brad pilon Archives - Show Me Strength

I pride myself on being a self proclaimed above-average writer. To continue to toot my own horn, I generally find that I am able to convey high level scientific concepts in a manner that is both informative and more importantly enjoyable all while still giving you the ability to directly apply whatever I said to your life in a matter of seconds without having to consult your local PhD. Whether my half-hearted poking fun at my girlfriend adds any value to my writing is still under considerable review, namely from both her and her parents but I digress as that is neither here nor there.

When I sat down to write this, it was my full intention to spare you any longwinded introduction and just give you the details. My plan was to quickly tell you how I personally think I’m a good writer and write reasonable interesting introductions that hook the reader in seconds to read the rest of my 4,000 word exposes on topics like getting shredded and looking better naked, which seemingly are one and the same. Then make a quick transition and tell you how this article is just going to be bare bones with full details on my experimental parameters sparing you any anecdotal introduction that you may give a courtesy laugh if you happened to be reading it in front of me.

Obviously, I’ve failed since I’m 241 words deep and have yet to mention a single word about guinea pigs and/or getting shredded.

Let’s not waste anymore time…

You Win, I win, Everyones Happy

This is a mutually beneficial partnership.

First, I help you get shredded. The scientific framework governing the plan is too sound not to work. Trust me, you will get leaner than you ever in a short time frame.

Second, you help give me more data like any good guinea pigs would. The issue isn’t the science, any Harvard physiology professor that likely doesn’t remember my name would concur that my science is damn good. However, science doesn’t directly translate to the real world when it comes to getting shredded. There are hiccups and kinks that need to be ironed out in order to make this plan as perfect as possible.

I’ve already run this program on a few people with outstanding results. Though my timeframe is shorter (2 weeks compared to 6), I am running the same program on myself in my attempt to have abs that cut granite.

But I need more data and that’s where you come in.

Details

Because of the extreme nature of this program, I have some requirements that must be met for those interested.

15% bodyfat and under – If you’re not already this lean, then you don’t need a program of this nature. You need to master the basics and get lean first before you take the next step

Must be male – Male and female fat loss physiology is different. For perfection sake, I want to limit as many variables as possible. For now, males only

100% committed – What I’m going to ask you to do will be to take extreme measures in order to accomplish an extreme goal. If you’re not 100% committed to this with your entire being then don’t waste my time or yours because you won’t succeed
The ability to train 4-6 times per week, sometimes twice a day – Remember, extreme goals require extreme measures

Ability to cook and prepare meals – In order to get shredded, every last detail matters. Simple prescribing nutritional installments each week isn’t going to work unless you’re a genetic freak. Hitting specific macronutrients is paramount to achieving our goal. Controlling macros requires the ability to cook and prepare your own meals

Willing to suffer – Look this isn’t your local boy scout fat loss plan. Comfortable incremental fat loss isn’t the goal here. I want to push your body to adapt as fast as possible. Calories will be lower than comfortable with a high volume of movement. If you’re afraid of being uncomfortable, this plan isn’t for you

Ready to be elite – Like all things, being elite isn’t easy nor does everyone achieve it. In terms of body composition goals, being shredded is elite. If you have veins popping in your abdominals then you my friend are part of a select company. This program is only for people who have a burning desire to be elite

I think the vanity reasons for applying to this program are pretty obvious. I mean, seriously, who doesn’t want to be shredded and look unbelievable naked.

Vanity considerations aside, I’m after another subset of individuals. Individuals that want to push themselves to a new level, both physically and mentally.

Chad and I are going to make you uncomfortable. I can promise you that there will be times during your training sessions when you’re going to want to quit and instances when you’re sitting there craving nothing but delicious feel-good carbohydrates. Can you say no to both? I want individuals who are interested in the question of how far they can push themselves, to learn about the true ethos that governs their lives.

Everyone Isn’t Invited

This program is only open to a select few individuals. I don’t have a concrete number in my head but right now there’s no way we accept more than 15 with a more likely limit being 10 people. Individual guidance is paramount to helping you accomplish this program. Opening it up to 100 individuals doesn’t make this possible.

If you’re interested in getting shredded in six weeks and taking your body and mind to a new level, send an email to showmestrength@gmail.com with the subject “Let’s Get Shredded.” We look forward to hearing from you.

You can catch updates about our training, and learn more on our philosophies on becoming awesome on the field and off at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can find the first two installments of “Look Better Naked This Summer,” here and here

June 18^th.

As we get into the heart of summer, it’s crunch time to looking and feeling your best. Now, personally, I think everyone should make it part of their mission in life to feel and look good year round but for vanity purposes, summer time is where it really counts.

Now if you’re the guy (or girl) who likes to take their shirt off at parties and bars well hell more power to you. Because that’s become more socially unacceptable the older I’ve gotten, I’ve resolved myself to eventually live in a climate where shirts (ideally clothes) are optional year round. My reasoning is purely based on the scientific fact that it’s more efficient for Vitamin D absorption, relegating any vanity notions as purely side notes that have never crossed my mind for more than two seconds. It’s science brah.

My life goals aside, it’s about that time where you need to look lean and you needed to look lean yesterday. So let’s figure out how to do that in installment #3 of Look Better Naked This Summer.

Tip #1 Use Intermittent Fasting to Get Photo-Shoot Ripped

Ever since The 8 Hour Diet came out early last year, the internet has been a buzzing with a fasting craze.

“Eat whatever you want, but restrict it to a certain time period, and there’s like a 1483% chance you’ll have abs by next week” – Resident Bro Scientist

Wrong. Erroneous on all accounts. If Newton ever tried to get shredded back in the day, he’d be surely rolling over in his grave based on that bastard attempt at good science.

The truth is that macronutrient intake (how you make up that macronutrient intake is a post for another time) is the most important aspect to losing body fat (aside from the obvious caloric restriction). If your macro calculation resembles anything like my senior year calculus homework, then frankly you are shit out of luck. No amount of fasting, sans starving yourself, is going to make a appreciable difference.

If however, your nutritional knowledge is seasoned enough to know the difference between protein, fat, and carbs and how those three pieces fit into a nice puzzle equating to fat loss, then intermittent fasting could certainly take you to the next level.

Let’s discuss the science for a second. Don’t worry you don’t have to have graduated from Harvard to understand the basics (I dropped out, we’re solid).

When you eat, your body uses that energy for food. Well duh, thanks Andrew. As your fast prolongs, your body shifts from pure glucose oxidation to begin utilizing your bodies’ fat stores for energy. We know this because there’s some fancy measurement tool known as the Respiratory Quotient (RQ) that quantifies what your body is utilizing for energy. While RQ is between .95 and 1 (pure glucose for energy) two hours after a meal, after 16 hours of fasting, your body’s respiratory quotient is .72. Pure fat oxidation is denoted by a measurement of .7. (Source: Martin Berkhan)

What all that really means is that the longer you restrict food (fast), the greater amount of time your body has to use body fat for energy. Contrast this with someone who eats six times a day and whose blood sugar is constantly elevated and you can see why intermittent fasting is a preferable means to lose body fat in the shortest amount of time.

Here are a couple examples of clients of mine (and me) who have used IF fasting to get humbly “woah that guy is shredded” lean.

As you can see, it works. So how would I go about implementing it? To clarify before we jump in, I recommend 16 hours of fasting for males and 14 hours of fasting for females.

1) Honestly Assess Where You’re At

If you’re a male above 15% body fat or a female above say 22.69% (yes, that’s the cut off), then intermittent fasting isn’t a necessity. Of course, you’re still more than welcome to adopt it but eating real food and getting your macros in decent shape are more important in the fat loss hierarchy.

If you’re at a place where getting as lean as the pictures above is within reach, then I recommend IF 100%.

2) Understand the Hunger Pains Go Away

Over the first couple days of fasting, you’re going to get hungry and at times it’s going to suck. For the majority of people, we fall into habitual patterns of eating. Whether that schedules includes three-four moderately portioned meals a day or you’re more the 1 meal large pizza and a few too many 12 oz curls type of eater, your body comes to expect foods at certain times throughout the day.

You can thank gherlin for that. It’s a hormone released by your body when it is hungry or expects to be fed. He doesn’t care how devoted you are to fasting for 16 hours, gherlin wants energy and he’s going to make himself known in your stomach until he’s satisfied.

Tame gherlin for a few days and the hunger pains will go away. I promise.

3) Adopt carb cycling

There are a couple fat loss principles that are essential to implement.

Understand that carb manipulation is the key to rapid fat loss

Understand that pizza and cake are not only allowed but encouraged to get sexy

Sure, you can go low-carb for 17 weeks straight and get lean but that sounds about as fun as getting as root canal. And in truth, because of a bunch of fancy hormonal interactions, my 12^th piece of pizza on Saturday night is going to get me leaner than your 4^th serving of chicken breasts and broccoli.

I’ll go into the specifics of carb cycling in my next installment but understand that if you’re not manipulating carbs the right way, I’d bet my house that I don’t have that you’re not going to be as lean as you want come the July 4^th Block Party.

4) IIFYM

If you’re not familiar with the nerd speak in the fasting community, IIFYM stands for “If It Fits Your Macros.”

Basically, if you have someone who knows what they’re doing (like this guy) then you can eat whatever kind of food you want as long as at the end of the day you eat precisely 17 grams of fat like you were told to.

Word of caution: if your diet guru ever prescribes you 17 grams of fat as a daily intake, you’re getting bamboozled.

You heard that right. Pizza, cake, brownies, beer. If somehow you can Huddinhi your way into fitting all those foods into your macros, then you will A) lose fat and should B) write a book detailing how you managed that.

I’ve done a pint of ice cream, six bagels, and a bag of goldfish but never have I managed to squeeze the above combo into my IIFYM.

Personally, I don’t love the concept of IIFYM over the long term for health reasons but assuming you have better insulin sensitivity than an obese chimpanzee, then I see no problem in imploring such a protocol for the summer.

5) Don’t Expect Magic

If done correctly, IF works. The results I have seen with both myself and clients is a testament to the efficacy of adopting an intermittent fasting framework.

And yet, IF is not going to take you from Dwight Goodman at the end of Dodgeball to Arnold in a matter of weeks. In case you forgot, after Peter LaFleur went all Matrix on him, Dwight put on a pound or two.

Understand this upon its adoption. There is still no magic pill out there that allows you to defy the laws of thermodynamics and evolutionary biology. At the heart of our deconstruction, we’re still just hunter-gatherers living in a foreign environment where having abs unfortunately didn’t let you get laid any easier 50,000 years ago.

Where to Go From Here

There are many fantastic resources on the web regarding the nuts and bolts of intermittent fasting. I’ll warn you that The 8 Hour Diet isn’t one of them, but I do wholeheartedly recommend Jason Ferruggia’s Renegade Diet.

I also heard through the grapevine that there are two handsome gentlemen offering online coaching to do exactly what I extolled throughout this piece… to look better naked. Check it out here.

P.S. Chad and I are close to announcing a body transformation contest in the coming weeks where we’ll actually pay you to look damn sexy by the end of it. Be on the look out 🙂