“Geek to Freak”: Stripped Down

How I made it work for me, and what were my results.

John Kensinger
7 min readDec 8, 2019
shirtless man lifting weights, tim ferriss geek to freak stripped down, john kensinger
Photo by Anastase Maragos on Unsplash

If you’ve read The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss, then you might remember his “Geek to Freak” experiment. This experiment was performed by Ferriss and modeled after Arthur Jones’ Colorado Experiment.

Essentially, it entailed a very minimal workout routine, paired with supplements and a ton of food, that resulted in the gain of 34 pounds of lean muscle in one month.

What makes this result so impressive is the fact that the average person, when attempting to gain muscle, can healthfully (maintaining an ideal ratio of muscle-fat gain) put on about 1lb of lean muscle per month.

I have thumbed through Ferriss’ book more times than I care to admit, I figured it was time to give this one a go.

(Because what 20-something year-old male doesn’t want to put on 34 pounds of muscle in one month?)

Frankly, simply the possibility of this physical change in such a short amount of time sounds insane. So, on August 23, 2019 I set my sights for September 23, 2019 and got started.

The Setup

Ferriss sets up the experiment with six main tenets:

--

--

John Kensinger

From California, now in North Carolina. Join me as I delve into the realms of health, learning, language, and sustainability..