James Knowles, he’s 49 and by the time he is 50 he will have achieved a lifetime’s dream!
He was a chubby kid, hated PE at school and was always last to be picked for sports teams (all his words).
He also tried everything in a bid to get fitter, leaner, stronger. He did water fasts, juicing, bootcamps, health retreats and engaged a lot of personal trainers.
I was amazed at the vastness of his knowledge of all the things that abound the fitness industry and generally are all simply not true, again this is what he told me –
- eat 6 smaller meals instead of 2 or 3, you will improve your metabolism (what a beauty that one is)
- do sit ups to get abs
- long cardio sessions to “burn” fat
- do high reps (15 to 20) to pump your muscles
- buy a protein supplement (and you will magically get bigger muscles)
- stretch after every session
- “earning” the right to eat bad foods by exercising them off
Finally when he hit a minor plateau on his weightloss (he has lost 11kgs to date plus lost bodyfat; increased water and muscle percentage; and finally his average heart rate and blood pressure have both dropped) his wife pondered whether his intermittent fasting had triggered a starvation response. Clearly this is another fitness myth, this one around the body starving after less than 24 hours without food, a physiological impossibility.
So James was a typical case. A massively successful businessman, throwing money at fitness-quick fixes all his adult life and never finding success. Here was a wealthy man wondering how much of his wealth he would need to be reserving for his health fund as he got older. True.
He reached his absolute lowest point when on a 2-week fitness bootcamp he was doing heavy squats and something went very wrong. He suddenly felt a huge pain in his lower back and he crumpled to the gym floor in absolute agony. They helped him up and he was straight to hospital, a slipped disc and spondylosis was the diagnosis – a double whammy of a degenerative bone condition leading to the disc failure under load.
He spent a week flat on his back.
One week after that he met me, purely by chance in a cafe.
Month 1 on the pics above was 2 weeks after meeting me. I recommended he see my trusted physio for 2 weeks and then he and I got into it, with 3 months of rebuilding his core, his basic cardio function and working on the 7 basic human movement patterns.
3 sessions a week only. Intermittent fasting. Slowly but surely tidying up a very carbohydrate-centric diet. Keeping tabs on caffeine and alcohol. Using breathwork and meditation to help mitigate the effects of a highly stressful work environment. Drinking more high quality water. Prioritising sleep.
He then returned to the physio who gave him a clean bill of health other than the obvious issue of the spondylosis.
We then spent 3 months on strength and conditioning. We added 2 shorter sessions to his weekly workload. All his lifestyle changes became ingrained habits. Look at his 6 month pic!
We are now on another 3 months where we will help him with body composition gains (basically a 6 pack)! A 6 pack is what he has dreamed of his entire adult life, to feel good about taking his shirt off at the beach and around the pool. He’s almost there!
If you want this, you can have it but it will take time and money. I know what I am doing. Don’t take chances with your long-term health and fitness, do it right! And ladies meet Anne Boyd –
Your options range from do-it-yourself and very affordable to I will guide you all the way! Let’s get on email, Zoom or a call and see what transpires!
