What I never gained at a big box gym

At my heaviest, I weighed 220 pounds. As a 5’6″ male, that’s not the number you want to see staring back at you.

That was seven years ago.

I had hit a plateau and wasn’t very motivated to do much with my health during that period of my life. Which was odd, because prior to that, especially during college, I was a gym rat. I would lift almost every day of the week. You remember what it was like back then, right?

Grab a couple of Red Bulls (there was no sugar free) pre-workout and some form of powdered mix during and post-workout. Monday’s & Wednesday’s were always chest days — and NEVER — skipped bi’s and tri’s before going out on a Friday night.

Somehow I had lost all of that and blew up like a tick. It wasn’t a very good feeling and after living severely overweight for a year, I begun to get weak. Like, noodle-armed wet spaghetti weak.

I eventually got fed up and did what most people did, took a drastic measure.

Drastic measures call for drastic diets

I figured, if I could just “do a detox” I could get myself back on track. Easy peasy.

If you’re like me, you need structure before attempting to do something new. All the I’s have to be dotted, T’s have to be crossed, and I needed to buy tupperware for everyday of the week for my new regiment. I purchased a book from Tim Ferris, The Four Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman.

Let’s do this!

The major portion of the book that I was interested in was his take on the “slow-carb diet.” If you’re interested in this, I’ll let you read the book, though you may find my take on it a bit concerning. To sum up the diet, I ate vegetables, meats (proteins), and legumes (beans) primarily. No dairy, NO sugars (not even fruits), and of course no artificial sweeteners.

Except for one day, deemed “cheat-day” where you can go nuts. Literally. I would eat 2 or 3 donuts just to warm up.

So my day-to-day normally consisted of eggs and salsa to start, with copious amounts of meats and veggies throughout the day. There was no real limit. I just ate until I was full. Then when cheat-day arrived, like a caged bear set loose into the wild — I was ravenous — eating everything in sight. Sunday’s were a shock to the system, as I was right back into the strict ways of the diet. Which was fine because, at that point, I didn’t even want to see food.

Until mid-week rolled around, cravings would get worse. Eventually, I would get sick at just the smell of salsa.

Over 60-70 days, I lost 35 pounds.

It was a miracle. It was also REALLY hard.

The problem with this diet, as you might already guess, it wasn’t sustainable. Not for me at least. I couldn’t see myself living like this. It also zapped all of the energy out of me. No carbs = no energy = no working out.

So even though I lost weight, I still had spaghetti arms.

Everyone is doing it: P90X

Remember the day’s of your Facebook feed filling up with people selling Beach Body DVD’s and supplements? Yea, I did it too.

I heard it was the best workout ever and people were seeing results left, right, and upside down. Yes, I actually found myself hanging upside down in my closet to do the at-home workouts. More on that later.

This program had what I needed: structure, tracking, and promised results. I never really bought into the supplements, but I did borrow the workout DVD’s from my friend. I also dropped about $250 in workout gear I needed:

• Yoga mat
• Dumbells
• Bands
• Pull-up bar
• Medicine balls
• Swiss balls
• Roller
• Kettle-bell

I started in the winter time and even setup an entire room devoted to doing P90X. I had plenty of room to jump squat, toe hop, and “jump over the river” as Tony (host of P90X) put it. I moderated myself at first, because the exercises were really hard, at least for this phase in my life. For instance, I couldn’t do a single pull-up in the beginning. After a month or so, I found myself attempting to do them using the pull-up bar, latched onto my closet door.

During one workout, you had to grasp the bar with one hand and then with other, a towel. Once you performed the pull-up, you had to tilt upside down and maintain the squeeze. I did that once and felt a nice tear in my shoulder. I couldn’t do pull-ups for quite some time after that and realized my home wasn’t the place for such stunts.

Further, I was getting bored with working out at home. Especially as the nicer weather came around. Workouts would take well over an hour to complete. Which isn’t bad, but it gets to you day after day in your own home.

I needed to get back to the gym.

Big Box Gyms

I won’t openly bash local gyms by name, but I joined a place that served pizza on Monday nights.

Pizza. At a gym. Where you go to lose weight from eating the very same pizza at home. Sigh.

This story isn’t as long because I didn’t last long. Here’s what my typical routine looked like:

1. Warm up on the treadmill. (I hate treadmills.)
2. Hit up a leg machine if it was free.
3. Hit up a bench machine if it was free.
4. Grab some dumbbells. If they were free.

I found myself mindlessly showing up and moving from station to station without seeing any results. I didn’t have a rhythm, I wasn’t getting stronger, I didn’t have structure. Even Tony Horton, host of the P90X DVD’s, provided some level of motivation and encouragement.

All I was getting here was the smell of pizza and long lines at each station.

Bobby Collins & One More Rep Fitness

I’ll save the advertisement for another time, but OMR & the OMR family has been one of my biggest encouragements and challenges in the last 8 months. When you’re working out in the same room as other motivated individuals, it brings you to a new level of determination. That determination delivers the results you’ve been trying to achieve since the beginning.

Most importantly, when you’re not feeling motivated and that determination is lacking — OMR is there to boost you up.

Working with a personal trainer wasn’t something I had ever thought about, as I went through those 3 phases above. It was always something I was trying to figure out “on my own.” Which is really tough when you’re faced with such a huge challenge.

The biggest benefit of One More Rep Fitness

For me, it’s about having the workout structure. It’s about showing up and taking on the daily workout as if it were an obstacle in my way to success. Having someone there to make sure I’m doing it right and push me when I need it. It’s also about building a bond with other people, all working towards the same goals:

To become healthier and happier people.

The OMR Gain: Confidence

Not only am I WAY faster and stronger than I was 8 months ago, I’m also a lot more confident.

I think this is something that’s easily overlooked when it comes to setting your goals and putting everything you’ve got into a workout routine.

I haven’t hit my body goals yet, but I feel 100x better than I did prior to joining. I’m confident, knowing the work we put in every day, even without the “body of my dreams” that I can take on almost anything or anyone and their “perfect” body.

Confidence, is by far, the #1 thing I’ve gained working out with Bobby Collins and the OMR family.