When GUY ADAMS revealed his 10-week physique transformation, it was so astonishing he was accused of faking it. Now he reveals step-by-step pictures, his meals and train diary – and precisely how one can rework your self too

In just ten weeks Guy Adams slimmed and sculpted his body. From ditching the full fat cokes and Tony’s Chocolonelys to snacking on fruit and peanut butter on toast, plus cutting out carbs and upping his protein, here’s exactly what Guy learnt from the fitness and nutrition pros and how you can benefit too.

Change your diet

These small and simple rules are all you need to lose the flab fast:

1. No take outs
2. No fizzy drinks
3. No processed food such as crisps or chocolate
4. No deep-fried food

Supplements do work

These are the only supplements you need if you’re serious about losing weight.

Pre-Workout 

• Creatine monohydrate: 5g daily (half an hour before training for best results)

This natural source of energy helps build muscle and increase exercise performance, according to some studies. Some research also suggests it helps with memory and concentration.

During workout 

• Hydration tablets with electrolytes

You can step up your game by adding electrolytes to your water. They’ll help you replenish essential minerals (like sodium, potassium and magnesium) lost through sweat during exercise. Plus they can help prevent cramps, fatigue and heat exhaustion by maintaining fluid balance and supporting muscle function.

Post-workout 

• Orange-flavoured Tri-active powder

Mixed with water and served over ice, this mango and orange-flavoured drink claims to reduce fatigue and boost collagen to leave you at your post-workout best.

• Whey protein (chocolate flavoured)

This easily digested protein powder is said to support muscle maintenance, recovery and growth.

The best exercises for mid-life men

Guy’s exercise routine followed the philosophy of little and often. Consistency was the key to success, so he worked out 6 days a week in 45-60 minute sessions with one rest day each week.

There were five types of workout days: legs, upper body, conditioning, dumbbell circuits, cardio.

Six key exercises for strong legs to do at the gym

1. Back squats

To do a back squat, you begin by standing upright with your feet shoulder-width apart. Rest the weight bar on your upper back. Your hands should be holding it in place about a hand’s width away from your shoulders. Elbows should be pointed back.

Turn your feet slightly outward and bend your knees, following the line of your toes and push your hips down and back into a squat position. Your hips should drop to lower than your knees. Keep the gentle curve at the bottom of your spine the whole time. Keep the heels down. Straighten legs coming back up to a standing position.

Do this eight times with whatever weight you are lifting (this will increase as you get stronger). Take a rest and then repeat the set of eight twice.

2. Forward lunges

Step forward with one foot, lowering your hips until both knees bend at about 90 degrees (front knee over ankle, back knee hovering near the floor), keeping your torso upright and core engaged. Then push back to standing, bringing your feet back together. Alternate which leg steps forward for reps.

Repeat this 10 times on each side, three times overall with small rest breaks in between.

3. Leg press (requires a gym machine)

Start by adjusting the seat so that your knees make a 90-degree angle when your feet are shoulder-width apart on the platform with your toes slightly pointing outwards. High placement here will target your glutes, lower placement will target your quads. Your back should be flat against the pad of the seat. Select a starting weight that challenges you without making you move out of perfect form.

Slowly lower the weight by bending your knees, bringing them towards your chest, making sure to keep your back and bum pressed to the seat. Breathe in as you do this. And then, breathing out, push the weighted platform back up by extending your legs and pushing through your heels until your legs are as straight as they can be without fully locking your knees. Return to the starting position, stopping just before the weights touch the stack to keep the tension up. That is one rep. Repeat three sets of eight to 12 reps. Put the safety catch back on when you are done.

4. Calf raises

Stand on a flat surface with your toes pointed straight ahead. To make this harder, you can choose to hold dumbbells by your sides in each hand. Or you can stand on a step with your toes on the step and your heels hanging off. Lift your heels off the floor to flex your calf muscle.

Pause for a moment, then slowly return to the floor. That’s one repetition.

Start with two sets of 10 to 15 reps, resting 30 to 60 seconds between sets. You should feel a burn (but not pain) by the end of each set. Watch out for your ankles while doing this exercise. Try not to let them wobble from side to side.

5. Leg extension and leg curl supersets

A superset, although it sounds intimidating, is actually just going from one exercise to another with no rest in between. In this case, you would move from the leg extension machine to the leg curl machine and vice versa.

To use a leg extension machine you would sit on a machine with your knees at a 90-degree angle, adjust the shin pad above your ankles, grip the handles, and slowly lift the weight by straightening your legs until they are straight out in front of you, squeezing your quads (the muscle on the front of your thigh). Then lower it back down slowly and with control. Repeat this for 10-15 reps before moving straight to the leg curl machine.

There are many kinds of machines to do leg curls, but you can do them purely with body weight. Lie on your back with your legs straight, and your feet placed on flytes or sliders. Then pushing your hips to the sky at the same time bend your knees to ninety degrees using your hamstrings (muscles on the backs of your calves) as the driving force.

Do 3-4 of these supersets, taking 60-90 seconds of rest in between each one.

6. Deadlifts

Stand with the middle of your foot under the barbell and place your feet hip-width apart. Push your bum back and bend down to grip the bar with hands just outside your legs, shoulder-width apart, placing both hands over the bar. Keep your back straight, chest up, and core braced. Your shins should just be touching the bar. Inhale – take a big breath – brace your core, and push your feet down into the floor. Drive your hips forward as you lift the bar up. Stand tall at the top, squeezing your glutes (bum). Reverse the motion by pushing your hips back and lowering the bar with control, keeping your spine straight.

Seven upper-body exercises to do at the gym

1. Press-ups

Begin in a plank position, with your hands and toes on the ground. Hands should be placed slightly outside shoulder width with fingers spread and facing forward. Feet can be hip width apart or next to each other – the closer they are, the more difficult the push-up will be as it destabilises your base.

Lower yourself until your body is almost touching the ground, keeping your elbows at a 45-degree angle. Then push yourself back up.

2. Bench press

This is perhaps the exercise people think of most when they imagine a gym bro. Lie flat on a bench with feet planted on the ground, grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width, pull your shoulder blades down and back to create an arch, breathing in, lower the bar to your mid-chest with elbows at about 45 degrees, then breathing out, press back up, driving through your feet and keeping tension. Try to keep good form and use someone as a spotter if you are just starting.

3. Rows

Stand with your feet hip distance apart. Hold weighted dumbbells in each hand or a barbell. Keeping your back straight, bend slightly at the knees and hip. To do the row pull the weight towards your torso by squeezing your shoulder blades and drawing your elbows backwards, keeping your core braced. Pause briefly at the top before slowly lowering the weight back to the start, keeping the movement controlled and focusing on the muscles in your back as well as your arms. Don’t let your back arch at the end of this movement.

4. Pulldowns (machine)

To do a pulldown, sit at the machine, secure your legs, adjusting the knee pads so your thighs are snug underneath them for stability, with your feet flat on the floor. Grab the bar, placing your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width with palms facing away. Lean back slightly and pull the bar down to your upper chest by driving your elbows down and back, squeezing your back and engaging the core. Control the bar’s return to the starting position. Focus on pulling with your elbows, keeping your chest up, and avoiding pulling behind your neck for the best possible engagement across your back and shoulders.

5. Shoulder press

To do a shoulder press, start by standing or sitting with dumbbells at shoulder height, palms forward, your core engaged. Press the weights straight up until arms are nearly extended, keeping elbows slightly forward, not flared out. Slowly lower them back down with control, avoiding arching your back, for a full, controlled movement. Repeat between 10-15 times for a set. Complete between three and four sets.

6. Flytes

Flytes, or gliders, are small disks with multidirectional sliders underneath, which allow you to add a level of difficulty to a workout and force you to engage the whole body.

The lack of friction can increase the difficulty of exercises allowing you to do unstable push-ups and plank variations which force you to focus on controlled movement and core stability as well as training specific muscles.

7. Triceps and biceps work

The best exercises to work the triceps and biceps include dumbbell bicep curls and pushups.

To do a dumbbell bicep curl begin by standing upright, feet hip-width apart, with a dumbbell in each hand. Let your arms hang by your side with your palms facing out. Draw the dumbbells upward toward your shoulders while keeping your elbows down and close to your torso. When your forearms are vertical, squeeze your bicep and hold for a second. Slowly lower the dumbbells to the start position and repeat.

What to do on your weekly conditioning day 

This should include a mix of these key exercises

1. High intensity interval training (HIIT)

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is exercise you do in short bursts of all-out effort. It can be anything from sprinting, cycling and swimming to burpees and jumping lunges. These are great if you want to burn fat burn fast because they push your heart rate to near-max before you let it drop.

Typically, a conditioning workout would include a 5-minute warm-up, and then 30 seconds of hard running, and 60 seconds of easy jogging for eight to 15 rounds, and a 5-minute cool-down. You can use the speed or the incline changes on the treadmill to change the intensity of your workout while you’re at the gym.

2. A 15-minute abdominals workout

Some of the best exercises for an ab workout include Russian twists, dead bug, side plank and scissor kicks.

3. The Russian Twist

Begin by sitting on the floor with your legs in front of you. Then settle your bottom into the ground and lift your feet from the floor, keeping your knees bent. Straighten and lengthen your back at a 45-degree angle from the floor. This should make a V shape with your upper body and legs. Use your abdominals to twist to the right, then back to centre. To make it more difficult hold a weight while you’re doing it.

Fitness experts recommend 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 16 repetitions.

4. The Dead Bug

Begin by lying on your back. From here stretch your arms and legs straight up towards the ceiling and bend your legs at the knee so they make a 90 degree angle. Slowly reach out opposite arms and legs to the floor (i.e. right leg, left arm), keeping your core engaged and lower back pressed to the ground. When they are hovering an inch or two off the ground slowly draw them back up to the starting position, reaching towards the ceiling. Repeat this on both sides.

How to do a dumbbell workout at home

Guy completed a series of exercises using dumbbells at home on the days that he couldn’t go to the gym. He repeated a set of each of the following exercises to complete a circuit and then would repeat the entire thing again at least three times.

1. The Goblet Squat

Hold a weight at your chest, stand with feet shoulder-width apart with your toes slightly out, then sit down as if into a chair, keeping your chest up and back straight, lower until thighs are parallel to the floor but don’t drop back, and push back up through your feet, engaging glutes.

Focus on keeping the weight close to your body and aim for your knees to move in the direction that your toes are pointing in. Repeat.

2. Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)

We are once again back in infamous ‘gym bro’ territory. To do a Romanian Deadlift (RDL), stand with feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent, holding a barbell or dumbbells in front of you with your palms facing down. Push your hips straight back as if you are trying to close a car door with your bum. Keep your back flat and bar close to your legs until you feel a hamstring stretch, then squeeze your bum/glutes and drive your hips forward to return to standing, focusing on the hip bend. Begin the next rep by bending at the hips once more.

3. Bench press

Swap your bar bell for a dumb bells and follow the explanation above.

4. Rows

Another easy resistance exercise to do at home – just follow the explanation above.

TOP TIPS

Don’t forget to build your core

A strong core is the key to preventing injuries, particularly as you age. Great core exercises include planks, Russian twists (see above), bridges, leg raises, side plank, bicycle crunches and the jackknife.

Don’t forget to get in a cardio day 

Try to do a 40 to 45 minute run. For Guy this was around 7km in total. You could do the equivalent time in some other form of cardio such as swimming or cycling.