- Name Jonathan
- Age 27
- Gender Male
- Location Gold Coast
- Training experience Some
- Any Interests - Plenty
Hi my name is Jonathan and I have a story to tell. If you dont care or dont have the time, skip to the next post, but this is an introduction thread so Im gonna give some intro and background into me.
From Puberty onwards I was a solid kid, done more sports than I could possibly list, but with italian heritage, and various other issues, eating habits always got the best of me, and my weight got bigger and bigger. In final year of school I was aerobically fit, but chubby, I was captain of my basketball team, captain and goalkeeper of my hockey team, and 95kg at 6foot tall. I was the fastest in the pool over 25m, however got beat on any real distance. I dabbled a bit in resitance training, and there wasnt anyone in the school that could take me down one on the rugby field.
I seemed destined to be a big chubby bloke, then the year after I graduated, I was in a pretty horrific car accident. Had a few years without any sport, and the weight started piling on and the fitness faded. hit 120kgs, but managed to bring that back to 110kg, with pretty much just resistance training. But after several ops on my shoulder as a result of my car accident, my resitance training got curbed again, and the weight piled back on.
I took to cycling and never looked back, fell in love with it, got pretty fit again, but was never able to get back under 120kg, then over the next few years i got fitter and fitter aerobically, but heavier and heavier, til last christmas i hit rock bottom at 128kg, and was a pillar of unhealth. Plagued with joint problems, gout, abdominal problems, respiratory problems, sleep apnoea. I think i can remember 2 months of 2009 where i wasnt too sick to train. So i decided this was a downhill path and decided to do something about it.
I ended up getting surgery on my stomach, called Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy, which kinda has similar affect to lap banding, basically my stomach volume is about 250mL. I had that done in Feb this year, and to date I have lost 40kg, I went from 42% body fat (according to crappy big W fat scales), down to about 20% before the scales stopped working. i dont know what % im at now, but im guessing around 17-18%, Im now at 88kg and feeling amazing, I have mostly done cardio, between mountainbiking, roadbiking, and stationary cycle classes (Les Mills' RPM) I can now cycle for about 2 hours nonstop at 95% heartrate.
Im incredibly happy with my progress, but now i want to start doing some real strength work, not particularly looking to become a serious lifter, or a BB, but have read some great info here and keen to learn more. Moving into a new house in 4 weeks, and will be ordering a power rack package with oly bar, FID bench and plenty of plates, and will be looking at starting from scratch as far as squats, benches, deadlifts, cleans, military presses, dips and wide grip pullups. Im looking to keep my routines simple, with good overall body workouts, not going to do silly things like 12 different variations on a curl, and I am not setting myself unrealistic goals like HUGE GYNORMOUS BICEPS, or benching 200kg.
My goals are just to get, better, fitter, stronger. Ive never been able to do a single unassisted chinup, so that would be a minor goal of mine, currently for resistance training, I am doing the "100 pushups" program, however just doing knee pushups, and will restart the program with real pushups shortly while waiting for my move and new home gym. I currently do about 70 pushups split into 5 sets, and have some crappy kmart weights that ive been curling with. I understand nutrition is one of the key factors here, and although Ive studied nutrition for years while trying to lose weight, ive got a lot to learn when it comes to growth. So I will do lots of reading, reading and more reading, currently a quater way through Starting Strength, and have been reading a lot of Fadi's and other great posts with great interest.
So thats my incredibly long winded intro, hope to learn so much from you all.
Jonathan
