RX Muscle.com review WOW!

RX Muscle review of the movie. Written by, Written by John Koenig

Film maker Stuart MacDonald asked himself the question thousands have wondered about: Just what would it take to change my body into that of the guy in the fitness advertisements? But MacDonald took it a step further, seeking out IFBB pro bodybuilder Jeff Willett, who is the guy in the ads and owns a gym. At 42 years old, with a 44-inch waist and a soft physique nearly 30% bodyfat, MacDonald must have appeared a daunting project. Nonetheless, Willett decided he'd teach Stuart how to train, set up meal plans for him, and otherwise guide him through the entire process. "I Want To Look Like That Guy" is an entertaining documentary of the roller coaster ride that ensued. MacDonald had no idea what he was getting into.

I appreciate that Willett's 18-week Phase One was about learning to workout, with minimal involvement in the nutritional end. This comes closest to what the average man-in-the-street thinks those ads are telling them: join a gym, or better yet, buy this piece of exercise equipment (can we all say Bowflex?), follow a simple workout program a few days a week, and bingo, soon you'll be shredded and muscular.

After one week, MacDonald was asking the camera why his body hadn't visibly changed. This sounds ridiculous to anyone in the industry, but remember, most people don't know any better! That's why the ads are successful. He began the experiment at 27% bodyfat, and a dozen weeks of workouts later was only down to 25%. Of course, a massive cookie binge that 12th week slowed progress down. Sounds bad, but what could be more typical of the average person?

Phase 2 adds the dieting component. Now things get interesting, and MacDonald begins to learn for the first time how involved what he's attempting to do is. Willett lays it all out for him, every meal of each day. As the meal plans change, they are discussed between the two of them, and the actual plan is displayed on the screen. I applaud Willett for providing this much detail.

"It's scary how hard it is to get lean enough for photo sessions. You have no idea, you may look great, but you'll have no life, no energy," said MacDonald into the camera, alone one evening in his home. He was hungry, tired of being tired, and feeling sorry for himself.

At another point, further into the project, co-producer Willett tell Stuart, "You have to feel real bad to look real good! I don't care if you fall down, I don't care if you feel faint... stick to the nutrition!" Willett was tremendous, at times boosting MacDonald's spirits, at other points strongly shaking him up and making it clear he had to stay in the game and be disciplined or nothing was going to happen. "I'm tired of hearing people make excuses!" he tells MacDonald later in the film when he's hearing excuses.

In a post on Rxmuscle, Willett pointed out "One of the primary points is to illustrate that for the ‘average' person with a job, family and normal life obligations, it is not functional or realistic to achieve and maintain single-digit bodyfat percentages. However, that is what would be required if you want to look like the guys in the ads. It takes intense personal sacrifice with your diet and lifestyle."

Stuart MacDonald struggles with the aspects of this project all of us deal with. It takes months and months to change the body this much (drug-free, keep in mind). Workouts come and go; one or two cardio sessions per day take priority in his life. Friends and family find themselves on the sidelines; he gets lonely. He's always hungry!

Stu bravely lives his life before the cameras; we see him shave his body, he poses for photos every week; he trains, he learns to pose. His doubts and failures play out before us, and didn't end up on the editing-room floor. Slowly, then more quickly as he dials in the nutrition and remains consistent, MacDonald's body begins to become that of a bodybuilder, right in front of the camera. It's fascinating to watch and listen to him confide in the camera, and to be the fly on the wall for countless meetings with Jeff Willett, who faithfully, consistently provides moral support, motivation, and all his workout and dietary programs.

By the time MacDonald has morphed into an under-6% bodyfat bodybuilder and is preparing to compete in an NPC contest, the viewer cannot help but be rooting for him to make it.

"I Want to Look Like That Guy" shows that a regular guy can look like the guy in the ad, but it takes a smart, disciplined plan outside the understanding of most "regular guys." Stuart MacDonald made dramatic changes to his physique, and they took many months. This movie clearly illustrates how difficult it is to get into true bodybuilding condition, and exposes the ads selling an image clearly unrealistic for most people to achieve.

"I Want To Look Like That Guy" is entertaining, truthful, and passionate. It's not about training, nor the world of bodybuilding; it's about the very real journey Stuart MacDonald took as he transformed himself.

More Reviews Better Than Expected!

One of bodybuildings greatest natural bodybuilders Skip La Cour gave the movie "I Want To Look Like That Guy" a great review!

"The movie 'I Want to Look Like That Guy" is an inspiring story that teaches a lot more than being successful at creating a great body. It demonstrates what it takes to be successful at ANYTHING you attempt to do in life. This is a must-see movie if you feel that you 'deserve' success and you just can't figure out why it eludes you. Although the movie does a great job of showing what it takes to look like that guy, don't waste the valuable life lessons it teaches only on that pursuit."

Skip La Cour Six-Time National Bodybuilding Champion / Success Coach

Help us spread the word...

Hello again. Well the movie still is not officially released. Only a few 100 have been sold and guess what? Someone who bought it thought it would be a fantastic idea to upload it to a download site. That's pirating and illegal. We know pretty much how it happened and who may have done it. My question is why? Why delete all the hard work we put into this movie. I wish we could do this for free but we can't. Movies are not made for free. They employ 100's if not thousands of people. I was on a forum with a guy who thought it was funny. I pleaded with him not to upload it but he did and flaunted it, teased me about it. The arrogance and ignorance of such an action steamed me because it's hurting Jeff Willet's business and mine. People who have bought the movie think it's one of the best movies about a lay person venturing into the bodybuilding world ever made. It's gritty, funny and emotional. But here's one guy who thought it would be funny to get back at me for telling him what not to do with the movie, upload it. Yet he did and told me he can't stop me and a few f bombs later he was so proud of himself.

His action is causing us to lose sales, lots of sales. In this economy it really hurts us all. We put 2 years into this film and now we are on a bed of nails every night hoping people will find it better of themselves to NOT download it off a file sharing site.

If you know of anyone doing this please stop them. Make them think about what they are doing. Who they are hurting. We are not getting rich off this movie. All we want to do is tell a great story and possibly help people achieve their goals.

Okay some people who haven't bought the movie are saying $30 is too much. Well this movie has in it a full consultation that Jeff charges $250 for. Plus you get a full diet plan to follow, the same one I did so you can try it for yourself. Jeff Willet won the overall team universe championship in 2003 and got his pro card to be in the IFBB without steroids. You can only do that with hard work and study nutrition like it's nobodies business. 13 years of knowledge and experience is captured in this movie and giving it away for $30 is nothing. This is a movie people have said they watch 3 and 4 times. If $30 is too much then fine we understand but please don't steal it. If anything find a friend who owns it an borrow it.

All we ask is that you please don't download any movie, not just ours. The feds watch those sites and pick victims at random. Do you want to be one? If you know it's wrong then it's wrong.

I promise I won't come to your place of business and take something of value from you. Please don't do that to our company either. Thank you.

Bodybuilding Motivation

Bodybuilding Motivation

My trainer, Jeff Willet is the undisputed champion of connecting to a vision. In this video he is explaining how he used mental picturing to win his bodybuilding pro card. By connecting to a vision in your mind you end up brainwashing yourself. You read right brainwashing. I know the government will probably step in someday soon and tell me that Jeff is using a technique that is dangerous and "must be stopped before people start bettering their lives." Heaven forbid!

Brainwashing yourself is easier than you think. If you want to be in top shape then you have to surround yourself with photos of people in top shape. Imagine yourself in their shoes. Say that you will be like that guy or woman. It seems stupid at first but advertisers do it with great success. They use jingles to help you remember a phone number or a crazy character like a duck for insurance. All that is using the brain to connect with images. Once you've done that your mind will take over for you. Case and point, I went on to win 2nd place in a bodybuilding contest by doing what Jeff said in this video!

Supplement Ad Claims

Okay I have a Google AdSense account, hence the ads on the side of the page. You might be thinking to yourself why are you advocating the use of steroids, fat loss pills and strange machines? Google generates those ads automatically based on the content of my blog. Think of it. A search engine thinks that if I blog about wellness and fitness I would be interested in those products. Sad isn't it? Young athletes are getting their information on the net on how to become star performers at the top of their game and what are they bombarded with? Those ads.

Do some research. Read about my documentary at:
http://www.iwanttolooklikethatguy.com
Here you'll find that most of the stuff being pushed is junk and none of it by itself will get you ripped...none of it. Only hard work.

That being said, read what the ads are claiming. What emotional response are they generating in you? Vanity and the hope of being more attractive? STOP dead in your tracks if that is a claim. Those features in you come from within.

So again look at those ads, study them read them and understand how they are pushing product. In my documentary this subject is not only explored and exposed but you also will learn how to get ripped. All I can tell you is that it is all mental and must be experienced in order to understand it fully. My hope is that I Want To Look Like That Guy will paint a clear picture to everyone as to what it really takes to look lean and ripped. I'll say it again you won't find it in a bottle. Trust me. If if were that easy then we would all be ripped and shredded am I right or wrong?

So then what is the secret to being ripped. There is no secret. I'll tell you in a nutshell how to do it. Execute a well thought out plan that encompasses diet and exercise and never veer from the path until you achieve your look. That means, you GO to the Gym even when you don't want to. You eat the right foods at the right time. Eat lots of crunchy greens and protein. Drink whey protein and use replacement meals for when you are on the go.

Do this every day for 6 months. No beer, no candy, no fast food, no dessert, no pop. Just execute and you will be ripped in just 180 days...maybe longer it all depends on you.

Killing to be fit

Well we did it again. On the telly. I'll let you view this then lets break it down so you can see for yourself just how TV news people can twist your message to make it even more news worthy. All in all I enjoyed the spot though and you will too.

I just found a video of Jeff Willet in competition willing a title, not sure what one it was but it's the big trophy in his office. I'm assuming it's the Team Universe overall Championship and I think it was filmed in NY. Enjoy...

Documentary in the news

Here is the article that hit the local rag this weekend. Not a bad telling of the movie.

Local filmmaker reveals reality of bodybuilding

An Adrian Township man made a film documenting his journey to look like the muscular men in fitness ads only to discover it’s not a functional lifestyle and such ads can be deceptive.When Stuart MacDonald began filming “I Want to Look Like That Guy,” he was almost 43. MacDonald initially lost about 10 pounds, replaced it with lean muscle and then stopped working out for about five months. He put the weight back on again and then some. He weighed 204 pounds and had a 44-inch waist at the time. MacDonald decided to do something about it, he said, and who better to learn what it takes to look like the guy in the ad than from the guy in the ad?So he enlisted the help of Jeff Willet, who owns and operates Jeff Willet’s Powerhouse Gym, 137 S. Main St., to aid him in totally transforming his body. Willet has won numerous state and national titles and the 2003 overall Team Universe Championship, which earned him the status of International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) Pro Bodybuilder.In six months’ time, MacDonald was able to pack on muscle and decreased his weight, waist size and body fat percentage without using drugs, steroids or growth hormones. After the transformation, he weighed 154 pounds and had a 27-inch waist and 6 percent body fat. MacDonald, now 45, described the film as a “very dramatic documentary.” During the process, he said he broke his toe, injured his bicep and got sick twice, including getting a serious case of strep throat. Besides being the owner of Boomerang Studios, an advertising agency and video production house in Adrian, MacDonald is also a magician, runs a haunted house and is an on-call firefighter for the Adrian Fire Department.“No one realizes how much dedication it takes to look like those guys (in the fitness ads),” he said.In the film, MacDonald said Willet warned him that looking that lean comes with intense, personal sacrifice.Willet said this is not a “how-to” film. He said the films paints the reality of bodybuilding.“It so clearly validates what I do in my career,” he said.MacDonald said everything about fitness is oversold and overhyped. Willet said fitness is based on the physiology of how people burn fat and build muscle. All should train more similarly than differently, he said.Willet said MacDonald was willing and able to persevere. “He did exactly what I asked him,” he said. “That’s why he looked the way he did.”MacDonald said the body images portrayed in the ads are the reasons why young boys are getting started using steroids and young girls are becoming anorexic or bulimic.“The ideal is an illusion,” he said. “It’s OK to walk around with a few extra pounds.”Willet said people coming into the gym thought MacDonald was doing something special.MacDonald said he was working his tail off. He said his body fat percentage is now about 20.What MacDonald said he is most surprised to have learned from the experience is how the flexible the body is and how fast fat goes back on. He was also surprised to learn how hard it was to live that way.“I was not prepared for that kind of lifestyle,” he said.Willet said most people aren’t willing to do what it takes. “(MacDonald) surpassed my expectations at how well he did,” he said.MacDonald said the process was scientifically documented with the help of Adam Coughlin. Coughlin is an assistant professor and the department chairman of exercise science and physical education at Adrian College.During MacDonald’s intense regimen of diet and exercise, he learned the first thing to go was his mind, as his focus turned to food and his meals.He said he also became very emotional. “Things set you off for no apparent reason,” he said.Another hardship for MacDonald was his lack of energy.“I had enough energy to get me to 2 (p.m.).” MacDonald said just weeks before he competed in a bodybuilding competition — the Michigan National Physique Committee state championships in July 2008 in Detroit — he was visiting with his mom and couldn’t eat any of her birthday cake.His mom thought he was wasting away, he said.MacDonald recalled a time when he did stray from his diet.“As soon as I had a burrito, I started to feel normal,” he said.During a video confessional in the film, MacDonald said that after eating the burrito he could feel the fluid filling up around his midsection.He said in the film: “But it’s getting scary how hard it is to get as lean as I need to get for that photograph to show you how hard it is to look like those people in those photographs. It’s a lie. It’s a complete lie. Nobody can live like that and eat like this. Nobody can do it and function. These guys are starving themselves to near death.“You’ve got no life. You’ve got no energy. You may look great, but you’re not going to feel great.”A couple of times MacDonald needed to do “damage control,” he said.Willet said he had to push MacDonald to be “bodybuilding lean.”“For most body types, it’s not functional to be that lean,” he said. In the film, Willet echoes that sentiment and added, “So you’re kind of fighting, working against every natural instinct that there is right now, and this is where your mind has to take over and take your body to a place where it doesn’t necessarily want to go. “It’s uncomfortable. But that’s what’s required to get in the type of condition you want to display on a show stage. This would not be necessary for someone who wants to simply be healthy and leaner.”MacDonald said the reason they decided to do the competition is to have an ending point where he could be judged by his peers and see how he measured up.He received second place in the men’s lightweight class and third place in the men’s masters division.“To have an extreme physique, you have to have an extreme lifestyle,” Willet said. “It is possible to do this drug free. Drugs have driven the image. It’s possible, but it should come with a warning to compete at this level.”At the conclusion of the movie, MacDonald said there isn’t an easy way to transform the body. Fitness models in ads are usually photographed after months of training, he said.“Once you research the sport, you recognize the people in the sport who are in the ads,” he said.A trailer for the film can be viewed at http://www.iwanttolooklikethatguy.com/. DVDs can be ordered at http://www.jeffwillet.com/.

How Much Cardio should you do?

In my documentary I learned that you don't want to go over 20 minutes if you are trying to build more muscle. More time than that will tell your body to trim down the size of your body so it will work more efficiently. Have you ever seen a large muscular marathoner? No and you never will. Okay then why do those big guys in muscle mags say 40 to 100 minutes of cardio. Well they are on steroids and that changes the picture. If you want to build a natural body and you should, then don't do any of those workouts in muscle mags. They are designed for the "roid boyz and womenoids."

More...now that you understand the 20 minute rule I have to stress something here. In order for you to burn fat on the cardio machine or bike you must try to maximize your workout. What I mean is that you should try your hardest to best your distance over time every time you do cardio. If you biked or ran 4 miles in 20 minutes then you should try to best it the next time you do cardio in the same amount of time.

This will probably be the most challenging 20 minutes of your day. Eventually you will peak out and not beat your time. When this happens try another machine and best a time on that. Cardio is cardio no matter the type of machine.

Use this rule 20 minutes if you want to grow more muscular and spend less time in the gym.

Documentary Trailer

Here is the link to my fitness documentary I Want To Look Like That Guy:
www.iwanttolooklikethatguy.com

Enjoy!

Fitness Documentary

I just finished my documentary called I Want to Look Like That Guy. It's about one mans obsession to look like the guys you see in fitness ads like the bowflex guy. What we discover is that no machine, pill, diet or book will singularly give you single digit body fat levels. The movie follows film maker (me) Stuart MacDonald over a 6 month period to see what it really takes to look like those guys. It's shocking and will blow every myth and method of weight loss out of the water.

I'll give you tid bits here and there about the movie but first I want you to watch the trailer and see for yourself what the movie is about. Then we'll talk about how I lost 50 lbs and achieved a 5% bodyfat body. It will open your mind about how fitness ads are missleading and sell an ideal that is an illusion.