjustment of reps, sets and weights as the clients body adapts to the exercises. Its these micro-adjustments that give an exercise program its effectiveness not so much the exercises themselves.

This is the explanation for the physical side of things. How did this program help him psychologically?

Remember, after a really bad spasm, Andrew had a lot of anxiety about the spam happening again.

So with our exercise, we had to use impeccable technique to show Andrews brain that these exercises are safe. He can move parts of his body, without his back going into spasm.

Each workout, we would raise either the repetitions, the number of sets, or the reps ever so slightly. And each little progression gave his brain a sense of safety that he can do X number of reps before his back feels sensitive. Or that he can do Y weight before his back feels sensitive. And with each progression, the threshold of what it took to irritate his back increased as well.

Whereas earlier, extreme anxiety about back pain made him super cautious, the anxiety was reduced, and he protected it less. Theres a sense of confidence in knowing that your body is strong enough to handle it so your mind can relax, and you dont have to be so anxious about it. It takes a lot of cognitive power to think about something many times a day. During chronic pain, the unconscious (back sensations) becomes conscious. The goal was to reverse that to make the conscious unconscious again, so he doesnt think about the back as much anymore.

The Single Nutritional Strategy Andrew Used to Lose 13 Lbs.

                At the end of the day, nutrition for fat loss is super simple. There are two, and only two elements that matter:

  1. Total calories
  2. Total protein

Thats it.

Nothing else matters.

Not:

  • The ratio of carbs to fats
  • How many meals you eat per day (2 large meals vs. 5 small meals)
  • Whether or not you eat after 6PM

If this is mind-blowing to you, I go into the details way more in my article on the unsurprising truth why we get fat (hint: its not carbs or sugar. Its way simpler than that).

So because there are only 2 elements that matter to fat loss, thats encouraging. It means that you can take many different paths to get to the same goal.

And its up to us to identify the one or two simplest, easiest, shortest paths to those goals. Fat loss is easy and sustainable when you take the path of least resistance. Fat loss is laborious, and short-lived when you take the path of most resistance (like a diet or meal plan that doesnt fit what you enjoy, or that doesnt fit logistically).

So it was my job to figure out whats the easiest and fastest way to get to Andrews goal. And that comes down to asking good questions (which I elaborate on in my article, titled you dont need a diet you need a therapist.).

And asking good questions helps with simplification. For example:

  • My client, Stellis, lost 6 inches off her waist at age 83. And the only 2 things I told her to do were have a serving of protein at each meal, and stop eating when shes 80% full. Thats it. I didnt give any advice on sweets, or vegetables, or carbs, or any of that. Two simple things that she could adhere to.
  • Naomi, who lost 16 pounds and 4 dress sizes was given 1 simple piece of advice: organize your plate (breakfast, lunch and dinner) in this format: one half of the plate should be non-starchy veggies; one quarter should be starches; and the last quarter should be meat fish or seafood. Thats it.
  • Miriam, who has a rambunctious 2-year-old, and works 3 jobs was able to lose 15 lbs. The only 2 things she did was before each meal, to rate how hungry/full she is on a -10 to +10 scale, and on the times when she went off track, she just did a post-mortem to figure out why. No advice on what not to eat, no advice on veggies, etc.

As you can see, all 3 clients achieved the same result: fat loss. But with all 3, we took different paths to get there.

Why didnt we give the same path to everyone? Because what one person finds easy, another finds difficult. What one person finds tasty, another person finds disgusting. And again, fat loss is only sustainable when its easy and tasty. So we have to figure out whats easy and tasty for each individual person.

Thats why we dont give meal plans, but we try to figure out the domino that knocks over the other dominos. What simple nutritional or logistical change makes everything else easier? And its all about asking good questions.

So what was the easy thing we did with Andrew? Eat salads. Unlike yours truly, Andrew actually likes vegetables and salads. And after presenting him with a bunch of different options to lose body fat (including the same options as with the clients above), the one that was tastiest and easiest to him was simply salads. So he now eats 1-2 salads per day (in addition to his other meals).

All of these strategies sound simple, so you might be wondering why cant these folks find that solution for themselves in the first place? For a couple of reasons:

  1. Bad nutrition information: there is a ton of that. Lots of people believe the nutrition myths that are out there, like eating after 6 makes you gain body fat. Its not like eating chocolate cake after 6 is bad, but eating chocolate cake at 11AM is fine. It still has the same number of calories. And its not like eating lettuce after 6PM is going to make you fat, either.

When you realize that the only 2 things you have to mind are total calories and total protein, fat loss becomes much simpler.

  • More often than not, you need an external observer to ask you good, sharp, pointed questions to help you figure out what fits your life, your schedule, and your taste buds. Similar to when youre looking for something in the fridge, and cant see whats right in front of you. You ask for the help of someone who lives with you, and they find it in 2 seconds. And youre embarrassed that you couldnt see it. Same thing here. Its like a therapist, but for fat loss.

Andrews Results

                After about 3 months, everything that Andrew wanted to do, he did.

  • His back pain gone. He can pretty much live a normal life now.
  • His weight down 13 lbs. But thats not just 13 lbs. of fat. As our in-person clients know, well take body fat measurements, and here are his biggest changes:
    • Pecs (chest / man boobs): dropped 28%
    • Love handles: dropped 24%
    • Belly fat: dropped 31%
    • Waist circumference: down 5.5 cm
  • As for his strength great improvements there as well
    • His one-legged deadlifts improved by 25 lbs. That reflects the strength of the hamstrings, glutes and lower back
    • His seated rows improved from 60 to 85 lbs. That reflects the strength of the mid-back muscles
    • His barbell overhead press improved from 33.5 to 48 lbs. That reflects the strength of his shoulders and triceps

Challenges Along the Way

                Before you think that everything was a straight line from where he was to where he is, thats not quite the case. Andrew did have one big challenge: his newborn daughter.

                As the father of a newborn (when he started working with me, she was 2 months old), sleep was often an issue. Yet, no matter what his daughters sleep schedule was, it wouldnt derail his salads, and hed still go to the gym, just when his daughter was sleeping.

                Andrew didnt fall into the all or nothing trap of either I do my full workout or I dont do anything. Even if Andrew didnt have time to do his full workout, hed at least do part of it. Something is better than nothing.

How His Life is Different Now

                Now that Andrews back is no longer a problem, and hes down 13 pounds, how is his life different? Quite a bit!

  • One day, he came to me, and said that he walked 20,000 steps the previous day with no problems in the back. No fatigue or soreness, either.
  • Its easier for him to carry his groceries.
  • He likes what he sees in the mirror.
  • Hes more confident in himself.

Overall, were very proud of Andrew, his perseverance, and the progress hes made. If you want to be our next success story, you can see whether you qualify for our services, by just filling out the application form on our home page.