I’m mixing business with pleasure this weekend as I flew to Indiana to meet my girlfriend, Garrett’s, mother for the first time as well as discuss some exciting new business endeavors.
Nothing to report on yet because everything is still in the very preliminary stages but suffice to say this weekend has been a blast.
Fortunately, this past week was filled with tons of great fitness info which I’ve got here for you in this brand new installment of The Week in Review.
My training logs are back and I’m posting them daily on Instagram! I’ve shared some brand new videos with you below but if you want more make sure to follow me on Instagram @SyattFitness
Weighted Chin-Ups with Eccentric Emphasis
One of my personal favorite chin-up variations, adding an eccentric emphasis not only increases the difficulty but, in my experience, it helps you feel your lats more effectively. So if you’ve been having difficulty feeling your lats do the work during chin-ups, give these a shot to see how they affect your performance.
I recently decided to put my ugly mug up on YouTube and create more free content for you but, this time, in video form.
I’ll be adding new videos weekly so to be notified when they’re published you can follow me on YouTube.
The Best Squat Tutorial On the Internet
10-minutes of some of my best material, this squat tutorial will teach you my preferred squat technique and how to adjust it based on your individual needs.
Client Spotlight: Scott
Scott just finished participating in my 8-week Summer Meltdown Challenge and absolutely crushed it. And by “crushed it” I mean he lost nearly 15lbs in the past 8-weeks.
Yea…he crushed it.
I’d love to rave about him even more and tell you everything he accomplished but Scott wrote up an extraordinary review of his experience just for you.
So, without any further adieu, here is Scott!
I just fished Jordan Syatt’s 8 week, online summer meltdown group. It was a great experience and I achieved great results. I thought I would share some of it and also some takeaways that helped me along the way to stay the course and reach my goals. One of the main reasons I decided to take the plunge is I had seen the results that Jordan has helped his clients achieve. I knew from the start this wasn’t some internet diet guru bullshit. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and I had seen the pudding and was impressed! When Jordan asked me my goals, I told him to lose fat and gain muscle. He suggested we focus on leaning out first and look at adding lean muscle after the 8 weeks. I told him I was game so long as I didn’t turn into a skeleton and lose strength. He laughed and said not to worry, so long as I followed what he said and had a good strength training program in place there was nothing to worry about. I powerlift and at the time was in the last month of a training cycle. I was going to do my first “mock meet” after that. It would be the first time I maxed out since getting injured about 10 months prior. I have an awesome coach, Adam Pine, so I knew my programming was nothing to worry about. I was all in and on day 1 I weighed in at 178.5lbs.
I had read a little about flexible dieting but was very uninformed. Jordan laid out a simple set of guidelines to follow. Calories and protein numbers to hit on a daily basis. He also had numerous videos to help answer questions on just about any topic you could think of. These helped a lot, especially with understanding the concept of flexible dieting as a whole. There was also a private Facebook group page just for us. This was great because it was a place to post questions, comments, recipes and general encouragement. It made it feel like you were part of a community all chasing after a common goal. The online page was also where you could post direct questions to Jordan, which he would always answer in a timely and in depth fashion. The fact that this was a “group training discount” took away nothing from the promptness or personal attention you were hoping for. I will give some bullet points on some of my major takeaways from my journey into flexible dieting below but first let me finish a quick recap of my results.
After a month of the program Iwas down about 8 lbs, which was great. But did I lose any strength? I did my mock meet and guess what…..I was stronger!! I added 10lbs to my all time deadlift pr (when I was 30lbs heavier) which was 25lbs more than the last time I maxed out. I added 10 lbs onto my bench and my squat stayed the same. I couldn’t have been more stoked. For the last 4 weeks training had been a lot more volume, which also felt great.
When I did my final weigh-in on the last day, I was 164 lbs, a total loss of 14.5lbs in 8 weeks! The number of lbs lost is great but more than that I felt great, I didn’t lose strength, and I am very proud of myself for sticking to it and completing the eight weeks. I learned so much valuable information that I can take with me as I continue this journey!
Here are some of the biggest takeaways about flexible dieting for me from the past eight weeks.
Coffee!! I’m a big coffee guy anyway but this helped suppress my appetite throughout the day. Also I read that caffeine is a good fat burner and boosts your metabolism so why the hell not!
Shoot for the low end of your calorie window. I would do this to make up for any missed or hidden calories throughout the day. My numbers were between 1750-1950 on my off training days. I would always try to stop on 1750 just to be safe. Maybe I forgot to count my cream in coffee or the like.
Prepackaged single serving foods. This was a big help when it came to my sweets at night. Trying to stop yourself at one serving out of a pint of ice cream is damn near impossible. So I would buy Edy’s singles that were between 160-180 calories per container. Perfect! If I had extra calories to play with I would just eat 2! Also the 100 calorie single serve popcorn that Jordan raved about was another nightly snack. This was great because it took you a while to eat and mentally made you feel like you were getting to eat more than youshould. Single serves cost a little more but it was money well spent for me.
Food shopping and food prep are a must. Not only does it save me from not eating every meal out. It also took a ton of pressure off as far as keeping track of my numbers for the day.
This was the most important thing I learned about flexible dieting and Jordan’s program. Jordan made an entire video on this point…… “YOU CAN’T FUCK THIS UP!!!!” Sorry for the foul language but I’m just quoting here. Basically if you miss your numbers for a day or even two you didn’t fuck up! You just dust yourself off and start over again. No big deal. Once I realized this it was a huge weight off my shoulders.
Eat your fruits and veggies! To be honest before the start of this journey I wasn’t a fan of either. I would eatsome veggies if it came with my meal at a restaurant but that was about it. One of the suggestions was veggies with every meal. They helped me feel full and I swear my body went it to shock from all the extra nutrients. I also added some fruit for my snacks. Now I catch myself craving apples and oranges!!
Count your calories and make your calories count! If you’re like me, you enjoy sweets or some other “bad, food.” I found that if during the day I picked foods that were high in protein but low in calories I would almost always have room for a treat at night.
To go along with the above statement, find ways to cut out needless extra calories so you can have some room for the foods you really like. Some examples are: use zero calorie condiments from Walden Farms like dressings, ketchup or bbq sauce (even though the last two weren’t so good but worked great for making my meatloaf which was a staple). Switch from whole eggs to egg whites, not because whole eggs are bad for you but because you save at least 40 calories per egg!! Eat low calories snacks. Besides fruit my go to’s were single serve 100 calorie microwave popcorn (thanks Jordan!) and pickles.
Protein powder was a huge help. I usually had at least 2 scoops throughout the day to help hit my protein numbers. I stole a trick from my coach, Adam, and would mix a scoop in with my ice coffee to start the day. Also it was great if I was having a hectic day to get a quick, easy protein fix.
Weighing yourself every day and progress pics weekly. Both helped alot. Again the proof is in the pudding. While the scale can go up and down every day, weighing myself made me accountable for my own actions. Pics don’t lie (well some do on the dating sites I’ve been but that’s for another time). Being able to look at your pics and see that fat coming off and the progress you’re making is a huge motivator.
Scott’s Weight Chart
Adding in extra workouts on my off training days. When work calmed down I decided to add in walking on the treadmill for 45 mins. Not only would this burn some extra calories but help me recover from the previous days workout. I also added in some bodyweight squats with hip circle around my knees, hip circle lateral walks and Mcgill pull ups. Again, burned some extra calories, aided recovery and helped some weak spots in my lifting.
Last tip is more of a heads up/warning. Protein farts! Not to be gross but they can be brutal. Ask my co-workers. I was newly single when I started this program so it wasn’t that big of deal. For anyone in that fresh courting stage don’t say I didn’t warn you!
To wrap it up, it was an incredible eight weeks and I don’t intend to stop here. I have a little longer to go to drop the rest of the fat I’m looking to lose. After that Jordan set out some guidelines on how to proceed in gaining lean muscle mass to get to the desired look I want. Notice I didn’t say weight. To be honest, I’m not sure what that look is, so this journey will continue till I find it and switch to a maintenance style approach to flexible dieting.
Good luck on your own journey!
-Scott
Want Me to Write Your Next Strength Training Program (At a HUGE Discount)?
My group powerlifting program is officially open for registration for the month of July and you can register HERE.
Accepting brand new members on a monthly basis, I can’t even begin to express how well each of the current members (just over 20 people) are doing and how excited I am to watch them improve.
If you want the opportunity to join them, have me analyze your lifting technique, and write your next training program, you can register for my online group powerlifting program HERE.
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I just fished Jordan Syatt’s 8 week, online summer meltdown group. It was a great experience and I achieved great results. I thought I would share some of it and also some takeaways that helped me along the way to stay the course and reach my goals. One of the main reasons I decided to take the plunge is I had seen the results that Jordan has helped his clients achieve. I knew from the start this wasn’t some internet diet guru bullshit. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and I had seen the pudding and was impressed! When Jordan asked me my goals, I told him to lose fat and gain muscle. He suggested we focus on leaning out first and look at adding lean muscle after the 8 weeks. I told him I was game so long as I didn’t turn into a skeleton and lose strength. He laughed and said not to worry, so long as I followed what he said and had a good strength training program in place there was nothing to worry about. I powerlift and at the time was in the last month of a training cycle. I was going to do my first “mock meet” after that. It would be the first time I maxed out since getting injured about 10 months prior. I have an awesome coach, 
Easily share it with your friends and colleagues using the social media tab on your left (or the bottom of your screen if you’re using your phone). 
