A ~3.5 year fitness journey from off the fitness wagon altogether, to runner, to lifter

johnmike

New member
I recently shared a photo on r/progresspics that showed my very very slow and somewhat unintentional recomp progress over the last 3.5 years, and based on some responses, I thought others may find some of my experience helpful, especially those that may struggle with the scale. I recently realized that while I feel like I am constantly failing at my goal of losing weight, I’ve still made a lot of progress and have a lot to show for my journey.

Fitness background:

Most of my life I was a runner. I was a little bit chubby through elementary school and then started running in middle school. Since then (I’m almost 30), I’ve trained for 7+ half marathons, 2 full marathons, and ran a whole bunch of 10ks and 5ks in between. As long as I was running at least 30 miles a week, I was able to keep my weight down. However, I always found it difficult to keep my mileage up during Michigan winters and I’d almost always gain back 10 pounds within a few months and feel like I was starting over completely each spring.

After completing my second marathon in 2015, I felt burnt out on running and wanted to incorporate more strength training into my fitness routine. While continuing to do about ~45min of running 3-4x/week, I tried a whole bunch of things – Kayla Itsine’s BBG, an online trainer, doing Instagram workouts, etc. Basically all the classic symptoms of fuckarounditis.

In early 2017, a small barbell gym opened within walking distance of my house. I decided to try it out and haven’t quit since. While I’d always like squatting (whether body weight or light barbell weights), I’d always been way too intimidated by deadlifting and I didn’t prioritize upper body strength. Having someone teach me the correct form and build my confidence in each lift made an enormous difference.

Since then, I’ve shown up 5-6x a week (with the only break to get married/honeymoon last September) and basically have done what my coach says to do. The sessions are small group ( August 2015 (just before my second marathon, ~128lbs) -> Present (~1.5 years of lifting heavy).
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Goals:

In the short-medium term, I’d like to get my squat and deadlift over 300 and bench body weight. Speaking of body weight, I’d like to very slowly cut about 10 pounds to around 135, probably over the next six months or so. I used to be mostly plant-based, and would like to navigate my diet back that way and away from meat. I’ve also pretty much taken a complete break from running this year and I would like add it back into my routine, possibly train up to a half marathon next fall.

And that’s it! I’m happy to answer any questions anyone might have about anything I may have missed! I’ve gotten a lot of motivation, inspiration, and answers from this subreddit and am really grateful for such an awesome resource as I continue learning.
 
@johnmike Your progress is really impressive and it gives me hope considering how similar we are! I'm also a 5'3" Michigander who used to run and now primarily weight lifts. I found that 145 was a pretty comfortable weight for me to maintain while lifting and working out regularly as well. You just look better than I do! Hopefully with more consistency, I'll lean out a bit too. I'm a bit still in the middle stages.

Thank you for your post. You look great and it's nice to see someone with a similar build.
 
@hazzaza Thank you for this! I always feel like because 145 is overweight as far as BMI I must be doing something wrong or fooling myself or something. I’d definitely like to lean out a bit - as shorties 5lbs can make such a difference - but it’s comforting to hear that someone else settled in around the same weight.
 
@johnmike I have got a question but before that let me tell this , you look really great , well done !
So my question is , is there any actual association between weight lifting and increased risk for hernia ? Anybody here knows anything about it?
 
@johnmike You look amazing!! Great dedication. It always blows my mind when people exercise this much. I guess I have a huge social life, because many of my nights are filled with her togethers.
 
@catqueen I’m really lucky that due to the nature of the gym I go to, it’s actually become my social life! I would agree 100% (and did not work out as much) before I started at my current gym.
 
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