We’ve all heard the saying ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail’. 

One thing that people can never seem to be too prepared for, is the fact that summer bodies are made in winter. 

Of course, they can and should be worked on all year round. lf there was ever a year to be more mindful of the impact your physical health and fitness has on almost every aspect of your life, it would be this one. All internal health benefits aside, I can also guarantee there is no better feeling than getting your kit off at the beach on a hot summer’s day, flaunting all the hard hours at the gym or in the kitchen meal prepping, and feeling like a superstar doing it.

Autumn and winter seemed to have gone in the blink of an eye. So if you haven’t quite felt prepared, don’t worry, you are not alone. 

There is no doubt this year has been chaotic. With people being encouraged to stay home, work from home instead of the office and constantly ‘physical distance’, it was easy to fall into an inactive lifestyle that involved moving less and, in many cases, eating more as well. 

As life slowly has slowly gone back to (a new) normal and the warmer weather creeps in, motivation to shed those unwanted COVID kilos has risen as well. In the spirit of hard work and preparation, we armed our Body By Brando athletes with the tools needed to get summer-bod ready by running our annual Pre-Summer Shred.

How do the BBB shreds work, I hear you ask? Well, to sum it up in a sentence, each athlete gets assigned their own coach, their own nutrition targets, weekly challenges, joined by a group of like-minded people going through the same trials and tribulations to help keep them accountable. We genuinely believe that having a small team of like-minded individuals on the same journey as you will make a world of difference, and we have the results to prove it. 

For those who wanted to take it a step further, there was the option to take part in a one-month intestinal parasite cleanse, guided by the crew at Collective Culture. Basically, this involved eating only organic produce and cutting out all caffeine, alcohol and sugar in order to starve the parasites and bacteria in our digestive system. Read up about the long list of health benefits on our previous blog where we discuss the health benefits of a gut cleanse in the first place.

All in all, we want to commend everyone who joined in either the shred or the cleanse. It was a huge effort on everyone’s part, and no small feat to complete a whole month at the level of intensity and dedication it required. Every person came out the other side with an overall reduction in weight, body fat percentage, a new sense of confidence and, and last but not least, a winning mindset. And that is something that can’t be bought – only earned.

We’ve compiled everyone’s results and are proud to share them with you here to show what can be achieved when you put your mind to it and are surrounded by an environment that favours success. Although it was a ‘pre-summer shred’, there is never going to be a bad time to start making a conscious decision to work on your health. So, what are you waiting for?

Extra special shout-out to the three winners of each category – Rob Hardie (biggest body composition change), Gemma Ramsay (highest attendance) and Max Lightowlers (best before and after shots). Check out all the amazing transformations below.