Pacific Elite Fitness Newsletter

TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION!

It's time for an official update on the total body transformation...

Those of you who subscribed to this newsletter back in May may recall that two individuals won an entry for free face-to-face training with Ben Greenfield at Champions Sports Medicine in Spokane, WA. In today's newsletter, let's look at the progress of Zach, a 33 year old male, who started at 227 pounds with 25.8% body fat.

Zach, pictured above in May 2007, had a history of athleticism, sports, and fitness, but over the past few years has let himself backslide, and 5 months ago when he showed up to train with Ben Greenfield, he was out of shape, unhealthy, overweight and anxious for a solution.

He did not know anything about eating healthy or holistic nutrition.
He did not understand how to apply laboratory derived metabolic information to a nutrition and fitness routine.
He did not know his fat burning or anaerobic threshold heart rates, and how this would affect his fitness training.
But he did have a goal to complete an Olympic distance triathlon by the end of the summer!

At the beginning of his training with Ben, Zach underwent a series of protocols, including:

Resting and exercise metabolic testing to determine maximal oxygen consumption, optimal fat burning heart rates, metabolic boosting heart rates, percentage of fat and carbohydrates necessary during both rest and exercise, total amount of necessary calories for daily intake, and prescription of a metabolic typed meal plan based on his unique biochemical profile.
Prescription of a complete nutritional plan, exercise routine, and triathlon training protocol designed by Ben.
Body fat analysis, postural evaluation, strength-endurance testing and blood lacate testing.

From this point on, Zach met face-to-face with Ben on a weekly basis for continued testing and nutritional analysis to track his progress and make changes that reflected adaptations in his body and metabolic profile. He learned new core and resistance training exercises to keep his fat burning and fitness from a plateau. This plateau can occur when the body adapts to the same exercises over and over again, so it was important to introduce new moves. Ben also recommended implementation of an array of nutritional supplements designed for both performance and weight loss.

With his lofty goal of racing an Olympic distance triathlon at the end of September, Zach also had to meet with Ben to learn all the tips and tricks necessary for success as a triathlete - such as gear selection, proper bike handling in and out of transition, swim overwater and underwater stroke analysis, biomechanical bike fit, run gait analysis, practical aspects of fueling the body during the training and the race.

As part of Zach's triathlon training, two sprint triathlons were placed in his schedule, to be completed over the course of the summer leading up to the big race in September.

Needless to say, Zach had alot on his plate! Here is a picture of Ben's lab at Champions Sports Medicine where Zach was tested and trained.

So let's look at the progress with before & after photos!

Zach's starting weight was 227 pounds, with a body fat of 25.8%. He is now at 198 pounds and 18.4%! This is a weight loss of nearly 6 pounds per month and a fat loss of nearly 1.5% per month for the entire summer of training. But that's just on the outside...take a look at some of the crucial physiological measurements that were positively affected over the course of the summer:

Peak fat burning heart rate range began at 114-132, but is now at 111-141. So Zach is not only burning more fat when he exercises, but he is also now conserving the body's carbohydrate stores for more difficult workouts and races.
Anaerobic threshold heart rate, which is a measurement of the body's ability to tolerate lactic acid and push hard in training, has increased from an initial heart rate of 145 to a new heart rate of 154. That's an extra 9 beats for every minute, indicating a much greater amount of oxygen being delivered to those working tissues for high intensity work!
The gold standard measurement of cardiovascular fitness is VO2 max. Zach's VO2 max started just barely above average, at 34 millilites of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute. After just 5 months of training, VO2 increased 28% up to a value of 47! This means Zach is pumping more blood with every heart beat, and utilizing blood-based oxygen far more efficiently at the muscular level.

And that's not all. Practicing the triathlete advice from coach Ben Greenfield, Zach placed third in his age group in his first ever triathlon. In his second triathlon of the summer, Zach placed a division fourth in a blazing fast field. But here's the most important part...down below is a photo of Zach ripping it up on the bike in his first ever Olympic distance triathlon, which he successfully completed in September as planned, finishing with an impressive 2:51!

Although Zach worked with trainer and coach Ben Greenfield on a weekly basis throughout the course of his impressive summer progression, make no mistake about it - he did tons of hard work on his own. He had the mental fortitude and physical control to exercise properly and eat right. And although he had quite a bit of fun over the summer, he had the serious approach to training that it takes to succeed.

Ben supplied the knowledge and instruction.

Zach did the work.

You can see the results.

So there you have it. In just 1 summer of training with Ben Greenfield, Zach is significantly fitter, stronger, faster and healthier. Ben's cutting-edge, face-to-face programs are available at the Champions Sports Medicine metabolic laboratory and training center, and his nutrition and exercise programs are available online to anyone, anywhere in the world.