An Athletic Body Workout for Men and Women: Interview with Coach Eddie Lomax

Hey coach, glad to have you back. So what is athletic body training all about?

When most people decide to exercise it is because they want to change their appearance. They generally want to lose fat and gain muscle. And traditionally, when asked to choose the type of body they want, they often use some type of athlete to describe the body they want.

Most people want the strong, lean, athletic body type. And the best way to build an athletic body is to train more like an athlete and less like a gym rat. Athletic Body Training is designed to train you like an athlete, so you can develop the athletic body you want.

Awesome. Well, what are the benefits of combining barbell, dumbbell, and bodyweight workouts into one program?

Exercise is all about movement…both the movement of your own body and the movement of objects. So, to train your body for all these types of movements, you need to use different “tools”. Body weight for the movement of your own body. Rods for the movement of an external object with both extremities. Dumbbells for the movement of external objects with one limb or alternately.

Using bodyweight, barbells, and dumbbells not only trains your body to perform these movements better…it also builds athletic muscle and burns fat. It not only improves your athletic abilities, but also your athletic appearance.

Make sense. Is Athletic Body Workout similar to your previous workouts? What is the main difference?

The previous workouts were Training without weights and Upper training with dumbbells. Apart from the obvious difference of combining bodyweight, dumbbells and barbells, the structure of the training is completely different. You rotate between general fitness, fat loss, and strength and size workouts to stay on a steady path of developing your athletic abilities and athletic body.

The workouts I did after this one, like the Ultimate Gymless Workout, Extreme Dumbbell Fitness, and Gladiator Body Workout, use this similar system because it works so well…and keeps you from getting bored.

You briefly talk about nutrition in Athletic Body Workout. Can you elaborate on what you think are some optimal nutritional strategies for the average trainee?

For the average trainee, you don’t need to worry about supplements or complex feeding strategies. But you must clean your diet. In my opinion, most people already know how to eat properly…they just don’t. What is better for you, an apple or a cookie? I bet you already know the answer, right?

I would start writing down everything you eat for a week. Then take a look at it in writing. You will quickly be able to pick out your problem areas and clean up your diet. Remember, you need fuel to build an athletic body and give it your all during workouts…so feed your body good, healthy food.

In your previous workouts, cardio was intertwined with strength training. Do you follow the same strategy with the Athletic Body Workout?

Yes, this is a big part of the Athletic Body Workout. Just think about it, most sports activities combine strength and cardio at the same time. The only exceptions are sports that focus on a single physical attribute, such as weightlifting. You need to have the strength to perform the activities AND the power of the heart and lungs to sustain the activity. You perform as you train… so you should train strength and cardio at the same time.

There are GPP workouts sprinkled throughout the training programs. This is for general physical preparation. They’re so much fun and they provide so many benefits…as well as challenging both strength and endurance at the same time.

How would a complete beginner go about achieving a more athletic physique?

Stop training like a bodybuilder and start training like an athlete. By that I mean ditch all those split routine workouts and “isolation” exercises and start using Full Body Workotus with compound exercises. The object of an athletic body is not to maximize the size of each muscle, but rather to develop athletic muscles and a strong body that works together. Also, you need to start blurring the lines between strength training and resistance training. Doing bicep curls and jogging for 20 minutes is not going to build an athletic body no matter how hard you do it.

If you get the athletic body workout, start with the general fitness workout. You will probably realize that you are not as fit as you think.

Is athletic body training just for men?

No. Athletic body training is also for women. However, if women are uncomfortable using weights, they can stick to weights for those exercises. Both men and women can greatly benefit from this type of athletic training.

Like all your other workouts, does this one come with templates?

Of course. I really like having exercise journal sheets so you can document your progress. Obtaining an athletic body is a journey…and like any worthwhile journey, it needs to be documented. The journal sheets can be printed so you can use them over and over again.

Thanks for talking to me again, coach.