It was March 13, 2014, my 39th birthday! I would be the big 4-0 in one year. I have alway set goals in my life both professionally and personally. Things were going great in practice, my two kids, Grant and Lily were doing well in Kindergarten and preschool, and my wife, Sue was happy with her position at Yale as a faculty member of the Radiation Department. I had previously been competing in Spartan and Tough Mudder races to fuel the competitive drive I have always needed outside of work and while the races were both challenging and fun, I realized they were also potentially quite dangerous with high risk of injury. Given the fact that my “hands” are extremely important to my career, I knew I needed to find another challenge and make new goals. As I had previously mentioned, weight training and cardio were always a part of my daily activity. Staying fit is a priority and I had been training with a personal trainer for about a year and was very impressed with the focus on proper form with lifts. He was also helping me train for the aforementioned obstacle course races. During this time, I learned the proper way to lift weights. I also began getting tips from some of the other trainers regarding diet and nutrition. What I started noticing very quickly were aches and pains that I use to have in my knees, back and shoulders started to go away once I learned how to squat, how to perform lunges properly, and how a heavy weighted, barbell bench press was not required to develop my chest. I also learned that low carb, Fat free and low sugar foods were not necessarily the answer to a leaner physique. A couple of the trainers at the studio competed in body building competitions and suggested that I give it a try. At first, my answer was “no way”, I could never get into body building. But as i thought about it more, I realized bodybuilding does require tremendous discipline and will power and would be a perfect challenge that I ultimately could not refuse! So, I decided as a gift to myself while turning 40, I would be in the best shape of my life! At this point, I weighed around 165 pounds and was around 18% body fat and had no idea about how much I was about to learn about the body and the science behind nutrition!
Month: August 2016
The Fitness Journey of a 40 something
My name is Brian Evans. I am a 41 year old happily married, father of two kids who owns a periodontal practice in Connecticut. I grew up in Arkansas and spent 7 years in New Orleans while in dental school and residency before moving to Virginia where I was stationed and served in the Navy as a dental officer. I moved to Connecticut in 2007 and have been there ever since. Fitness has always been a big part of my life beginning with participation in typical childhood sports, high school football and golf, collegiate golf, road races in dental school and obstacle course racing in my 30’s. Weight training has always been an activity that I consistently included in my lifestyle but over the last three years I found the other passion in my life, body building and nutrition. I have created this blog to share with you the knowledge I have obtained over the last few years regarding proper weight and cardiovascular training and diet and nutrition and how to incorporate it into your daily lives. Let’s face it, we all need balance in our lives and fitness many times takes a back seat! Folks always are looking for a quick fix! Fitness is a multi-billion dollar industry that is full of so many false promises targeting individuals who want that quick fix. I see it everyday via infomercials such as “if you do this exercise 5 min every day for 6 weeks, you will be shredded” or if you follow this diet plan for 8 weeks, you will get the abs you have always dreamed of”. Well, my goal is to share with you the mistakes that I made and how following a few simple nutrition rules and training smarter has made all the difference! Sharing this knowledge really begins with my journeys of how I trained and prepared for two body building competitions over the last two years and how I was able to gain 6 pounds of lean muscle naturally at 41 years old! Look for my next post soon that begins the journey of Physique competion #1!