| Featured Body Transformation Mark Valenti  BASIC STATS Name: Mark Valenti Age: 41 Location: Georgia, USA Height: 5'10" Weight Before/After: 245lbs. Before / 211lbs. After Body Fat % Before/After: 30%+ Before / Approx. 10% After Years Involved In Fitness: 18 (from age 13 to 30 and now 40-41) Favorite Bodyparts: Triceps, Back Favorite Exercises: Overhead Extensions, Barbell Rows Favorite Supplements: EAS 100% Whey protein powder, Green Tea extract INTERVIEW 1) Can you tell The M.F.I.C members a little bit about yourself? There isn’t much more than the basics you see above or will learn about me through these questions that would be interesting to your members, but I have to say that it’s such an honor for me when I can tell of my successes! I truly hope that it can help or inspire you to achieve your own awesome transformations, which in turn will inspire even more to change their lifestyles and do the same for even more people. 2) What were your initial motivations for transforming your body? I was turning 40 and felt disgusting. I was gasping for air whenever I put on shoes and socks and was fed up with looking tired in every single picture taken of me. Having my wedding band cut off and resized was another big sign for me that a change was necessary. 3) How long have you been on your program for and what kind of success have you experienced so far? I began over a year ago with the Body-for-Life program and stayed on it for maybe 4 to 5 months. Even though I felt it was a solid program, I went back to a more instinctive training style that I used back in my ‘active’ days. For the past 4 weeks though, I’ve begun a modified BFL program for a group of 25 people and we’re seeing some amazing results! Even I have packed on another 8 pounds of lean body mass in these few weeks again. 4) How has this success changed your day-to-day life for the better? For the past year I’ve lived carefree regarding my diet, meaning that I maintained an ideal bodyfat with a healthy and happy lifestyle, full of energy and this has had the same effect on my family. 5) Did you experience any setbacks along the way? If so, what were they and how did you get past them? When I first began my program I was seeing such great results and felt “on top of the world”! I had lots of energy and began including more and more cardio and exercises into my day. This gave me great changes but eventually caught up with me and at around weeks 4-5 I was absolutely over trained. I was so tempted to just quit, but being that everyone I knew and even lots of people that I didn’t really know knew of my ‘challenge’ I didn’t want to lose my face and just took the time needed and continued as best I could. I would say that it took nearly 3 weeks to recover, but I am so very happy that I didn’t restart or opt to just quit all together. As the weeks went by, I hit new ‘highs’ and experienced “second winds”. So I suggest to everyone that you stick with it and see it to the end! Necessary downtimes you’ll forget or will not be important, but the accomplishments and sense of achievement you’ll gain will always remain. 6) What type of training plan has worked best for you? The Body-for-Life exercise plan, which rotates Upper Body, HIIT, Lower Body, HIIT, Upper Body, HIIT, Day off, Lower Body, HIIT and so on has probably done more for me than any other training plan that I’ve used before. The Big Beyond Belief training plan would be a very close second though. I feel best with a 40% Protein, 35% Carb, 25% Fat split. I don’t have to track my nutrition as often anymore, but during certain phases I still do and then I will monitor my sugar intake separately.
1) Gain a proper understanding of your nutritonal intake. Track your foods for at least a week and see where you are with your nutrition. That’s often an eye-opener! |
