Interview 10 - Daniel Pokorny

Hello! What's your athletic background and what initially motivated you to transform your body?

Hey, my name is Daniel or Dan, and I’ve been working out for over 6 years — but I wasn’t consistent at the beginning of my journey. Growing up I always played some sport with friends or just stayed active. I’m originally from Europe so we would play soccer all day long. In school I was always doing soccer, basketball or gymnastics. I also did mixed martial arts for a couple of years.

What's your approach to diet and nutrition?

Diet is the most important thing, either you’re trying to lose weight or gain muscle. I cook daily but I don’t have a specific meal plan that I follow. I feel like that’s the reason why a lot of people break their diet — they get tired of eating the same food all the time, especially people who are just starting their journey. I don’t do meal prep, although I used to. I just love cooking and eating fresh food. For the past year, I’ve been doing flexible dieting, or If It Fits Your Macros. Basically I’ll watch my bodyweight daily and then adjust my calorie intake. I count everything I eat — no it doesn’t take a lot of time and it’s not annoying. I also add fasting into my diet so with this combination I can eat a good amount of food, and have a good variety of food too.

It’s hard to detail my daily diet because every day it’s different, but here’s one example:

My first meal is around 2-3pm: 4 whole eggs, spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers with 2 cups of cream of wheat and some fruit.

Meal 2: 7-9 oz NY Strip steak, broccoli or huge bowl of salad with some low calorie dressing.

Meal 3 (my pre-workout meal): 3 or 4 servings of cereal with almond milk.

Meal 4 (post-workout meal): 2 cups of rice, medium sweet potato, 3 oz of tofu, 4 oz of chicken, 1 cup of broccoli, mushrooms, and bell peppers. After all that I’ll have an entire container of Halo Top Ice Cream.

Do you supplement your nutrition with any sport supplements?

The only supplements I have regularly are vitamins, a multivitamin complex, omegas, and a potassium complex. I take creatine and BCAAs, but I’m on and off with those. I have protein powder but I rarely use it. I’ll sometimes add it into my cream of wheat or when I’m making a smoothie. I’m not against supplements, but they should just be supplementing your diet, not to be your diet.

What does your typical week of working out look like?

It’s really hard for me to describe my workouts because every workout is unique. I don’t do one body part per day, and I’m trying to train every body part twice a week. I like to structure my workouts into Push, Pull, and Legs.

In the morning I like to have a cup of green tea or coffee and go for a 20-30 minute fasted cardio. My workout sessions are usually in the evenings. I find it better to train later when I have more calories in my body, but it depends on my schedule.

Push day:
• Cable flies: 7-8 sets, 20-15 reps
• Cable upright rows: 4 sets, 15-12 reps
• Incline dumbbell press: 6 sets, 15-8 reps (last 3 sets would be dropsets)
• Incline hammer strength: 6 sets, 15-12 reps
• Incline dumbbell flies superset with dumbbells side laterals: 5 sets of 15-12 reps
• Seated military press: 4 sets, 12-8 reps
• Seated dumbbell front raises: 4 sets, 12-10 reps
• Pec deck for chest superset with reverse pec deck for rear shoulders: 4-5 sets, 20-12 reps
• Cable side laterals superset with rope triceps pushdowns: 4 sets, 20-15 reps
• Straight bar tricep pushdowns: 4 sets, 15 reps
• Bodyweight dips and pushups: 4 sets until failure

Pull day:
• Assisted machine pull ups: 6 sets, 12 reps
• Seated cable rows: 5 sets, 15-12 reps
• Lateral pulldowns: 5 sets, 20-10 reps
• Bent-over rows: 5 sets, 15-8 reps
• T-bar row: 4 sets, 12-10 reps
• Hammer strength low row machine superset with hammer strength high row machine: 4 sets, 15-12 reps
• Straight arm pull downs superset with cable rows: 4 sets, 15 reps
• Dumbell row: 3 sets, 12 reps
• Bicep preacher curls: 5 sets, 15-10 reps superset with dumbbell hammer curls
• Rope cable curls: 5 sets, 20-12 reps

Leg day:
• Seated calf raises: 5 sets, 20-15 reps
• Lying hamstring curls: 5-6 sets, 20-12 reps
• Seated hamstring curls: 3 sets, 15 reps
• Leg extensions: 5 sets, 20-15 reps
• Squats or smith machine squats: 6 sets, 15-8 reps
• Leg press machine: 6 sets, 20-12 reps
• Close stance hack squat: 5 sets, 12-10 reps
• Abductors and adductors machine superset: 4 sets, 20 reps
• Leg extensions: 3 sets, 20 reps

After I finish this 3 day split, I repeat the whole thing (depending if I need a rest or not) by just changing up some exercises for other ones.

Have you found anything to be especially helpful or advantageous?

Everything I know about training and nutrition I’ve tried on my own body. I never had a personal trainer or coach in my life. Not that it would be bad to have a personal trainer or coach, I just fell in love with this sport and I wanted to learn more and try it on my own body. There’s so much information out there, you just have to research it. I watched so many YouTube videos about nutrition, workouts, and studies and I’m still doing that. I have a bunch of fitness YouTubers that I watch and I’m always learning.

What mistakes have you made along the way?

I definitely made a lot of mistakes around nutrition in the beginning. I was eating everything that I wanted to eat and I was just working out, thinking that was enough. I’ve never been injured, so I don't think I’m making any major mistake there. I could definitely spend more time stretching and foam rolling though. Regarding motivation, I was always competitive, but in this sport it’s just you! You can’t tell anyone that you skipped leg day because of your friend. Either you’ll do it or not, so if you cheat you’re only cheating yourself.

What are some of the best tips you can offer for others trying to follow in your footsteps?

Don’t follow my footsteps. No seriously, don’t. Be yourself, be unique. I’m not saying don’t get inspired, but you should never try to be like someone else. My best tips for transforming your body? Learn how to love the process more than the product. What I mean by this is that you have to love what you’re doing, enjoy that journey, enjoy those workouts, enjoy cooking good food at home, just have fun, and the results on your body are going to be the side effects of hard work and dedication.

Where can we find out more about you?

You can check out my Instagram @MaNameIsDan and there you can contact me or my manager Paul.

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The content on our website is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice or to replace a relationship with a qualified healthcare professional. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, and make sure that there is no conflict between any prescription advice, procedure or medication and non-prescription substances or activities.