Summary
Introduction
Welcome and thank you for buying that ebook. Yes, thats me on the cover! More photos on my Instagram @herve.ozu or @ozu.fit
This work is meant to share my experience and knowledge about nutrition and physical activity in general, in order to help you getting a six-pack.
A. About me
My name is Herv, I was born in 1994. Im French. I started exercising at age 16, at home. When I was 18, I entered the Physical Activity Sciences department at the University of Lyon. After three years, I graduated with a Licenses Degree in Physical Activity Sciences, and two years later, I achieved a Masters Degree in Education, option Physical Education. I realized that I didnt want to be a PE teacher, I wanted to have more freedom. Im now a French tutor, in real life and on YouTube: French With Herv.
I have never been to the gym, ever. Ive been a vegetarian since 2017. I have never used any type of whey, or protein powder, or anything like that. I have never used steroids either, or any similar product. I insist on the fact that I am entirely natty.
B. My relation with exercise: Build yours!
After a breakup with my girlfriend at age 15, I felt a pain I had never felt before. Heartbroken and full of energy, following my instinct, I started to regularly use some dumbbells that my father had in his bedroom. Ever since, exercising has therefore been a healing process for me.
At that time, I was extremely thin. I didnt know anything about working out. I just started by doing whatever I wanted to. The dumbbells were only 3 kilos each. Therefore, I used to make a lot of reps, and my sessions could last two hours. I used to listen to music, music I loved. I remember that I often chose a French rap album, Mauvais il by Lunatic (2000). I put it on repeat and, regularly, maybe four times a week, I used to train, in my tiny bathroom, during the night, while my family was asleep. Sometimes, I heard someone from my family coming to the toilets nearby, which briefly made me come back to reality. I still remember that as if it was yesterday And it was 10 years ago!
This is how my love story with exercising started.
C. My philosophy
To me, exercising is one of the best things in life. Some years ago, I hurt my back pretty hard and couldnt exercise for about 10 months. Chronic low back pain, its called. How did I get out of this? Lot of stretching, mainly. Also, strengthen my lower back muscles and my abs to keep a balance. Anyway, this was probably the most frustrating period of my life: I wanted to train but I couldnt.
I train whenever I want; I do the type of training I want. Sometimes I over train which, for me, results in a loss of muscles, sadness and tiredness. I dont mind, though. Even if its not reasonable to train because I already trained a lot, I would still exercise. The most important thing for me is to do what I want. Its not about optimizing my training. Thats the difference between me and a lot of people.
Also, I dont train to become huge, with a lot of muscles. I dont train to have tremendous strength or stamina either. I only pursue an esthetic goal which is quite simple: I want to look at myself and be satisfied.
This being said, when it comes to body image, no one is never satisfied.
When youll get your six-pack, youll see. Youll always find something wrong about your body. Legs too thin, biceps too small, abs not visible enough It took me some time to realize I had achieved a decent abdomen. People made me realize. To me, I was far from getting the well-known six pack that we see here and there, in TV ads for example. I am a perfectionist! Not everyone has this type of mindset, but if you do, it will probably make things a lot easier to get your six-pack.
Even though I received compliments, I was not satisfied. We never are! And maybe thats better this way. This motivates us to keep training, again, again and over again.
D. Pleasure: The key to a long-lasting motivation
a. Why is pleasure crucial?
Though I initially had no knowledge or a good physical condition, I was tremendously focused, absorbed in my training. I didnt follow any rule. Not even did I count my series and reps. Everything I did was very instinctive, and just like the way I wanted to do. Because of that, training has never been something that restricted or made me feel pressured in one way or another.
- I had no obligation to train at certain hours
- I could do a variety of exercises, with or without dumbbells
- No one ever annoyed me about going to train
- No one ever told me to do this or that
- In my own world
- Etc.
In a nutshell, despite having almost no equipment, despite practicing in a tiny bathroom, it felt very good. I was totally free. As a result, I developed a relation of fun, of pleasure with training.
This, in my opinion, is the key to reach both a long lasting investment and a sane relation with physical activity.
Why would one quit training if you love to train? There is absolutely no chance that you quit exercising if you truly enjoy it. Except if you get injured, you will always find a time to do whatever you like to do: rope-jumping, yoga, push-ups, dumbbells, running, deadlifting
Actually, even if you get injured, youll probably keep training. Youll just adapt your sessions, if thats possible. For example, I have a friend who got injured at the hand for two months. During those two months, he trained legs every couple of days. He could have said: Ill take this opportunity to rest until I recover. But just like me, he cannot help exercising. It has become part of his life.
b. Self-determination theory
In a nutshell: lets say you want to play football. Your motivation can come from yourself: you love football so you are naturally motivated. Thats called intrinsic motivation. Or, your motivation can come from the outside: maybe the girl you are secretly in love with would notice you if youre part of the football team? Thats called extrinsic motivation.
What now? Well, science showed quite clearly that intrinsic motivation is far more likely to last on the long run. So, how do you develop extrinsic motivation? By experiencing pleasure! More precisely, self-determination is a spectrum. Learn about it by reading vulgarisation online, its truly interesting, I believe.
c. Background
Music helps to feel pleasure, but sometimes its more enjoyable to train in silence. You can also train while watching a documentary or the news or something else on TV, or watch some YouTube videos. Just cast YouTube on your TV.
When it comes to music, the best choice isnt always the motivating kind of music. Some people say they feel like they have more strength when they are listening to classical music, for example. Also, lets say youre listening to Gonna Fly Now, the Rocky Balboa famous theme: it might motivate you and give you energy but you might also exhaust yourself too quickly if you let yourself go.
