268 pounds.
At 6’1’’, I weighed in at 268 pounds. It was by far the most I had ever weighed, and it felt awful.
At this point in my life, I was pushing to be a powerlifter. I was strong, I was powerful, but I felt miserable. None of my clothes fit anymore, I would get winded through the lightest forms of cardio, and my body simply hated carrying that much weight. While I was the strongest I had been from a maximum weight perspective – pound for pound I was only slightly stronger from when I weighed in at 215.
This realization forced me to reflect on where I was, and where I wanted to go. What did I value in fitness – short term and long term. I realized that I no longer wanted to be the strong when it came to certain lifts, but rather the strongest I could be in all aspects of strength training. It was time to shift my perspective, and massively adjust my training routine.
While this may sound like an easy task, mentally it was incredibly challenging. I had trained a particular way for the last 15 years. Typical bodybuilding split: chest, shoulders, back, legs, and arms. Each on separate days, 8-12 reps, progressively overloading the muscles. I had become very strong in my core lifts, and I enjoyed comfortably hit sets of weights that most people couldn’t even do once. After I decided to make the shift, I was surprised to find that I genuinely hated going to the gym. I was doing exercises that I sucked at, I couldn’t do body weight workouts to save my life, and I was constantly winded and exhausted. For the first time that I could remember, I truly wanted to give up on the gym.
But I persisted.
After a few months, I started to see changes. My weight started to drop, my body became more flexible, my cardio had increased, and I finally started to enjoy my calisthenics unlike I had ever before. This new feeling became addicting. I couldn’t get enough of it. I then started challenging myself in other ways – I picked up new sports such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and rock climbing. Now, I fully own the fact that I’m not very good at either of these activities, but I love doing them. It’s as if this new mentality had changed everything for me. It’s because of this change that I’m experiencing, that I decided I’d start writing about my experiences in the hopes that I can help others who are looking to make similar changes.
Now, to be clear, my message and mission with this site is to promote all aspects of safe fitness. You want to do CrossFit? Great! Powerlift? Fantastic! Bodybuilding? I love it!
There’s a stigma in the fitness community that if you’re not doing a certain thing, then you’re doing it wrong. Very rarely are CrossFitters promoting bodybuilding, and vice versa. I no longer believe, at least for me personally, that sticking to one form of exercise is the only way. I’ve decided to challenge myself to be as well rounded as I possibly can be. However, I encourage anyone to push forward to the goals that they’ve set for themselves. Varistrong is about a community of people that are excited about fitness and want to excel at whatever they find to be valuable. The goal is to be strong, and to promote strength in a variety of methods.
I’m currently on this path today, sitting at a much more comfortable 234 pounds, and I still have more to go. If you’re currently trying to hit a certain goal, let me know what it is. Whether its bulking up, dropping weight, improving cardio, mastering a sport, it doesn’t matter. I’d love to hear about your successes and challenges, and perhaps we can help push each other along.