You’d probably think you were dreaming, or that someone was playing a practical joke. That’s what I thought when it happened, but I was wrong.  The show was called “Faking It,” and they really did want to transform me from a couch-potato with back problems into a studly Chippendale look-alike.  I had just one question:  How can you take a woefully out-of-shape 34-year-old guy and make him look like a Chippendale in six weeks – all without risking injury? 

The show put me in touch with J. J. Flizanes of Invisible Fitness, who seemed remarkably undaunted by the challenge (but then, she wasn’t the one who’d have to rip her shirt off in front of 5 million people).  After assessing my injuries and physical condition, J. J. put me on a three-point diet and workout regimen.

The first two points were fairly straightforward: 1) Lose the substantial roll of fat around my stomach through diet and cardio exercise; and 2) Strengthen the core muscles (back, obliques, abdominals and hips) that support the lower back in order to prevent further injury.  Okay, I thought, this is going to take a lot of work but I can do it.

The third and most crucial goal, however, took me completely by surprise: 3) Gain 10-12 pounds of upper-body muscle by lifting light weights so as not to risk injury. Gain 10 pounds of muscle by lifting light weights?  I’d always been taught that in order to build muscle you should do sets of 5-8 repetitions with as much weight as you can handle.  It turns out I had a thing or two to learn.

Our first day in the gym, J. J. asked me how much I thought I could bench press.  I said that even after two years of no exercise I was confident I could hoist up 180 pounds or so. 

She did a quick calculation, and then put 105 pounds on the bench. “I can do way more than that!” I objected.

“Let’s start with this and get the form right,” she responded.  “We can always go up.”

She showed me how to keep very strict form, with the stomach tight and back flat to the bench.  Then she asked me to lower the weight slowly, counting to three as I did so, and push it back up just as slowly, also with a three-count. 

I felt pretty embarrassed to be bench-pressing 105 pounds in full view of guys throwing up 275, but decided the only way she’d put on a heavier weight was if I showed her how easy this weight was.

I did the first rep – easy.  Then another – piece of cake.  And another – okay, a little harder.  Something about the slowness of the up-and-down made it more difficult.  “How many of these are we going to do?”  I asked as I pressed up numbers 4 and 5. 

“It’s not how many,” she replied, “It’s how long.”

“How long?”

“Keep going for a full 60 seconds.  No pausing at the bottom, no pausing at the top.  I want tension on the chest muscles the entire time.”

Well, by the time I hit 60 seconds my arms and chest were twitching and trembling.

J. J. said, “Okay, now rest for 60.”

And then what?  I wanted to know.

“Then we bench press for another 60 seconds.”

This is the way all the exercises went.  Low weights that felt easy at first, always for 60 seconds of slow, strict repetitions.  Three sets of each exercise, at the end of which each exercised muscle was pumped with blood and felt like melting jelly.

Here is the upper-body program J. J. worked out for me.

Day One – Chest and Shoulders
Bench press – 60 seconds, three sets
Dumbell incline press – 60 seconds, three sets
Dumbell military press – 60 seconds, two sets
Triceps extensions – 60 seconds, two sets

Day Two – Back and Biceps
Lat Pull-downs – 60 seconds, three sets
Seated rows – 60 seconds, three sets
Shrugs with cable – 60 seconds, two sets
Biceps curls – 60 seconds, two sets

Day Three – Rest

Day Four – Supersets
Superset bench press with lat pull-downs
Superset Dumbell incline press with seated rows
Superset Dumbell military press with shrugs
Superset Triceps extensions with biceps curls

Day Five – Cardio, abs only

Day Six – Start over with Chest and Shoulders – increase weights to achieve failure at 60 seconds.  Repeat days 1-5, increasing all weights as necessary.

The amazing thing about this routine is that I started feeling bigger and stronger from the very first workout.  I was quite sore the next day, but it was a different kind of sore than what I’d gotten earlier in life with the 5-8 rep kind of lifting.  With this, there was no peripheral soreness – no stressed-out ligaments or tendons, no backache, no joint pain.  Instead, there was a deep soreness right in the belly of the muscle.  I could almost feel it getting bigger.

By the end of my six weeks, I’d gained all the muscle that J. J. had promised.  Here’s me at the start, and here’s me during my Chippendale photo-shoot less than six weeks later.   Bigger, leaner, stronger, and injury-free.  Suffice it to say, I’m a convert to the “light”-weight approach."

How the Invisible Fitness difference helped Adam Wasson do it

“After a serious lower back surgery in 2001, I hadn’t worked out in almost two years. I had to transform into a Chippendale dancer in less than 4 weeks,” says Wasson. “Obviously, my priority was not to re-injure myself or compromise myback in any way. I didn’t want to shortchange balanced fitness for appearance.

To shape and tone a body correctly, especially with an eye towards injury prevention and avoiding joint degeneration, requires a level of education way beyond most fitness trainers. JJ showed me how to gain muscle while simultaneously losing fat, all the while protecting and strengthening my back. After several weeks of seriously intense training on her cardio, weight lifting and diet program, I not only looked like a Chippendale, I felt like one.”

Wasson gained 10 pounds of solid muscle in his chest and shoulders, lost all the fat around his stomach, and had the physical ability to endure 4-hour long dance training.