If your New Year’s
resolutions include
losing weight, adding
muscle and looking
and feeling fitter,
happier and healthier
then you don’t need
to spend hours
pounding the
pavements or even
give up your favourite foods.
Joe Warner, the deputy editor of Men’s Fitness, the UK’s
best-selling fitness lifestyle magazine, went from flabby,
out-of-shape man to a cover model star – complete with
rock-hard six-pack – in just 12 weeks, and reveals the
secrets to how you can build a brand new physique with
only four hours of exercise per week.
So what’s his secret?
Well, hello! Joe shows off the incredible results of his 12-
week fat busting regime
‘I spent most of my 20s doing a lot of running but no
matter for how far or how long I ran I would always have a
bit of a belly and never any muscles on my chest, shoulders
or arms,’ he says.
‘After turning 30 I decided to see whether I could get into
the best shape I have ever been in.
‘I deal with a lot of fitness models for my job but always
thought I would never be able to get a physique like theirs.
‘I believed I just didn’t have the right genetics or enough
time to make it happen. But it turns out that there is no
legitimate reason for not making huge changes to the way
you look without a t-shirt on.
‘If I can do it, anyone can. I’m an average guy with a busy,
deadline-driven desk job so finding the time to train is
always difficult, but the regime I followed proves that you
don’t need to spend hour after hour exercising to
dramatically transform the way you look, even in a
relatively short period of time.’
Big improvement: After 12 weeks on Joe’s fitness and diet
regime, your man could also have abs like David Gandy
(left) or the equally hunky cover star of the February issue
of Men’s Fitness
Step by step: Joe’s abs look considerably better after just
one week but by week 12, he’s in model territory
OLD FITNESS REGIME
Monday: 60-minute run
Tuesday: 45-minute run
Wednesday: 60-minute gym session
Thursday: 60-minute run
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 45-minute run
Sunday: Rest
NEW FITNESS REGIME
Monday: 60-minute gym session
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 60-minute gym session
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 60-minute gym session
Saturday: 60-minute gym session
Sunday: Rest
Nick Mitchell, the founder of Ultimate Performance, which
has two personal training gyms in London, who designed
and oversaw Joe’s training programme says:
‘When Joe came to me he had a ‘skinny fat’ physique,
which is when you have very little muscle mass on your
torso but a large amount of fat stored around the stomach.
‘It’s a body shape I’m seeing increasingly among UK men
and one that can lead to a lot of long-term health issues,
especially diabetes.
‘But Joe and I have proved that an effective training
regime, which doesn’t require hours of boring exercise,
coupled with smart eating can radically reduce body-fat
levels while also packing on significant amounts of lean
muscle for a better, and ultimately healthier, body.’
Nick’s training programme revolved around just one hour-
long gym session four times per week, and in 12 weeks Joe
shed 8kg of fat – the equivalent to 16 large packets of butter
– while building 10kg of lean muscle mass to completely
transform his body into one worthy of gracing the cover of
Men’s Fitness magazine.
Tough: Joe pumps some iron under the watchful eye of
Ultimate Performance trainer, Nick Mitchell
Feeling the burn: Joe’s fat-busting fitness plan involves
plenty of cardio – but only in short bursts
Joe’s four sessions were carried out on Monday, Wednesday
and Friday lunch times, and first thing Saturday morning,
so it had minimal impact on his work or social life.
‘Instead of working through lunch with a sandwich at my
desk I got out of the office, trained, worked off some steam
them came back to my job more energised and focused,’ he
says.
‘I found my productivity soared once I started training.
Even if you have a very busy, very stressful job finding just
four hours per week to train will not only have huge
benefits to your physique, it will also help you combat
stress levels and allow you to work more effectively and
efficiently.
‘I booked my training sessions into my diary just like I
would any other meeting. It sounds silly but it makes them
feel more important so you’re less likely to cancel them.’
‘I started seeing major changes after the first week and after
a fortnight by body-fat percentage had tumbled from nearly
17 per cent to 12.8 per cent, with nearly all of the fat
falling off my stomach,’ says Joe.
‘I was also adding lean muscle mass to my chest, shoulders
and arms, so being wider on my torso but narrower at my
waist made me look radically different relatively quicker.’
Ultimate Performance trainer Nick Mitchell knows exactly
what it takes to shift that festive flab fast
OLD DIET
Breakfast: Cappuccino and croissant
Snack: Tea and biscuits
Lunch: Jacket potato with cheese and coleslaw
Snack: Fizzy drink and crisps
Dinner: Pasta with vegetables in tomato sauce
NEW DIET
Breakfast: Bacon and scrambled eggs
Snack: Handful of mixed nuts
Lunch: Tuna salad with peppers and olives
Snack: Greek yoghurt
Dinner: Steak with sweet potato fries
‘The key to getting rapid results is to work out intensively
for a short amount of time, then give your body time to
recover fully before training again,’ says Nick.
‘Training for too long in one go is counter-productive to
getting a better body: it places too much stress on your
body, which actually eats away at your muscles and
encourages the storage of fat.
‘It’s also important to frequently change the exercises you
do, and how many sets and reps of each you do so that your
body is always out of its comfort zone so must keeping
burning fat and building muscle so it’s ready for anything.’
Joe’s diet revolved around plenty of lean red meat and
white meat, fish, fresh vegetables, eggs and slow-release
carbs, such as sweet potatoes.
‘The diet I followed was simple but effective so I was never
hungry,’ he says.
‘You do need to be organised so that you are never tempted
by a quick sandwich and crisps at lunch, but I found that I
was actually enjoying my food more on the diet than
before, mainly because steak, vegetables and sweet potato
mash is far more delicious than a pre-packed sarnie or ready
meal.
‘And when you are training hard you want to feed your
body the right food to keep your muscles growing and your
belly shrinking.’
Body fat begone: Joe doesn’t have an inch to pinch at the
end of his intensive 12-week fitness regime
‘I could even have a glass of red wine at the weekends, so
never felt as though I was sacrificing anything,’ he adds.
Success
story: Joe’s book, 12 Week Body Plan, is out now
‘At first it was hard to go out and not being able to drink or
order anything I wanted off the menu.
‘But most restaurants will serve steak, chicken or fish and
happily give you as many vegetables as you want.
‘It didn’t take long before I stopped craving for sugary
foods and snacks because I could see that my training and
diet regime were really working.’
‘Joe has proved that training hard and eating healthily is all
you need to do to transform your body into one that can
grace the cover of a magazine,’Nick adds.
‘A smart training plan, executed with 100% effort, really is
the best, and most effective, way to build the body you’ve
always wanted.’
————————————————————-
Joe and Nick’s book, 12 Week Body Plan, £8.99, has
everything you need to know to about how to get the body
you’ve always wanted in just three months. The book is
available from Amazon, Magbooks and WH Smith. Follow
Joe on Twitter @JoeWarnerMF
- Daily Mail UK