TFA OVERHAUL First Edition

The

Regardless of who you are or what age you are, your training and exercise is the stimulus to trigger your body to change.

Different exercises, even for the same muscle group, inflict tension across different parts of the muscle’s contraction range. Get the combos right for faster results.

Food is meant to be enjoyed. There’s no doubt about that, but now it also has a ‘scientific’ purpose.

Jeff Wang, integrative physiotherapist and health coach, gives his top tips to staying intact and fighting fit pass the age of 35

The state of your gut and digestive health could be sabotaging your weight loss efforts. Let’s get it back on your side.

Testosterone is the key to you being able to grow muscle, burn fat, and perform between the sheetslets get it up to scratch

Meet Johannes Young - one of Tailored Fit Alpha’s many ‘transformation success’ stories.

The first 4 weeks of your transformation journey is the danger period. Is your mindset ready?

You’ve no doubt heard the adage that getting into shape is 20% exercise and 80% nutrition.  You can’t, or so the saying goes, out-train a bad diet.  Generally, this is true however, once you reach the ripe old age of 35 this fitness formula starts to gradually change on you and other key factors unavoidably come into play. As a guy approaching middle-age, getting into shape and, just as importantly, staying in impressive shape, can be very achievable. We know this to be true for we’ve built an entire business model on helping guys do exactly that and yes, exercise and nutrition will always remain fundamentals. BUT it should be noted that beyond the age of 35, unless due consideration is given to proper recovery, hormone balance, gut health optimization and cortisol management, it frustratingly starts to become more of a challenge to get the results you’re accustomed to or now looking for.

For this very reason we’ve dedicated the launch of OVERHAUL - our online publication, to not only give you a basic understanding of what these other factors are at play here but to also provide you with some practical steps that can be implemented immediately so you can start making some life and physique changing improvements right now - today.

To kick things off we’ll have a quick look at the ‘doom and gloom’ side of things to allow you to understand what’s going on and how the game has changed for us. Don’t worry, we won’t stay there too long. Although I’m big into understanding the challenges and being very realistic about the playing field, for both my clients and for myself it’s all about creating sciencebased solutions and focusing on these.

So, let’s get to it!

The cards are not in our favor – so how do we play to win?

Before we learn how to play life to win, we need to know exactly what cards we are holding. Recognize what factors are increasingly becoming poor team players now that we are past the age of 35.

Damn! That hand is looking rough right? And unfortunately, as each year passes, the severity, or impact of those factors, intensifies.

Okay, so now it’s time to talk straight. You’re over 35 and have stuff going on that, if not addressed and carefully allowed for in your approach, will mean you WILL NOT see results. You will literally be wasting your time and possibly putting yourself in a worse position than when you started

HOW DO WE WIN?

You have the commendable goal to ditch the ‘dad-bod’. You don’t want to look like so many other guys your age look, nor do you want to be seeing your physique slip away year after year. The thought of your partner losing interest in you plays on your mind, your kids looking at other younger fitter men as heroes secretly eats at you, not to mention your decreasing energy levels, diminishing drive & motivation, and dropping sex drive – arghhhh this aging shit sucks!

Added to this time has now become a precious commodity, so how do you make changes and realize your goals in the most effective and efficient manner possible? Whichever way you decide to go about this you want it to be right and you want it to be the last thing you ever have to ‘try’. Agreed?

CLICK ON EACH CARD TO WATCH

QUICK LESSON

How do we go about gaining this muscle? We have ‘more mileage on the tank’ so can’t train as hard as we did in our 20’s, the hormones responsible for our lean fat-free muscle are dropping every year making us less responsive to training, and our recovery demands are increasing year by year… so just how are we meant to turn this beatup-rusty combi van into a jacked-up Porsche 911?

Through an intelligent and science-based approach – not young blood ‘brute force’. Park the ego mate – no place for that here anymore.

Time to let science and experience lead the way

IN MUSCLE WE TRUST

Regardless of your specific goal - even if it is just to lose that famous dad-bod spare-tyre that hangs over the front of your dad track pants that your kids give you shit for, or getting fitter and healthier so you’re around for your family longer - developing lean, quality muscle tissue on your frame will be the best thing you can do for your self-esteem, your health, and your physique.

Annoyingly, as we age our body doesn’t want to hold onto lean muscle. But muscle is what we require to remain strong, less prone to injury and to generally maintain a higher quality of life well into our later years. It’s also what’s going help keep our physiques lean, and ascetically pleasing as opposed to eventually looking like zip lock bags full of gravy. Not a pretty thought!

VISIT ALL THE REPS

Different rep ranges will stimulate different muscle fiber types within a muscle (fast or slow twitch fibers). Sticking purely to one rep range risks leaving a lot of growth potential on the table because you’re likely leaving other fiber types untouched.

CLICK ON TY BELOW TO WATCH REP VIDEO

TIP - Beware of programs that only favor one rep range. They don’t need to cover them all in a single workout session, but over the course of the weeks they do need to spend time focusing on different ranges to ensure full fiber type stimulation.

HOW MANY SETS SHOULD I BE DOING ?

LEAST SETS IS BEST

The number of working sets you perform on any given exercise should always be just enough to ensure a proper growth stimulus has been generated in the target muscle. That’s it. Anything more has a diminishing return. Remember we’re about stimulating the muscle to respond with growth NOT destroy it with too much volume.

CLICK ON TY BELOW TO WATCH SET VIDEO

TIP - be sure the program you follow has set structures designed to allow maximal-all-out contractile-failure but with enough intelligence to allow this required intensity to not diminish over the entire workout because of too many working sets.

Food is meant to be enjoyed. There’s no doubt about that, but now it also has a ‘scientific’ purpose and more so than ever at this stage in our life.

This meal is to help continue the glycogen replenishment requirements induced from your earlier training session, but now with slower digesting food choices. Sweet Potato provides your Carbohydrate requirements, Lean Steak provides a strong Amino Acid rich protein source, and Olive Oil allocation to provide the good Fats requirements. With a side of vegetables for fiber and micro nutrient needs.

how is food different past the age of 35?

• More so now than ever before we need to ensure we are eating enough of the right nutrients to not only preserve the muscle we have, but to also facilitate the development of new lean muscle.

• The way we are eating will determine if our body’s hormone production capabilities are supported.

• The way we eat now will either contribute towards optimal gut health or a world of accumulating digestive problems.

• Correct individual nutrition at this point in your life will be instrumental in slowing your rate of aging.

• Past the age of 35, eating for our goals becomes so much more than just calories in and calories out – it becomes supporting optimization or sadly, regression.

When working with my TFA clients all their individual requirements are taken into account. Current body composition, personal health markers, individual goals, and lifestyle considerations are all factored in, enabling us to develop specific nutrition plans - exactly right - exactly for them.

Plans are worked out down to the last detail - the types of food, meal timing, the exact weights and quantities everything needed to provide the most effective and optimal approach for the individual client. As they progress and their body improves and changes, we make sure their meal plan does also.

Now because this magazine is designed for everyone, we can’t provide individual specifics here – but what we can provide today is general rules and suggestions that if you follow will greatly improve upon what you are likely doing already.

Start your day right providing your body a balance of all macronutrients. Protein in the form of scrabbled white eggs on a bed of mixed salad. Complex carbohydrates and good Fats provided via a bowl of Oatmeal with mixed nuts. Cinnamon & Sugar-Free Maple Syrup added for guilt-free flavoring.

Mid-morning - keep it fast and simple Protein provided via a simple can of tuna tossed through a mixed salad, served on a bed of rice for complex carbohydrates, and dressed with a small allocation of Olive Oil for good Fats requirements.

Lunchtime - Requires a balance of all macro-nutrients again. Protein provided from a serving of lean Chicken Breast. Slow digesting Carbohydrates from whole wheat pasta and good Fats supplied through a serving of Avocado.

This meal is the last chance at providing your body with what it requires to give yourself the best chance at performing a highly effective workout. This meal should include an easy digesting protein source (Whey Protein), an slow releasing Carbohydrate source (example - Oatmeal) and a Fat (example - Natural Peanut Butter) source to help influence a steady release of nutrients.

After an effective workout, your trained muscle are demanding nutrients to help support the recovery and rebuilding processes. Time to give it what it needs. An easy and fast-digesting protein source is required (Whey Protein) A fast and low fiber Carbohydrate source to help muscle glycogen replenishment (Banana). And in this meal, NO Fats are to be consumed We want rapid nutrient uptake of Protein & Carbs - Fats will just slow the digestion speed in this case.

#1 #2 #3

#6 #4 #5

SCRAMBLED EGG WHITES

TUNA RICE SALAD

CHICKEN BREAST PASTA

LEAN STEAK + VEGETABLES

PEANUT PROTEIN OATMEAL (pre-workout)

PROTEIN SHAKE + BANANA (post-workout)

Warren Buffet once popularized the concept of comparing the pres- ervation of your health and wellbe- ing to that of owning and maintain- ing a car. The catch here however, is that this ‘car’ you have is the only one you’re ever going to get in your entire life - no trade-ins or swaps unfortunately!

Viewing our wellbeing as our vehi- cle to live life seems to make a lot of sense, yet very few of us prioritize it with longevity and maintenance in mind. Rather than maintain our health as the priceless commodity that it is, it’s far more common to see people thrash themselves, test the limits and turn a blind eye to the wear and tear that is inevitably occurring.

Whether we like it or not, the consequences of our actions all add up. Unfortunately, with age these con- sequences become more noticeable, and we just can’t get away with the same stunts as we used to. Not only that, but we unavoidably begin to feel the compounding effect of little things we’ve neglected over time.

With that said, it’s never too late to start taking better care of yourself. Proactively taking steps to train smarter and avoiding potential in- jury is a much better option than waiting for something to break! So in order to get everyone train- ing smarter, stay as injury-free as possible, and optimize their fitness goals - here are some tips to stay in the game!

Jeff Wang Integrative Physiotherapist @jeffwangphysio

WARMING UP

Warming up prepares all the systems in the body for action. It gets your blood flowing, improves tissue pliability, and optimizes motor recruitment. A good warm up drastically reduces the risk of injury, and if done right, it also improves the quality of your training! Always warm up the key muscles you’re planning to train for the session, but don’t forget to activate any supporting and accessory muscle groups too!

COOLING DOWN

While warming up is crucial for optimal performance and injury prevention, cooling down assists with the recovery process. Spending that extra time at the end of a session to cool down could determine whether or not you wake up the next morning feeling sore! It’s easy to fall into the trap of just heading home as soon as you finish your last set of exercises, so plan ahead and give yourself a buffer of time at the end of your workout.

REST DAYS

While some might admire the enthusiasm conveyed by going to the gym every single day, even professional athletes schedule rest days as part of their programs. Regular training paired with insufficient rest is a recipe for burnout and lackluster training outcomes. The amount of rest days needed varies hugely from person to person so it’s important to spend time figuring out what works best for you.

SLEEP

Humans do not function well when they are sleep deprived. Practically every measurable health outcome studied in sleep science associates poor sleep quality and deprivation with increased risk of developing significant health diseases. Respect your body by prioritizing adequate, high quality sleep each night - it’s biologically one of the most important processes for your health.

STRETCH

Stretching gets its own section because inflexibility is arguably one of the biggest factors contributing to limited biomechanical function and injury risk. Let’s face it - most of us find stretching boring, uncomfortable, and time-consuming. But, I can assure you it’s not as painful, upsetting, and cumbersome as tearing your hamstring. Stretching should be included during cooling down, and I encourage developing a routine that incorporates a dedicated mobility session at least once a week.

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESSES

This one is often met with quite a bit of resistance, and I fully understand why - nobody likes to train the things they suck at. The problem with never addressing your weaknesses however, is that they become your vulnerabilities. Not only that but continuing to neglect parts of your conditioning will lead to muscle imbalances and biomechanical faults over time.

MIX THINGS UP

The well-known saying “use it or lose it” remains as relevant as it always was when it comes to the human body, meaning it’s important to try to keep all systems stimulated in different ways. Resistance training should try to include isometric, concentric, eccentric, plyometric components where possible. Be sure to have some cardio in your program. Playing a sport can challenge balance and functional movement patterns. By exposing yourself to different types of exercise your body becomes much more well-balanced and dynamic. When it comes to longevity, variety is king.

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY

Our bodies have a pretty good internal monitor and alarm system. While it is natural to feel some degree of discomfort when pushing high intensity exercise, it’s important to recognize when your nervous system is sending warning signals. Perhaps you’re feeling a bit tired and not quite 100% committed to an exercise, or maybe that pain in your calf that’s been around all day is getting worse as you keep training. Start listening to that internal system a little more often - chances are, your gut feeling is probably right!

GET FEEDBACK

All too often I have clients who claim to have ‘excellent’ form and mastery of various popular exercises, only for us to assess those movements and engage in a somewhat embarrassing process of motor retraining. I encourage everyone to seek feedback on what they’re doing from time to time - whether you ask a training buddy to check your form, take a short video of yourself, or just make use of a good mirror in the gym to critique yourself. Feedback is great for identifying inconsistent movement patterns before they become bad habits!

CONSULT A PROFESSIONAL

While reading general tips and tricks can fill some gaps in knowledge for most - the truth is that everyone is unique and has different needs. Nothing beats talking to a physiotherapist dedicated to working with you to develop the best training parameters for you. This is particularly important for those with longstanding injuries, loss of confidence, or biomechanical faults. Good physiotherapists are masters of movement and should be able to take all the guesswork out of the process. You’ll get much more value out of your physios these days by engaging with them for injury prevention and maintenance rather than waiting for

Jeff Wang is an integrative physiotherapist and health coach based in Auckland, New Zealand. Jeff has recently retired as head physio on the international ATP tennis circuit tour, and joins the Tailored Fit Alpha expert panel. The is now dedicated and focused his attention on optimizing health and performance for the modern individual. He dissects the systems that make professional athletes great and repackages them to be compatible and optimal for whoever finds they need some help in their corner.

WHAT IS GUT HEALTH?

WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM?

The state of your gut and digestive health could be sabotaging your body transformation goals making it incredibly hard to lose weight as well as gain any muscle - not to mention setting you up for a potential world of health problems in the not-too-distant future.

Within your digestive system (esophagus, stomach and intestines) you have millions and millions of individual bacteria. In a healthy, well performing digestive track these millions of microbiome belong to one of thousands of different bacteria strains. One basic job of the bacteria that colonizes our digestive system is that of breaking down food in the gut to a simple form that can enter the bloodstream and be delivered as nutrients throughout our bodies.

Straight forward, right? Well, it should be but for over 70 million Americans (and the biggest percentage of that figure are guys over 35) that’s not so. Many, many middleaged men have poor gut health, hosting an imbalance of good vs bad gut bacteria and causing major issues with how energy from the food they’re are eating is being broken down, utilized, and stored.

Body Composition Effects Effect On Sleep

A poor gut bacteria profile can impair your body’s essential function of absorbing nutrients, how and where it stores body fat, regulating your blood sugar and leading to drastic weight gain or muscle loss.

A huge percentage of your body’s melatonin (your sleep hormone) is produced in your gut. An imbalance in gut bacteria hinders the release of this hormone, playing havoc with your sleep, which in turn increases cortisol levels, ultimately decreasing hormones such as testosterone.

Mental Health Affects

90% of your body’s Serotonin (mood hormone) is produced in your gut. An imbalance of gut bacteria can affect serotonin production, negatively effecting your mood. Depression, anxiety, lack of motivation and other mental health symptoms/conditions can all start from an unhealthy gut.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE A GUT HEALTH PROBLEM?

Optimizing gut health is a big part of what we look at with every individual Tailored Fit Alpha client and we do so by looking at this from a few different angles. Please understand that you could be doing everything right – training right, recovering right, nutrition right, BUT if your gut health is not on your side, it’s going make dropping body fat and gaining muscle a very, very slow and challenging journey.

Nutrition – At least 90% of the reason your gut is in bad shape in the first place is because of years of poor, unbalanced nutritional choices that have added up and are now taking their toll. So, the biggest and most effective way to get it back on your side is through nutrition. Basically, the road in is the road out of this problem. We need to feed the good bacteria and starve out the bad bacteria through the foods we eat to regain a favorable balance.

Lifestyle – How you’ve chosen to live your life up to now and the choices you’ve made along the way have all played a role in the state of your gut as well – it’s just that by middle age that we are feeling the effects of our choices.

How you’ve taught your body to manage stress (cortisol hormone) over the years, or more accurately perhaps, not managed stress, directly affects your gut health. This is not just emotionally induced stress either but also includes environmental and chemically induced stresses that have created inflammatory effects (i.e., medications, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics etc. taken over the years). These have all made their mark on your gut and therefore need to be taken into account in order to be able to create the right plan to get your gut health fully back on your side.

START WITH SOME BASICS RIGHT NOW

As mentioned above with each Tailored Fit Alpha client we go deep into optimizing a client’s gut and digestive health using various means available to us. Here are a few things to help get your gut on your side from a nutritional angle:

Okay, so you’ve probably got a bit of an idea on what testosterone is and the basic role it plays in your body but just to make sure we’re all on the same page with this critical MVP player that’s so vital to your health & transformation success check out the following.

Testosterone is the key hormone that regulates your sex drive (libido), bone mass, fat distribution, muscle mass, strength, production of red blood cells and production of sperm. As well as give you your drive and motivation, it is basically the dominant hormone that makes you ‘Man!’

THE CURRENT SITUATION

While testosterone was running rampant in your 20-year-old body (making you 10 feet tall and bullet proof), after the age of 30 that powerful hormone is dropping on average, by 1% every single year - and that’s if you’re healthy! For most of us that rapidly declining rate is happening much faster.

4 INCREASE IN FAT STORES

With lower levels of testosterone present, the balance of Estrogen can get out of hand resulting in increased fat storage through specific body regions - particularly through either the abdomen or the chest ‘man boobs’ region.

1 DECREASING SEX DRIVE AND PERFORMANCE ABILITY

Without healthy levels of Testosterone, you will struggle to have much action taking place below the belt.

2 DECREASE IN LEAN MUSCLE

Ample levels of Testosterone is key for your body being able to support an environment required for both new lean muscle development as well as preservation of current lean mass.

3 DECREASED ENERGY LEVELS

Without healthy levels of testosterone, drops in energy and increased recovery times are going to become a regular and gradually worsening trend.

5 LOSS OF MOTIVATION & DRIVE

Testosterone is responsible for feelings of self-motivation, and determination, as well as a healthy level of competitiveness. Low levels are going to have you feeling more like sitting on the bench and watching life from the sidelines instead of being a star player.

6 IRRITABILITY

Feeling low in energy, feeling weaker and less capable in all areas of your life due to declining Testosterone levels often leave men feeling levels of irritability and frustration.

7 DECREASE IN PHYSICAL STRENGTH

With a loss of muscle mass due to declining Testosterone levels, comes a hand-in-hand decline in overall strength levels. Weights you used to lift, or physical tasks you use to perform will slowly become harder and more challenging.

8 INCREASED VISIBLE SIGNS OF AGING

Low levels of Testosterone comes hand-in-hand with an increased rate of typical visible markers of aging i.e dull skin, increased wrinkles.

CAN YOU BRING BACK LOST TESTOSTERONE LEVEL?

In a word – Yes! And that’s exactly what we work to do with every one of our Tailored Fit Alpha clients. Improving a client’s test levels naturally (to a range good enough to substantially turn back the clock & improve their physiques) is based on 3 things – optimizing, maximizing and eliminating.

Adopting key lifestyle practices, nutritional approaches, and specific training approaches to act as powerful precursors to your own body’s testosterone production capability and total test production output.

Just as its important to increase a client’s testosterone production, making sure the testosterone they’re producing remains ‘free’ test. Often testosterone will get ‘bound up’ in the body and not able to fully deliver all the physique and health benefits that it offers. Following specific prescribed recovery protocols, circadian rhythm considerations, and specific nutritional approaches, will help maximize the functions of the test you’re producing.

There are some key absolute Test-Killers out there that most guys are doing on the daily without even realising. We look at identifying these through lifestyle audits and working on an elimination plan with each client.

A FEW THINGS YOU CAN START DOING RIGHT NOW

Alcohol – directly works against your own testosterone production.

Weight train intensely to generate a stimulus, including to test production, but with short enough sessions to allow the increased test to be able to do its thing without recovery issues interfering.

Incorporate correct levels of Omega 3 and Zinc rich foods daily.

Get at least 1 hour of natural sunlight each day to naturally have testosterone production kick into gear.

Bodyfat—an enzyme in fat tissue converts testosterone to estrogen. That’s one reason flab can lower your testosterone. Increased estrogen is also why overweight guys can develop man boobs.

Aim to establish consistent sleep routines to decreases SHGB levels (the hormone that negatively binds your testosterone up and prevents from it doing all its good things for you)

Meet Johannes Young - one of Tailored Fit Alpha’s many ‘transformation success’ stories. In just 20 weeks Jo completely transformed not only his physique, but state of mind as well. Going from being a heartbroken pre-Type 2 diabetic to a fitness model and even becoming a Tailored Fit Alpha success ambassador!

This is Jo’s story in his own words .. his struggle, his success…

May 23rd, 2020 marked a seriously low point. I found myself driving in the dead of night not knowing what the next day was going to look like. All I did know was that I was coming home; home to my family that I hadn’t spoken to in over 2 years. Sure, I wasn’t going through a messy divorce, I wasn’t even married, nor did I have kids or a shared mortgage, but suffering isn’t a competition. Feeling low or rock bottom isn’t a comparative feat. As Attachment Specialist, Adam Lane Smith says, “The first thing a man should do after a breakup, is to pick up a barbell and do some sets”. I did just that, and more.

I reconnected with lost relationships, friends who had tried communicating with me during the social ‘blackout’ of 2 years, and with my family. I narrowed my field of focus to the mundane, steady, and yet purposeful 9 to 5. But most importantly, I built a goal in my mind. A goal that was completely and wholly under my control. That goal was to transform my body from being a pre-Type 2 Diabetic to sub 10% body fat.

Why did I choose this goal specifically? Because my success was going to be entirely determined upon my adherence to the process and forming/sticking to habits that are conducive to the outcome. I could have chosen other goals; climb the academic ladder or try earning a million dollars but these types of goals require external influence to some extent in order to achieve. In the end, the choice was simple - I wanted to take back full control over my results and therefore my life. My external physical body was to become a reflection of the internal transformation I was about to undertake as a man.

It turned out a lot of the struggle during the transformative phase I faced was not in the realms of the training and the nutrition. Instead, it was the mental health transformation required. It was finding solutions to the sometimesoverwhelming waves of intrusive thoughts, feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, regret, guilt, shame and a whole host of other feelings and emotions that I was covering over from my previous life. The diet and the training were for the most part the easy parts - not because I had an expert coach, or that my plan was all designed and laid out for me

(trust me I couldn’t have done it without these) but because the training and diet had clear, black and white solutions which simply needed execution to succeed. The associated thought processes however are not so cut and dry. I don’t have the answer for “how to deal with feeling worthlessness” or “why do I feel so lonely?” I know anecdotally things that pointed me in the right direction were talking to trusted, empathetic friends, paid therapy sessions and listening to podcasts about post-relationship issues similar to what I was facing.

In times of great strife, all throughout known history, men have needed a strong, focused and singular goal to aim towards. The more singular the purpose, the greater the victory. Think of all the wars fought, empires built, technologies created, all were formed out of the need to solve a particular problem specific to the solution. I didn’t need to change the world or cure cancer to gain control of my feelings and live again. I just needed to lose a bit of fat. So I did the work with that single solution.

- Jo

JO’S 10 TIPS

1 “Tomorrow never comes. Start now.” Whatever form that may take, whether it’s buying a new pair of shoes specifically for exercise, or doing a fresh grocery run after emptying your fridge/pantry from junk food. We all know the word “tomorrow” is a moving goalpost, tomorrow is simply another form of procrastination, and procrastination is a wall for one’s motivation.

2 “Understand motivation” Motivation is an internal thought process that allows an individual to pick one goal, and take action to achieve said goal. Motivation is not an external behavior, although some people may observe successful celebrities (external stimuli) and attempt to emulate their behaviors in hopes of being motivated. When you feel “unmotivated”, this is simply a state where an intrusive thought arises and becomes a mental roadblock between you and your final goal. For example, “I need to work out today, but my car is at the panel beater so I can’t make it to the gym…”. Your goal is “I need to workout today”, the intrusive thought is “I can’t because… *insert reason*”. A motivated individual would find an alternative, any alternative. A demotivated individual would call the day a write-off and move on. 3 “Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.” Change can only occur when we break out of comfortable routines. Most times, those routines and habits we’ve built up through our years are what got us to this current state of overweight, unhealthy, unfit, unhappy living. Waking up earlier, swapping out the car for a manual bike or walking, making time for the gym, meal prepping. All of these and more are changes that will feel uncomfortable for a time when starting out. Learn to love it. 4 “Record your progress, physically & mentally” You will be taught how to keep a strict log on food and training records whilst following the Tailored Fit method. But do not neglect the importance of self-reflection on your mental well-being by keeping a journal of some kind to record some form of daily, weekly, or monthly recap on how you are generally feeling in terms of your progress in lifestyle changes. 5 “Transform your mind as well as your body” This is the 2020s, prioritizing mental health is widely, objectively known as forming the fundamental skeleton of improving one’s life as a whole. There are countless mental health professionals practicing in the world today. They exist to help unpack and process feelings and emotions that may exist as walls preventing your success in transforming your body and beyond.

6 “The journey never ends” So you got to 10% body fat, you’ve got those beach body abs and can do 20 consecutive pull-ups. What now? Know that nothing is forever, if you don’t use it, you lose it. The choice of keeping up the lifestyle, the diet, staying under the guidance of Tailored Fit Alpha is entirely your choice. You’ll slip up now and then, miss a cardio session or two, have a whole pizza or two. But the choice to jump back on the bandwagon of success, or to let those two pizzas slide into three, then to 10 is completely in your hands. 7 “Work towards something”. Results and goals are the fuel for the engine of work and effort.. Without exams and assessments, there wouldn’t be competent lawyers, doctors, and scientists. Without the Olympics or top-tier national competitions, the bar for toptier athletes would be much lower. Without a purpose, we tend to ease towards taking the easy route in anything we do. This is why, when transforming your lifestyle, I highly suggest creating, or picking a tangible goal to strive towards. Whether it’s weight loss, preparing for a beach holiday, or being able to keep up with your dogs whilst walking them.

8 “It’s better with friends”. Look for like-minded individuals who can push you to be the best version of yourself, whether they’re coaches, family, or friends. Accountability has an undeniable positive impact on adherence. Involve your family and the close-knit home environment without forcing them to change, humans are highly impressionable to positive results, once they see your life change for the better in front of them, they’ll want to participate in the positivity too. 9 “Trust”. I used to think I knew a lot when it came to health and fitness. But one of the reasons I feel my transformation was such a success was because I came into this with a blank, beginner’s mindset and completely trusted Tyrone and his Tailored Fit Alpha approach. Everything he prescribed me down to the last detail I followed to a tee. If I didn’t understand something I simply asked. But I trusted, followed, and executed everything down to the last detail.

10 “Understand Results Aren’t Linear” some weeks when I checked in with Tyrone I could clearly see differences in my progress photos and shifts on the bathroom scales. Other weeks, despite following everything to a tee, it felt like little progress was made. When these slower rates of progress occurred, Tyrone would do his ‘magic’, adjust my training and nutrition, and as a result would have my body responding again the following week. Just remember if you hit a slow point don’t get discouraged, just realize maybe you maxed out the results possible from that particular plan, and are now in need of an approach adjustment.

GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME

You may have the best individually designed training plan. You may also have an amazing meal plan – one designed to sync perfectly with your current lifestyle. On top of this you could have all the critical health factors responsible for a successful body transformation (hormones, gut health, adrenal, cortisol levels) fully addressed and worked into your plans seamlessly. But if you don’t have your mindset right, no matter how fool-proof your plans are… you will fail. Statistically speaking, the majority of guys who have a plan professionally designed for them will, on average, last a little longer than 4 weeks before they find themselves sliding. They will generally battle on for another 2 weeks, ‘dipping their toes in and out’ of following their plans until they give up the ghost and unofficially retire completely, discarding their goals yet again. Those who are ‘going it alone’ (with no professional help) will generally drop off within the first 2 weeks. Both scenarios unfortunately usually comes down to just two things - 1. They’re honestly not sure if what they’re doing is even correct, therefore adherence is weak and this is totally understandable. How can you possibly give something your all if you’re not 100% confident you’re going about it right. Believe me, there’s no room for ‘blind faith’ when it comes to achieving a successful body transformation. 2.They became overwhelmed and lost in the process. Why? Because what they didn’t do, was give active thought to every aspect required when routines were in their infancy and being formed. When you are engaging in an activity that you are fresh and new to, something that you want to get really good at (let’s say snowboarding), you consciously and actively have to be thinking of every single little aspect - knowing how to suit up, finding your balance on the board, finding your centre of balance when moving, actively aware of every movement, each lean and weight distribution change. Over time, once you become better and better, with hours and hours spent practicing, your need to actively think about all these fundamentals becomes less and less. It eventually becomes instinctive by nature. But not so at the start. If you didn’t purposefully think about every aspect, you would never get more than a meter down the slope. The same can be said of a successful body transformation. In the early stages there are key factors that you must activity and consciously think of every single day - key elements that simply have to be one of the top priorities and in your conscious thoughts for a short period of time in order to succeed. As a rule, this thought process will occupy the prime real estate in your head for the first 4 weeks. Exactly what you need to be eating and when you need to be eating. What you’re training today, when you’re training today consciously scheduling life, work and family to fit around your workouts. What lifestyle practices you need to be following for the day and when are you going to perform them. And importantly, what practices, habits, events, social offers and former habits will it be necessary for you to consciously turn down or adjust as a result of you actively assessing everything to determine - “does it line up and support my transformation efforts, or does it work against them”? Initially, conscious thought about everything is required. Overwhelmed already? This is of course typically a major reason why people can’t keep this up for any longer than a couple of weeks at best. How then do we win this battle? The key is awareness. People who aren’t aware of the conscious priority that this initially needs to hold in your head, will fail. The need to be aware of this fact before you even start, knowing that it’s going to be a vital ‘make-or-break’ thing BUT also knowing its going to get easier and easier as time passes – it’s this awareness that’s going to pull you through the first 4 weeks. As new habits become more and more ingrained through consistency and conscious adherence, the less and less time and emotional energy you will gradually have to dedicate giving active thought to. Let’s go back to our snowboarding analogy. The first time you go down the slope on your board you are super conscious of every movement you make and exactly where you are boarding. Each time you go down the slope (following the same path as you did the run just before) the less and less you have to actively think about what you are doing. The track you are making in the snow is being dug deeper and deeper into the snow each time you successfully follow the same path. With enough times following the same run, you literally get to a point where the path is so ingrained, you can board down successfully without burning your brain. And that’s exactly the same with adopting the lifestyle required to be successful with your body transformation. The more and more you do it, the easier and easier it becomes. In the first 4 weeks be prepared to carry your meal plan around with you, referring to it multiple times a day. Be prepared to set alarms on your phone reminding you when to eat. Be prepared to block out time on your calendar for your week’s worth of workouts. Be prepared to be over-prepared. Just know that the first 4 weeks will require more than just effort with diet and training adherence. It will also demand a determined mental consciousness. Over those first 4 weeks life long habits will be formed, and once conquered you will find the space within your head returning along with an ease of adherence and a sense of excellence with the execution established.

The first 4 weeks of your transformation journey is the danger period. Is your mindset ready?