I was raised in Ridgecrest, CA and was always involved in sports as a teenager. Football, Baseball and basketball were my favorite sports to name a few. I remember being 10yrs. Old watching my Dad working out and wanting to be like him; he was always in top physical shape. From there I became very interested in weight training and physical fitness. After high school I began to take nutrition and working out very seriously and spent the next four years developing a “Fitness Model” type of body. Currently I am going to college full time pursuing a degree in business, and will begin to work with a modeling agency in May of 2007. I am also training for Model Universe. As I have matured through these years I have found there is this burning furnace within me that takes my goals and makes me exceed above and beyond expectations. I believe that everyone should strive for a higher level of sophistication. Lastly, in my spare time you can catch me in the gym, at the movies, or just hanging out with close friends.

My Ab Training Advice

The one question I’m most frequently asked sounds something like this, “Joey, what’s your secret-what’s the one thing that has allowed you to build such great abs?” So many people want to know the secret. Many people believe there is some secret abs machine out there or some magic diet pill. The fact is, it’s EVERYTHING! It’s what you eat, how you exercise, how you nourish your body, rest, recovery. Building a great body is not easy. In order to show off your best abs it is vital your body fat levels are in the single digits. With tremendous amounts of dedication, sacrifice, and the right amount of diet/cardio this can be obtained. When people ask me what I do for my midsection this is always the first thing I tell them, “Abs are made in the kitchen not in the gym” –Lee Priest. Everyone and I mean everyone has a six pack! The trick is removing those stubborn layers of fat covering them. I can promise you one thing though unless you make it a life change to take this challenge on you will most likely fail at this transformation. I highly encourage you to find a friend or family member to take on this journey for a more fine tuned YOU! It will be so much easier to have a partner that you can look to for support. Again, diet/cardio is going to be 90% of this transformation the other 10% will be actual exercise. I recommend working your abs out 3 times a week. Two days light with little to no resistance and one day heavy using machines, weights, and medicines balls. You should also spend no more than 30 minutes on each of your abs sessions, simple! My two favorite ab exercises are leg raises and crunches using the medicine ball. These seem to be most effective for me. I feel that earning a tight jaw dropping midsection is a little extensive when you have little knowledge in the area.

Diet

Again, another very extensive subject luckily I have developed a simple approach to this. Take your body weight and times it by anywhere from 11-15 (i.e. 150lb. x 13= 1,950Kcal) and that is how many calories you should eat a day to lose weight. Obviously, that number will continue to change over time as you begin to drop body fat. Of that 1,950kcal, around 10% of that should come from lean proteins such as fish, chicken, eggs, turkey, and protein powder. As far as carbohydrates just try and stay away from processed carbs as much as possible. Get your fat from things like fish oil/flax and add a ton of fiber to your diet! I can’t stress that enough. Drink 1-2 gallons of water a day. Split your calories up into 6-8 small meals a day this will help keep your metabolism up and keep your body from storing excess food as body fat. When it comes to weight loss if there was one thing I could tell you to remember it would be this. In order to lose weight, you have to burn more calories a day than you eat!

Tip: When on the treadmill stay in the fat burning zone. DO NOT use high intensity, low... Low... Intensity in best more maximal fat burn use speeds ranging from 3.0mph-4.8mph. When ones heart rate gets too high his or her body will stop using fat for energy and begin to use a different energy system.

Tip: Drink tons of water! Water helps to speed ones metabolism and the digestive process, therefore, speeding up fat loss.

Tip: If I had a secret this would be it folks! Yes, Joey’s all time secret is ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid) …NOT Linoleic but Lipoic. Here is a link that will give you everything you need to know: www.teenbodybuilding.com/derek30.htm

Vitamins and Supplements I Use

- Whey
- Creatine
- Amino Acids
- Multi Vit/Min
- Fish Oil
- ALA
- Vit. E
- Vit. C
- Potassium
- Fiber

Hope this helps and good luck on accomplishing your goals, you deserve it!

Joey Guidangen aka 'Joey Abs'