The #1 Biggest Mistake That 99% of Guys at the Gym Make and How to Fix It

You, I and everyone else you know go to the gym because it makes us feel good.

Even more importantly, we go because it makes us look good. You wouldn’t go to the gym if somehow it made you look worse. So what is the specific look that you’re trying to achieve? Most guys have an idea of what they want to look like, but can’t pin it down to an exact size or shape. They just know there is some room for improvement.

Without a specific goal, how will you ever know if your workout is getting you closer to the shape you want? This is the mistake everyone is making. Going to the gym and working out with no specific goal. Most workouts are a mix of bodybuilding, powerlifting and some form of cardio. Each of these workout styles have their own specific goals that don’t necessarily add up to making you look better.

The bodybuilding mantra of ‘bigger is better’ isn’t right. Most women don’t find overly muscled guys attractive and most huge guys are just insecure. They feel the need to be big because they think it will give get them “respect”. It’s blatantly obvious when guys are working out to compensate for a lack of social status.

Powerlifting will make you strong, but it’ll end up turning you into a barrel shape. I’m sure this isn’t quite the look you’re going for.

Excessive cardio will just make you look skinny and weak, and can actually eat away at your muscle mass.

Just any combination of these styles will never give you the results you want. Most guys don’t know how much of each to use and when to back off and when to go for more. To get what you want you need a careful and calculated balance of these workout methods. A specific goal and specific workout tailored to your individual strengths and weaknesses is the only way to be sure that you’re getting the results you want fast.

I’ve designed the Adonis Index Workout to combine the kinds of exercise you are already familiar with in specific, calculated proportions to make you look your best without falling into the traps of any particular style. With a specific goal, you can get to your best body shape. Without a specific goal you may never get there.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body so start building the body women want.

Overeating Happens for All Kinds of Reasons, and Hunger Isn’t One of Them

Appetite and hunger cravings seem to be one of the new villains in the battle against weight gain and obesity. Nutritional supplement companies, pharmaceutical companies and many new diet books are all targeting these as the primary factors to weight gain.

In theory this seems like a logical place to look. It sounds like it would make sense to me. Isn’t hunger what drives us to eat? Doesn’t a bigger appetite mean you will eat more food? The truth is these aren’t the only factors contributing to north Americas none stop feeding frenzy. And they probably have little to do with overeating at all.

Recent research shows that other social and psychological factors have a huge impact on not only when we eat, but how much we will eat. For starters the size of the plate, bowl, box or bag you eat food from will determine how much you will eat. A study done on people eating popcorn at the movies showed that people eating from the jumbo sized bag compared to the small bag ate way more popcorn (and the popcorn was 5 days old stale just to make sure they weren’t eating out of enjoyment for the great taste!). This result was consistent with all sorts of containers. People eat more from bigger bowls and larger plates.

The troubling part about this research is that these people are completely unaware that they are eating more. When surveyed after the study the people eating from the big bag who ate significantly more food actually thought they are eating the same amount as the people who were eating less with the smaller bags.

Other research shows that as long as food is within arms reach we will continue to eat it even if we’re not hungry. We have a better chance of eating less if food was more difficult to come by and took more effort. Even having to walk across a room will slow us down. But if that bowl of chocolate covered almonds is close enough to reach without moving, look out, it’ll be gone before you know it!

Food variety is also a major reason people just can’t seem to stop eating. If your fridge was full of your most favorite food in the world, but it was all you were allowed to eat for the next 10 days you would most assuredly get sick of eating it within the first 2-3 days. By the end of the 10 days you would probably be about 5 pounds lighter from lack of eating!

Even the perception of food variety changes how much we will eat. A study looked the difference between eating M&M’s in 5 bowls with the M&M’s poured into each bowl right out of the bag compared to M&M’s separated out by color in each bowl. People who were given M&M’s in bowls with all the colors mixed together ate significantly more than the people who were given the same amount of M&M’s divided by color in each bowl! As if! All M&M’s taste the same no matter what color they are!

This is just further (and rather disturbing) proof that there are dozens of subconscious factors influencing our food choices and a daily basis that we simply will never be able to control until we know they are affecting us.

In the battle of the bulge, appetite and hunger are factors, but research is showing they definitely are not the only factors. And I would argue they are less important that the nutrition researchers, pharmaceutical and supplement companies think. Things as simple as a bigger container, or being within arms reach of food, or even the color of the food will make us eat more. These influences have nothing to do with hunger. They are factors just outside of our awareness that are much harder to control, and in many social situations they are in fact impossible to control. For example there is no extra extra small bag of popcorn at the movies. All you have to choose from is huge, or super huge!

The bottom line is that fancy diets and products designed to kill your appetite and get rid of hunger cravings will leave most people very disappointed and wondering why they still can’t lose weight. Hunger is a normal response to signal you to eat. Trying to suppress it is probably not a good idea. Looking for better food options, or at least food ‘situations’ is more likely to be a successful strategy. For example: choose the smaller container or plate to eat from, put snack foods out of reach so you’re less likely to gorge on them. Simple changes like these will go a long way to helping you keep your consumption habits in check.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body so start building the body women want.

Real Weight Loss Is Simple but Not Easy

When it comes to weight loss the answer is simple and that is: less calories in than out. BUT that doesn’t mean this answer is easy.

Many people seem to get “simple” and “easy” confused. Just because something is simple that doesn’t necessarily make it easy. And weight loss is a perfect example of something that is simple but not easy.

I think people choose to make many things including cutting weight more complicated than it really is. On the surface this doesn’t make any sense, why in the world would anyone want to make something more difficult that it is?

I think the answer is as follows:

If something is simple (like eating less) and you can’t do it, then you might feel embarrassed, or ashamed of yourself for not being able to get to your bodyweight goal. It’s a serious shot to your confidence and your ego if you cannot do something that seems so simple.

It’s hard to admit to yourself that something so simple can be so difficult (simple things aren’t always easy things). Therefore to not feel like a total failure people latch on to a belief that dropping weight must be very complicated to justify why it is difficult.

I’ll be the first to admit that weight loss isn’t “easy” but it’s totally simple. Eating less is the goal, but finding a way to eat less is the hard part, and in many cases discouraging.

Here are a few more examples of things that are SIMPLE but not EASY:

Running 15 kilometers – almost anyone with two functioning legs can run at least some short distance (without becoming fatigued), but running for 15 kilometers non-stop isn’t easy.

Doing 100 push-ups – for most people the push up motion is pretty easy to do, but doing 100 of them is exhausting. The concept of a push up is simple, but doing 100 of them isn’t necessarily easy.

Holding your arm straight out in front of you for 5 minutes without putting it back down is simple, but not easy. I hope you can now see the difference between simple and easy and how you might confuse one with the other.

To protect your feelings you might try to make something that is simple and (but not easy) into something that both complicated AND not easy.

Fitness and nutrition marketers know that people get discouraged when they attempt to lose weight and find out how hard it is. They also know that you don’t want to believe that something so simple is so hard so they sell you complicated and expensive solutions that seem to justify why it is so hard.

It’s much easier for you to believe that something so hard is also very complicated (kind of like doing a complicated calculus problem or trying to learn how to read and write in a new language).

This is how the fitness industry comes up with a never ending stream of complicated weight loss solutions for you to waste your money on year in and year out.

Just think of all the complicated ‘solutions’ that marketers have tried to sell in the past 10 years like: low carb, blood type diets, paleo diets, raw foods, high protein, carb cycling, special meal timing etc.

Each of these diets will show you success stories of people who have used their program and I’m sure they’re all true. So if each one of these diets can produce similar results for all kinds of different people then there must be something they all have in common, and that is LESS CALORIES.

As long as you choose not to accept the simple answer o

f calories in vs calories out, you will always be susceptible to fitness marketing claims that promise a more complex and much more expensive solution.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body so start building the body women want.

Never Hit A Plateau Again – 3 Phases Every Workout Must Have

Most beginners get great gains from any weight training workout, but soon after the initial gains everyone eventually hits a plateau. Experienced lifters know this and try just about everything to avoid plateaus.

Before we get to the 3 phases I am assuming you are consistent with your workouts and don’t skip days, cut your sets short, or avoid doing real work. If that is the case, it won’t matter at all how good of a program you are following, because you aren’t in fact following it. A good program is designed to be followed exactly as it is written, right down to finishing every set and rep in the exact amount of time it says. Resting for 80 seconds when it says 60 won’t do, and doing 11 reps when it says 13 isn’t going to cut it either. The workout you are following will only work as well as your ability to follow it to a tee! Ok now that we got that out of the way lets get to the 3 key phases that help you avoid plateaus in both muscle gain and strength gains.

1. Maximum Strength Phase – this is a phase where you are handling the heaviest weights you can, around 80-90% of your max, in the 3-7 rep range. Take longer rest periods of about 2-3 minutes between sets. This phase will force your muscles and tendons and nevrous system to adpat to pushing maximum weight at the limit of your capacity. Every single rep should feel like a maximal effort. There is usually no burning feeling for this type of workout, just an overall muscular exhaustion.
2. Muscle Hypertrophy Phase – During this phase you are handling weight around 65-80% of your maximum and doing between 8-13 reps. Rest periods are around 1-2 minutes. These workouts usually drive alot of blood into your muscles giving you really big muscle pumps, it also stimulates expansion and growth of the muscle fibers. The sets should flow from one rep to the next building up a burn feeling towards the end and a flushing the muscles with blood.
3. Strength Endurance Phase – This is a muscle conditioning phase handling weights around 50-70% of our max, doing between 12-20 reps. Rest periods are very short between 45-90 seconds. This phase builds strength endurance, which means teaching your muscles to handle moderately heavy weights for long periods of time (This is different than cardio endurance that can lasts for hours). This phase is necessary to build up your muscles ability to deal with prolonged stress, low blood ph (that intense burn you feel), and overall muscle fatigue.

Each of these phases contributes to the effectiveness of the other. Stay on each for about 4 weeks (as your body adapts to your training very quickly) and continue to cycle through each one. I build these phases into all of the workouts I design as they are the essential building block to an effective muscle building program.

John Barban is a accomplished professional strength and conditioning coach and the author of a radical new workout program designed to build the ideal male physique called the Adonis Effect.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body so start building the body women want.

Like Attracts Like

Anyone who says that opposites attract probably aren’t very good looking and are in lousy shape. Think about it, if this were true all the best looking hottest women would be with the worst looking out of shape guys. And all the best looking in shape muscular guys would be with all the ugliest out of shape women…Am I the only person that thinks this is absurd?

Truth is like attracts like, and this is especially true when it comes to sexual partners. Social competition for sexual partners is fierce and both women and men alike are constantly shifting their view of themselves depending on their surroundings. It’s up to you to keep your body, and your self-image at a point where you aren’t rattled by the presence of other guys.

Research shows that men lowered their self perception when exposed to other socially dominant males. In other words if you are a socially dominant male, you can actually cause the other men in a room to lower their view of themselves. One way to become socially dominant is buy building a superior body that other men are jealous of. As soon as they see you they will change their perception of themselves. Women pick up on this and realize that you are the dominant male in the room. It becomes a snow ball effect.

The same thing happens with women. When exposed to more attractive women a girl will lower her self-perception.

What ends up happening is that dominant males are the only ones with access to the most beautiful women as this is consistent with both the man and woman’s self perception. Quality beautiful women don’t settle for guys who aren’t exactly what they want, this means you have to have a body that is as hot to her as her body is to you.

It is well within your grasp to build a body that any women will be attracted to. The Adonis Index Workout is my trademarked workout that is scientifically designed to build you into your perfect proportions that women are subconsciously attracted to. It doesn’t matter if you need to burn fat, build muscle or both, I’ve created a system that can bring you to your perfect proportions in record time.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body so start building the body women want.

How to Match Your Social Goals with Your Weight Loss Goals

If you had your favorite meal prepared and sitting right in front of you I’ll bet anything less than the house burning down wouldn’t stop you from eating it. Even then you might steal at least a few bites as you dashed out the door.

The challenge we all face with food is simply abundance. There is too much of it around and it’s too damn tasty to avoid eating.  Dividing food up into categories like fats and carbs, and timing meals and all of that stuff is all just a way to get us to eat less of it.

But none of those diet tricks ever address the biggest and most influential factor that affects the way we eat, and that factor is: other people.

You and I both have people in our lives that tend to eat less than us and others that tend to eat more than us. Depending on which one you happen to hang around with you may end up eating more or less.

There is a very strong social link to eating. In fact I cannot think of any social gathering that doesn’t involve food or drink. We truly do celebrate company with food. So how do you continue living a fun social life without being the person who always has to say ‘no I’m only having a salad’ when all the food comes out?

As far I can tell it seems easier to go with the flow than try to push against it. In other words, if you already know that social situations are when you will be tempted the most to eat then go with it. Schedule your eating time around social events. But when you’re not at these events keeps your calories low. This way you can afford to eat guilt free wherever you are without worrying about gaining weight.

For example: Try eating very low calories the day before or the morning and afternoon of the day you know you’ll be going out for dinner with some friends. At least this way you can partake in all the food and drink in the evening without feeling guilty and without gaining weight. As long as you create enough of a calorie deficit to offset the calorie surplus at dinner you should be fine.

The one key to making this all work is to create the deficit BEFORE you go out for dinner, never after. If you try to tell yourself that you’ll work off the calories AFTER eating a big meal you’re fighting a losing battle. This is the same as saving up your money to buy something or buying it on credit and telling yourself the lie that you’ll pay your credit card off before your bill comes in. But you and I both know we’ll never pay the credit card off, and instead we end up just making the minimum payment. This is no different than overeating today while telling yourself you’ll eat less tomorrow and go to the gym. It usually never happens.

If you want to stay ahead in the weight loss game then start thinking of your calories like a bank account that has no credit card. Calories must go out before you put them back in. This is your best bet for lasting weight loss success.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body.

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How to Get an Above Average Body?

The only way to know if you are above average is to find out what the average is. Like it or not you get judged like this throughout your entire life starting at school and going right up to your performance at work. Even if you own your own business your customers are going to judge if you provide an above average product or service.

The point is that we live in a relative world. The only way to know if you’re doing well is to compare yourself to everyone else. This becomes very apparent when you compare your body to other people. Do you have above average muscle, or strength? Is your percent body fat above or below average?

To answers these questions you need to know what the average is for each of these things.

You probably don’t think about yourself this way very often, and as most people do you probably think of yourself as one of a kind. And you’re right to some degree. Of course nobody else has lived your exact life with the same things happen to them. But on the other hand the look and shape of your body can be categorized and compared to everyone else. And most people are very similar. Most people are close to the average.

To stand out from the crowd you need to be different, you need to be above average.

If average people don’t workout with weights then you need to workout with weights to have above average muscle size. If average people eat an average diet they end up with an average amount of bodyfat. If you want to lower your bodyfat percentage you have to eat slightly less calories than average people do and do more exercise.

The path to becoming exceptional isn’t that complicated. Just look around you at what everyone else is doing and do something different. There is slightly more planning that needs to go into it, but it’s not much.

If I were to sum it up into the simplest sentence it would be this:

Exercise more and eat less than the average person.

You might be thinking that there is also an average look of people that workout and you want to be even better than that look. If this is how you feel, then you might also want to have an above average workout and nutrition program.

No matter how far you want to take your body and conditioning there is always a way to get there. You just have to look at what the people who aren’t average are doing.

The people who are the biggest and strongest typically do more work at the gym and lift heavier weights more often than everyone else. The people who are very lean and have defined muscles typically pay more attention to their diet and eat less calories than everyone else.

This might sound simplistic but it’s the truth. It actually isn’t that complicated at all. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, that just means it’s simple. There is a big difference between easy and simple. Things that are simple aren’t always easy. Building muscle and weight loss are two things that are simple, but not easy.The diet and fitness industry however try to tell you that they are much more complicated which allows them to sell you complicated diet and workout programs.

To make a real change in your body the first steps are very simple. For weight loss just start eating less food, it doesn’t matter what the food is, it just matters that you eat less of it. For muscle building you have to lift heavier weights more often. The sets and reps don’t really matter, it just has to be more often than you’re currently doing and heavier. This is all you need to see big time changes.

Effective dieting and exercising isn’t complicated, the simpler the plan the easier it is to stick to and the faster the results will come.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body.