This was one of the first planned out, daily programs I did for the specific goal of leaning out.

Things I learned while doing it:

• consistency made me feel in control
• food and training support each other
• I got more out of buckling down with hard work and careful planning and preparation than all the bullshit I ever bought into previously: such as "super foods", raw food diet, 3 hour workouts, fat-loss supplements (EGCG, L-Carnitine, ECA Stacks)
• Seeing myself eat less food (reducing portions) meant I was ACTUALLY eating less calories and burning more fat
• Others who have never done what I was doing seemed never understand what it meant to hold oneself accountable to a goal. Setting a goal is like making a promise to yourself, and you never break promises, especially ones with deep emotional roots.
• When others push food on you, the easy part is saying "No" if you went through the process of setting your goal, making that promise, and going through hours of preparation and contemplation -- The hard part is not telling them to fuck off when they keep pushing, and they show zero regard for why you told them you're saying "No".
  • e.g. "I made a goal to lose X pounds, so all my food is planned out. It's important to me (and my health)" "Oh, c'mon just have a little..."
  • When you stop and think, this person is knowingly circumventing your personal goals, which to me is a sign of disrespect, and with a topic so emotional for most people, even more egregious a transgression than that. But then you just remind yourself that they are willfully ignorant to your feelings and what it means to be motivated to achieve or improve yourself.
• I was capable of achieving what many implied was impossible. I asked myself what created the gap between goals and results:
  • planning, and
  • consistency - the 2 skills people still have the hardest time with. Without planning and consistency, the reasons to justify failure are just weak excuses
• strict dieting gets results, but I couldn't maintain it
• I can still train even while brutally sore
• Going from 60-minute sessions to 90-minute sessions out of necessity to fit all the extra work in (rather than because of wasting time) didn't kill me but I'm also not sure it made me stronger
• cardio takes many forms (I would jog down to the overpass and go up and down stairs for 15-45 minutes depending on where I was in the program. Even through the winter, but I'd have to wear antisplip boots and hold the railing when it was snowy and icy)
• I learned to love 30-60-minute steady state cardio sessions because I could either:
  • prepare mentally for the workout ahead by watching these and other training videos
  • educate myself and reinforce positive psychological traits by listening to Tom Venuto's Body Fat Solution Book
  • relax, meditate, and reflect while watching Netflix or other drivel

Things I learned AFTER:

• I've been leaner since then WITHOUT strict dieting and MORE planning & consistency: i.e. I didn't have to cut out milk, sugar, or the occasional treat to keep losing fat
• Even pros have outdated ideas about how to achieve fat loss - thus, people tend to get results often in spite of the things they do or their knowledge of how things work
• I could build muscle and lose fat at the same time (as my BodPod assessment from the start of the program compared to my final assessment indicated)
• Abdominal "twists" are stupid, they don't shrink your waist, and the balance of evidence suggests you'll deteriorate your spine over time if you do them
• Anyone interested in re-compositioning their body should do at least one 8-12 week program and follow it to the letter to really, truly understand what it means to get return on investment, and to know the minimum lengths to which one must go to see the level of result they say they want versus what they are willing to work for
  

Are you looking for a program to follow?  I offer personalized coaching, catered to your goals and needs.

Lamar Gant is an example of an athlete with severe scoliosis - not mild scoliosis - severe scoliosis, who overcame his limitations to become one of the most revered lifters in the annals of powerlifting. We can safely say that neither his form or technique was "textbook" (due to his morphology), and thus not what you might presume to be "safe lifting", but even so he was driven, set goals for himself, applied himself in his training, and was brave enough to stand on stage with "normal" athletes and show them what stuff he was made of.
He is not alone though, as you will find throughout the lifter forums that focus on scoliosis that many people have found that exercise - but more specifically heavy weight training - has played a complimentary role to the regression or elimination of many people's conditions.

Some common themes that have turned up in this T-Nation thread are:
- There seems to be no clear research done on athletes who repeatedly lift heavy weights with scoliosis and whether or not this can cause or worsen the condition.
- Lift. You’ll see what happens when it happens.
- Do what works for you. If it hurts(like spine damaging hurt), stop.
- If you were born with it, you can prehab/rehab to keep it from getting worse, and continue lifting. If you have developed scoliosis, you can correct and reverse it with some thought and a little work.
- you may develop scoliosis through bad posture, exercise selection, imbalances
- unilateral work is key for addressing imbalances
- lifting is good for you! Just use a little thought and consideration when you pick your lifts
- An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
- It wasn’t the weights that messed me up, it was the way I used the weights that caused me problems

One last note: It has been said by many that "there is no correlation with bad form and injury risk in weightlifting". This is not a surprising observation as we do indeed see many examples of horrendous form performed without subsequent acute injury. Moreover, we also see (and may have experienced) instances of "perfect" form during squats, deadlifts, bench presses, etc. that incur back strains, bicep tears, or pec tears.
Indeed, seldom do we see obvious positive, linear correlations of bad form and acute injury in the experimental resistance training literature. Common and well-established injury risks are actually poor sleep, high training frequency, higher training loads, exercise selection (joint specific injuries), higher rep ranges, and age is actually inversely related to injury in powerlifters, because "Despite the logical assumption that coordination and conditioning decrease with higher age, the higher experience in training and competition of older athletes led to a lower rate of injuries" (Reichel et al. 2019)

So on that last note, what I'd like to leave you with is, if you are experiencing challenges with your activity - pain, discomfort, restriction, unreasonable difficulty) - give it time.  There is learning in the doing, and your motor development (how your brain learns a skill and instructs your muscles) is time dependent.  Be patient, trust in the process, and you will get stronger and more confident!

Learn more about Lamar HERE.
Research Article: Incidence and characteristics of acute and overuse injuries in elite powerlifterswww.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331205X.2019.1588192

This exercise has been used as a quick assessment tool for movement quality because the parameters for both joint mobility and system stability lie at the upper boundaries of what is considered functional.  When performed with increasingly heavier weights, there is a high neural demand on cognition and motor control.  Thus, this exercise can neither be rushed nor performed without 100% focus.

As renowned physiotherapist and FMS founder Gray Cook remarked, symmetry, bodyweight management, strength, and stability can all be addressed with the Turkish Get Up because despite not working many prime-movers, "[it] really blasts your stabilizers" and "stabilizers are what give you the mechanical advantage to be stronger".

As the legend goes, if you wanted to learn how to lift you would find your local, village strongman and ask him to teach you.  The strongman, knowledgeable in such matters understood that not everyone had the focus, determination, coordination or even physical well-being it takes to begin much less endure years of brutal training.  In order to separate the wishers from the workers, the strongman would decree:

The Turkish Get-Up truly is one of the most accessible ways to assess both quantitative and qualitative parameters of physical fitness.  Not only will a TGU performed with light-to-moderately heavy weight keep you in the best shape of your life, but it also a mighty feat of strength when attempted with a maximal load.

The Turkish Get Up includes both an ASCENT and a DESCENT.

STEP 1: FLOOR PRESS

STEP 2: ROLL TO ELBOW

STEP 3: POST TO HAND

STEP 4: HIGH BRIDGE

STEP 5: BRIDGE TO KNEE

STEP 6: HIP SHIFT

STEP 7: ADJUST YOUR FEET

STEP 8: KNEELING TO STANDING

STEP 1: REVERSE LUNGE

STEP 2: HIP SHIFT / POST

STEP 3: SHOOT

STEP 4: PLANT YOUR BUTT

STEP 5: SLIDE TO YOUR SIDE

STEP 6: ROLL TO YOUR BACK

Sometimes we get so caught up with the idea of "optimizing" our training that we find ourselves unable to switch gears. You don't have to be at your strongest, leanest, and fittest all the time - in fact, many strength athletes and coaches would argue against it.

"You can't have the peaks without the valleys"

Often times life gets in the way, and unfortunately we may often perceive this as a nuisance or detriment, when in fact life's inconveniences serves as a natural mode of deloading our body from mechanical stress. The downside of course is that life's inconveniences are typically fraught with mental stresses, so we have to manage those too.

Training can be very simple, or it can get very complicated. For most people it should be the former, but also remember that without practice, everything is complicated in the beginning. Acquiring skills and honing requires ACTION and AWARENESS. You must take action, but also be aware of the feedback you get from your body: the nuances of the exercise, the consequence of making mistakes, the systemic impact of the whole workout, the muscle messaging you get afterwards (Stiffness, soreness, pain, etc.), and how you adapt to that feedback. Below is a list of the ACTIONS you must take when developing your training regimen, and the part you should pay most attention to (AWARE).

ACTION - Start with the general approach - try many exercises
BE AWARE - of which ones you like best (you are more consistent when you do things you enjoy)

ACTION - Narrow your repertoire - identify a movement fundamentals checklist
BE AWARE - that when training for strength, the human body expresses mechanical efficiency within a limited series of patterns that serve as the basis for all variants (e.g. Hinge Pattern, it's derivatives include: unilateral DL, Good Morning, Hip Thrust, Glute Bridge, Inverted Plank, Hardstyle Swings, Softstyle Swings, Snatch, Clean, Broad Jump, Sprinting, Sumo Deadlift, Medball Slam, Over The Shoulder Throw / Keg Toss, ....). Start with the simplest form, and master it before experimenting.

ACTION - Train all these movement patterns 2-3x weekly, with undulating intensity
BE AWARE - that there is a minimum effective dose for training adaptions. 2x / week / muscle group or pattern is typical, with 3x / week showing a mild advantage. If you try 3x / week per movement but you find recovery taking a hit, go back to 2x / week. This presumes the presence of adequate sleep, hydration, nutrition, stress status.

Undulating intensity means:
E.g.
Mon - LEGS: HEAVY, 5-8 reps, 8-10 hard sets
Thurs - LEGS: LIGHT, 12-20 reps, 6-8 sets to fatigue
If doing a third day, start with an extra light day - OR - if you are doing SPLIT TRAINING (i.e. LEGS/CHEST/BACK/ARMS all diff days) then you can have 1 extra FULL BODY day to hit ALL MUSCLE GROUPS. Keep it medium intensity, 3-4 sets per muscle group/movement.

ACTION - Predetermine your light and heavy days
BE AWARE - that when left to make the decision yourself, freedom of choice tends to reinforce your bias. So if you tend to find it difficult not going hard every session, without a set program to follow you may find yourself training every session hard & heavy and be on the fast-track to possible overtraining syndrome, AS WELL AS possibly leave some metabolic training adaptations on the table. If you tend to hold yourself back, then if left to decide you will find yourself likely not reaching your minimum effective training stimulus.

The above suggestions aren't meant for you to "optimally strategize your training periodization protocols" (don't I sound so scientific and smart?)....these are just minimum standards to ensure that the time you invest in the gym pays dividends back to your body and psyche.