8-Weeks to Get Ready for Summer
“What does it really take to get Summer ready?”
I hear it all the time, some sort of variation of the question above. “How do I get ready for Summer? Can I lose ‘X’ amount of weight before June? What’s the easiest way to get beach ready?”
You’ve probably asked or wondered one of these yourself, it’s a common theme. The good thing is that if you’re reading this at the time of my posting, you’re months ahead of the curve and can plan to gain a lot of ground in your war against the Winter bod.
In honor of the Protocol10 Training Gym’s 8-week Summer Physique challenge, we’re breaking down what it really takes to get ready for Summer.
In classic bro-science form, Winter is for muscle building and loosening the tight grip on our healthy eating regiments, while Spring and Summer are for getting back on the horse which is “:) Health & Fitness :)” Spring is for Summer shredding. And Summer is for shredding that should have taken place in Spring, but to originate us back to the initial question of this article, the headline, “What does it really take to get Summer ready?”
That’s a big question and if you know me at this point, I love nuance. “Summer ready,” can mean a lot of things for a lot of different people, but to generalize things we can safely say most people want to lean out a bit before they take their clothes off in public. If the idea of yourself doing that strikes some deep-seeded fear into your heart then we may have some more work to do beyond 8-weeks, and that’s okay too.
I titled this article and our challenge “8-Weeks to Get Ready for Summer,” because we can really see a lot of visible progress in 2 months, but it all depends on someone’s commitment level and their program. If you have listened to an episode or two of our podcast, The Fired Up Podcast, you know that we regularly talk about how to set ourselves up for success with all things fitness, and the more support systems we have in place for this 8-week summer prep, the easier the process will be, so please consider that and let’s take a look at the biggest influences on fitness success:
Close community - it really is true when people talk about the 5 people you spend the most time with affecting your entire lifestyle. If you can’t change your direct influences, change your direct influences.
Stressors - consider what the major stressors are in your life, how they influence your decisions, and how to limit or avoid them if they result in negatively.
Temptations - all of us deal with certain issues or things that tempt to take us off the path, and often times they are certain foods or beverages. Whatever the temptations are, make sure to set yourself up for success with calculated use of these things, well thought out avoidance strategies, or other limiting factors/substitutions for your biggest temptations. For me, it’s junk food, so I try to figure out incredible, low calorie substitutes for my favorites.
Preparedness - Ed Mylett, one of my favorite entrepreneurs, authors, and public speakers started his award-winning podcast with episode 1 being about proactive versus reactive living. In an 8-week, ready for Summer timeline like this, we need to be incredibly proactive in our scheduling, no matter how busy we are or are not. The more we leave up to chance or variable, the more things can go wrong and throw us off track.
After considering all of these, we understand that we must surround ourselves with good community, situations, limit our stressors and temptations, and ensure we are living our life in a prepared fashion.
Moving beyond that and into the actual training part of this fireside chat of ours, let’s talk strategy.
If you are one of those average people who want to lean out for Summer we are going to need to know what we are taking in everyday food-wise for efficiency, that’s just how it is. Can we lean out without tracking food? Sure, we probably could, but in no way would we end up more efficient than keeping a close eye on our calorie deficit’s pulse throughout this entire process. We want preparedness and consistency, so let’s take a look at our intake.
For all general purposes, a safe calorie deficit (depending on your body size) can be anywhere between 300-1,000 calories a day (never go below your Basal Metabolic Rate). Remember, that means less calories than what we are taking in, so if I am burning 3,000 calories in a day and want to be at a 750 calorie deficit, I will need to finish eating for the day at 2,250 calories.
To get to that calorie deficit, I recommend utilizing low intensity steady state cardio as a way to shave off some of that calorie deficit goal.
It can be used a lot by natural lifters. When I got ready for my last two photoshoots, I would walk 45 minutes in the morning (empty stomach) and another 45 minutes in the afternoon (walking the dogs). Both of these sessions were very low intensity. Even the fasted one didn't lead to overproduction of cortisol.
Why do it then? After all, walking doesn't burn a lot of calories. Well, no, it doesn't. But it's still enough to contribute to a couple pounds lost over my 10-week prep.
I suspect fasted walking can even help reduce cortisol by reducing stress. It also increases the enzymes responsible for fatty acid mobilization. TC Luoma wrote an article showing that fasted cardio can increase the enzymes responsible for mobilizing and using fat. So while it might not make a huge difference right now, it could make your body more efficient at burning fat for fuel in the future. (The Best and Worst Cardio for Natural Bodybuilding, Christian Thibaudeau)
In regards to training, we definitely do not want to do away with resistance training for the sake of extra steady state cardio. When we are living at considerable calorie deficits for an extended period of time we risk our skeletal muscle mass as well as our body fat for energy. We need to continue to stimulate our muscles while taking in an adequate protein level every single day in order to curve those negative effects of an extended cut. I generally recommend 3-4 training sessions each week with the steady state cardio added in for a consistent and manageable deficit.
TL;DR - Let’s break all of this down: 8-Weeks to Get Ready for Summer
Consider how much “weight,” we need to lose.
Consider the timeline to lose the measured weight.
Measure how many calories we will need to be in deficit of each day (or we can measure by week) in order to lose the weight in the period of time desired.
Meal plan in accordance to calorie goal.
Add in measured steady state cardio in order to bridge calorie deficit gap required.
Continue to train 3-4 times each week as usual.
Look for measurable signs for progress (i.e. pictures, scale, clothes, etc.), and adjust activity or calorie consumption accordingly.
Reap the benefits of all your hard work.
To finish, the Protocol10 Training Gym is putting on our 8-Week Summer Physique challenge beginning Monday, April 10th, 2023 and we will be improving our body composition as much as possible in 8-weeks’ time. To make things fun, we’re going to get the top male and top female transformations a $100 prize, simple as that. To participate, it’s absolutely free, you just need to be added to the roster and track progress. You don’t even need to be a P10 gym member. You have an option to purchase the limited edition 8-Week Summer Physique T-shirt though, only if you’re super cool and want to support us, not required at all.
Want to join the challenge? Send me a message on IG, @coachhappel or give me an email at andy@p10nation.com. Remember, only consider joining this challenge and buying the T-shirt if you want to see a ton of progress in 8-weeks and are really cool.
Here’s the link to the limited edition (never before seen) 8-Week Summer Physique challenge tee (you should get the desert pink one): Click Here!
See you guys at the beach.
Coach Happel
