I first came to the US in 2009. Having grown up in New Zealand, I was not used to the portion sizes of various fast food options in America. Despite my effort to maintain my weight, poor diet and the lack of an exercise routine slowly took a toll on my body. I went up in clothes sizes and my weight ballooned from 172 lbs to 225 Ibs. I didn’t feel good and it was hard to carry all the weight around. I was determined to get my physique back. I began working out at a local gym in Kansas City. At first I didn’t have a clear strategy to achieving my goal of losing weight. But over time I read a lot of articles related to bodybuilding – covering everything from the bulking and cutting phases to the different diet strategies, training methods, and natural supplements.
Finding Fitness Success
This newfound knowledge and experience through trial and error helped me to refine my plan to best fit my body and to ultimately achieve my goal of losing weight. Through discipline, consistency and sheer determination I was able to bring my weight down from 225 lbs to 158 lbs. I became lean and athletic, resembling the ripped athletes I admired when I was younger on the cover of sports magazines.
Related: the top 12 ways to burn body fat, according to a personal trainer.
I later met a trainer at the local Kansas City gym who introduced me to competitive natural bodybuilding. I competed in several amateur bodybuilding competitions with the goal of earning my professional status in natural bodybuilding. At each competition I got better and closer to getting my pro card, but I still had some improvements to make.
After getting married in December of 2014, we decided to move to Chicago. I still wanted to achieve my goal of obtaining my pro card in bodybuilding, so I continued my training at the gym in the new apartment building we had moved into. It was convenient having the gym within our apartment building, but unfortunately there were more treadmills than heavy weights and was not sufficient enough for me to prepare for my competition.
One day I came home from work and I saw personal trainer Cory Fultz from FFC West Loop promoting FFC club memberships. Cory was friendly, informative and easy to chat with. He offered us a tour of the FFC West Loop gym, and after we did the walkthrough tour of the facility I knew immediately that this would be the right gym for me; it had the right equipment I needed to help me prepare for my competition. I was set.
Related: want to try a personal training session at FFC on us? Click here!
Bodybuilding Competition Day
Three weeks before the competition day my wife gave birth to our son. On November 21st I competed at the OCB Midwest States natural bodybuilding competition in DeKalb, IL. After 7 long months of contest preparation at FFC West Loop I successfully placed first and was awarded my pro card. On top of finally winning my pro card, it was a blessing to also have both my wife and son supporting me in the audience.
I believe I was able to get first place this time round because of the training I did at FFC West Loop. I was able to make significant improvements in my physique that allowed me to come prepared and present my best self on stage. I would like to thank my beautiful wife for her love and support throughout this journey and thank you FFC for providing me the resources to achieve my goals.
Post written by FFC West Loop member Bart M.
