Read an Excerpt
Introduction
Raise your hand if you’d rather spend your time laughing and enjoying a meal with your friends and family than suffering in a gym, starving yourself, or drinking some oddball potion to get in great shape.
Yup, my hand’s up there, too.
You have in your possession the key to help you do just that. This book is going to help you unlock the body and life of your dreams without driving yourself crazy. Heck of a promise, I know; but it’s one that I’ve been delivering on for more than ten years as a fitness trainer, nutrition coach, and wellness expert.
I’m known for my ability to make complicated and overwhelming information remarkably less so. That’s why real people turn to me again and again to look and feel amazing. In 2012, I founded The People’s Bootcamp, a pay-what-you-can fitness brand that is often referred to as the hardest workout in New York and that one magazine called “a populist antidote to the tyranny of $35 spin sessions.” I also created WaveShape, a surf-inspired workout for some surfer friends, and then made it available for free online. It’s used every day by thousands of people from Montana to Morocco.
You see, I like simplicity. No crap, no pomp, just the essentials: an effective plan and the tools to help you put it into play. Once you toss the rest, it’s like a breath of fresh air.
Perhaps you’ve seen me on TV, sweating it out with your favorite morning show host; or you’ve read me doling out fitness tips in a magazine. Maybe you don’t own a TV, haven’t read an actual magazine in years, and think I’m just some crazy guy with a clever premise (that last part is definitely true!). Either way, I am 100 percent certain that by the time you get into these workouts, you’ll be wondering how you could hate and love someone so much at the same time.
That’s because I’m going to help you build a 30-Second Body. Speaking of which, you’re probably wondering just what that is.
Let me start with what it is not. The phrase 30-Second Body does not mean that you only need to work out for thirty seconds a day to get in great shape. Sorry! It’s not a magic trick or some infomercial gimmick, and it isn’t a call to laziness.
But a 30-Second Body is acquired quickly; a lot of people notice results after the first week. My style of working out is incredibly efficient and takes half as long as your average class at the gym. A 30-Second Body is a physique that’s built for speed, for show, for health, for life. It looks as good strutting down the runway as it does cruising down the produce aisle. Finish these workouts and you’ll be sleek, crazy sexy, and know how to get in shape in less time than it takes to watch an episode of Saved by the Bell. Weird reference, I know. Keep reading. This book is filled with them!
A 30-Second Body is long, lean, strong, agile, and fast. It torches calories while at rest—yes, at rest. It looks amazing; but best of all it functions like a well-oiled machine.
But don’t worry: The program revealed in this book is not break-your-back, crazy-complicated, either. It’s the ability to work out hard and efficiently, leaving a puddle of sweat on the floor as you proudly march forward into your day. It’s a little gritty and a lot of fun.
So, how does it work?
I’ve chosen exercises that target your entire body, and stacked them into 30-second intervals to get you in amazing shape—fast! If you’ve heard of high-intensity interval training, this is it at its finest. Yes, it’s hard; but yes, you can do this. Over the next six weeks, you’re going to unleash your best body. Are you ready?
Maybe you were once in awesome shape, but fell out of it for some reason or another. Perhaps you’ve always put fitness and wellness on the back burner, but have come to realize the importance of taking control of your body and getting it in killer shape. Or maybe you are already really fit, but looking to break through a plateau, lose those last ten pounds, or just try something new.
Whatever your life’s journey, wherever you are right now, I’m going to help you get where you want to go. This book is going to give you the key to unlock your best body in record time, and keep it for life. It’s also going to help you unleash your mind.
You’ll prove to yourself that you’re capable of far more than you ever imagined. That confidence stays with you. It goes beyond the confines of your sweat-soaked living room floor and into the world, helping you to live life to the fullest—to live hard. That’s what I teach every day: strengthening both mind and body so that we can live “full out.” The sweet physical results are just the cherries on top.
Is it going to be easy? No. Nothing worthwhile ever is. Is it going to be brutal? Depends on your definition of “brutal”—but know this: I designed this program with a wide variety of fitness levels in mind; so no matter how long it’s been since you’ve worked out (and even if you never have), I guarantee that you can do this! I’ve seen people who haven’t worked out in years step into one of my classes with fear in their eyes and leave with fire in their hearts.
The easy part is that this is a clear, simple-to-follow six-week workout plan that’s going to melt fat, skyrocket your metabolism, and get you seriously toned up and strong. There’s a free calendar (and a ton of other extras) at www.the30secondbody.com that you can print out and tack on your wall. There’s also a tear-out version of that calendar in the back of this book. I’m giving you shockingly simple nutrition advice that’ll kick fad diets to the curb. You’ll eat awesome food five times a day and actually enjoy your life, without feeling like you’re being restricted or made to go hungry. Finally, I’m going to show you how to rewire your mind so that you follow through and do the work needed to get in shape. Essentially, I’ve taken all the guesswork out of lifelong fitness and given you a road map.
So, what’s the catch?
Well, the hard part is on you, I must admit, and it’s consistent effort. If you want to grow an apple tree, I can give you a shovel and a sapling; but ultimately, you still have to dig the hole.
If it were as easy as just having a solid workout plan, everyone with access to the Internet would be trim and fit. So, why is it so hard for so many of us to get and stay in shape?
It’s time to come to terms with a hard fact: We’ve been conditioned for failure since we were kids.
Whoa! Say what? It may feel like this book just took a hard left turn, but hang with me. Awareness is the first step toward change. I’ve found that most people aren’t even aware of the choices they’re making that sabotage their goals. I want you fit for life, not just sweating for a week or so and then abandoning me for some other program—which, inevitably, you’ll abandon for another and another and another. Admit it. You’re tired of that, and you’re better than that. So let’s be real.
For far too long we’ve been told we can have anything we want with zero effort. Get six-pack abs in fifteen minutes. Make $2 million a year in four hours a week. Look nineteen again with the latest, greatest miracle cream.
The companies making these pitches do their best to convince you that the only people who get results are the ones who are following the right plan, that is, their plan. To drive their point home, they often trot out a parade of “after” models who have gone from “drab to fab” to say things like “I searched and searched and tried and tried, and after years of struggling with failed diets and workouts, I finally found the secret!”
You buy their product or program. Maybe you use it. Maybe you don’t. Chances are, you go full speed with it at first, like a hot new fling—but before long, it’s back to square one. This weight loss “solution” fails to help you unearth the key to real change. It would be great if there were a magic pill you could swallow to have all you ever wanted and more, with no effort whatsoever. I’d be the first person in line to buy a big bottle. Hell, I’d buy two. Trust me, even with everything I know, I occasionally fall prey to this line of thinking, too.
It’s time to wake up. You and I both know that transformation doesn’t happen overnight.
Over the course of my life, I have found that the real key to unlocking your best body isn’t some elaborate system of complex nutrition patterns and weird equipment-based workouts. The key is having a plan and acting on it every day.
Call it old-fashioned hard work, the kind of which our grandparents would be proud. Hey, it’s vintage! Think about a farmer who wakes up every day before the sun rises and tends to the fields with great care. The success of her crop has a tremendous amount to do with elements that are completely out of her control, like the weather; but with a tenacity that we rarely see anymore, that farmer rolls up her sleeves and does the work (planting, tending, harvesting, and selling) that needs to be done in order to make a living. A successful farmer does this every day.
Now, before you throw this book out the window, I want to tell you something. Hard work doesn’t need to be backbreaking. In fact, the work is made significantly easier if you have a decent plan—and oh, do I have a plan for you! Results are really more about consistency. Do the thing you need to do each day and before you know it—bam!—you’re standing in the mirror asking, “Whose abs are those?”
If you read magazines and blogs or watch TV, you may see that I’m frequently called a “Celebrity Fitness Trainer” or “Wellness Guru”! Fancy schmancy, eh? Whatever. All I care about is helping you get where you want to be. I have spent considerable time, money, and effort over the course of twenty years to learn what works and what doesn’t when it comes to fitness and, frankly, life in general. Do I have all the answers? Of course not. No one does. And anyone who says otherwise? Well, you should run as far away from them as possible. What I do know can help you cut your learning curve significantly and make life easier; techniques that took me years of trial and error to nail down are available to you in just a few pages. Consider this your ultimate playbook. I chose to publish in softcover for a reason: I want you to take it with you everywhere you go and really rough it up.
Eat Clean. Train Dirty. Live Hard. It’s my mantra. It fuels my body, powers my workouts, and supercharges my life. Kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? When I put that phrase on T-shirts and tanks, the inventory sells out in a few days. But as much as I love my mantra in its specific order, I’m switching that order in this book and leading with Train Dirty. Why? Because let’s be honest, you bought this book for the wildly popular fitness plan responsible for those jaw-dropping before-and-after photos and all that buzz out there in the press. So in the spirit of making you super happy (see, I told you I care about you!), we’re starting with Train Dirty. Then we’ll dive into what it means to Eat Clean and Live Hard so you can see just how integral each part of that mantra is to losing weight fast and taking full control of your life.
Train Dirty lays out the six-week program I designed to help you torch fat, build long, lean muscle, and skyrocket your metabolism so that your body is burning calories even when you’re not working out. It’s fast, effective, and can be done anywhere, without a single piece of equipment. (See? I’m watching out for your wallet, too.)
In the second section, Eat Clean, I’ll recommend a super-simple approach to eating that will totally change the way you think about the word diet. With this so-easy-you-won’t-believe-it-works way to portion out your meals, you’ll never need to count another calorie again. No weird and wacky gimmicks; just a sweet embrace of healthy, whole foods that are growing in a garden near you or available at your local grocery store. You’ll feel good in your body and amazing in your soul knowing that you’re making powerful yet remarkably simple choices that impact your waistline and your overall health: two-for-one!
In the third section, Live Hard, I’m going to teach you the best practices in self-development that will help you strengthen the single most important muscle in your body: your brain. I’m talking the crème de la crème: everything I’ve learned over the years, distilled to its most potent and straightforward essence. You’ll learn how something I call Lottery Mindset Marketing has conditioned you to fail in your weight loss goals—and how to overcome it. You may actually find this to be the most valuable part of the entire book.
The tools in this book are just that: tools. If you don’t use them, they will not work. This book will not give you flat abs through osmosis any more than a shovel is going to plant that apple tree for you. The power to achieve your fitness goals has always been, and will always be, inside of you.
You are the key. You are the vehicle. This book is your road map.
Let’s put the pedal to the metal.
Part I
Train Dirty
this is where you sweat . . . a lot
Karin Dillie. Before.
Karin Dillie. After.
“I did this challenge with a group of friends and I’ll always remember after the very first workout when we were all a hot mess—soaked in sweat, hair all messed up, makeup everywhere—and we started to joke about how horrible we all looked. Not exactly the classic picture of ‘sexy.’ We believed that beauty came from things like exfoliating showers, mounds of hair spray, and perfect lip gloss. It wasn’t until around week five, when I looked up during one of the more grueling exercises, that I finally started to see what Adam had seen in us since the beginning, what he sees in everyone—true strength. The kind of strength that comes from deep down within and emanates through every pore of our being. I saw that strength for what it was—real beauty. No diet or new fitness fad could give that to us. It was the product of working hard, eating real, whole food, and pushing ourselves past our perceived physical limits. It was the beauty that 30SB allowed us to find deep down within ourselves. And it sure was sexy.”
