Summary: This episode was our introduction to the show, plus it featured a discussion about what you need to focus on to achieve a sculpted physique: a bird’s eye view, or overview. (Plus a lot of ranting about what not to do!)<br> <br> Introductions: Scott Abel, Kevin Weiss, and Mike Forest. You can read more about them at our “The Hosts” page of the physique website (http://smartersculptedphysique.com/hosts/), but, briefly:<br> <br> ♦ Scott Abel ♦<br> Spent 4 decades in bodybuilding, and has been to the top, on the cover of magazines, ghostwriting for magazines, and more. In his heyday, he was known for his ability to stay guest-posing lean year-round using the Cycle Diet. He’s coached hundreds if not thousands of clients from all walks of life—from competitive bodybuilders to regular folks. (Scott also mentioned that Andy, our cover model, is a client. You can find him on Instagram at @therealandysinclair.)<br> <br> ♦ Kevin Weiss ♦<br> Started this whole fitness thing way back at age 12, and his first bodybuilding competition at 15 years old, and his last one at age 40. Kevin transitioned to coach in 2003. He’s been coaching online, but also opened his own private gym 11 years ago. He now has clients now between 15 and 85! Recently, in Potchefstroom, South Africa, he became an M1 International Powerlifting Federation World Champion.<br> <br> ♦ Mike Forest ♦<br> Mike’s lost about 100 lbs. and kept it off for 10 years. He’s interested in the principles of training, diet, program design, and so on, but also habits, the brain, and optimising everything you do. What strategies make things easier, and allow you to get more done? He’s also a part-time PhD candidate, ABD, writing about rhetoric and semiotics in Dickens.<br> <br> ♦ Getting a Sculpted Physique (Notes) ♦ <br> <br> You have to be present, in whatever you’re doing. As an individual, you have to be aware of your mental, emotional, and physical, not compartmentalise them.<br> <br> If you get into something like physique or bodybuilding or whatever—when you do it right, you can use that and build on it. You don’t have to let it eat up your life. That’s the opposite of what should happen, and yet it’s what’s most common.<br> <br> The difference between mastery and obsession: do you own what you’re doing, or does it own you?<br> <br> You don’t get a physique at any cost. This involved a discussion of the dangers of getting too involved in the bodybuilding subculture: drugs, diet obsession, that kind of thing.<br> <br> “The bodybuilding subculture—they really hammer the ‘cult’ in 'subculture.'”<br> <br> Why coaching is often how you avoid dangers. Coaching is two things: accountability and support. A good coach provides both, and knows when to use both. Scott quoted a line from Vern Gambetta, how a coach transitions from being a guiding light to more of a mirror. The client learns self-sufficiency, not dependence.<br> <br> A good coach treats every person individually.<br> <br> You need to learn what progress really looks like. Sometimes it’s not measurable, even if it’s not visually available. <br> <br> Similarly, killing yourself in the gym is not “progress.” You build workload capacity and recovery capacity. You don’t just annihilate yourself. Instead: “Stimulate, don’t annihilate.”<br> <br> Scott ranted about using phones at the gym: they get in the way of the mind-muscle and mind-body connection.In terms of what to write down or “track,” it’s not all about numbers In powerlifting, it is, to a greater extent, but in bodybuilding, less so.<br> <br> The importance of tweakology, as it relates to diet, program design, everything.<br> <br> How the industry complicates what is simple, but then simplifies what is complicated… because they’re not dealing with people as individuals. An example of oversimplifying things is just cutting calories and adding cardio when weight los...
