Many articles have been written about creatine and periodization. In every magazine open you'll see thermogenic products from cover to cover. So why is it that after reading all of these articles you still aren't as lean and muscular as you want to be? The answer is simple.

You've gained knowledge about some of the components of the body transformation process -- not the entire picture. You just need to learn how to put all of the pieces together into a whole system.

It's time to take all of the bits and pieces of knowledge you have accumulated and link them together into "the plan that works!" In this series of articles, I'll help you design that plan.

In this first stage of your body transformation you're going to utilize a weight training technology I've termed metabolic shift training. It is the most effective method for building muscle, burning fat, and transforming the body that I've ever encountered.

If you're like most people you've tried other routines that other people said have worked for them. You tried the ones you've seen in the fitness magazines, you've tried your gym buddies routine and it probably didn't work for you. That's because there is no perfect routine.

Metabolic shift training will get your muscles out of their comfort zones. This will cause your body to develop new muscle and burn fat. Furthermore, as you adapt to the stimulus, progression is built in so that you never overtrain.

There are some general principle of body transformation that apply to everyone. So, although you are unique, you are also in many ways the same as other people. Once you understand general principles you'll be able to alter some aspects of your training protocol.

The way to literally design your body is to have control over the composition of it. The vital prerequisite to determining how much fat your body burns is a control of how much muscle covers your skeleton. If you want to chisel or sculpt a body, you first need to grow muscle.

Muscle is the key to changing the shape and function of your body. If you want to reveal a good looking figure it's vital to learn how to add more muscle to your body. Even if your goal is to just burn fat, adding muscle will build your fat burning furnace. This is because muscle is the place where fat is burned.

What was your introduction to weight training? If you're like most people you started with total body moves 3X per week. Then you probably met somebody that told you to try a split routine. Legs on Mondays. Chest and Wednesdays.

Maybe you progressed with strength training development you learned terms like supersets, drop-sets, and burn-outs. Then maybe you started to classify your body into sub-segments. Instead of just doing legs, you started to devote an entire workout to "quads".

You were moving through the intermediate phase, heading up that much traveled hill to become an advanced bodybuilder. Why, though, as you advanced, did your gains slow?