Adam Read

Contact: adamsread5@hotmail.com

Statistics: Competition: Body fat 3%, weight 210lbs, chest 50", arms 18", waist 31", legs 27" and calves 18"

Off season: Body fat 8%, weight 225lbs, chest 52", arms 18.5", waist 34", legs 28" and calves 18"

Biography:

As a child I was always into sport. I played at county and club level in numerous different sports: gymnastics, athletics, football, rugby, table tennis and attended the School of Excellence for basketball. So mentally and physically the training ethos was embedded in me from a young age and it became some what autonomous. I was hoping to become a professional athlete, when this didn’t happen I carried on training in the gym and enjoyed developing my physique, until I was approached and asked if I did bodybuilding competitions. This sent me on a new route of bodybuilding and fitness. After I had finished university ironically my thirst of knowledge became greater which created a perfect environment of synergy between bodybuilding and science. Within bodybuilding there are a lot of myths and old wives tales, passed down information and views based on averages, assumptions and very few studies. This appeared very attractive to me because I could use my thirst for knowledge, my intuition and my hunger to train and be the best I can be by putting these things into practice.

Before my first contest a lot of my training, diet and pre contest routine was based on cliche bodybuilding concepts. This is where I placed second in NABBA South East 2006. I then decided to allow my intuition to take over and I used a different approach in preparing myself for competitions. Whilst training others I made sure I observed and absorbed everything I could. I then placed third in NABBA Novice Britain 2006. My confidence and trust in myself began to grow and I became happy to take it on my own back to filter out what I believed was myths and followed my own intuition and science. This is when I competed in Mr Titan 2007 and placed first in Body Fitness (where I combined my old sports kills in basketball and gymnastics to create a very imaginative, different routine), and first in Best Physique. I also received the 'Best Chest' and 'Best Abs' awards. I then took a leap of faith in my own ability and tried some completely new concepts with science being at the route of them mixed with what I have learnt about my own body and how it responds to training and nutrition. I went to the USA and competed in NPC Los Angeles Bodybuilding Championships 2008. I placed third in the heavyweights and again incorporated some of my old sports skills into the routine.

I now translated these new concepts and views into training others, from swimmers to rugby players to fellow bodybuilders. I have found that the philosophy I have taken on, although very contradictory to some of the principles of bodybuilding, allows for the flexibility of human genetics and does not box my clients or myself in.

Training philosophys:

If I have learned anything about the bodybuilding and fitness world, and the world of science, it is that both can learn something from each other, and both seem to be closed minded on each others views. Instead they should work to supplement each other and work in synergy to create better philosophies and principles of training, diet and overall health.

1.•We are all individuals; we all react differently to training stimulus, the environment and nutrition.

2.•Although we live in a modern world, surrounded by technology, our bodies are still designed to live from the land: eat, hunt, gather and sleep in a primitive environment.

3.•There is no such thing as over training or under training, just a lack of variety and adjustment to your training.

4.•Your own body knows best and will send out signals.

5.•The best training program ideally is to not have one, but have principles and allow your bodies signals to dictate.

6.•Nothing is written in stone.

7.•The way I train others and myself is based on the fact that I always start from scratch. There is not an average amount of calories, or amount of training someone should do, but instead I will base it on their past history and response to that and other stressors and allow that to dictate what would be best for them.

This metaphor can be applied to all areas of bodybuilding. ‘Science’ is defined by Chambers’ Dictionary as: "the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical world, especially by observing, measuring and experimenting, and the development of theories to describe the results of these activities".

This suggests that nothing can be considered as ‘definite’ yet it allows for a constant search for the truth and continual refinement of developing theories. It seems strange that in the bodybuilding and fitness industry we prefer to use words that confine, which indicates an inflexibility that appears to go against the very principle of physiological adaptation.

We often choose words such as programme, regime, strict etc. which are neither adaptable nor flexible. As a personal trainer I get asked many questions where I am expected to give an immediate answer e.g. how many calories should one have? How much training should one do? How many times a day should one eat? Although there may be averages that one could quote, this will never be the exact accurate amount needed for an individual to maximise their performance. These average values have been compiled using a number of statistical analyses that simplify the ranges observed in populations where individuals show huge differences. For example; the difference between a responder and a non-responder to a treatment can be 42% improvement. In addition to the variations in physiology, nutrition and endocrine response, genetic influence on each one of these variables is considerable. I believe that the best approach to training is not to have a training programme, by this I mean to take things back to the basics of physiology.

In bodybuilding terms we use anaerobic training, where the focus should be on the ATP/PCr system and secondly the anaerobic breakdown of muscle glycogen (glycolysis) as we are predominately using fast twitch muscle fibres. The main focus of the training needs to be on the recruitment of fast twitch fibres and transit hypertrophy (’pumping up’ of the muscle that happens during a single exercise bout - this is mainly a result of fluid accumulation in the interstitial and intracellular spaces of the muscle). Using this as our prime focus, there are simply hundreds of ways that training can stimulate these systems. The main reason the body improves is based on its ability to adapt to environmental stressors. Thus it is very important to vary ones training, in order to provide an optimal range of environmental stressors.

A lot of training programmes do take variation into consideration competently, yet they are still bound by the fact they are working to population averages and assumptions based on these averages. My philosophy takes things one step further by individualizing physiological adaptation to the individual’s response and by this I refer to their wellbeing, daily activities, psychological state and nutrition - all within the last 24 hours. This enables a daily training regime to be based on the individual’s genetic and environmental situation.

In layman’s terms a sprinter will train for speed, a power lifter will train for power, a strong man will train for strength and a bodybuilder needs train like all three. This allows for a hugely diverse, creative and constantly changing training programme for the bodybuilder. I believe the changes are not based on a certain time, nor a certain completion but rather on how the individual feels - almost to the extreme of going into the gym and not knowing what they are going to do until they have started warming up. There may not be an immediate pattern, it may appear to be chaotic and random but this is where I think the advantage lies: physiological responses can also be expected to be chaotic and random, and the variables effected include age, sex, nutrition, psychological welfare, time, response, environment, lifestyle, genetic, biomechanical, the bodys ability to deal with stress and stress perception.

If one creates an exercise programme based on population averages, rather than on individual range, one could end up with a programme that is not really suited for them. I have tried to incorporate the philosophies presented here when training others and I have seen a rise in the fears people have in breaking out of these ideas of ’set programmes’. They seem to have created a metaphorical prison where they are scared to go beyond the prison walls - imposed by the fear of what may lie beyond.. Thus people become scared of going beyond the familiarity of institutionalised approaches employed by training programme.

There is an initial unfamiliarity in relying on one’s intuition, through training without a pattern/programme, where one training day may not even be recognisable from the next training day. This initial lack of consistency can worry people when they start using this approach. I believe this worry - although on the surface seems justifiable - is contradictory to the requirements for adaptation. Why would one want to have a programme that seemed to be predictably rhythmic and consistent where adaptation would not need to take place? In many areas of life the philosophy of self-improvement is based on the construction of some sort of reliable and rhythmic pattern, which can be rapidly measured, analysed and improvement identified. This is all well and good for systems that are based purely the analyses of the large populations. However, when taking into consideration one-to-one scenarios or the individual - it has its downfalls. This is where my theory steps in its place as most bodybuilders and athletes train as individuals or one to one.

My training philosophy can last anywhere between ten minutes and two hours plus and it can involve lifting weights as fast as possible (speed), lifting the heaviest weight possible (strength x speed equals power), as many reps as possible in a set time, anything from one rep to a hundred plus (transit hypertrophy and muscle endurance), speed of contraction, eccentric contraction, concentric contraction, static contraction, all ranges of motion, all angles of contraction from perfect form to cheating reps to ten seconds rest, to fifteen minutes rest between sets, from training twice a week to three times a day. With all this considered anyone is interchangeable with another and using your imagination there are countless ways of incorporating this into training using different combinations and combining one, two or three etc in synergy. There is a countless -almost infinite- number of possible techniques one can use.

With this infinite number of techniques in mind, one can then use their intuition and how they feel to dictate what technique and training is to take place for that day. Instead of having a pre written training regime one can purely let one’s body dictate the training protocol. This flexibility in training allows the programme to follow the body’s progress instead of a predetermined ‘possible-progress’ programme.