Before and After
After (w/ Clothes on lol)
Semi-recent Bench video
Semi-recent OHP video
Semi-recent DL video
Semi-recent Squat video
What I look like now (after adding even more LBM due to getting much stronger since May 2016)
Backstory:
I grew up in NYC and played sports in high school. So, I was relatively active and fit throughout this time period. I moved to a smaller city in college and I didn’t play college sports, so I was less active and therefore also less fit. It was about this time that I started to go through periods where I would gain and lose a bit of weight sporadically as I tried to adjust into “adult life.” After college, the ups and downs in weight turned into only a very long and steep up. I chose a career in accounting which has you generally working long hours sitting down. I was also trying to finish my graduate studies and transitioning in married life, so I was basically crushing insane amounts of sugar and caffeine just to function. At my heaviest, I was about 300 lbs (end of 2014).
What made me change my life:
So, it was not lost on me throughout this time period that my health was in decline. I just always rationalized that I would get it back under control at some point. I thought, “For now, I need to focus on my career and family – you know the really important stuff; the superficial stuff can wait.” I had all kinds of health issues that kept worsening as time went on. For example, at one point, I was popping Prilosec like TicTacs just to stop from feeling like my stomach acid was coming up my throat every second of the day. I also snored so loud I would wake myself up. The tipping point, and the straw that broke the camels back was when I got gout. I’m not usually the type to want to go to the hospital; at one point, I had lost hearing in my left ear for a few days before I even considered going to the doctor (case of impacted ear wax lol, but that’s irrelevant to this story). Anyways, for those of you that have no idea what gout is, I would describe it as the worst pain I have ever felt in my life, and multiple that by 10. Ok, so I’m not going to act like I also have a high tolerance for pain, because I don’t. But the pain was so bad, that one night, I literally passed out (first time ever in my life) from the pain. And getting back to not liking doctors, literally minutes before passing out, I had just told my wife at the time to get ready to take me to the doctor; I just had to take a piss first. This was at about 3 am. So, there I am taking a piss trying very hard not to put weight on the leg that has gout because it felt like someone was literally splitting my ankle in half, and next thing I know, I’m coming to consciousness, with my wife slapping me in the face. So maybe this is being a little overdramatic, but I remember thinking, “OMG, if I was here by myself, I could’ve passed out, maybe hit my head, or worse, hitting the toilet bowl face first… and drown in my own piss.” So yes, that next day when I was thinking about all this was the day I decided I needed to make a change immediately.
What I did to reach my goals:
(1) Obviously, I started to exercise. I began by buying an elliptical and PowerBlock Elite adjustable dumbbells. I would go on the elliptical for about an hour a day, and did random dumbbell exercises. Eventually, I picked up biking again, which I had always enjoyed. Finally, I started strength training via barbells about a year in (end of November 2015 – I ordered a power rack and 300 lb Barbell set on Amazon as a gift to myself for Christmas). In hindsight, I should’ve been doing this all along (more on that later).
(2) MOST IMPORTANTLY, and I can’t stress this enough, I got my nutrition in check. I say “nutrition” but at the time, I called it what most people called it, diet. Now I know better. First, I just started learning about the basics of nutrition (more specifically, calories/macros/micros). It all seemed so simple, so it took me a while to really trust in the process (again, more on that later). I also started watching YouTube videos on meal prepping, and combining this with what I learned about calories/macros. I’m glad I randomly decided to give that a try, because again, I remember specifically thinking at that point, “this seems way too easy… but I guess I’ll try it until I get to the good stuff.” Well, as I started to trust the process and saw results, I stuck with it. I meal prepped every week for about a year. I also weighed and measured EVERYTHING I ate.
What are the main things I learned about this process:
(1) Again, NUTRITION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING to healthy living. If you don’t understand the concepts of calories/macros at a minimum, you will have a very difficult time maintaining proper health, even if you have no fitness goals. If you do have fitness goals, your nutrition will prevent you from reach high levels in that endeavor. If you are currently overweight or underweight, it’s probably because you don’t have a good understanding of nutrition, which may manifest themselves in many different forms, but ultimately they really can be simplified into not understanding the basics. I would recommend that anyone who falls in these categories to learn the basics of calories/macros, as well as meal prep, weigh, and track your food for a long-ish period of time.
(2) After nutrition, strength training is king. I won’t deny that there is a point where your strength can have diminishing returns (or even negatively affect) on your fitness goals. But I think that point is much higher than what most people think. For example, my opinion is (and this will probably be very polarizing) that every male should be able to at least Squat 405x5, DL 495x5, and Bench 315x5, unless you’re in some sort of sport that requires endurance at the highest levels. Otherwise, being strong overall will help you become more powerful (not the same as strength), faster, etc. This is why as I was saying above, I wish I had done Barbell training from the get-go, as these major compound movements are probably the most efficient and effective way of getting strong.
(3) On the subject of aesthetics… there are a lot of misinformation out there, but this is one of my pet peeves. It’s the idea that you should be doing high rep stuff (while avoiding doing heavy lifting) and eat clean (or eat certain types of food or get on certain diets) to look great. I call this the “I just wanna get toned” syndrome. What you’re really saying is that you want to look like the guy/girl in the magazines. Fine, I won’t judge you for that. But the truth is, a lot of those people aren’t that impressive to begin with (they’re just lean or airbrushed/photoshopped), are on gear (I don’t judge that, but let’s be clear about how the fact that you would never be able to achieve those physiques naturally), or they actually do the right thing (which I’ll get too in a sec) but you don’t know it (or they hide it). So what should you actually be doing to achieve your most aesthetic physique? Eat properly and get stronger. Yes, that’s it. Looking as close to a “Greek god(dess)” physique as possible is a matter of having as much muscle as possible while being lean. As a natural lifter, that means getting as strong as possible (the stronger a muscle is, the bigger it probably is). This is why you should be Barbell training. The May 2016 picture is a result of only 6 months of Barbell training. I have since added much more lean body mass, and have tried so many different types of lifting techniques since that point. I have always stalled when I stopped strength training, and added slabs of muscle when I did strength training again. But if you are a natural lifter, the gains do eventually taper, which actually works to your advantage if you have no interest in being a mound of muscle, and really do want to “just be tone.” This is especially true for women, who are afraid of looking like Chyna (WWF actress/performer) or some other geared female bodybuilder. This would be impossible as a natural female, as even men could not achieve that physique level naturally because the biggest determining factor of muscular potential is testosterone (in which even natural men could have 10x or more the level of testosterone as natural women). If you look at some fitchick who weighs about 120-130 lbs and has a killer booty, and you want to look like her, chances are she can probably Barbell Squat more than her bodyweight for reps. Anyways, I’ll end my rant. The point is, if there’s anything I could go back and re-do, it’d be to trust in the nutrition process, focus on strength training (more on this below), and not waste time on anything else.
(4) Remember when I was saying that I had always focused on what I thought was the important things first, and get to the superficial stuff later on? Well, I realized how incredibly misguided that thought process was. Your body is literally the vessel by which you interact with the world. Imagine you are trying to build a house with just hand tools. You could do it, but it’s not as efficient as using power tools. That’s you living life in “ok” shape vs “great shape.” If the hand tools were blunt, misaligned, etc, that is you living life as obese or overly underweight. Everything you do is enhanced by your physical state. Your can think more clearly if your heart and lungs are working as they should. You are more energetic and can get more things done during the day. Your relationships are enhanced when you can hang out with your friends in the summer weather in comfort because you aren’t sweating buckets, can wrestle with your kids, and not to be ugly here, but have passionate sex with your significant other without losing your breath or getting a cramp. Etc. etc. etc. Ask anyone who is in a skilled trade, whether it be building stuff, a chef, a tailor, etc. who is worth their salt, and they will tell you that they never neglect maintaining their “tools” because it allows them to do their craft well. Well, your body is your “tool” for living life. Prioritize it above everything else.
Where I’m at now:
When the May 2016 picture was taken, I was Squatting about 275x5, Benching 205x5, and DLing 275x5 (again, at a bodyweight of 170 lb) . Currently (a little over 2 years later), my maxes are Squat 395x5, Bench 305x4, and DLing 470x5 at a bodyweight of 210 lbs. I am sort of fluffy at this current state (which I don’t like), but it’s probably necessary for me to reach my goals (at some point, it becomes near impossible to gain muscle without putting a bit of fat on).
Again, I wish I would’ve focused on strength more in the last 3 years. Over this time, I tried some other non-strength training programs periodically, and I had just focused on getting stronger, I would’ve probably achieved my lifetime goals by now, and could’ve then focused on the other things I want to do. Having said that, because I am rather strong, I am still able to do many things well even though I don’t do them regularly. I have run a sub 7-min mile, touch a regulation basketball rim, do weighted pistol squats with relative ease, maintained 16 mph road bike speeds over decent distances, etc. These aren’t great stats in themselves, but having done them all at above 200 lb body weight and not being efficient due to lack of practice is pretty good IMO. After I reach my lifetime goals (hopefully by next summer), I will try to cut back down to about 180-185 lbs while maintaining that strength (which should also get me to my absolute best physique) while improving on these stats and many more.
Most importantly, all of the physical ailments I had when I was overweight disappeared. I had to throw out a huge stash of Kirkland brand Prilosec, my snoring completely went away, etc. My doctor told me she cannot find a single thing wrong with me. Ironically, my only problem now, if you can call it that, is I have too much energy. But that was just at the tip of the iceberg. Every other aspect of my life has improved drastically as well, including mental, social, career, etc. In fact, achieving this level of fitness helped me get through a divorce (as I’m sure you predicted by now) immensely, as being fit not only helps you deal with stress physiologically, but it also increases your overall capacity for stress, forces you to get your life in order so you can actually strength train properly, teaches you self-awareness and failure is part of getting better, etc.
I know this was long wall of text, but I wanted to share this story because I remember getting some benefit from others when I was going through this as well. Actually, I consider myself to be the type of person who does not generally get motivation from others, but instead can make changes instantaneously when I realize there’s a need – which is about all the motivation I need (hopefully that was obviously with how I portrayed the health issues I experienced). So, if you get motivation from this, great. But if nothing else, I guess it’s just to show (1) how I did (and you *should do*) and (2) what’s possible (and that you could have even better progress if you implement the fundamentals of nutrition and strength training).
Good luck, and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me! I’ve become very passionate about this because of how much it changed my life completely, so I’d be glad to help anyone towards that end.
