BodyBlitz Challenge Measurements Before Height: 197 cm Weight: 102 kg Chest: 117 cm Waist: 103 cm Calves: 39.5 cm Arms: 41.5 cm Thighs: 56.5 cm After Height: 197 cm Weight: 95 kg Chest: 117.5 cm Waist: 94.5 cm Calves: 39.5 cm Arms: 42.5 cm Thighs: 57.5 cm

Well, it was a fun and fast 12 weeks, and it was over before I knew it, but it was a great motivation to finally make some healthy changes. I have been working out at the gym for about four years now, and only for about the last two with any kind of regularity, but doing the BodyBlitz has only cemented further what I love about fitness and what it takes to build a better body.

I had seen the BodyBlitz challenge in Iron Man magazine for years, and always thought it would be a great way to lock in a time frame and set some goals. It always interested me, but like a lot of people, I ‘never had time’ and ‘never got round to it’. So after becoming redundant from my job in January, I felt I really needed to focus on my health and do something positive for myself!

So I fired up the gym membership again at Bell St Fitness in Coburg, VIC, where my membership had run out about four months earlier and I hadn’t renewed it. I had a sit down chat with Tony and Bill from the gym and they helped me to understand what I would need to do to get the results I wanted in the 12 weeks to do it. I had never been a calorie counter before and had no idea how many calories were in the food I ate each day, and how much this had been holding me back!

So, trying to eat clean and stay in the low 2000s of calories per day, I made some changes to my diet.

The biggest changes apart from the calories were a few small and easy adjustments to make:

• Cut down on dairy and breads, this made a big difference and made me feel less bloated.
• Say no to fried things, especially chips.
• Go sugar-free in all drinks and, if it’s an option, choose water.
• No added sugar or salt, to anything.
• Drink plenty of water, 4-5 litres per day.

After two weeks on my new, cleaner diet — and having ‘fallen off’ a couple of times — my weight and measurements had not changed. This only made me concentrate more on the diet, as I knew this was the key. I became even more resistant to temptation and hardened my desire to eat clean foods (low fat, slow carbs). In the weeks that followed I was dropping, on average, one kilo per week, and put the initial stall in progress down to my body holding onto fat stores it thought it needed.

My workouts also changed. Before I kicked off, I recruited a mate of mine to join me as my workout partner in the gym. I usually work out alone as a way to wind down, but having a gym partner is one of the keys to success in the gym. You just can’t push yourself as hard or lift some heavy weights without a spotter and someone to push you along. I had enjoyed doing split workouts before, and continued this throughout the program.

We hit each body group with five-to-six different exercises, four sets per exercise. Usually in pyramid formats, increasing the weights on each set. Reps are 15, 12, 10, 8.

Always do a proper warm up to avoid injury, and stretch and pose your muscles in between each set. Start out with heavy compound movements for your priority areas to build size and power, then move to isolation movements to hammer the muscles. Try a superset of an isolation and then a compound exercise for the same muscle group; if that doesn’t smash you and get your heart pumping, I don’t know what will!

We change it up every four weeks or so to keep it fresh, changing from heavy pyramid setting, then to high rep and set workouts like 10x10s, and then trying ‘upside-down’ pyramids where, after a proper warm-up, we would hit even heavier weights and drop weight on each set to keep reps going higher.

The main rule: Be sore for two-to-three days after or you haven’t tried hard enough. Push it to max in each and every workout. Use your partner to help you get extra reps and go to failure on reps all the time. If you give up before you fail, you will never push through your ‘boundaries’ and make real progress. We are both stronger and more defined for having this variety of power and endurance exercises, and have dropped fat at the same time!

I plan on going again in the BodyBlitz soon, and use the lessons I have learned to take it even further, but I am very proud of what I have achieved and learnt in the last 12 weeks. Now I can’t even look at a meal without sizing it up for calories.

Most of my measurements stayed about the same from before to after, but I made big changes to my waist and overall weight. I haven’t been under 100 kg in years — I even got up to 114 kg about two years ago — and now I know what to do: I plan on staying lean and building on muscle to one day compete in a natural bodybuilding competition.

It has been great to hear the compliments from people I know and people at the gym all noticing the difference in my physique in the last couple of months. Thanks BodyBlitz! IM