Maik Wiedenbach: "If You Want To Have A Great Body, Be A Turtle! "

In his line of work, Maik Wiedenbach has probably come across more misconceptions, fads, and charlatanry than most people ever will. A former Top-50 Ranked Olympic swimmer who built a notable career as a personal trainer, author, and professor, he's been involved with health and fitness for nearly three decades.

He's seen and heard it all while pushing back on senseless trends and dangerous crazes.

"With any sport, be it bodybuilding or fitness in general, you make progress over time, and then you achieve a goal," says Maik Wiedenbach. "I swam with people who won the Olympics, and working out for them was like work – they go in and do it, whether they have a good day or bad day, and they progress towards their goals in an incremental fashion ."

The same can be applied to anyone with a personal fitness goal. To achieve their goals and reap the full benefits of working out, people need to keep coming back to the gym for the next workout session.

"Your fitness journey has to be something you can stick with for a long time," he says. "You're not going to stick with it if you're throwing up after every session."

Trying to do too much too quickly is one of the common ways people wander off their fitness journey. Combined with bad form, the overenthusiastic approach can lead to injury, longer recovery time, or worse – permanent damage.

Maik Wiedenbach advocates for a slower, more deliberate, approach with realistic goals that can be achieved in smaller milestones.

He also advocates for data tracking that relies on pen and paper to track things like sets, resp weights, and overall weekly volume.

Additionally, it pays to keep an eye on muscle activation, proper form as well as time under tension. These factors, paired with a proper diet, will ultimately change your physique.

He also cautions people to be mindful of the lure of the internet, where 30-day transformations and 10-minute workouts are a dime a dozen.

It's hard to talk about sports and fitness without mentioning steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Maik Wiedenbach often sees steroids used to compensate for poor training and diet habits.

In other sports, where testing is commonplace, people wouldn't be able to get away with it (or at least with less). In bodybuilding, it's a whole other story since most competitions are not tested, and the influencer market on social media is the wild wild west anyways.

Steroids aren't the only booster people take for better performance and results. It's not just bodybuilders who take it, either. Regular folk who work out can fall prey to the gurus that will sell them exotic nuts and seeds, protein shakes, or treatments that look like they've been lifted from science fiction movies.

More often than not, these don't work and are actually harmful.

"There's a lot of that, especially in New York City. I knew this guy who was sold a disgusting protein powder from a fitness guru 'Because that is really hardcore,'" Maik Wiedenbach recalls.

"So I had to explain to him how all protein powders on the market come from more or less two big dairy companies in China. Companies only differentiate by how much money they are spending on mixability and flavor. The one that was sold to him was just a version without the flavoring, and it cost him five times more."

Maik Wiedenbach also states that When it comes to building a great physique, training, sleep, and diet account for about 97% of your success so there is no need to stress the extra 3%.

An example of the three percent would be the cryo-chambers and similar treatments which promise unrealistic benefits or spin downright fraudulent claims such as " burn 400 calories in 4 minutes" Imagine the hourly burn rate!!!!!

In the end, these treatments just cost people time and money, while providing fringe benefits at best.

The approach Maik Wiedenbach advocates for rests on simplicity, and it's called a 4-3-2-1 method.

"Four is for the four movement patterns you need to practice – squat, hip hinge, push, pull. Three is for the macronutrients – proteins, carbs, and fats," he explains.

"Two is for the two ends of each muscle that need to come together in order to create tension. And one is for you because you are the one doing this for" says Wiedenbach.

As for his own fitness goals Maik Wiedenbach says: " i am pretty much done with competing, I just want to be a fit dad and help other people along the way. .

It's a well-established fact that people can slow down the inevitable loss of muscle mass and bone density through weight training.

A regular fitness regimen helps with keeping a good range of motion as we grow older. Additionally, training with weights provides cardiovascular benefits as well.

In the end, the turtle will always beat the hare as progress comes gradually and over time. The number one secret for success is consistency or as Woody Allen Said: "Keep showing up."

"So you might as well make it easy and sustainable for yourself," Maik Wiedenbach concludes.