10k to Couch Potato

Chapter 1 sunday 31st december 2017

Next year, I am going to change hundreds of lives! This is my new year’s resolution.

As a personal trainer, I have helped many people turn their lives around. I have turned them from a couch potato into someone capable of running a 10K race. My clients have shed many stones and become fitter than they ever thought was possible.
Yet there are still those clients who, think that losing weight is too difficult. They claim they have no motivation. Even with my inspiration, they lack the drive to go to the gym. They say a healthy weight reducing diet is too difficult to maintain.
I am out to prove them wrong! Weight loss is easy! It’s all about the calories that you put into the body and the calories you use up with exercise. It’s like a see-saw. If you use up what goes in, you maintain your weight and the see-saw stays level. If you use more than what goes in, then you lose weight. If you put more in, you put weight on. It’s that simple!

So, I have decided, I am going to put on three stones over the next six months. I am not going to come to the gym or take any form of formal exercise. Then I am going to lose it all in the next six months. I will prove how easy it is when you have the motivation to do it. Sitting around all day is nothing but laziness. Stand up and get those muscles working!

Of course, I will monitor my progress every step of the way, just so I can show my clients and future clients that if I can do it, they can do it!

So here we are on day 0.

I am 32 years of age, I am five foot nine and I weigh 13 stones. That gives me a BMI of 26.88 and already puts me in the ‘overweight’ category. However, after years of body building, and using a formula that calculates my percentage of body fat from my waist to hip ratio, I have only 6% body fat. The rest of my weight comes from my muscles. I am very much top heavy, with large deltoids, biceps, triceps and pectoral muscles. I have a good strong trapezius muscle running across my shoulders and down my back. This runs down to a narrow waist. My back muscles are strong and they leave a narrow groove where my spine is. I have a rounded gluteus maximus and visible hamstrings. My gastrocnemius or calf muscles are also nicely taut. At the front, beneath my pectoral muscles, my intercostal muscles are visible, if I raise my arms. My stomach muscles give me a good visible six pack, but there are more muscles there that can be palpated. My transverse abdominals are strong too and I have good external oblique muscles which gives me that nice diagonal line between my hips and my legs.
My Quadriceps Femorus muscle on the front of my legs is visible too.
I work out six days a week every week to maintain my figure, I work hard to keep my muscles symmetrical as well as strong and visible. On a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I do an aerobic workout, using various machines. I usually do a ten-minute warm up on the treadmill, then switch to the bike, the rower, cross trainer, stepper then back to the treadmill to finish and cool down. After that, I do some abdominal work and stretch out until my heart rate has returned to normal. A full session might take anywhere up to two hours, although some days I do break it up into two sessions of 1 hour each. I’m at the gym anyway as my personal trainer work is based there, so it’s not like I’m going out of my way. I’m showing my clients what is possible.
On a Thursday and Saturday, I concentrate on the weight training. After warming up, I do chest presses, shoulder press, bicep curls, bench presses, shoulder flies, lat pull downs and pull ups, seated rows, leg presses, squats, leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, outer adductors, inner abductors, then I do free weights, deadlifts, lunges, that kind of thing.
On a Tuesday, I combine my aerobic and weights in a marathon session that can last up to four hours!

I can run a 10K easily, despite my bulk and I could enter a half marathon, without extra training and reach the finish line with a decent time.

I am very careful with what I eat. I eat lots of protein to take care of my muscle bulk. I keep fat to an absolute minimum, but I am not as strict as I had once been when I was competing. I stay away from most carbs, but I still try to consume my ‘five a day’ in the form of fruits and vegetables. I do not eat puddings or desserts.
Fluids are such an important part of anyone’s diet and are often forgotten about. I try to consume at least 3 litres of water a day.
I supplement my diet with vitamins, minerals and electrolytes, just I case I have forgotten about a necessary nutrient. I also like to take creatine to increase my muscle mass, protein shakes, beta-alanine, which is an amino acid to reduce fatigue and increase exercise performance, branched chain amino acids to reduce muscle loss, turmeric as an anti-inflammatory and glucosamine with chondroitin for my bone health.

So, this time next year, I should have gained and lost 3 stones. My body will look exactly as it does now. I will be fit, muscular and healthy. This is my new year’s resolution and I am determined not to give in!