19 learnings from pushing my physique for 6 months

Written by Kyle Satti

~7 min read

Posted 3 days ago

Intro

This year I achieved a goal I've had for all of my adult life: to implement an intense fitness regime and build muscle.

In the last 6 months I've lost 10kg, built muscle and learned a lot about myself and my body. I've bullet pointed a lot of these learnings below.

My incredible coach, Julian, also shared some thoughts on this journey here on Instagram.

Learnings

Mindset & Mental Benefits

1. You either struggle now, or struggle later – suffering is coming for you whether you like it or not. Realizing that it's better for me to build my body now and be ready for the challenges that will come was a huge unlock for me.
2. Pushing yourself hard at the gym builds resilience in all areas of your life – you will prove to yourself that you can endure great discomfort, which is going to be incredibly helpful through all walks of your life
3. 5am starts are awesome – I was so skeptical about getting up early for the gym, thinking I'd be too tired to carry out my day, but that wasn't the case. Getting gym out of the way, starting my day off me-vs-me and demonstrating to myself that I have the ability to push myself first thing in the morning sets the day up perfectly. Not to mention the gym is nice and quiet in the early hours...
4. You can definitely do this while having a busy professional life, and odds are that it will actually help you perform better at that job
5. My cognitive ability improved over time as I started working out more
6. Consistency is everything. Discipline is good but you have to break through the moments when you don't want to do it. This may seem a bit "tomato tomato"... but think about being consistent... stack up consistent behavior week in week out... that's what moves needles and makes progress.
7. It's blissfully sobering to have a hard stop at the end of day because I have to get up for gym at 5am
8. It's been easy to slip into worry about getting fatter now that I've reached this physique – I'm working on this

Physical & Health Benefits

9. Day to day utility of added strength is awesome
10. The gut/bowel movement issues I've had for several years have pretty much gone as a result of my improved diet, reduced stress and fitter body
11. You eventually get used to drinking 4L a day and now I find myself wanting at least 3L

Nutrition & Diet

12. Resetting your appetite by abstaining from heavy eating and indulgence in treats makes you appreciate the times you do treat yourself all the more. I had profound experiences in eating my favorite things during (by managing cals) and after the diet (e.g. burgers, pancakes, pastries)
13. Greek yogurt, dark chocolate and frozen berries are goated
14. Hot sauce is goated - 0 calories!!!!!
15. When you're traveling on a cut, focus on hitting your protein goal and make sure you feel a solid sense of hunger for a decent portion of the day. I took 3 long trips (Florida, Europe, Texas) over the program and still lost weight on all of them whilst having a few treats here and there.

Workout Strategy & Environment

16. It's about finding your level and pushing yourself... Turning up to the gym is already a win. I often set a bar in my head that I thought I had to achieve; lifting a certain weight, doing X number of reps... but really as long as you pushed your body as hard as it would go, it doesn't matter where it says no... you've just got to find your level and push yourself continually.
17. Calming music can be helpful at the gym just as energy boosting music can be – when my body is feeling a lot of intensity, resetting your stress levels with calming music can be really helpful for me to focus on getting the lift done (my fave: true focus lies between rage and serenity )
18. Your body is an adaptation machine that wants to get to a state where it no longer needs to adapt. It's kind of its own worst enemy; it wants you to be comfortable, but comfort won't help it improve. When you make it uncomfortable, it's incredibly good at finding comfort again and influencing you to stay there. You have to keep pushing into discomfort to take your results to the next level.
19. I heard someone say "posture is the eternal battle against gravity" – making your body stronger will make it far easier for you to main better posture, mobility and therefore longevity

What did the regime look like?

Throughout the regime I worked out 4x a week for 1-1.5 hours. 80% of the time, I did my workouts at 5:30am before work. The remaining 20% was usually on the weekend or while on vacation.

Month 1 – Conditioning

Calories: 2450 (my maintenance)

Summary

This month was all about getting my body used to the intensity and motions of the routine whilst getting into a nutrition habit.

How I felt

The great thing about the beginning: it only gets easier from here. The difficult thing about the beginning: it's most hardest part...

You're sore as hell, don't yet have results to motivate you and haven't established a rhythm yet.

Just know that it gets much easier after pushing through this initial phase.

Month 2 to 4 – Cut stage 1

Calories: 2200

Summary

Intensity elevated in these months and we added 20 mins of cardio to the end of every workout (usually stairmaster... RIP).

How I felt

This stage was fairly straight forward... routine set in and my body conditioned to the work. I experienced an injury in my mid-back, likely due to weakness from being highly sedentary and sitting at a desk for hours on end. This called for some extra mobility work to manage, but aside from that it was great seeing my physique change most weeks and PBs coming in frequently.

Month 5 – Cut stage 2

Calories: 2000

Summary

We're reaching the end of the cut so my energy levels are running pretty low with my gycogen and fat stores at their most depleted in years. To manage this, we lowered the number of sets on many exercises to avoid injury. We also added more cardio – 25 mins after every workout. (yay). In this month we also took a week long de-load as I was experiencing some trouble sleeping and stress levels at work were increased. We bumped my cals back up to 2200 to help me sleep and lowered intensity on some exercises.

How I felt

This is where hunger started to get real haha. Staying hydrated, drinking coffee (within reason lol) and having diet sodas became my hacks for pushing off hunger. But not gonna lie, it was difficult at times.

Thankfully, having 4 months of effort under my belt, I got through it because I didn't want to see all those months go to waste.

Month 6 – Final push

Calories: 1750 - 2000

Summary

As the last month of the regime progressed, we eventually lowered calories for the final push of the cut. For the last week or two we stopped taking lifts to failure to avoid injury.

How I felt

Hunger reaches new levels at this stage but your body is starting to reach its final form and the results are becoming incredibly clear, which is motivating as hell. Getting a pump at the gym shows lines that you've not seen before and your clothes fit differently. This all gives you the movtication to see it through and reach final form of the cut.

A thank you to Julian

I cannot thank Julian enough for this experience... he turned out to be everything I'd hoped for and more in a coach and helped realize the potential within me. Julian's thoughtful, holistic, compassionate yet driven approach is something I count myself as lucky to have experienced!