Before & After pictures (Day1 "vs" Day28)

XAVI

KAISA

MIM testimony (Kaisa):

I've been a personal trainer for 11 years now and have been more or less fit always but not necessarily lean until the last few years. I lifted intensely in college but since grad school I've been doing weights in an unstructured manner and without a proper goal and had hardly been to a weight room in the last year. Instead my workouts have been circuit types and outdoor intervals and that seemed to maintain a decent level of fitness for me.

I had never tried "on-line" training or on-line programming and really have always thought it would be hard to be motivated. I was so wrong! The MIM experience is probably the most motivated I have ever been and I really enjoyed the on-line training component and community. It was great to have other people to keep me accountable and posting photos and blogs was a great way to keep myself on top of the trainings and the nutrition.

It took me 3 weeks to organize my calendar and reserve time for all the workouts. This was probably the hardest part of the entire program! Not knowing how long the workouts would take and not being able to match the long workouts to my easier work days complicated my life quite a bit.

The first week was pretty aweful. The workouts left me destroyed and the first two days (weekend) I had to take a nap. All week the soreness was so bad that I could hardly sleep. Then my body adapted and I hardly had sore muscles the rest of the time. Or maybe I just got used to the soreness and liked it. :) At first the results were frustrating because I got kind of thick. Then in the second week I started to lean out and my guns started growing like crazy! At the end I almost started skipping arm workouts because I didn't want my biceps any bigger!

The final results were just as promised: more muscle and less fat. I gained 2.5kg of muscle and lost 1.5kg of fat. I gained 3cm at my shoulders, 1cm at chest, and 1cm at each bicep (relaxed). I lost 2cm at my waist, 1cm from my buns, 2cm from each thigh. As you can see from the pictures I became a lot more defined. In addition to the body transformation benefits, I also gained a lot of strength and best of all, I feel really accomplished. I stuck to this plan 100%. I didn't miss a single workout. I did all the workouts with high intensity. I stayed on the diet 100%.

I would recommend the Muscle in a Month program for people wanting fast muscle gain and definition. However, it is a program for people who already have a base level of fitness and a good handle on technique and a desire for pain. This program is REALLY HARD. It will kick your ass. You will hate Dax Moy during the workouts but you will love him when you see the results. I would also recommend doing the program with a partner or participating in a forum to help stay motivated. If I hadn't made a public commitment to this program I would have given up on the first day. This program is also time consuming. You will need to manage your time well and schedule in your workouts. You will need to sleep more and eat a lot. Even though it is intense and time consuming, the results are worth it and really, you can do anything for 28 days. It is a short time to sacrifice for awesome results.

Thanks Dax!

Day 28 - S'ha acabat!!!

Per fi el patiment s'ha acabat! Bé, no del tot... s'han acabat els entrenaments llarguíssims i intensíssims però encara hem de mantenir la dieta una setmana més. A finals de setmana ens farem les fotos finals i podrem ensenyar-vos l'abans i el després.

De moment us hem preparat un petit video perquè pogueu veure el què hem hagut de patir per arribar a tenir els "modelets" que tenim ;)

IT'S OVER, almost

All the hellish trainings are DONE! The last day was an "easy" one with just low back and a GVT set of triceps and biceps. And I even put in 7 sets of HIIT (high intensity interval training) on the bike while waiting for Xavi to finish.

At midnight of the last day I had some chocolate cake at my friend's bday dinner. It was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. Ooooohhhhhh.

Now the trouble is that we have to do the after pictures at the end of the week, after the required rest... This for me is harder because we still have to watch the diet but it's not necessary to be so strict. This is harder for me because I'm an all-or-nothing type... I don't know how to have just one piece of chocolate. I eat the entire box. Now that I have tasted sugar again, I am like an addict. I want MORE! It's pretty much like going back to the first few days of the diet where you have cravings and it just sucks. But the worse part is that since we're not training this week we need a lot less calories... So for me, this week the diet is much harder.

To motivate us and to help me stay on the diet, we've scheduled a professional photo shoot for Friday. Hopefully this will help me stay on top of the nutrition. :) I guess we'll see how the pics turn out!

Day 27 - Muscle in a Month

Farewell to shoulders today. :) It was the last long workout and I'm glad it's done. I don't want my arms or shoulders any bigger. I'm already impressed with the 3cm I gained at the shoulders.

We did a dredded German Volume Training set of chest and back. Starting with those just kills my motivation. Went up on all weights significantly. Cool! Then we did a holistic set of shoulders and abs and finished with legs including the 4x40s of squat jumps. Glad to be done with those as well!

Diet:
BF: rye flakes, oat milk, almonds, fruit
Snack: mandarine, rice cakes with tahini and apricot puree
Lunch: spinach salad with tuna, egg. Ground chicken with onion, spinach, zuccini.
Snack: corn cakes
Dinner: gatpatxo veggie soup with ground chicken, rice cakes with tahini and banana

Day 26 - Muscle in a Month

The last of the difficult Thursdays is almost done! Thursdays my schedule is not very long workout friendly and I despise getting up early just to workout when I'm already a bit worn out from the week. Well, despite all my grumbling this morning, I dragged off to our studio, alone, for a workout. I am SO much less motivated alone there. I must be a bit vain and get motivated by other people in the gym.

Since I grumbled too long in the morning, I didn't have enough time to finish the whole workout... and must stay after the last class tonight at 9:30 to finish... Uuuffff. Thankfully I only have about 20 min left.

today's workout is hamstrings, bis, and tris. I liked the ham supersets of straight legged dead lifts (lifting 60kgs!), harrup curls (still suck at these), and swiss ball ham curls (no problems doing all 4 sets of 40s with no rest). Probably one of the reasons I couldn't get motivated this morning was because I knew part of the workout were the multiple sets of 40 repetitions of bicep curls that I just HATE. Good news is tonight when I'm done with them I NEVER have to do them again. :)

Here are the results up till now:
Weight: up 1kg
Body fat: down 2%
Shoulders up 3.5cm!!!
Chest up 1.5cm YES! Grandma was right. :)
Waist down 1cm
Hips down .75cm
Gluteal folds up up .5cm and the other down .5cm (at least now I'm even!)
Thighs down 2.5cm each
Calves up .5cm each (DAMN, the last thing I need are bigger calves!)
Biceps up .5 and .75cm unflexed. Too bad we didn't measure them flexed because they are HUGE now.

Diet:
BF: yogurt and hazelnuts
BF: (after workout) yogurt with brewer's yeast, goji fruits, pear, hazelnuts
Snack: walnuts and a mandarin
Lunch: rye bread with smoked salmon
Snack: 1 cup of gaspatxo soup (cold veggie soup), rice cakes with tahini and banana and a little agave (super delicious!)
Snack: 1/2 lara bar
Dinner: salad with tuna, rice cake with tahini and banana

Day 25 - Muscle in a Month

Great day! We got to sleep in until 9 and I slept like a rock for those 9 hours. Must have been doing some serious muscle building. :)

Then I enjoyed a walk around the lake (about 7km) with Marta before meeting Xavi at the gym for a quick workout. It was refreshing to be done in less than an hour. :)

We have made some friends at the gym which is nice too. There are definite regulars that I will start to miss as these workouts come to an end.

But I will be SO HAPPY to be done with this program to enjoy the fabulous spring weather and getting exercise OUTDOORS before it gets too hot. Xavi and I both are just itching to get on our bikes so on Sunday as our reward for finishing the program, we'll go on a leisurely bike ride. This area is amazing for biking. In fact, the routes are so great that Lance Armstrong trained here for many years!

Today's workout was strange: 10x10 incline bench. That's it! I did end with 5 series of HIIT on the bike which left my legs like jelly.

Diet:
BF: rye and oat porridge made with oat and rice milk, egg, brewer's yeast, berry powder, hazelnut paste and strawberries
Lunch: fish, rice, peas, onion. Fruit salad with pineapple, banana, and kiwi
Snack: rice cakes with hazelnut paste, rye cracker with gomasio
Dinner: spinach salad with muscles, tuna, white fish and lots of veggies; pineapple and strawberries

Day 24 - Muscle in a Month

Feeling good today! The workout was fun: back, bis, tris. We did pullups which are now my favorites! I was able to do all sets (6,5,4,4) without assistance. :) I'm feeling GI Jane worthy. Dax did put a dreaded German Volume Training set of bis and tris at the end. Those make the training feel never ending. Today I had to push Xavi around a little to get him to finish. He was ready to quit early. Then as a reward we booked massages for next week. Sweet!

Food:
BF: Keifir, rye flakes, brewer's yeast, berry powder, kiwi
Snack: dried dates and figs and a few walnuts (this was during training as I ran out of juice toward the end)
Snack: rice cake with hazelnut butter, corn cake with apricot-almond puree (this was after training with the 5 minutes I had to stuff something in my mouth)
Lunch: peas and onions, fish filet, plain yogurt with delicious ripe strawberries and apple sauce. Yum!
Snack: rye crackers with gomasio, rice and corn cakes with hazelnut butter
Dinner: omelette of eggs (duh), lentils, tomatoes, feta; strawberries

Day 23 - Muscle in a Month

Day 23 already!? Wow, suddenly it feels like this month has gone by fast. :)

For those of you who are reading for the first time, I'll do a little recap of the torture.

Xavi and I are participating in a 28 day challenge to build muscle and lose fat designed by the leading personal trainer in England, Dax Moy. It is a super intense program he uses to get moviestars in fabulous shape extremely fast. Now he is making an online version of this program and asked us to be his guineapigs (we must provide him with pictures and write in this blog every day).

Well, it's working! So far I've dropped 2.5% body fat from 20% to 17.5%. My weight is up a half a kilo so I've build 2kg of muscle and dropped 1.5kg of fat.

The program consists of heavy duty weight training with the intention of OVERtraining. It's called "planned overtraining". The idea being that your body can handle it for 28 days without going into a breakdown mode. This means that we are paying a lot of attention to our diet (whole foods, no supplements, no processed food, no gluten, no milk products except for live yogurt, no sugar, no toxins like alcohol and caffeine) and rest.

Now we are down to just 5 more workouts before a whole week off training for supercompensation. We are suppose to see big gains in the rest week when the body finally has an opportunity to truly recover.

Today's workout seemed short, just squats, lunges, and squat jumps all supersetted with core exercises. We are also allowed this week to add some HIIT (high intensity interval training) so i did 5 rounds of boxing and running for 30 seconds work and 60 seconds rest. It was kind of fun in a sick way. I was able to do all squat jumps without resting which was totally impossible when we started this training. They even seemed kind of easy so I did them all down to touching a bench and jumped a little higher too.

Diet:
BF: keifir with rye flakes, home made applesauce, flax seeds
Snack: 2 mandarines with a handful of mixed natural nuts
Lunch: oven fish with onion, tomato, and a half a potato
Dinner: lentils and quinoa, fish filet

Day 22 - Muscle in a Month

We are starting the last week tomorrow! Yes! And today I am feeling less thick and more defined. Let's see how the pictures and measurements turn out.

Today's workout was tough as usual: chest, bis, tris, core. This time the dreaded 4x40 cable curls were not part of the plan. Thank God! I've already counted how many more times we have to do those and we are down to just 1 more. We did however suffer through 120 barbell curls and 120 tricep extensions... AND the 4x40 pushups were part of today's torture and I am happy to say I am no longer doing humiliation pushups! Sweet! I could do all of them on my knees. :) I'm still not GI Jane enough to do them "manly" style (because they are after bench and flyes...). I am looking forward to testing myself after this overtraining business is done and seeing how many full pushups I can do as the new stronger me.


Diet:
BF: keifir with apple-cranberry puree and oats
Snack: rice and corn cakes with nut butters and berry puree
Lunch: delicious peas and carrots and onions, fish, green tea (I even said no to dessert!)
Snack: rye, rice, and corn cakes with nut butters and berry puree, 1/2 apple
Dinner: scrambled eggs, tuna, and veggies; apple sauce

Day 21 - Muscle in a Month

Results are showing! So far a 2% drop in bodyfat and I am up a kg in weight. Did the math and came out with 2kg gain in muscle and 1kg loss in fat so far. Now I need to lower a bit the calories to lean out but the trainings make me so damn hungry! My biceps and triceps are getting enormous and I think pretty much the 2kg are all there, 1kg on each arm. :) All the clothes I bought over xmas in the states are baggy and I am no longer a medium in Nike pants. This is exciting but I bought 8 pairs of black workout pants to wear at the studio everyday.... Now they look like I'm wearing diapers! Well, thankfully today was 22 degrees and sunny and it's time to buy spring/summer gear anyway. :)

I liked today's workout. :) It was back, shoulders, and hamstring. Oh and core that I have yet to do and have to go back for tonight... I'm looking forward to this training to finish so I can go back to a resonable workout of less than an hour... These training are just way too long for my attention span.

Today I did awesome in pullups! Before today I could do 4-6 on the first set and then maybe 1 or 2 on the second set and then the rest of the sets were asisted from the get go. Today I did a set of 6, a set of 5, and set of 4, and a set of 3 all by myself! And I felt strong. It was way cool!

Straight legged deadlifts were great but then on the harrups my hams were dying a slow painful death... I really struggled on the 3rd and 4th sets and my calf even cramped in the middle of the last set. Then I forgot to bring a physioball (or really, I couldn't imagine carrying it across town) so I had to improvise for ham curls. I tried with the foam roller and it worked slightly with very short range of motion. Then I tried with big boy dumbbells. That worked pretty good until a big boy stole my dumbbells while I was doing pulldowns. The only hard part of "hanging on" to the dumbbells with my feet and toward the end my calves were on fire probably more than my hams. And I left the gym with soreness in a very strange spot on shin.

Diet:
BF: rye oat porridge with 1 egg and 1 eggwhite and rice milk, pear puree
Snack: rye bread with chicken breast, avocado, tomato, and lettuce
Snack: tea, rice and corn cakes with nut butters
Dinner: large salad, chicken breast strips (a few left over pieces) and tune steak

Day 20 - Muscle in a Month

Yes!!!!!!! We're into the twenties. Now it seems like the end is in sight. :)
;
Today the workout was just legs and low back: dead lifts, squats, lunges, reverse hypers, squat jumps, and prone cobras. Not too bad. :) I was able to do all 4x40 squat jumps without resting! Progress. :)

Diet:
BF: yogurt, melon, strawberries, kiwi, oats, rye flakes, berry powder, flax seeds
Snack: pineapple melon fresh juice, walnuts
Lunch: salad, veggie omelette, lentils, fish, eggplant; pineapple and kiwi
Snack: 2 rice cakes with hazelnut paste and apricot paste
Snack: banana, hazelnuts
Dinner: chicken filet, rice, tomato veggie sauce, salad; pear puree

Day 10 - Català

Un altre dia de patiment al gimnàs! Jo que em creia que tenia les cames fortes... Després de tots els exercicis de cames, que per variar s'han de fer amb una burrada de pes, l'entrenament s'ha acabat amb 4 sèries de 40 salts... dit així sembla fàcil però els he hagut de fer amb una banqueta sota el cul perquè quan arribava a l'últim ja no tenia ni forces per aguantar el pes del meu propi cos (millor caure de cul en una banqueta que a terra).




Dieta


Esmorzar: pa negre amb pernil de pavo
snack: batut de fruita amb fruits secs
Dinar: arròs amb pèsols, salmó i fromatge fresc amb melmelada de castanya
Snack: pera, pa negre amb pernil de pavo
Sopar: amanida variada amb tonyina, peix, mango

Day 4 - English

Oh my GOD it's only day 4?!???! That means another 24 days of this hell!

I suppose if I just got to train, eat, sleep, and relax this would be ok. Running a business, creating another business, being a wife, and doing this challenge is a lot. Definitely don't think this would be possible with kids unless they came with a nanny and a maid. :)

Well, it's now or never so I'll work hard this month and reap the benefits later. Once the goal is achieved, maintaining is much easier.

Slept crappy due to all the soreness. Woke up everytime I changed position because it hurts to move. Every muscle I own is sore. And I've never done "planned overtraining" training. I usually don't go to town on a muscle group if it's still sore from the previous workout. Well, with this program, that is the point. It better work because it's bloody painful!

Today was an "easy" day so the workout took "only" an hour and included bis, tris, and hams. We messed up in writing down the workout and did more work than was intended... Hams were on FIRE. Harrup curls rock in general, but suck when done in never ending supersets with 2 other ham exercises. Uuuffff. I think my moaning and groaning is starting to bother the other gym users. :S

Food:
BF: rye bread (the real kind from Finland!) with butter, natural yogurt with pear puree and berry sauce
Snack: banana, almonds
Lunch: carrot-onion-lentil puree, chicken breast, pinapple juice with a greens supplement
Snack: rice cakes with almond butter and agave, mandarine
Dinner: salad with chicken, avocado, rukula, cucumber, olives, pear, seeds, bell pepper; apple sauce with berry puree


Results so far:
Weight is up a half a kilo. Start measures were done around 11am where as now we're doing remeasures and pictures in the evenings so that half kilo is probably an actual loss of a half kilo.

Measures keep changing but in general shoulders, biceps, and calves (iik!) are bigger while hips, thighs, and chest (double iiik!) are getting smaller. Waist and ab are still more of less the same. Ideally I would like shoulders, biceps, and chest (a girl can dream) bigger and thighs, calves, hips, and ab smaller. A visible sixpack without flexing would be great. :) So, I need to drop at least 3-4% body fat while gaining some muscle.

What do you think, can I do it in 28 days?

Day 3 - English

Uuuuuuffffffff.

I am suuuuper tired from today's workout.

Thankfully Xavi was there to motivate me. At one point he did tell me that if I didn't put some more weight on the bar I shouldn't be wearing a shirt with a Fitness Integral logo... He was right, I was able to lift more and finished the set with 4 more kilos.

The workout was incredibly brutal. The hardest workout I have probably ever done. I think my arms doubled in size from being so pumpped up. I was able to do some full chinups which made me proud. Still no where near full sets of chin ups. If I want to be like GI Jane, I better improve my pullups and learn how to do 1 arm pushups. :)

We did superset of legs which included squats, lunges, and squatjumps. Auch! Today also included a total of 10x10 for bench press split into different super sets with back.

This program is the first time I have done windmills. I like them. :) Started first day with 6kg to get the technique down and today did sets with 14kg. Cool.

Later I had a hard time demonstrating exercises for a circuit group. Tomorrow I'm not sure I will be able to move. Had to use the elevator today too...

Food:
BF: rye porridge, apple sauce, walnuts, greens supplement
Snack: walnuts, 2 mandarins, 1/2 apple
Lunch: salad with avocado, sardines, cucumber, tomato, olives, 1 egg; panga fish
Snack: oat milk with bambu
Dinner: salad, gluten free pasta with tuna

Dia 2 - Català

Kaisa

M’he aixecat amb una mica de mal de coll. Hhmmm... M’he pres unes boletes homeopàtiques pels refredats i m’he netejat les vies nassals amb aigua i sal. Espero que m’ajudi a no caure malalta... ara no m’ho puc permetre :s

M’he aixecat força masegada de l’entrenament d’ahir. Normalment els cruiximents em surten al cap d’un parell de dies... ja veurem com estarem demà... ai, ai, ai!


Xavi

No ha fet falta ni arribar al matí per adonar-me que tenia tot el cos cruixit... m’he despertat unes quantes vegades ja que cada vegada que em girava el mal de cames i d’esquena em feia veure les estrelles. Quan m’he hagut d’aixecar m’he adonat que estava millor del què m’esperava. A mesura que anava passant el dia però m’anava encarcarant i els cruiximents anaven creixent, tot i això he pogut entrenar ja que el que em feia mal eren les cames i l’esquena... l’entrenament d’avui eren espatlles i braços. Això vol dir que demà no podré moure res!!!

Dieta:
-Esmorzar: compota casolana de poma amb formatge fresc i un grapat de nous
-snack: 2 prunes, grapat de fruts secs
-Dinar: amanida variada, puré de pastanaga amb arròs integral, un tros de peix.
-snack: 1 poma, suc de fruites
-Sopar: Hummus amb torradetes d'un pa raro sense farina, truita amb xampinyons i trossets de pernil de pavo, un tros de peix, 2 mandarines

Day 2 - English

Woke up with a slight sore throat. Hhmmm... Downed some vits, did a sinus "bath", and took a homeopathic cold remedy. Plan on keeping this bug from taking over.

Definitely have some soreness today. I'm usually a 2nd day DOMS girl.

Food:
BF: 2x natural yogurt, applesauce (home made), oats, brewer's yeast, walnuts
Lunch: carrot, onion, pink lentil soup, brown rice, panga fish, kiwi
Snack: pistaccios, queso fresco + agave, veggie/fruit juice
Dinner: hummus on rye cracker, carrot-onion-lentil soup, panga fish

The workout wasn't too bad compared to yesterday's and compared to tomorrows! Just shoulders and arms. I must say typing this is a bit difficult... Part of the workout were a total of 100 bicep curls as part of supersets... I'm already feeling those.

Tomorrow's workout looks like HELL! Lots of legs and I think it will take at least 90min...

Going to bed. This program is leaving me super tired.

Day 1: Pics and Measurements

XAVI

Weight: 76,5 kg

Shoulders: 118.5 cm

Chest: 95.5 cm
Waist (navel): 83.5 cm
Hips (glutes): 96 cm
Bíceps: 34.5 (R), 34.5 (L)
Gluteal fold: 59 (R), 58.2 (L)
Thigh: 57 (R), 57 (L)
Calf: 34.5 (R), 35 (L)

KAISA

Weight: 60.6 kg
Shoulders: 96 cm
Chest: 84.5 cm

Waist (navel): 75 cm

Hips (glutes): 93.75 cm

Bíceps: 26.5 (R), 26.75 (L)

Gluteal fold: 56.5 (R), 57.5 (L)

Thigh: 55 (R), 54.5 (L)

Calf: 37 (R), 37 (L)

Day 1 - English

GI Jane Experiment has started!

Today Xavi and I got sweating toward our new and improved bodies.

We are guineapigs for Dax Moy's "Muscle in a Month" program with a goal of increasing lean mass and decreasing fat %. It is a super intense 28 day program based on a principle of planned overtraining. We will be finishing grueling workouts daily, following his Elimination Diet, and paying special attention to recovery and regeneration strategies.

Did starting measurements and the dreaded before pictures. Pasty white... And how can I have bigger calves than Xavi!? I'm hoping to lose some fat from there in these 28 days.

Today's workout was a definite shock to the body. For the last year or two I have been following a maintenance plan of twice a week full body circuits that lasted less than an hour. Xavi has been doing 3 times per week hypertrophy for the last half a year.

The actual workouts are top secret but I can disclose that we hit chest, back, hams, and core and did what seemed like an endless series of supersets. It was exhausting! We did a full 15 min warmup of activation exercises to prepare and then the actual workout took me 65 min (Xavi spent 85min) plus another 15min of recovery exercises. Haven't workout that long in a gym for a while! At the end even my eyelids were trembling.

Then we went to my birthday lunch with Xavi's family and his darling mom made an Elimination Diet approved 5 course meal. I was so wiped out from the workout that pouring water was difficult...

Today's diet:
Bfast: natural yogurt, banana, pineapple, kiwi
Lunch: Course 1: salad, cooked eggplant, onion, red bellpepper, goat cheese
Course 2: brown rice, chicken, veggies all in a delicious paella style dish
Course 3: papaya
Course 4: "cheese cake" made with "fresh" cheese (low fat), corn meal, and agave
Course 5: green tea
Snack: rye crackers and home made hummus
Dinner: quinoa, peas, red bell pepper, tuna, homemade apple sauce for dessert

Going to bed early to aid recovery. :)