Getting ready to KICK-ASS with BellyProof

There are a number of things you can do as you get ready to join the program. From making sure you’ve got the necessary equipment to making sure you’re strong enough for what we’re about to ask.

BellyProof is very different from traditional training and it is going to be challenging both to beginners and experienced people alike. With that, we find people who have a basic level of strength, do get better results.

Ideally, you want to be able to do the following (the videos will teach you how to build those skills):

  • Able to either jog / cycle / swim etc.. for 5-10 minutes without stopping (Basic aerobic capacity).
  • Can do 1 full Pull-up or 3 negative Pull-ups
  • Can do 2 full Push-ups or 3 negative Push-ups

Requirement #1: build your way to 3-4 push-ups.

Requirement #2: build your way 2 negative pull-ups (just the way down)

Requirement #3: work on being able to hang for at least 10 seconds.

Requirement #4: being able to jog for 5 minutes without stopping.

Practice until this is easy.

Other requirements:

Requirement #5: Not be in chronic pain and be able to move (even basic movement) relatively pain-free.

Requirement #6: Clearing some time (you want at least an hour a day for yourself… for example, to do the workout, which you will need to do).

Anyone can do it, but you need to work on meeting the 6 requirements above.

You can do BellyProof in a gym, in your home or outdoors in the park.

You will need to make sure you’ve got the following equipment:

  • Hanging: Bar to hang from / Pair of Olympic rings (with somewhere to hang them, for example a tree branch)
  • A couple of weights (ideally kettlebells) / alternative: rucksack and a few bottles of water.If you choose to go with kettlebells, I recommend you get 1 x 8kg, 1 x 12kg, 1 x 16 kg (for average strength and below), or 1 x 12kg, 1x 16kg, 1 x 20kg (if you are fairly strong).
  • A bit of space and ideally surfaces that reach different levels (i.e. medium level: chair / bench, high level: table, low-level: floor).
It's all about timing

You will do so much better if you can commit to:

  • Sleeping at least 7 hours a night (more is better)
  • Train in the morning (this is especially useful from the hormonal point of view, other options are available of course but this is the absolute best and it makes a big difference!)
  • Not stopping in the middle for a long period of time. Try and plan to start when you don’t have serious travel plans. You will progress faster if you do it in one go without stopping and starting.

Note: you can still do the program even if your situation is not perfect (i.e. you can only train in the evening, you have to travel in the middle etc..). It’s just less ideal.
If you want to be on the safe side and get the best advice how to still maximize your results while still accommodating these limitations… get in touch and we will advice you what’s realistic and how to adapt it.

Suitable for Men, Women and Age groups 18-65

The Majority of people on this program are men in their 30s and 40s. However we had a large variety of success with older and younger men and women. This is for everyone but there a few small but key difference that are good cover:

Women:

  • Women can do brilliant on this program. The idea is not to be perfect but it is to improve your relative strength, tone and of course- lose fat. We also address many many many postural and mobility deficits through the program and you can fully expect to see an improvement not just in how your clothes fit – but also in your posture and mobility (including previous pain resulting from poor mobility in the past).
  • Women see results slower than men do. Sorry ladies – it’s Estrogen to blame and how it affects those little receptors that makes fat more stubborn. Be that as it may, your results in fat loss (and not just yo-yo weight) will still happen with this program, it’s just that you are going to have to accept a slightly lower pace of progression.

Why are there less results from Women?

About a 1/5 of the members on the program (out of a few thousands) are women and they tend to do really well! Not everyone that goes on this program is happy to share their results and to date, women have been less willing to share their results and some didn’t even take a before photo.

I do need more people to share photos in general and especially women. However, I do get that a lot of people don’t feel comfortable having their before and after semi-exposed bodies on the internet, and I only share publicly with a clear permission from you.

Older Women (postmenopausal)

Unfortunately, at this time I don’t have a big enough sample group or even enough public research available to conclude how older women will perform in terms of weight loss although from my experience, there have been good results to date with postmenopausal women. There is a strong potential but not enough data. If you hit that age and still want to try the program, you are very welcome to of course and the mobility benefits are still there for you. It’s just hard to predict in terms of fat loss in your case at this point.
  • Lastly, the Menstrual cycle involves a lot of water retention and increase in alpha-2 receptor activity. This is part of the reason women progress slower, because they retain more water and their stubborn fat is more stubborn, at least for 10-25% of each month.

Older / Younger Men:

Most of the people who do this program are men in their 30s and 40s. We have had people in their early 20s and people in their 70s on the program with promising results (it’s just not the main group of people who choose this). Here’s what you need to consider:

Teenagers / below the age of 18

  • There’s lack of research in your age group and there are many hormonal changes and physiological changes taking place. The complicated and diverse research that has made this program what it is, is based on public information and there is just not enough to fully form a coherent piece of advice to tell how it will affect you. Because of that, and while we still have a lot of good advice in terms of mobility and well-being that you can benefit from for years to come, we can’t predict progress, problems, strength etc..
  • we cannot advise people under the age of 18 to take part because it would be irresponsible of us at an age that takes more responsibility and that is also true for legal / insurance reasons. If you fall under this age group, it might be better to wait with this program (it will still be here in a few years). In the meantime, you can still follow much of the advice on the website on how to better structure your mobility, nutrition and sleep – that’s something we are happy to recommend to anyone at any age.

Older People

  • We have dealt with older people with great mobility and great metabolic health and we also dealt with younger people with poor metabolic health and serious mobility deficit. Age is not what makes a person better or worse in that regard, it’s only your previous lifestyle and how long you lived it.
  • Older men tends to have less testosterone and growth hormone. It’s very good in a way because this program is an opportunity to improve the hormonal balance in a very profound way. On the other hand, it can also mean a weaker starting point and slower progress – especially at the beginning.
  • We would like you to understand the above two points as they can and do need to come into consideration. At the same time, we would like to suggest that even if you have to go a week or two longer than average, it can still be a good opportunity. We’ve had people in their 50s, 60s and even 70s showing so much great progress (sometimes better than people in their 20s and 30s – so again, age is not the thing that can define it best, this hold potential) 🙂

Working with Injuries

Mobility is a complex subject (and a big big priority for us). This is not a catch-all program (i.e. to make you perfect in every way). That said, we believe we have good news for you:

The common stuff:

  • If you’re struggling with the “average” problems.. a bit of back pain here or there, feeling a bit inflexible or maybe a nasty trigger point under your shoulder blade: This program will pave the way for massive improvements.

The Serious Stuff

  • If you have no shoulder, you can’t even jump in place because you think your knee will break or you’ve just been in a car accident… This program is not for you. This is forward thinking program that looks at improving mobility along the way but it still is a high intensity program.
  • If you are properly injured and cannot jump etc.. you won’t be able to change exercises around too much and that might be a problem for you (anything you work around and take away from the design, will be a big compromise and too many compromises is not a good thing). However, there may be stuff (in the program or outside of the program) that can help you recover faster.
  • The idea is simple, we would rather deal with problems. You can deal with serious stuff while you also put stress on them (as in a high intensity program) but you can still deal with them using better strategies. We always prefer to deal with “stuff”, make them work better and making sure you don’t have to work around things all the time (compensate because you have no other options) – that’s the better approach. If you have any doubts, get in touch with details of your problems and We’ll do our best to advise you on what you can do.

Bottom line

You are ok to do the program if you can move with relative ease and pain-free. Even if you’re not strong or don’t feel like you have a lot of great movement.

You are not ok to do the program if you are dealing with chronic pain, you are recovering from a serious injury or you can’t get out of bed. If that’s the case, your best course of action is to go and see a good physio, chiropractor, osteopath or any other mobility / movement specialist. The good ones can help you sort out movement problems and pain in a few weeks time and once you are relatively pain-free, then come and join us and we’ll make you even better.

READY TO START THE PROGRAM?

GET IT HERE!

To make the BellyProof schedule work for you, we recommend planning to start at a time where you can commit to training and nutrition that is specific to the program.

You will need:

  • A few minutes in the morning for some mobility drills.
  • 50-90 minutes a day for training (ideally in the morning). The exact workout time depends on your fitness level, equipment available, whether you want to rest longer between sets and of course, whether you have the time and want to push that little bit extra. The program itself has mandatory parts and optional parts should you want to push a bit further.
  • at least 1-2 hours a week to cook

You can start the next day or the next week (it’s up to you). What you need to know is that the program is really efficient because it uses very efficient practices. You will need to dedicate some time at the beginning to go over tutorials and learn how we do things the right way.

This is going to be fun! Welcome on board!