Fat Loss – Body Transformation – Advanced Nutrition

Hey San Antonio,

Success breeds success. NOTHING motivates like accomplishing a goal, seeing a difference and making progress. While anything works for a few weeks (typically, a beginner will only see results for 4-6 weeks) the phenomenon quickly ends when the appropriate adjustments aren’t made.

I get it – some people like to just “feel busy”. Sweating is great, as it makes us feel like we’re doing a bit more. But it takes more than “being busy” to make extreme change in our bodies. There has to be a method to the madness. Every movement must have a purpose. Every rep scheme and weight should be determined by not only the client’s goals, but their physiological make up. Training goals should be specific and defined: the biggest mistake you should make is to go into exercise with the “throw shit on the wall and see if it sticks” mentality. Yet, 99% of the people you see exercising do just that. Unfortunately, 99% of those people make next to no progress, or even worse, look as if they don’t even workout.

As I mentioned, anything will work for a short amount of time, but to me, only amazing progress is true progress.

To the novice or even intermediate exerciser, program development to optimize fat loss and body transformation progress is daunting, which leads to many turning to “so-called” experts, and turns more into a situation of the blind leading the blind. I mean, you feel like you’re doing something: you’re sweating, your heart is beating, you’re doing all these “new, cutting edge” exercises. You even lost a few pounds after your first few weeks. But after that initial bit of progress, it’s just not working. The trainer keeps pushing harder and harder, yet, the body doesn’t respond in a way you’d think.

Don’t get me wrong: I push clients HARD – very hard. The demands I place on the body are like nothing you have ever experienced. My philosophy is that I’ll make you do more than you’d otherwise do alone. That may be another 20 more pounds, 2 more reps, or any other form of necessary resistance. I place very high demands on my clients: it is nothing to walk into my studio and seeing a 120lb female squatting more than her bodyweight (not from the start, but I get them there quick) or leg pressing, 3-8 times more than their bodyweight, doing full, unassisted pull ups, heavy dead lifts and bench presses, Olympic lifts, and other skill based, technical lifts/exercises. But unlike CrossFit, P90X, or one of America’s Mullet Tony Little’s time wasting DVDs, every single thing you do has a specific purpose: to get you from POINT A (where you are right this second) to POINT B (where you want to be from a physical, aesthetic and strength standpoint). It’s more than just making you run, lunge, run, lunge, sweat, breathe hard, workout over…

Time is precious, and while you may be making “progress”, there’s a difference in simple progress and optimum progress. I operate on a timeline and my goal is to simply make every single client a walking billboard: to make people ask them “What on earth are you doing?” I do not pay for advertising, but I get the desired result, and money cannot buy that type of business.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Time for a little Q&A Session! Thanks for the emails, as I really appreciate feedback and user interaction here on the Personal Trainer in San Antonio Blog!

Q: Why do you feel that gymnasts have such amazing shoulder development?
A: Elite gymnasts have great muscular development of most every body part, but the answer is pretty simple: 1) They train explosively. 2) They train at many different angles and use many different points of overload. 3) Gymnasts utilize a very slow eccentric movement (the “negative”) in many movements. I’m all about NOT recreating the wheel: these types of practices in training do improve muscular development and will aid in giving one that lean, defined physique that is so sought after. My clients use a wide variety of rep tempos, exercises, angles, rest periods and other different aspects of training depending on their muscle fiber make up (type IIa vs type IIb vs type Ia) – I never train two people the exact same way.

Q: I was a huge CrossFit advocate until I read your CrossFit Sucks article. I would like to take the best of CrossFit and apply it in developing a routine more custom made for my needs and goals. What would you recommend I keep?

A: While I think it is important to prioritize your goals and not focus on every aspect all of the time (this helps you get good at nothing), there are a few things I’d recommend keeping from CrossFit: Compound movements are king. Get better every time you workout (5 more pounds, one more rep, etc). Train with intensity. Make your training program as much of your life as eating, sleeping and going to work. Always be willing to learn more about training and how to make the body better – obviously, you have that, as you were willing to objectively read my post! Thank you for your feedback!

Q: Hey Boyd, I have a feeling I know the answer, but do you think that those guys you see in the gym doing twists with a broom on their shoulders are accomplishing anything?
A: If their goal includes looking like a jack ass, then they are accomplishing their goal. A broomstick does not offer enough resistance to overload any muscle group, and spot reducing fat is not possible (thus, they are not making their “love handles” go down). If one needs functionality training for their obliques, there are many better exercises than broomstick twists (I guess is what you’d call it).

Q: Is it actually impossible to improve the calves? I kill them, yet, they never change.

A: Most people tend to believe that they are stuck with the calves that they have and there’s not a whole lot to do with them, but the calves are capable of growth just like any other muscle group. First, think about overload: you walk and stand on your calves all day, so to give them more stimulation than they already gets requires some weight. The biggest issue I see when I watch people train calves is that they do not use a full range of motion. I am a huge proponent of a slow, controlled movement, along with full extension at the top of the movement, and a full stretch at the bottom of the movement – not a bouncy, 1/4 movement that you’ll see most people doing. And there’s no reason to always do 50-100 reps: try more resistance and a lower rep scheme, in the 10-25 rep range.

I have a ton of other questions on fat loss, gaining muscle, body transformation and personal training that I’ll be answering quickly, so check back soon!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

I’m asked about supplementation nearly every day. Most aren’t worth the bottle their in. However, if you’re going to take anything at all, no matter what your goal is (fat loss, muscle gain, body transformation, performance, etc, it should be Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA). I’ve written about BCAA’s more over the last 10 years than anything else, so I’m simply going to take a little bit from my other writings, add some other information and combine it together here. I’m writing this quickly and these are all my own thoughts, so once I read over it a time or two, I may make some simple adjustments (spelling/grammar errors, etc). Enjoy!

This isn’t information just for people to gain muscle – for fat loss, it is essential to maintain lean body mass to keep an increased metabolic rate. This is one of the more technical writings I will write here on the blog, because I like to keep it simple for the fitness beginner and people just looking to make a change, but this information is too important not to thoroughly understand.

Quick rundown: Essential amino acids are the ones your body cannot make on it’s own and must be obtained from diet. These are the important ones and these are the absolute key to body transformation. Three of the most important are leucine, iso-leucine and valine (the branched chained amino acids, or BCAAs). Why are they so important? Simple – the key to body transformation (even before fat loss) is preserving the muscle we already have. Muscle = Higher Metabolic Rate. Higher metabolic rate = leaner you, because you’re burning more calories in everything you do. Ok, so how do the BCAAs have to do with this? When you exercise, your body will try to use these three aminos for energy, thus, breaking down muscle to obtain these. More importantly, the body CANNOT SYNTHESIZE PROTEIN WITHOUT EVERY AMINO ACID PRESENT!!! This is why it is important to consume whole proteins (and why protein from sources such as peanuts and bread aren’t very good sources because they are deficient in many essential aminos).

Many quality protein powders are enriched with extra BCAAs, but I prefer to take it a step further: muscle (for women and men, and this is for everyone that is serious about looking lean, toned, trim, or whatever you may call it) is extremely precious. So, I choose to supplement with additional amino acids. To add, the BCAAs are binded to other aminos in powders. In formulas like Xtend, they are free formed and are more readily absorbed into the bloodstream.

Amount depends on your size (of course), but timing is crucial. Consumption should be at times when muscle is vulnerable to metabolization: I drink them before and during cardio and also during and after weight training.

For optimum muscle growth, cellular growth, metabolism, and recovery to occur, the proper proportions of amino acids need to be eaten. However, eating amino acid sources, such as meat and eggs, does not ensure that the amino acids they supply will be available for muscle growth and formation of other proteins. For example, suppose you have a gross intake of 100 grams of protein with all the essential amino acids present in equal amounts. Now consider how these amino acids are used in the body. To start, a considerable amount of leucine will be used for energy in exercising muscle. This means that there may be only a small amount of leucine available for growth and repair. When leucine finally runs out, this will affect protein formation because leucine is an essential amino acid. That means your body cannot make it. In actuality, perhaps only 15 grams of the original 100 grams of protein will be available for growth and repair. This is one reason why athletes need more protein, not just to compensate for growth and recovery demands from exercise, but to compensate for the loss of essential amino acids like leucine when they are used for energy.

There’s so much more than just protein grams – you MUST be getting the right aminos!

Branched Chained Amino Acids - the first used for energy, and typically the most limited supply in the body (these are the ones that your body WILL breakdown muscle to get if it runs out of glucose for energy):

Leucine
Iso-Leucine
Valine

Essential Amino Acids – these are the ones that your body cannot create on it’s own (the BCAAs are included)
Isoleucine
Arginine
Lysine
Methionine
Phenylalanine
Threonine
Trytophan
Valine
Histidine
Tyrosine
Pyrrolysine

Nonessential Amino Acids – the aminos that your body can synthesize and don’t necessarily need to be obtained in the diet.
Alanine
Aspartate
Cysteine
Glutamate
Glutamine
Glycine
Proline
Serine
Asparagine

Conditionally Essential Amino Acids – in some cases, the body cannot produce enough of some amino acids, to they are considered essential (meaning they must be obtained from the diet).
Arginine
Histidine
Tyrosine
Cysteine
Glutamine
Glycine
Proline
Serine
Asparagine

If every amino acid is present, the body is in a state in which it can synthesize protein, also called a “positive nitrogen balance”. If every amino is not present, then the body is in “negative nitrogen balance”.

Nitrogen balance is binary – there’s no “almost” or “partly” synthesizing. Before new muscle tissue can be built, the body must be in positive nitrogen balance!

Exercise basically “eats up” the BCAAs, so it is obvious that there is a need for increased BCAA intake for the physically active to not only gain muscle, but to also preserve it. Specifically replacing (or overcompensating loss of BCAAs) is best accomplished by supplementing with a product such as Scivation’s Xtend (the blue raspberry and lemonade are AMAZING).

One can also conclude that it makes sense to focus not only on total protein intake, but also obtaining a complete amino acid profile, specifically focusing on the essential and conditionally essential amino acids. This is most easily done by supplementation with a quality protein blend (note that I did not say WHEY protein – search for a blend) and eating a variety of different protein sources (chicken breast, fish, lean cuts of red meat, turkey, etc).

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

At some point in life, we all face a challenge that seems to overwhelming to make it through. Whether it is the loss of a loved one, a break up, a financial hardship, or sickness, life does not offer time outs.

To a small degree, fitness is a microcosm of life. The challenges that you may face on a day to day basis can absolutely make you or break you. Stress of family or work and lack of preparation for a specific event can throw you off. Throw in the life changing events mentioned above, and quickly, your personal health and training program can seemingly take a back seat.

The key is that your progress takes a priority and never let obstacles become excuses. An occasional day or two off to deal with personal issues is completely acceptable and is not the end of the world from a fitness standpoint: weeks and months of hard work cannot be undone in a matter of days. However, keeping the setback small is crucial: allowing the snowball to turn to an avalanche cannot be an option, but allowing yourself to make excuses will cause just that.

When dealing with adversity, it isn’t how hard you fall, but how quickly you are able to bounce back, and that is what will determine your long term success.

You are your only obstacle – never settle.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

People often ask me about the way I train. My athletic and training background is very broad, as I am a competitive bodybuilder, powerlifter, an accomplished martial artist, and have played most regular sports throughout my life at a competitive level. I also spent a few years in the military, so I’ve been exposed to a variety of different ways to train and exercise, and I’ve taken what I’ve found useful from each of those experiences and have created my own training style that transfers extremely well to meet my clients goals of being lean, strong and healthy. One negative drawback to the personal training career field is that most personal trainers only know how to train like bodybuilders because this “type” of training is the most commonly performed in gyms and the way most people learn, yet for many people that are just starting to train, it may be one of the overall least effective and least optimum training styles.

(To Most People, This Is Not Desirable. Nor Obtainable.)

While the average person with normal hormonal levels will never look like this lady, if your goal is fat loss and general fitness, training like she does doesn’t make a lot of sense either. Goal specific training is a must.

Unfortunately, there is not one way to train for everything. Training for fat loss and body transformation are no different. Many personal trainers simply think they can bring a client in and keep them busy and they’ll make progress. You see these trainers with their clients in every gym, bouncing around on the BOSU ball, having clients do things while standing on one leg, and performing movements that are more designed to make the client feel like an idiot more than like they are accomplishing something useful. Initially, anything will provide some level of results, but those “workouts” aren’t very effective past the initial stages of training.

A program is much more than just a group of workouts, being challenging and breaking a sweat. It requires regular adjustment to force progression, modification as the body adapts and strengths and weaknesses change, periods of higher and lower intensity, and the addition of corrective exercises to ensure that muscular imbalances are avoided. Each client responds differently to different levels of volume, exercise variety, and intensity – sadly enough, most trainers cannot differentiate and optimize a training program for a client, so they train everyone just about the same with few variations outside the expected (amount of weight, etc)

As I’ve stated many times in the past, there simply is no “one size fits all” approach, and programs designed for the masses, such as CrossFit and P90X will never be an optimum training method for reaching your goals in the shortest amount of time.

It’s imperative to do what you actually need to do and ONLY what you need to do, discarding the things that are useless for you based on your goals. Some things may look fun or “cause a burn” but not everyone needs to do every exercise all the time. There are many ways to skin a cat, and there are many ways to get from point A to point B with your body, but finding the quickest, most efficient method is priceless. Why? Because consistency depends on motivation, and I’m a huge believer that nothing motivates like progress. Seeing and feeling results helps us find that next gear that will take us on our next journey.

Training style optimization is key for maximizing progress – and those who don’t make progress simply make excuses. Are you getting where you want to go at a rate that is acceptable to you? Are you excited to see yourself in the mirror everyday to see the progress you are making and to know that the effort is paying off?

Never settle for mediocrity, even if everyone else is – sheep will follow each other over a cliff. Set your own standard, achieve YOUR best results.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

I have pissed off most of the P90X crew by simply telling them that their baby (P90X) is not a “pretty baby” by evaluating P90X as nothing more than a glorified calisthenic and cardio program that is extremely limited in it’s ability to help individuals make more than meager progress after their initial change. Simply put, the results diminish rapidly after the initial progress.

Most people aren’t looking at fitness programs and fat loss endeavors through scientific eyes, nor they do want to hear that their training program is supposed to be challenging (hence the term WORKING out), the nutrition requires sacrifice and discipline, and that change does not happen overnight. They look for hype and what everyone else is doing and what will require the least amount of agony: the least dedication (only 10 minutes per day!), the least sacrifice, the least muscle pain, the least effort. Not saying that some of these workout programs aren’t challenging, because most of them will cause you to breathe hard and break a sweat, and do provide some utility for many exercisers. However, drastically changing the body requires a unique program designed for the individual, not simply throwing “shit on the wall to see if it sticks”, which is what these one size fits all, designed for the masses programs do. Everyone has different needs and experiences – those needs must be considered when designing the program, and just following the rest of the sheep will just make you one of the crowd – and the crowd that I see when I walk the streets of most cities is a pretty average (at best) crowd. Don’t be a sheep.

Before I go on, I have to bring up the Basic Laws of Training and ask you to read that article. Right off, a simple understanding of those principles will let you see where most programs designed for the masses fall short (they don’t pay attention to Individual Differences, ignore Specific Adaption, Don’t Vary Intensity, etc).

With all of that being said, MOST programs have something to gain from them, and as I’ve stated numerous times, doing ANYTHING is better than DOING NOTHING. Everything works for a time. Some guys/gals train with Strongman Principles. Some with HIT. Some with P90X. All will WORK, at least for a period of time.

Of course, the latest rage in the fitness community is CrossFit. As I am writing this in my studio in North San Antonio, I know that I cannot walk outside and throw a dead cat without hitting a CrossFit studio, as there are several in the immediate area.

For those who aren’t familiar, what is CrossFit? CrossFit describes several affiliate gyms and their types of workouts that are typically high intensity forms of weightlifting, sprinting, kettlebells, ropes, strongman, gymnastics and many other types of training. Affiliates create a “Workout of the Day” and often use a scoring and ranking systems to transform workouts into sport.

Don’t get me wrong: I have an in-depth understanding of the CrossFit Principles and approach to training, and have been using many of the same core exercises, similar principles of cross training, and other similar aspects of CrossFit in training programs to simply provide variety and skill development in many of my clients’ training programs for many years. I am in no way saying that CrossFit cannot be challenging nor intense. It focuses on most every aspect of fitness (cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy) and many times, in the same workout.

I mentioned it above: doing anything is better than nothing. Is CrossFit the be all, end all workout program that it’s pundits would like you to believe?

No, I don’t think so… And I understand that the cultists are going to go absolutely berserk and litter me with tons of comments and messages: I know that many people have made great progress from CrossFit (and will write to tell me so), but that does not mean it is the perfect workout program: in my opinion, it is mediocre at best.

First and foremost, you have only one ass – that means you cannot sit on two horses. How is that relative? In changing the body, your results are quite limited when focusing on contrasting goals at one time – focusing on every aspect of fitness will lead to a lot of wasted progress in the long term (Ever known of anyone training for a marathon and a powerlifting meet at the same time? No, because it is IMPOSSIBLE). While CrossFit is very effective at laying a general base level of conditioning, once this is established, progress would be, like P90X, very limited. CrossFit’s promotional materials imply that this type of training addresses all the strength and conditioning needs of an athlete, but the principle of specificity teaches that if you try to excel at everything, you will not reach the highest levels at anything.

Many beginners often complain that they find the programs overzealous, that they’re under-prepared to perform many of the exercises (trust me, cleans, snatches, jerks, dead lifts – these are all exercises of skill the require many hours of coaching to perfect) and that “everyone is different” is pretty much tossed out the window. “You’re a CF’er now, Dammit! Suck it up, cream puff…” I disagree with the “learn by the fire” mentality: without assessing muscular imbalances, there is a high risk of injury in performing any of these exercises. I perform a series of tests to ensure that any client is prepared to perform these exercises. While I’m certain that many people have performed CrossFit for years without injury, the risk is simply too high without proper assessment of beginners without performing corrective exercises to ensure that muscular imbalances have been eliminated before performing high these high skill movements. While I regularly utilize these movements in many of my training protocols, rest assured that I am closely monitoring every inch of the movement, no matter how experienced the trainee is – the slightest relaxation of form can and will lead to injury. And if the client already has an injury history? You’re damn right the program MUST be tailored with these considerations and must be prefaced by corrective exercises before performing these movements.

In many CrossFit WOD’s (workout of the day), it simply looks like someone chose exercises and rep schemes out of a hat and pieced them together with little regard to order of exercises or if some exercises. “Pre-exhaustion” with some exercises inhibits one ability to perform other exercises with optimal form and muscle activation, increasing injury risk and limiting the effectiveness of the exercise (for example, would it make sense for someone who was attempting to set their personal record on bench press to completely burn out on push ups prior to attempting the bench press?), as well as increasing the risk of injury. This is especially true when utilizing Olympic Lifts, which CrossFit uses as a staple.

Many exercises are simply used better for specific objectives. The dead lift is a strength/power exercise and doesn’t lend itself to high reps/muscular endurance – but is routinely performed at high reps in CrossFit workouts. Workouts Grace and Isabel feature 30 rep clean and jerks/snatches – I’m sorry, but I cannot recommend that protocol under any circumstance.

From the viewpoint of a competitive fitness athlete, no competitor who primarily does CrossFit as their training has ever won a major bodybuilding show or power lifting meet: while most people aren’t aspiring for these goals, it’s tough to consider their training as elite of that they prepare individuals to be exceptional at anything beyond CrossFit. Fortunately for CrossFitters, there are “CrossFit Games”, which they can compete in.

The workouts simply do not do enough to increase lean body mass at anything more than a snail’s pace beyond the initial adaption phase that ANY fitness program has (the overcoming of disuse phase). Normal people will read this and think that they don’t want to become huge muscle monsters, and that isn’t what I’m referring to – slight increases in lean body mass are necessary for metabolic increases. If muscle is not growing it is atrophying (or going away). Loss of lean body mass leads to a lower metabolism, higher risk of injury and worsened health.

I routinely have male clients drop their body fat percentages from the mid 20% into the single digits and drastically changing the way they look – along with females with three or more children seeing defined abs for the first time: I assure you that this requires a bit more than body weight work, super-setting with 400 meter sprints, and a random order of exercises.

CrossFit is designed to make a person average at the different aspects of fitness. But what happens when you’re ready to take your body to the next level? To drastically change your appearance or take your performance beyond that of average? You need a more specific solution that isn’t a program for the masses.

Don’t think for a second that nutritional issues can be solved with a one size fits all approach. Every client has different nutritional requirements, and nutrition isn’t going to provide you with a custom nutritional strategy based on your needs and condition.

If you want to belong to a cult that wears cute shirts about “Pukey the Clown” or “WOD KILLA”, and become better at Freeze Tag, Hide and Go Seek and the Monkey Bars? Then by all means, find a CrossFit Gym now. If you want to throw shit on the wall to see if it sticks, follow a workout with no progression, do technically challenging lifts in a state of exhaustion (that should be performed at peak energy levels with constant expert supervision), taught by novice coaches with one to two days of training in these lifts, no program (workout thrown together with no thought of periodization or progression), then CrossFit is just what you’ve been looking for. The workouts are designed with ONE purpose: to be challenging. However, understand a challenging workout doesn’t necessarily mean an effective one. There are many better alternatives for drastically changing your body and increasing your level of fitness.

If you want to obtain rapid results from someone who spent more than a weekend obtaining a Level 1 Certification for $1000, who has real life experience working with people from all walks of life and understand the differences in each person’s condition, injury and exercise history, then find a real fitness expert and stay out of the PE Class that is CrossFit… Yes, you’ll break a sweat. You may lose a little weight and make some friends. But in no way is it an optimal training program for body transformation or specific activity performance. As I did with the P90Xers, I’ll welcome all tactful responses and respond directly to each of them.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey San Antonio,

To many people, money is the most desired and valued thing in life, yet, it is the least enjoyed. Yet, to most, health, on the other hand, is the least valued, yet most enjoyed.

Ironically, the ability to live and perform better, happier and healthier will often lead to an improvement in most other aspects of life. In today’s world, obtaining fitness is not easy and is affected my several decisions each and every day. For most, “eating pretty good most of the time” and working out “on a fairly consistent basis” isn’t good enough to cut it. I’ve mentioned numerous times here on the blog that getting in shape is an active process. There are no corners to cut and IF you follow the proper training and nutrition program, you DO get out of it what you put in it. That does not simply do more work and move around more and eat less, which is what so many personal trainers want you to believe – there is a plan based on your condition, HOW and WHERE you store fat and other genetic factors. Unfortunately, most personal trainers don’t understand the different types of fat in the body, how to build a program for body transformation (changing the composition of the body from a fat vs lean body mass standpoint to improve appearance) and how to boost your energy and quickly help you make changes that you not only see but also feel.

While most people don’t think “I just want to be less sick and achy”, if asked, MANY would say that they wanted to look better, lose a few pounds and get rid of fat in one or more of their problem areas.

It only takes the decision to change, and that decision is YOURS.

Oh, and don’t worry: the CrossFit article is coming soon.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey San Antonio,

Well, another well-known training protocol has drawn my ire. No, it is not P90X – I have said pretty much all I care to say about that workout. It’s another one that is “all the rage” right now. For whatever reason, it’s pundits are touting it as the greatest fitness program ever, although it is one size fits all.

Stay tuned – later, I’ll reveal which program it is, measure it against the Principles of Training, and explain the pros and cons of this very popular workout protocol. They’re opening training studios up all around San Antonio, so it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which type of training I’m talking about (CrossFit).

Get ready. I’m sure I’ll ruffle some feathers, as no one likes hearing that their baby is ugly…

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

I was browsing through an old Arnold Scwharzenegger book on bodybuilding and weight training and was looking at the different physiques of bodybuilders in the 1970s and early 1980s. It is amazing how the competitive landscape has transitioned from aesthetically pleasing, smaller, yet more defined and “real” looking to the freaks that you see on the front of bodybuilding magazines as well. Some guys do have an obsession with becoming as freakishly large as possible, while others are primarily concerned with becoming as lean as they can be. I feel that I am always looking for that happy medium: I want to have large muscles (within reason) while being nicely defined and proportionate.

Females are no different. I work with all types of different builds, structures and all types of different goals. Some prefer the “bikini model” look, others like having the defined arms, shoulders, legs and abs. Of course, there are those who want a little of all.

One thing I’ve learned is that there is NO perfect physique. Everyone has different likes and genetic limitations (although many people simply hide behind genetics as an excuse). No matter what you view as the perfect physique, it is important to understand that with the proper plan, the willingness to execute and the patience to stay the course, you can obtain the body of your dreams. It isn’t about doing a bunch of stuff to see how you end up – goals for the body should be specific, and the training program should be designed to help you look the way you want to look, not the way your personal trainer just “happens to make you look”. I want you to look how YOU want to look – you give me your ideas, and I make them reality.

Dream big, and dream specific. If you have goals and haven’t reached them, it’s time to re-evaluate!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

It has been a very good week for me. Of course, I’ve mentioned Sarah winning her IFPA Pro Card in figure, and from a professional standpoint, helping a competitive client obtain professional status is extremely rewarding. However, that is a very small part of what I do, and I take as much pride in every single client as I do in my competitors. Here are a few clients I’d like to give a shout out to for a job well done!

-Jennifer has only been working out with me for two weeks, initially had a little bit of trouble with bodyweight squats, and now is leg pressing 400lbs for reps while losing weight! Intense weight training is the key to becoming lean and defined, and her strength is increasing exponentially with every single workout while the weight continues to fall off!

-After 3 weeks, Jose has dropped 3 1/2″ from his abdominal circumference and 20lbs of bodyweight, while dropping his body fat percentage by over 6 percentage points. THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is remarkable change. The crazy thing? I expect at least that much progress over the next three weeks – my goal is an eight inch decrease from Jose’s mid-section in his first 6 weeks. I know he will do it.

-”First time in a LONG TIME” were the words that Nathaniel spoke after bench pressing 315lbs on Wednesday of this week. While that sounds like someone who is trying to “bulk up”, this is another guy who the fat is melting off, and in just a few weeks, he looks like a different person.

-I’d like to know how many times Joel has heard “What on earth are you doing?” over the last few weeks… I see Joel three times per week, and every time he walks in, he looks a leaner and and more confident. Results motivate, and this guy is the poster child for what effort and discipline will do. Strength keeps going up, fat keeps coming off, and it’s obvious to everyone who sees him. The other personal trainers that work for me here in my studio keep commenting about how quickly he is transforming, and this is just the tip of the iceberg!

-“Teach a woman to fish” – my goal is to teach every client how to keep making progress on their own. Recently, Michelle has started tackling the occasional workout on her own, and I was very proud when she texted me last week (I was in St Louis) to tell me how sore she had made herself following the workout I had sent her. The key to continuing progress is intensity, and no matter what workout you are doing, it means nothing if you aren’t pushing it every single rep of every exercise.

-”I was the hottest one there, thanks to you!” – the text I received from Lisa after her 25 year high school reunion.

-”I must be sick…” – The first thing Ruth told me was that she hated every second of exercise. Now, she can’t live without it. She even finds herself doing lunges at home, and telling people how she loves to workout. I can see how you can hate something if you feel like you are wasting time. But when people regularly comment on how lean you are looking and want to know your secret? It kind of becomes addicting.

What kind of amazing progress are YOU making?

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey San Antonio,

I just received this amazing write up from my client, Sarah, who obtained professional status as an IFPA Figure Competitor by sweeping all three of her classes last weekend at the Gateway Naturals in O’Fallon, Missouri. This is an amazing write up about her decision to hire me as her personal trainer and her experiences over the last six months as she prepared for her show.
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Being an athlete is part of who I am, it always has been. I find solace in competing in intense sports – from ultra-running to mountain biking to figure competing, I have always been amazed by what the human body will do, if we just ask it and don’t question whether or not it can.

To compete in extreme sports, it takes dedication and intense focus. The more serious you become about achieving your best (no matter what that may be), the more you begin to prioritize and detail out every facet of your training, nutrition, time and training support.

After taking a year plus off from competition and serious training due to a new job and relocating, I decided it was time to refocus my efforts, make a plan, and set a goal of competing in a natural figure competition. New to San Antonio, I knew very few people outside of my professional circle, but was determined to find the right trainer who could take me to a new level. If I knew more then they did, there would be no deal!

And so it began – I researched online, made phone call interviews and scheduled in person interviews in search of the right trainer. After 2-3 weeks, I kept coming back to the same name – Boyd Myers. We met and in the first consultation, I found myself selling HIM that I was a worthy client! (What an unexpected turn of events!)

I began training with Boyd in April 2010. Although I wasn’t overweight, I had a lot of work to do to gain strength and build back my basic fitness. Boyd knew that I had quite the road ahead, and understood that as an athlete who was making a comeback, it can be very challenging; you know what you USED to be capable of, but now have to fight your way back – it’s very humbling.

But then began our true partnership. Boyd encouraged me and was there to answer every question along the way with detailed explanations for all of my “why’s?”. He helped refine my lifting technique and offered constructive feedback that got the message across but left me feeling solid. I was learning and growing as an athlete – this was and continues to be exciting for me!

I was making progress. The nutrition guidelines that Boyd provided were broad and flexible but based on strong nutritional principles – the main movement was from relying on protein bars and shakes to mostly whole foods. This was new to me – former trainers had requirements of measured and scheduled meals 4-5 months out, while Boyd’s strategy is based primarily on timing nutrient intake. I wondered how this was going to work, but placed my trust in him.

In July I picked a show and told my closest friends and family. This was nerve-racking. It meant I was committed to a hard and fast goal; I am not one to take commitments lightly. As we progressed, the training became more intense and Boyd constantly challenged me to push. While I often worked out on my own, he made it priority to be there for my hardcore workouts where I needed the extra support. I broke new ground with my leg press (pressing 800lbs at a bodyweight of under 110lbs) as we worked to build my muscle mass that had been decimated from my ultra racing.

My body was responding – this was no workout designed for a man. This was no pre-designed workout used for the masses who wanted to prep for a show – Boyd had a customized plan to get me there and this plan he constantly changed in complete response to my condition and nutritional needs.

Two months out from my competition and I was getting nervous. The good news – while Boyd’s approach was different than every other trainer I had ever worked with, I knew my body was improving. A battle I fought was for energy and sleep (have I said that I have an upper management position in a large corporation?:). Many times I was working long days – I would get up to workout at 4:30, shower and work and be free go to workout again at 9:00. He helped me balance my supplements to ensure that my body had the fuel and vitamins it needed to best sustain. This was NOT a litany of random supplements – Boyd zeroed in on specific needs and kept them manageable.

As we closed in on 5 weeks out, Boyd planned out a run-through of my depletion. This seemed a bit risky to me, to take my body through this when it was already stressed…this ended up being invaluable as we saw exactly how my body would respond to the varying levels of sodium, water intake, nutrition etc. Boyd proved himself through results to be a bio-chemistry expert – I have never seen my body respond like this.

Boyd had agreed to travel with me to St. Louis – I wanted him there to ensure that every detail had his guidance. What a great decision – I could have never asked for a better helper. Round two of depletion went well – we flew to St. Louis and finished the last two days of prep there. The lessons learned from the run-through depletion allowed for tweaking to optimize our results; on show day we were confident that we were in the right spot.

Competition Day was finally here. While I was carb depleted and dehydrated, Boyd kept me focused and calm. He was a rock throughout the day and constantly coaching and advising on my nutritional intake. Mind you, the last few hours can make or break you as you may be competing in finals (and I ended up doing just this!). He pumped me up and encouraged me – entering two categories meant a T-walk and two pose downs in the morning judging and then a T-walk and pose downs in the evening… if I made it that far. This is gruelingly tiring – Boyd was there through it all.

In the end, we won – and we won big. This was a complete surprise to me – I never imagined this happening. I simply wanted to compete and do my best and left the rest up to God… I was able to go above and beyond and sweep the Open Figure Short Class and the Open IFPA Pro Card, in addition to the 35+ Pro Card. Surreal and very humbling as the ladies I was on stage with looked AMAZING.

Issac Newton once said, “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Boyd Myers was/is definitely my giant and has been key to my unexpected accomplishment of becoming an IFPA Professional Figure Athlete. Boyd, you deserve this win just as much as I – thanks for sharing your gift with me and all of your clients! I look forward to our continued partnership – get ready… time to take on the Pro ranks!

Sarah L
IFPA Professional Figure Athlete
San Antonio, TX

Sarah,

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you, and I look forward to working with you as we get ready to win your first competition as a professional! You are unstoppable!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Whether many personal trainers want to admit it or not, and not in the way that most people think. The approach to training should not vary greatly – For whatever reason, most personal trainers are hesitant to allow a woman to train with serious intensity, and focus entirely too much on moving around and lighter resistance. I suppose this is to give into their fears of the myth that they’ll get big and bulky: that is probably easier than to educate them on the truth that women do not get big and bulky without chemical assistance and mass amounts of food.

Case in point:

This is my client Sarah, of which I have mentioned numerous times over the last few days. Saturday, Sarah won her pro card as an IFPA competitor. In this picture, Sarah is under 100lbs. However, she leg presses over 800lbs for reps.

Sarah: lean, feminine, strong.
800lbs: heavy
Sarah leg presses 800lbs
Sarah is not big and bulky by any stretch of the imagination.

Nonetheless, most personal trainers do not understand the hormonal and nutritional differences that most females have. I have worked with hundreds of females over the years, and there are differences – from the way they respond to different foods, their hormonal response to training and nutritional programs and other issues that cannot be ignored in order for them to maximize fat loss and body transformation.

Unfortunately, most personal trainers decided to become certified because a) they are already lean or b) they competed in a fitness related competition. Whether they understand how to transform the body or not, they understand what works for them. I can look at a person for 3 seconds and can tell immediately what type of foods they need to stay away from, their tolerance for most carbohydrates and the type of training program that will maximize their results. I have some clients that consume over 350g of carbs per day DURING FAT loss and others that can barely tolerate 120g. Everyone is different, and it is my job to identify what is optimal for each client.

Time is too precious, and in today’s economy, money is too important to waste on an inexperienced personal trainer who is simply learning their craft by using you for practice.

Experience makes all the difference!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

The relationship I have with my clients doesn’t end when their training sessions end and they are ready to tackle fitness on their own. I take great pride in helping them continue to make progress after their time with me has passed: It is my personal policy to answer any training and nutritional question that they may have, assist them in modifying their nutritional and training programs, and to be their “fitness consultant” for life.

I do not pay for advertising. My greatest form of advertisement is my client base. When they make progress, it makes people ask what they’re doing, and many times, that leads to a referral, which is a huge source of business for me. The beautiful thing? I could never buy advertising as powerful as “word of mouth”.

If you want a personal trainer that only walks you through the motions and counts reps, I’m definitely not your guy. I take a personal interest in each and every client’s goals and expect them to ask me any question they may have at any time of the day or night. I see their goals through, no matter how long it takes and how much attention those goals may require.

Accept nothing less.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

A lot of people fall into this category. They’re making an effort to make a change, and once the body makes that initial change/adaption, they become frustrated because the progress doesn’t persist.

I cannot express this enough: no matter what the magazines, websites or Michelle Obama say, bringing a desirable change to the body takes more than just moving around and eating less. It does not require the lifestyle of a figure competitor or bodybuilder getting ready for a show, but it does require an advanced plan and execution of that plan.

Most of the people I train fall into one of a few categories. Either they’ve been exercising and haven’t seen the changes they want, have exercised in the past but have let themselves go a bit, or have never exercised. Obviously, by my last few posts, you can see that a small part of my business is contest preparation, and while I am an expert in contest prep, that demographic is a very small one to specialize in.

The bottom line is I’ve never found a client that I couldn’t solve their issue, no matter how impossible it may have seemed to them at first. I love that aspect of this job. If someone has a problem, I want to help them solve it quickly. Working out and staying disciplined is hard work, so it’s nice to get a real return on the investment of time and effort.

I keep it simple. I am not one of those trainers that has clients doing things just to be doing them. I am not a fad chaser, and I’m not into training people for the circus. I’m into getting results as quickly as humanly possible. Every part of your program is specifically designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Don’t spin your wheels – if you’re putting forth the effort, reap the benefits.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

While this article specifically targets what my client went through to change her body as she prepared for her figure competition, I think it’s important that anyone that is serious about changing their body understand what is possible, so whether you’re considering a bodybuilding or figure competition or just looking to lose 10-20lbs and like what you see when you look in the mirror, you can benefit from this! Obviously, competitors are a small part of my client base, but the science of the body is the same no matter your goals, and I take great pride in being San Antonio’s foremost expert in training and nutrition.

Just over six months ago, Sarah came in to visit me about hiring me as her personal trainer to help her get ready to compete in a natural figure competition. For those of you who aren’t familiar with what a figure competition is, Wikipedia defines it as: a class of physique-exhibition events for women; while bearing a close resemblance to female bodybuilding, it emphasizes muscle tone over muscle size. These competitions are frequently held as part of the same events as bodybuilding contests.

The term natural implies that the contest is drug free. In the case of this weekend’s show, Sarah was administered both a polygraph and a urinalysis.

While I realize that the great majority of people have no desire to be a competitive fitness athlete, the process of body transformation is very similar. Trust me, as a competitive bodybuilder myself, I will be the first to tell you that show and contest prep are not lifestyles – they are very temporary and while I typically prefer 4-6 months for preparation, sustaining that type of intense regimen for any longer is not doable. Nonetheless, the sport, as a whole, is the absolute model for discipline, hard work and intensity.

Funny thing is that my approach varies so much from client to client. I had a conversation this morning with a client that was interested in this weekend and had told her friends about it. She said that her friends were “afraid that by the way I trained others, she’d end up looking like a man…” That’s comical, because first and foremost, my goal is to get clients in the condition they want to be in. If you want to lose a little fat and look better? That’s what we do. If you want to be competition ready? That’s what we do. People don’t passively exercise and “kind of” diet and all of a sudden start looking like fitness competitors! (Here’s a pic of Sarah backstage – sorry, it was taken with my iPhone).

I’m not going to speak for Sarah (she’s going to write about her experience and let me post it here), but I cut out a lot of the BS that most people think is necessary. Aside from the last 3 weeks of prep, she did not measure her food intake. Make no mistake, it was excruciatingly regimented, but I base intake on timing and food selection and have quite a bit of flexibility with amounts – proof that the “calorie in versus calorie out” method is prehistoric and useless. My entire programs are adaptive – we gave special focus to weaknesses as they came up and made regular adjustments to her training program to ensure that no time was wasted: week in and week out she made incredible progress.

Are you one of those who “just doesn’t have time”? Sarah works 65-80 hours per week as an upper management professional at a very well-known company. Her goals required her to make sacrifices and adjustments (going to bed a bit later, waking up earlier, etc). Not one time over the entire six months did I hear her make one excuse. I KNOW she was tired. I know she was drained, stressed and exhausted. But a goal is a goal, and she kept plugging along.

Figure is an intense sport – I monitored her condition every single day from day one through the show (and now helping her recover today). I would never allow one of my clients to put themselves at physical risk. Winning is important, but nothing is as important as health. I hear some of the tactics that some trainers employ and it makes me outright angry – some of their depletion and dehydration tactics are far and away ridiculous, and do much more damage and harm than good. My approach is scientifically based, practiced and carefully administered and monitored. A trip to the emergency room should not be on the agenda for the night of your show.

Preparation is everything. The will to win is important, but that will must be exhibited day in and day out. No workout is an easy one. The body must be continuously pushed and the balance between stimulation/recovery and annihilation/overtraining is a very fine line to walk, but must be explored. From day one of training until the night of the contest, nothing was overlooked – it is my job to give me clients that wish to compete every opportunity to do their very best, and she looked amazing.

Bodybuilding and figure are very subjective sports, as it is judged and scored by humans – it isn’t a case of “lifting more weight” – it is solely based on appearance and “who looks best” is determined by judges. While it’s tough to tell what they may be thinking on specific days, my motto is simple: make their job as easy as possible. In this case, we did just that. I’m not sure I did a great job of hiding my excitement when I saw her next to her competitors. I knew she was going to be damn near impossible to beat.

Speaking to the judges after the contest, they told us that it “was never really in question” and she was far and away the best of every division she competed in. I take a lot of pride in that because it was my job to ensure that she was completely prepared, and she was in absolutely every way, won all three of her classes, and obtained her “pro card” (she now has the opportunity to compete as a professional).

Again, words cannot say how proud of her for what she has accomplished. I have a lot of self-satisfaction as well, as having a client get to this level requires a ton of experience and knowledge, and validates my confidence in the type of fitness professional that I am. I can honestly say that I have had few moments in this career that compared with how I felt when she was announced the overall winner.

For me, it’s back to the grind. I have a few other clients that are also preparing for competitions – a couple that I train here at my personal training studio in San Antonio, and three that I am helping online. I don’t hope – I expect the same results that Sarah achieved this weekend.

Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

Boyd Myers
San Antonio’s Premier Personal Trainer
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454