6 Day Shred: Results

I've come to the end of my Six Day Shred.
So, did it work?

Here's the answer:

Images all taken on my phone to avoid question of editing or falsifying results - images unedited

What's changed? (not my trousers, that's for sure!)

- Lost a noticeable amount of body fat / retained water. You can really see the improved definition.
- Muscles appear more 'pumped'
- I've lost 8lbs of bodyweight, now weigh in at 12st (from 80kg down to 76kg)
- I don't feel low on energy or 'dehydrated'
- I cut my hair and shaved...


What did I learn?
- Don't drink 15 litres of water per day without additional salts & electrolytes
- I had a serious sugar addiction
- I can lose weight and look bigger
- Low carb food can be tasty
- Thinking in advance and planning meals = better nutrition!
- Don't grab snacks or bread just because it's easy


What have I taken from the whole experience?
- Firstly, I don't ever intend to be as hooked on sugar as I was, I certainly won't be snacking on biscuits and chocolate in the evening. I know that "just a little bit of chocolate" every night is habit and compulsion rather than just wanting the taste.
- I'm now much more aware of the effect fluids and hydration levels can have on my body and how I feel.
- It's fortunate that I had the knowledge to fix myself on day 3, I would not recommend just anyone tries this method without support and guidance from a fitness / nutrition professional. Unless I had a client who was a fitness model I wouldn't use this particular method on a client.
- I found myself reading the nutrition labels on EVERYTHING and making informed decisions on what I would and wouldn't put into my body (amazed how much crap goes into pre-cooked chicken breast!)
- Overall I'm really happy with the result. Other than almost dying on day 3, it's been a pleasant experience, plus I'm going on holiday lean and clean!


It hasn't been easy but I've enjoyed the challenge. Aside from the chocolate cravings, the hardest part was fitting the amount of water and correct nutrition around my normal life and work.
I now know that even in a busy week I can prepare and eat good food.

In future I'll be thinking and planning what goes into my body every day instead of eating whatever is closest or easiest.
I'll be drinking plenty of water (not 15 litres per day) and I'll be cutting down on my intake of simple carbs and refined sugars.

Now to see how long this definition lasts on a 7 night all inclusive holiday with 5 course dinner every night!

Carbs, glorious carbs!

Day 5 of the 6 Day Cutting Plan and today is the day I'm finally allowed some carbs! 5-6 meals, each containing 50-75g of carbs - YUMMY!

Here's the plan for today:
"In the first one or two meals, have fruits as your main carbohydrate source. Starting the carb-up with fruit replenishes liver glycogen very fast. We believe that the faster liver glycogen is filled, the more effective the rest of the carb-up will be. 

Continue drinking up to 10 litres of water today, don't gradually stop water intake. When you cut water intake later on, it should be a shock to the system.

For meals three and four, move to starchier, faster-absorbing carbs (potatoes, pasta or rice if it's tolerated well). Meal number 4 should be at around 4:00pm.

Now the "fun" begins. Water intake should be cut completely at 4:00 or 5:00pm. One or two more meals should be consumed after you cut water. Have only one if you're already looking "full." Have two if not. These meals should contains carbs derived from simple sugars: pancakes and syrup, pie filling, waffles, chocolate, etc. (see, it's not all bad!)

Also on Friday, take a herbal diuretic or black coffee (if it's not going to stop you sleeping)"

So, that's the plan. Here's how my day actually went:

We have a big corporate performance tomorrow, it was confirmed yesterday, so I now need to source Victorian costumes for the guys, sort out our driver and make sure everyone knows where to be and when.

I also need to get my new CRB check done to start working in more schools around the area, apparently this NEEDS to be done this morning.

So I had breakfast at 8:30am.

Breakfast was 1 banana, 1 apple and a Super Protein Shake.

I then went to the City Council offices to sort out my police check. At 10:00am I was out of there and ready for meal number 2.

Meal 2 was 2 apples and 250g of chicken breast.

While in the City centre I picked up some essentials and sourced the remaining costumes.

It was now 11:00am and I was due to teach at 1:15pm.

Unfortunately I'd felt like I may have looked silly carrying a gallon of water into the Council offices, so I'd gone 2 hours without any water.

Back on it at 1:00, made up for lost time: glug glug glug....

Home by 11:30 and time to cook lunch.

Lunch was 175g sliced, grilled white potato with garlic and sea salt, 2 sausages and a little gem lettuce.

Water consumption continues.

From 1:15 - 3:30 I was teaching in a primary school, limited water consumption as my gallon bottle prompted so many questions from the 10yr olds.

3:30 I head to the shops on my way home to pick up pancakes and syrup for my first sweet treat! Simple carbs, how I've missed you!

Interesting that I'm now over my sugar cravings and although I was 'allowed' simple carbs, I had no desire to pick up a chocolate bar at the checkout...

At 4:15pm I was eating my 4th meal.

Meal 4 was 100g golden syrup pancakes with butter and maple syrup - yummy!

I can't even tell you what it tasted like as it was devoured in seconds.

As of 4:30pm my I've cut water consumption completely - only 8 litres consumed today, let's hope it was enough!

Carb, glorious carbs!

Now I'm rushing because I'm meeting Becki's parents at a restaurant at 5:30pm and have tickets to the theatre for 7:30pm tonight.

Meal number 5 at 6:00pm. We went for an Italian meal before the theatre.

Meal 5 was a thin base pizza with roughly 100g chicken breast, half a red onion, 75g of bacon and 2 spring onions on top of the pizza sauce and cheese (estimates). Followed by a sticky toffee pudding and ice cream (gotta get those simple carbs!)

I accompanied dinner with 1 small glass of full sugar Coke.

I wasn't sure what to do about fluid consumption this evening. I know my aim is to 'dry' out by body, I had no access to diuretics or vegetable glycerine, so I opted for a filter coffee followed by a 330ml bottle of beer. Hopefully that should be enough to continue flushing my system - I needed to pee twice at the theatre, so all seems good.

By 11:00pm I was gasping for a drink and needed to pee. I certainly feel 'dry'.

By midnight my pee had some colour to it and smelled like urine - it's been clear and odourless for a few days now.
Let's see what happens overnight. This is where the magic should happen!

Stay close to the toilet

I'm now 2 days into my cutting process and I'm not ashamed to say that it's proving to be really REALLY difficult!
I'm also glad that I've been reasonably close to a toilet at every stage of the day. All this water is going straight through me!

Today was a relatively quiet day from a work perspective, so I was able to plan meals more effectively and train hard.

Started the day with a nice early breakfast of a banana and a Super Protein shake.

I met up with Sam at 9:00am at mi-gym.com to train. Today was mainly legs with some work on the guns for good measure (holiday next week!)
- 3 sets of 5 back squat @ 110kg
- 3 sets of 5 deadlift @ 120kg
- 3 sets of 5 Zercher Good Morning @ 60kg
- 3 sets of 5 neutral grip pull ups
- 3 sets of 10 bent over row @ 16kg per arm
- Superset 3 sets of 8 barbell curl @ 40kg with 10 press ups

 Straight after training I had another Super Protein.

I then spent an hour filming Will Wayland training some of his pro athletes for a piece we'll be putting out later this month.

After filming the athletes I went to a meeting at a coffee shop about a forthcoming Halloween event we're running the performance side of: http://www.thecursed.co.uk/
Meeting in a coffee shop was a mistake! So much cake, so many biscuits, so many sweet beverages!
I looked at the nutrition information on a pack of 2 biscuits; 30g carbs per biscuit. I put the biscuit down and ordered a black coffee.

After the meeting it was back to mi-gym to eat my lunch before filming an eccentric tutorial with Will.

Lunch was 150g steak with cracked black pepper, 100g chicken breast, lettuce, an avocado and 2 large mushrooms. Very tasty, very satisfying.

During filming I had to demonstrate a 6 second eccentric squat, so my legs took a further pounding.
Further depleting the glycogen can only be good.

Home at 3:30pm for another 100g of steak with cracked black pepper, garlic and red chilli, a red bell pepper and more lettuce.

By 5:00pm I had only consumed 7 litres of water, it's going to be along night!

Over the course of the day I have had to pee roughly every 30mins with no more than an hour between toilet stops. At least I know my body is in flushing mode now!

There was a scary moment on my way to teach this evening, I hit traffic in what is usually a 20 minute drive. I was preparing myself for the possibility of having to refill one of the water bottles.
Fortunately the traffic cleared quickly and I got to the centre before disaster struck.

All day!

Teaching my circuits class at 7:00pm kept me moving (and made me very aware of my legs). More water consumed there too.

Dinner was 300g of lamb chops with beetroot, lettuce and mushrooms, followed by another Super Protein shake.

Sadly the mint sauce I had in the cupboard contains more sugar than I dared to look at, so I made do with a drop of white wine vinegar to taste.

Bring on day 3, the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight!

Sugar Addiction

Day 1 of my SHREDDED FOR HOLIDAY programme. It's been an odd day and now I want chocolate.

Trying to get through 15 litres of water around normal life is tough enough, but eating less than 50grams of carbohydrate per day is a massive challenge.
I've also discovered that I'm seriously addicted to sugar, right now I'm pretty much going cold turkey.

Sugar Addiction Cycle

Monday was the first day on this. At first it was quite a novelty carrying big bottles of water around and going shopping for my meals. I bought a selection of meats, salad items and herbs & spices to make the high protein meals less dull. I also made sure I had enough Super Protein to last me the week. With very little added to it, Super Protein is a good source of protein for this experiment (it also uses Stevia as a sweetener).
Monday was a busy day for work. Between clients, teaching in schools and evening classes I didn't train.

- Breakfast was a Super Protein shake and a banana (half my carbohydrate for the day)
- Mid morning I had a chicken breast and 100g of sliced beef.
- Lunch was pork chops with red chilli, lettuce and an avocado (the other half of my carbs for the day)
- Mid afternoon I had another Super Protein shake.
- Evening meal was a small portion of homemade Bolognese meat sauce (carrots, tomatoes and mushrooms almost certainly put me over my carb allowance for the day)

What concerned me most was that for the whole afternoon and evening I was literally craving chocolate. I've never known anything like it; I didn't just fancy a chocolate bar, I NEEDED one.
It's a very uncomfortable feeling and took a lot of willpower not to give in.

Everywhere you go there's sugar and high carbohydrate foods, waiting to pay for my shopping there was chocolate and sweets everywhere. I stopped for petrol and there's sugary snacks, crisps, pastries and biscuits staring me in the face. No wonder so many people fail at diets, you can't go anywhere without being stared down by a Curly Wurly!

Chocolate cravings aside, I was pleasantly surprised at how satisfied my appetite was by such high protein / low carb meals. Drinking 3 gallons of water was a bit of a grind though. Just had to keep drinking and keep peeing.

15 litres of water is a LOT of water (2 litre bottle on left for reference)

I am now looking forward to loading up on carbs at the end of the week. This sugar craving is driving me mad!

Getting shredded in 6 days

Everyone wants to be shredded sometimes!

At the beginning of October I'll be going on a (long overdue) week long holiday, we're going on a cruise around the Eastern Mediterranean.
It's pretty hot over there, even at this time of year, so I may end up taking my shirt off or spending some time sunbathing by the on board pool.

With this in mind, I decided to try out a cutting technique known as 'drying out'. This is pretty common practice for competing sports models and physique competitors.
I'm looking at a 6 day process of loading myself with water while taking on a high protein low carbohydrate diet to make my body 'flush', then tactically carbing up at the end of the week as I completely drop my fluid intake. I'll also be training pretty hard in an attempt to become glycogen depleted.

I'm fully aware that the definition produced by this process will last 2 days at most, but it's a good excuse to experiment on myself.

Just for the record: These techniques will not make you look "ripped" if you are in fat! While most people can drop a significant amount of fat along with the water in these six days, this is not primarily a "diet." It's designed to help already lean people get super lean. It's also worth mentioning that this technique IS NOT a sustainable weight management program, it's purely a short sharp fix for an athlete / model to get in shape for a competition / photoshoot.

It's also worth mentioning that energy levels will be down by the end of this process and that a 'dry' or dehydrated body will not be performing at maximum efficiency.

Ryan Reynolds looking 'ripped'

These techniques are often used by actors to quickly get into shape for a topless scene. It's entirely possible that Ryan Reynolds used this type of fluid manipulation to increase his definition for this infamous scene in Blade: Trinity

(not necessary for this article, I just quite like Ryan Reynolds)

<EDIT> - If you intend to try this yourself, please be aware of the dangers of too much water. Please read about the effects I experienced and how I rectified them before even considering something like this - Day 3 pitfalls of too much water

Here's the programme I'll be sticking to this week:

(This schedule assumes a Saturday bodybuilding competition, photo shoot, or day at the beach)

Monday: 10 to 15 Litres of water, 50g or less total carbs

Tip: Buy three 5 litre bottles of water with a handle. This will let you see exactly how much water you have left to go. And the handle makes it easy to carry around with you everywhere — which you'll pretty much have to do to get in three gallons! 

Pro Tip: Don't ever be too far from a toilet / ditch / bush.

Tuesday: Same as above

Wednesday: Same as above

Thursday: Same as above

Friday: Begin a gradual carb-up. Today eat five or six meals, each containing 50-75g of carbs.

In the first one or two meals, have fruits as your main carbohydrate source. Starting the carb-up with fruit replenishes liver glycogen very fast. We believe that the faster liver glycogen is filled, the more effective the rest of the carb-up will be.

For meals three and four, move to starchier, faster-absorbing carbs (potatoes, pasta or rice if it's tolerated well). Meal number 4 should be at around 4:00pm.

Now the "fun" begins. Water intake should be cut completely at 4:00 or 5:00pm. One or two more meals should be consumed after you cut water. Have only one if you're already looking "full." Have two if not. These meals should contains carbs derived from simple sugars: pancakes and syrup, pie filling, waffles, chocolate, etc. (see, it's not all bad!)

Along with this simple sugar meal, have two tablespoons of vegetable glycerine (found in most health food stores). Also on Friday, take a herbal diuretic or black coffee (if it's not going to stop you sleeping). Although the proper thing to do is go by the label directions with these type of products, best results are usually achieved by taking three servings on Friday: one about an hour or two before you cut water intake, one when you cut intake, and one before bed.

Another trick is to take an Epsom salt bath (400g of Epsom salt in very hot water) for 20-30 minutes before bed. This is what bodybuilders did to help shed water before diuretics became popular. (The salt and mega hot bath drastically increase perspiration.)

Saturday (photo or beach day): Breakfast depends on how you look.

• Looking flat? Have another simple sugar meal.

• Looking good? Small portion of fruit and protein.

• Holding water? Protein only (shake with very little water).

Forty-five minutes before pumping up for your shoot, take in two tablespoons of glycerol in one can of full-sugar soda. 

Voila; hardly any subcutaneous water and muscles full of water.

I'll keep you posted on my progress, may also put up some before and after images.

Full article on this method from T-Nation can be found here: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_diet_mass/shredded_in_6_days

Increase Vertical Jump & Learn to Muscle Up

These are probably the 2 most common requests I get when talking to people about training: "how can I jump further / higher?" and "I can do loads of pull ups, but I can't muscle up. How can I learn?"

I posted these videos earlier in the year and the feedback has been great! 

Big thanks to Will Wayland at Powering-Through.com and to Scramblog for sharing the videos. As always, big thanks to mi-gym.com for letting us experiment and film there.

I've since had emails from people all over the world asking further questions on the techniques and telling me what great progress they've made on their jump / pulling power.

So here's a quick reminder of the French Contrast method for increasing jumping power:

Remember, this type of training is suitable for no more than 6 weeks at a time. You may also want to work an eccentric phase and an isometric phase to increase your speed of movement (do I feel another couple of videos coming on?)

Being strong is great, but if 2 athletes are equal in strength, the one that is more reactive and can deliver the power faster and more efficiently will be the better performer.
Power is nothing without control; would you drive a Ferrari with ineffective brakes and suspension?


And so onto my pulling power video. Everyone seems to want to muscle up!
Again, I've had lots of feedback on this one with great positive comments on people's progress.

If you take nothing else from this video, remember this one thing: PULL HIGHER!
Most people train pull ups to get their chin above the bar, by the very nature of a muscle up we need to get the body higher (up into full front support really). So you need to train HIGH pull ups, pulling your elbows back and getting the bar to the bottom of your chest. If you can't do this yet then train the eccentric contraction; get yourself high on the bar (by jumping or standing on a box if necessary) then lower yourself down for the count of 5 or 6 seconds. Repeating this in 3 sets of 5 reps and you'll soon be very aware of your lats!

The other part of the muscle up that is often overlooked is the top phase. Remember the muscle up is a pulling and a pushing exercise.
So you need to train your dips, ideally ring dips. And as with the pull up, you need to increase your range of motion; try to get your thumbs to touch your shoulders then push up from there. You'll almost certainly find that you are weak at the bottom of the range. You can use a band to assist you initially, or train the eccentric phase (down).
If you find these dips are completely out of reach to begin with, you can also use push ups with the elbows tucked into your body to isolate the triceps.
Although to be brutally honest, if you can't perform a dip be aware that you may have a long way to go before you can muscle up.

The video touches on Isometric contractions to build strength too. It's worth training static holds for 15 - 30 seconds both at the top of your pull up and the bottom of your dip (or push up).

One last point on the muscle up; don't struggle up there one arm at a time or use your elbows on top of the bar.
A very good coach once told me:

"Practice makes permanent" 

That is to say that practice only makes 'perfect' if you practice perfect technique. Practice the wrong thing and bad habits will be hard to break.
When learning to muscle up always try to perform the transition (from pull up to dip) with both arms at the same time. Always aim to perform the movement correctly, don't teach your body bad habits just to get on top of the bar.

Good luck!