Here’s Travis’ story:
In October 2012 I injured myself really bad during a football game. Herniated a lumbar disc and couldn’t walk for almost a week. Took about two weeks to finally stand upright again and then a ton of chiropractic visits after that. Needless to say I had to quit all activity and lost most all of my muscle mass. I dealt with pain down my legs daily from the swelling in my spine and lack of core support. So on January 31st 2013 I decided to change it all and get in shape again, with my ultimate goal of being able to eliminate the pain in my back without surgical treatment, or the use of any pain killers.
I used to chew tobacco, drink upwards to 600mg of caffeine a day (1 cup coffee is 90-120), and drink in excess. I first needed to reduce my dependence on chemicals, so I quit tobacco cold turkey and haven’t touched it since. I lowered my caffeine intake to under 100mg a day, since too much caffeine can cause hypertension, and excess fat buildup due to the direct correlation of caffeine and increased cortisol. I then took all of February off of drinking. This let me focus on nutrition and working out. Really letting me see the results without the interference and negative effects that nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine can have.
Since I have started working out at the end of January, I haven’t once stepped in a gym or lifted a weight. I use only different incline and decline workouts in my home and I use a pull up bar. The best way to build your core is with resistance training, and the best place to start is by using your own body weight. I once heard someone say that heading to the gym and lifting heavy weights before you build your core and stabilizer muscles is like putting on your tie before you put on your suit.
As you use your body weight you gain more muscle and in turn increasing the amount of weight your are lifting, even if only slightly. You are slowly but surely gaining great muscle that is going to support your entire skeletal structure. Within 1 month of this I was pain free in my back. I workout 30 to 45 minutes daily doing only incline / decline push-ups in different variations, minimal abdominal workouts, body weight squats, and lunges, and various other workouts for my arms and back. With my pull up bar I can come up with my own workouts to target the areas I want to work on.
As for diet, that is where it all starts. I know that I wouldn’t see any results unless I modified my diet and had the will power to stick to it. My diet is like the paleo diet, but not as strict.
I do not eat the following items:
Refined Sugar
Salt
Cheese
Dairy
Processed Foods
If an item has naturally occurring sugars such as fructose, then I will eat it. This means all fruits and vegetables. If an item has naturally occurring sodium I will eat it, but I have switched from salt (NaCl) to NuSalt (KCl). Cheese is one of the most processed items you can consume – so bye bye to that. Dairy, isn’t really needed and it’s a choice that you can make for your own. As far as carbs, I only eat minimal carbs on days before I play sports, and only eat whole grains with no added sugar or sodium. This also means that I don’t eat at restaurants, as you can never control what they put into their foods. It takes a lot of will power, but the body weight shreds off nicely.
With Complete Nutrition I was able to achieve my transformation and successfully return to competitive sports. The products that helped me get there are: COMPLETE ACTIVE multi vitamin, TITAN protein powder, and TAZE-3 Preworkout.