Elite Physique

Q: Summer may be ending, but I still want to stay lean year round. I have noticed that I tend to hold more fat around my belly. What’s the best way to get rid of it?

A: Unfortunately, spot reduction is a myth, so you really can’t target your belly. However with a focused diet and training program, you’ll activate weight lossyour entire body. You will have to lose everywhere to lose your belly. If it’s a stubborn area, you may have to get extremely lean in other body areas before you have a noticeable difference in your belly. For example, some of our female clients have too much junk in the trunk, and that area is usually the last to go. I think it is mostly due to density of the fat. Some areas for them just aren’t as dense (arms for example) and seem to cut up quicker, but the glutes just don’t want to come in. This is just a matter of sticking with it, and eventually they have lower body success. This may be the case with you. Stick to a good diet and workout plan, hit your cardio religiously, and, over time, you will lose your spare tire. Good luck!

Q: I am thinking about entering a bodybuilding contest. What is the best advice you can give a first-time competitor?


A: I think the best decision an athlete can make before stepping on stage is to hire a qualified coach. There’s something to be said for listening to your body and gettingto know it, but I cannot stress how critical this is. Love him or hate him, Fouad Abiad is an athlete who took the fast track to his pro card. This is a guy who hired the best trainer (Chad Nicholls was the number one trainer during Fouad’s rise) and worked his way to the Nationals in four years and earned his IFBB pro status in another seven years (and I think he should have snagged it sooner). Fouad realized early in his competitive career that to be a pro, he had to do what the other pros do. Please read that again. If you plan on being a pro, print that out and tape it to your fridge: If you want to be a pro, you must do what the pros do! Like Fouad, you should hire a qualified coach. I could go on at length about “qualified” coaches, but I won’t. But I do want to mention the biggest excuse for not hiring a trainer: It costs too much. Really? What does wasting a year of your life mean to your career as a bodybuilder? That is the cost of a bad
trainer. Fouad realized early that being a pro and making a good living is limited by time. If you waste your time in the amateur ranks, you’re crippling your earnings as a pro. If you plan on making your mark in the IFBB pro ranks, take my advice and hire a qualified coach.

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