I wouldn’t say I was a stranger to the gym and I had always been an athletic person. I've played everything from hockey, to women's tackle football to competitive paintball. But a few things happened. Sports slowed down from every day to once a week and then only in winter. I hit 30, and my metabolism went from lagging to a stall. And that one extra hard call every month or so hit like a jackhammer. But I wasn't ready to slow down, and over the years I realized how much I lacked the upper body strength needed to perform like I should. Especially when those 12 hours of relentless, callous labour hit at 2am. I joined a local gym and was consistent for several months until a severe kidney infection hospitalized me in 2015. My blood pressure sky rocketed and my doctor advised forfeiting my current gym membership until things leveled off. It took over a year for my kidneys to chill out and to get off medication completely.
Our hall was fortunate enough to start a small gym earlier this year. Unfortunately for me I was unfamiliar with the equipment and had never needed to learn the big barbell movements in my machine packed fitness studio. After finding out I had questions via social media, a local fitness coach pursued a conversation with me and targeted my goals. I was actually content with how I looked but I craved a serious change in strength. So this was a first for both of us; him creating such a specific conditioning program for my line of work, and me eating a lot more than normal and working out to get “bigger”, not smaller for once. It was a real mind game, almost forcing myself to eat and not freaking out about where those calories would show up on my body. It’s been 12 weeks and he has been by my side this whole time, checking in with me daily. My weight has stayed the same but my body composition has completely changed. I can do the things that I literally cried over not being able to 3 months ago. And there are TWO best parts. 1: I can eat what I want. 2: It really has been only three months, so I'm stoked to see where I'll be in a year. His drive to change me, transferred over to a discipline I didn’t know I had. His excitement over my victories and his encouragement on my really hard days kept me going. Bottom line is, if you’re looking for change, I know a knowledgeable, down to earth man who will help you get there. Check him out at www.averagejoefitness.ca or www.facebook.com/pg/averagejoefitness
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