(All photography by Kane Vato Photography www.kanevato.com)

A lot of people have been asking me what I did in the 2 weeks prior to being ‘photo-shoot’ ready. I’m talking photo-shoot ready in around 8 weeks from a ‘reasonable’ level of body fat. Circa 10-15% for guys and 20-25% for girls.
The photos of how I look year round in ‘Maintenance’ mode are all over this site, so I don’t need to post another one here.

First a disclaimer

I’m by no means an expert in this area. Results can and WILL vary — what works for me, may not be ideal for you.
Also, the shots are ALL without flash and used the natural light of the area we took the shots in.

The lead-up

In the weeks prior to my “2-week” out period, i had been slowly, but surely ramping up my training and fine-tuning my diet.

This began at about the 8 week mark and was done for two reasons:
1. I didn’t want to suddenly shock the system with a bunch of new training regimens that it wasn’t used to (this would have had a high chance in leading me to either burnout or unpredictable results).
2. Getting the diet spot-on BEFORE the “2-week out” period allowed me greater freedom on the weekends. I could STILL have pizza and wine, as long as my weekly dietary patterns were set in place.

In terms of my diet…
I was fasting daily for 16 hours, with an 8 hour feeding window (ala lean gains). Nothing else really changed here.
In terms of my training – I had been following both 5×5 and RPT regimens for quite a while (probably 6 months). This included big lifts with long rests, keeping it all very, very simple. (more…)