Mastering WILL-POWER & MOTIVATION

Introducing the “WAM” principle (WAM – WILL POWER & MOTIVATION principle), a critical transformation principle for those lacking willpower and motivation. Putting the WAM principle in place will drastically increase your chances of success embarking on a body transformation journey.

Being in this game of body transformation coach for older guys (and girls) for nearly 20 years now, bring some insight into what works and what not. Anyone who implement WAM, will enhance their success rate drastically.

SOLUTIONS THAT DOES NOT WORK

It is relatively easy to design a rock solid transformation system that I can guarantee to deliver results when followed to the letter. However, 99% of people will fail when embarking on such a journey. Why? Because we are creatures of habits (and comforts). Our habits has been deeply entrenched into our daily living. To break or change a habit is far more difficult that we actually think. Remember, that habit has been entrenched into our daily routines over many, many years. And the older we are the more deeply that habit is entrenched.

THE “WAM” SOLUTION

Now, the next question is, if we know this is the reason why we fail, how do we go about making things happen and ensuring we do not fail? Simply put, how do we get to the point where we successfully change our habits? The answer is quite simple.

We apply small enough, easily absorbed, changes over sufficient lengths of time to allow us to assimilate the change (forming a new habit), and start seeing subsequent body changes that will provide the necessary psychological stimulation to inspire us to WANT to move to the next level of change – I call this the WAM approach “Willpower to change and motivation principle”.

It is a set of guiding timeline rules to put in place in a specific manner to drastically increase the success rate of a body transformation journey. With this approach, that 1% chance of success can now easily be increased to more than 50% chance of success. Now, THAT is great odds.

Why only to more than 50% and not 100%? Simply, because you still have to get up and do certain things! Without your basic contribution, NOTHING will happen. The sad truth is that close to 1 in 2 people are not willing to do even the most basic effort.

HOW DOES “WAM” WORK?

Ok, now it sounds easy enough, but in layman’s terms, how does it work?

It is all about small enough steps over a long enough time/period to learn and enforce new habits which in turn will deliver big enough body changes to inspire you to make you WANT to move to the next step and climb the ladder higher to a grand new body.

The human psych can accept small changes to force new habits but hate being forced out of a comfort zone in one big step. It also requires a healthy dose of inspiration and for 99% of us, that only comes when a large enough change in body composition occurs. Then we can muster the will to move to the next level of change.

I’ve mentioned “long enough”. But, how long is that exactly? We all know that the big problem with today’s society is the need for instant satisfaction. They want pills for everything. So the very first thing you have to get your head around with following the WAM approach is that you need to set aside a 3 year period for this whole process from flabby and unfit looking to a rocking new fit body. Obviously the less overweight you are, the shorter the time period, but for anyone fairly overweight and up, 3 yrs is the WAM timeline.

So without wasting more time, let’s look in detail at the WAM approach.

WAM - STEP ONE (month 1-6)

Only apply a single, easy enough change to your life. No strenuous exercise, no diet, just one simple daily change. Easy to do and easy enough to make it a new habit. Start to do every day (EVERY DAY!) brisk walking. Start at 15 minutes per day the first week and increase it with 2 min every week to eventually reach between 45min to 60min daily brisk walking. Rain, storm or sunshine, you MUST do your walking. You can walk outside, or when bad weather in shopping centres or if you prefer you choose a treadmill (at home or at gym).

Do NOT underestimate brisk walking. There is a lot of science that support this as one of the best fat loss solutions over a medium to long term. As an example, one of my clients (Peter Connell – 48) did this for the first 6 months and he lost 40kg of fat! This without changing anything else and not even touching his diet. Off course it is critical to NOT increase your daily food intake but at the very least keep it at the same level as before. Just by adding the brisk walking, the body will become much more mobile, you will see great changes with the small things like getting in and out of vehicles or chairs. You will experience that you have more energy and not getting so quickly tired. And best of all you WILL start losing fat. Not initially. The first 2 months your body is getting used to it but by month 3 when you walk daily in excess of 30 min you will start seeing changes on the scale. After 6 months we are talking about some really impressive changes. Remember walking must be brisk and NOT strolling.

The walking do not stop at month 6…from here onwards this is part of your daily routine: 45-60min of brisk walking. The benefits of this walking as you get older cannot be stressed enough. Benefits on many levels of health and general mobility and strength.

This is easy enough…no diet changes, no strenuous exercises or gyming required. You can still live and do all you want with the exception of walking briskly for 45min to 60min daily.

WAM - STEP TWO (month 7-9)

Right, now you are at month 6. You have now seen some great fat loss, you feel better and you are much more mobile. You are actually getting excited about the future and right now you are highly inspired to take this journey to the next level.

This is where you now move onto some exercises to start shaping the body – this you do from month 6 to month 9 (for 3 months). Remember fat loss do NOT provide a great looking body. ONLY by increasing muscle size do you provide shape to the body. If the body does not have sufficient muscle it will never have good shape. In fact many people losing a lot of weight looks worse after than before because of lacking of muscles to give shape. I am not talking here about an Arnold Schwarzenegger training approach, just basic training to give the body shape. This you will be doing on top of the walking.

I suggest doing the one (either walking or the exercises) in the morning and the other in the afternoon or evening. I’ve already did a lengthy video and article on STEP 2.

MONTH 7

Light weight training for 4 days a week for first month: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Continue doing brisk walking for 30 min per day, 7 days a week.

On these 4 training days, train with weights (resistance exercises) for not longer than 30 minutes. Choose the lightest weight available for month 7. [For bench press, use only the bar with no weights and with squats do only body squats without any weights.] The purpose of month 7 is to getting accustomed to the exercises and using weights and also to allow the body to start strengthening itself for what is laying ahead.

Note: You do not HAVE to have a set of dumbbells and barbell. If you do not have weights, use what you got. A pair of cans, a tyre, a broom stick or whatever it takes. Just go through the motions and work the muscle. At this point learning a new habit is waaaaay more important that doing the exercise effectively or perfect.

During each training session do the following (whole body workout everyday):

One exercise [ 2 sets of 12 reps] for biceps [typically dumbbell bicep curls]
One exercise [ 2 sets of 12 reps] for triceps [typically tricep dips]
One exercise [ 2 sets of 12 reps] for pecs/chest [typically bench press – just with any medium heavy object]
One exercise [ 2 sets of 12 reps] for shoulders [typically shoulder presses]
One exercise [ 2 sets of 12 reps] for back [typically dumbbell rows]
One exercise [ 2 sets of 12 reps] for upper legs [typically squats – body squats without the bar]
One exercise [ 2 sets of 12 reps] for calves [typically standing calve raises]
One exercise [ 2 sets of 12 reps] for stomach [typically exercise ball crunches]

Each exercise must consist of two sets of 12 reps. No resting between repetitions. Maximum 1 min resting between sets.

Use a light weight allowing you to comfortably do the 12 reps.

Each 14 to 21 days increase the weights by the smallest possible increment (as allowed by the weights available)…very important rule, this allows the body and tendons to adapt to the new exercise and weights.

MONTH 8

For month 8 we will start splitting up the training regime to be more muscle specific focussed on specific days and not do a whole body training everytime.

On each of the 4 weight training days, train with weights for not longer than 40 minutes – keep your time in gym as short as possible.

On each of the following day you must do:

MONDAYS (2 sets per exercise – 12 reps per set)

Light warmup for 5 minutes
Three exercises for biceps
Three exercises for triceps
5 minutes of stretching the muscle just trained

TUESDAYS (2 sets per exercise – 12 reps per set)

Light warmup for 5 minutes
Three exercises for shoulders
Three exercises for trapezuim
5 minutes of stretching the muscle just trained

THUSDAY (2 sets per exercise – 12 reps per set)

Light warmup for 5 minutes
Three exercises for pecs (chest)
Three exercises for back
5 minutes of stretching the muscle just trained

FRIDA (2 sets per exercise – 12 reps per set)

Light warmup for 5 minutes
Three exercises for upper legs
Two exercises for calves
Two exercises for stomach
5 minutes of stretching the muscle just trained

Each exercise must consist of two sets of 12 reps. No resting between reps. 1 min resting between sets.

Use a light weight allowing you to comfortably complete the 12 reps.

Each 14 to 21 days increase the weights by smallest possible increment…very important rule, this allows the body and tendons to adapt to the new exercise and weights.

Month 9

Stay with the same training approach but from month 9 start to increase the weight size more aggresively to allow you to just-just be able to complete the last rep of each set (just stopping short of muscle failure).

WAM - STEP THREE (month 10-12)

By now you will have grown into a new habit of visiting the gym 4 days a week and do some exercises (on top of your daily brisk walking). The next step is to fine tune this new habit to be a more effective tool to shape your body.

For this, you will need a more focussed weight training approach. I highly suggest signing up for the ADVANCED SYSTEM II which is specifically developed for the older guy to slot into STEP THREE. However, I do have much compassion for many people who have to turn around every sent and cannot afford to pay for such a focussed coaching system. A free but less effective approach, is the free exercises regimen on my site. Have a look here: https://gertlouw.com/my-transformation-program/

At step 3 ignore all references to diet and supplement changes and focus only on implementing the exercises routine/regimen discussed in the link above or by signing up to the ADVANCED SYSTEM II.

Remember, up to now you have added the walking (Step ONE), the training (Step TWO) and fine-tuned the training via Step THREE. No diet or lifestyle changes have yet taken place. A critical aspect in STEP 1, 2 and 3 is to be very careful NOT to increase your daily caloric intake! The amount of food (daily calories) must at the very least stay the same . Increasing it would simply mean adding fat again and counter balance any advantage you might have with taken this journey.

WAM - STEP FOUR (month 13-24)

During month 13 to 24 your focus would be two-fold

Increasing your size of your weights lifted every 2-3 weeks with a small increment until such point that you reach muscle failure at the last rep of a set. Make it a slow rather than fast process. The body needs to too strengthen and adapt.
During this period you will start addressing your diet.

So HOW do you address your diet and what diet do you follow? There are so many approaches out there and most of them have enough followers to substanciate their claims of success. Back to science! A recent science study which compared various diets called out the MEDITERRANEAN STYLE diet to be the preferred diet for health and highest chances to reach success (https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/intermittent-fasting-sheds-more-weight-mediterranean-healthier).

Intermittent Fasting is a another effective tool which optionally can be used from STEP FIVE.

Here is a link to a very good starting template for a CUTTING diet – CLICK HERE

WAM - STEP FIVE (month 25-36 and beyond)

Step five will introduce the following:

Supplements (see my approved list of supplements back up by science: CLICK HERE
Building (3 months) and Cutting (3 months) phases
Optional Intermittent Fasting approach to your diet.

There is but a few supplements out there that is truly back up by science. They are discussed in detail in the ADVANCED SYSTEM II which will also give you detailed instructions on when and how to use for effective results.

Building (3 months) and Cutting (3 months) phases are introduced to allow your body periods of healing and strengthening coupled with fat loss (Cutting) which is the alternated with periods of more intense training to increase muscle size for a better body shape (Building). Remember – ONLY muscles give shape to the body. All of this discussed in detail in the ADVANCED SYSTEM II.

Lastly should you feel you want a more effective fat loss approach at this time, it will be wise to consider implementing INTERMITTENT FASTING on top of your current diet. All it does is allowing long windows of fasting vs small windows of eating and thus enhancing the bodies ability to lose fat. I suggest 16 hours of fasting followed by 8 hours of allowed eating times. During this 8 hours do NOT exceed your normal/fix total of daily calories, in fact try and consume less if possible.

From here onward you are set to continue your journey on your own. The ADVANCED SYSTEM II discuss the process forward in detail.

CONCLUSION

And THAT people is how you muster the will power and motivation to get to your goalpost!

A systematic approach with small enough steps that enable you to learn new habits and then via the subsequent inspiration provided by the results making you WANT to move onto the next level. This is how one overcome this inherent resistance we have to change our comfortable habits.

I provided as much free info as I could here to help you with this journey, but for a sustainable long term approach it will be rather critical to invest in the ADVANCED SYSTEM II. (just click the link to signup)

Since my site is my only form of income, if any of my free information has help you, I kindly ask for a small donation towards my efforts

This can be done via PayPal – CLICK HERE

Wish you all happy transformation!

Gert Louw