Former chunky, unhealthy guy turned Olympic lifting obsessive

[Jaymul]

Hi there, I'm here for the new 6 week challenge and hope to get involved with the NF community so I thought it made sense to introduce myself!

 

I'm a 29 year old guy living in Edinburgh, Scotland and have been on a health and fitness odyssey since January 2012. Back at the turn of 2011/2012, I was in the worst shape of my life, weighing in at 116kg/255lbs at 5' 10". I felt terrible, was in horrible physical shape and had got to the point where I found walking any kind of distance really uncomfortable. My diet was awful and I suffered from GI/IBS stuff that I though was "genetic" as other family members had had it too. In short, I was a mess and was probably headed for diabetes and worse.

 

There were two major turning points for me that made me decide it was finally time to get healthy. The first was just before Christmas in 2012 when I was flying back from London for work and was conscious of my sides spilling over my economy seat and encroaching on the woman sitting next to me. I felt gross. The second kind of arose from that flight too - I picked up a cold from a fellow passenger that just wouldn't go away and I spent three weeks, including the entire Christmas and New Year period, on the couch or in bed wheezing. I knew that something seriously wasn't right with my health. As soon as I was able to breathe properly, I was going to sort myself out.

 

And sort myself out I did. Over the next nine months, I lost 34kg/75lbs and weighed in at 82kg/180lbs, probably the lightest I've been since I was 18 and pretty low considering my bone structure and muscle tone (even before dropping the weight, I had big muscular quads and calves). I achieved this mainly through restricting my calories down to about 1600 per day, without looking at excluding specific food groups or anything like that, and doing quite a bit of cardio and some machine weights at the gym three times per week. I didn't have the same understanding of nutrition as I do now back then but, truth be told, conventional wisdom weight loss protocol worked for me - in lowering the number on the scale. My body composition wasn't very good though - when I got down to 82kg I was something like 24% bodyfat and didn't feel all that great; I was getting sick quite a lot and while my GI issues had improved a bit, they were still a major problem.

 

During the final couple of months of my weight loss, I had two major "Eureka!" moments where everything seemed to just click into place. Firstly, during the London Olympics, I became totally obsessed with the weightlifting event. It just blew my mind seeing a North Korean lifter in one of the lower weight classes throwing three times his body weight over his head in the clean & jerk. I had already been doing a little research into weight training after hitting a plateau during my weight loss (running had pushed my body into 'survival mode' where it was hanging on to every last calorie)and around this time decided that this heavy lifting thing might be for me. With my Olympic inspiration, I went and read Starting Strength and chatted to a friend I considered an expert in all things strength, and took my first steps into the squat rack, squatting 60kg/132lbs for 5 on my first session.

 

The other Eureka came courtesy of a friend living in the US (cavejen on these boards ). She had been talking about paleo on Facebook for months and while I was pretty dismissive of articles titled things like "How sugar is killing you", over time what I read and the results people seemed to be getting began to intrigue me. I decided to go on a two week paleo experiment towards the end of August in 2012 and the results were incredible. Not only did my skin clear up, my energy levels drastically improved and my weight continued to drop, MY GI PROBLEMS TOTALLY CLEARED UP!!! I couldn't believe it, I thought that this was something I would be fighting forever. Unavoidably having to go non-Paleo for a few days on a work trip saw my GI issues return and I knew for sure there was something in this. A trip to the doctor's revealed I was majorly gluten intolerant and boom, I was converted to Paleo.

 

Fast forward to today, almost a year to the day after I started lifting. That 60kg 5RM on the squat has blown up to a 152.5kg/335lbs 5RM and projected max squat of 170kg (just about double bodyweight) even with me spending a few months near the start of the year program hopping and not making any real progress. 200lbs+ on my squat in a year - and without any GOMAD or eating like a complete pig! Back in April this year I moved to a gym with a dedicated Olympic lifting setup and took some classes in how to perform the snatch and clean and jerk. My form is still a bit ropey and my numbers are moving up slowly but I'm making clear progress and moreover, I'm in love with the sport. I'm aiming to start competing in Open events in 2014 and have a long term goal of qualifying for the Scottish Championships.

 

I've experimented with my diet over the last year and have found what works best for me - Paleo with a small amount of dairy and some starchy carbs after training. Following this diet, I've actually put on a little weight but it has been mostly muscle and I look much better for it. I currently weigh around 85.5kg and am down to 15% body fat from 24% last August. Another 6 months and I might even have abs, for the first time EVER! I am in the best shape of my life and look better than I ever have.

 

The goal now is to stay on track, keep my weight at a level I'm happy with (gotta lift in the 85kg class after all!), stay healthy, improve my muscle mass while losing fat and keep eating healthy.

 

Oh, I also blog about Olympic weightlifting from the perspective of a novice - http://www.alltheheavylifting.com/

 

Looking forward to taking part in the challenge and joining the community here at Nerd Fitness!

[Jaymul]

Oh, a few more things about me, since I just realised I mainly talked about fitness related stuff!

 

My favourite game EVER is probably Baldur's Gate II: Shadow of Amn. It's just so absolutely epic and full of wonderful moments. One of these days, I *will* replay it (something for a future challenge perhaps). After that my top 5, in no specific order, would be Deus Ex, Dark Souls, Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil 4. I also played WoW at a very high level for a number of years and now shudder at how I regularly ploughed 60-70 hours per week into the game. These days I actually play on PS Vita quite a lot as it's easy to sort of pick up and drop. I recently finished Thomas Was Alone and Hotline Miami and thought they were great. I'm becoming increasingly interested in indie games in general.

 

I absolutely devour fantasy fiction and am kinda bummed out at the moment because I feel like I've read pretty much everything my favourite authors have written. I love Joe Abercrombie, George R R Martin, Raymond Feist, Robin Hobb, Scott Lynch, Steven Eriksonn, Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks and many others... I also enjoy popular science, some sci-fi and am an ENORMOUS history nerd, as it's what I studied at university.

 

I really enjoy movies but I'm not a serious movie buff and would struggle to pick a Top 10 list for film. I like quite a lot of Asian cinema (The Raid is one of the best films I've seen in years) as well as some native British output. I don't watch a great deal of TV but man, Game of Thrones is awesome.

[Hobgoblin]

Welcome to the boards Jaymul! I also got totally hooked on Olympic lifting through watching the Games last year, the women of Team GB made me equal parts jealous and inspired. It's totally addictive and for me, the perfect combination of explosive strength and controlled technique. I wish you all the best in your journey toward competition

[Jaymul]

Thanks! It's totally the same for me, there's just so much depth involved in the sport. Speaking on Team GB, I'm hoping I can catch some of the lifting at the Commonwealth Games live next year. I've watched quite a few meets on TV or via live streams by now but I bet there's nothing like being there in the flesh - unless you're the guy or girl on the platform of course

[Guzzi]

Wow Jaymul. Sounds like you've gone from "chunky" to "hunky"!

I live in Fort William, in the highlands, and just getting started with weight lifting. Got to say, I love it! Can't weight until I can up my game a bit, really looking forward to the day I can deadlift my own bodyweight. And do a pull-up. I suck at pull-ups

I'd love to get to a competitive level, but not sure if that's possible for me (big bike smash 2years back). Have you watched any of the Crossfit Games? Totally amazing.

[Jaymul]

Hey Guzzi Girl, I love Fort William! I've only been there once on a very roundabout trip that took us up to Ullapool and beyond but you guys have such amazing scenery!

 

Best of luck with your goals - it wasn't so long ago that I wasn't able to do pull-ups either but improving little by little, I got there eventually. I think that's they key - breaking your goals down into small, manageable chunks and having some good short-term targets to aim towards to help get you where you want to go. Before you know it, that bodyweight deadlift and more will just fly off the floor!

[Guzzi]

OMG! Just watched your videos, that's awesome! You're snatch was roughly what I deadlift

Totally epic! I have serious squat envy I can't believe how much you can lift after only a year. I go for an op in 2 weeks to have some screws taken out of my left knee, and I think that'll make a huge difference to my squat depth. *crosses fingers*

[Jaymul]

Small steps eventually add up to big progress - start small, gradually work up and you'll reach your goal! It helps that with the squat I have a good natural build for it (and the deadlift) - my upper body lifts suck by comparison!

 

I'm a knee injury veteran too but by the sound of it not as serious as yours. It's weird because I had problems with my knee for ages even after I was supposedly recovered but it was deep squatting that fixed them in the end!

[msuroo]

Welcome to NF! Always good to get some new weightlifting blood around here - help balance the scales with all of the powerlifting minded folks!

That's a sweet gym setup man - are you working with a coach? If you get your tech sorted out a little bit, you're going to be throwing up some pretty big numbers. Hell, your 57s are out in front a little bit (given away by the jump forward), but you're still hitting them - and in the power position to boot!

As it relates to retreating your hips and getting under the bar - have you seen Coach McCauley's Dirty Dancing drill? JDanger (the resident olympic lifting expert around here) drills the crap out of all of his trainees with this one, and for good reason. I do it as part of every warmup- apart from reinforcing the proper hip motions, it's also great just to get the body loose and warm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEF0fqrHqQc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEF0fqrHqQc

Anyway, welcome aboard! Looking forward to seeing more of your stuff!

[Jaymul]

Hey msuroo, thanks for advice! I hadn't seen the Don McCauley drill before but it looks super helpful.

 

I'm not currently working with a coach but am actively trying to find one and have a potential lead. I attended a 5 week weightlifting workshop a few months back but unfortunately the coach who took that didn't have any available PT slots. Getting under and bar ending up forward are definitely my biggest issues and I'm working hard at it but a coach's feedback would make an enormous difference I feel.