From knee push-ups to handstand walking like a boss
Brendon joined us late last year – with some simple goals in mind. Being a 27-year-old sparky, Brendo had admittedly let himself go (as we all do).
Since then Brendon has gone from strength to strength – transforming his body and mindset along the way.
The highlight for us was seeing Brendo completely immerse himself and devote all of his time to the “Feb Shred!” in which he didn’t miss a single day of training (28 days in a row) and completed all of the extras given – all whilst in a significant caloric deficit.
The Feb Shred – what is it?
We created the Feb Shred to help our athletes (and coaches) to get out of ‘holiday mode’ and rip into the health and fitness goals.
So let’s roll it from the start – how did his journey begin?
“My housemate Brock walked past the gym by chance one day and joined up. After he went a couple of times, I decided to take the plunge after hearing how good it was.”
We love hearing stories like this.
Apart from our athletes transforming the way they look, move and feel, our favourite thing is fostering a community of like-minded people.
Brendon has been a massive part of “the boy’s crew” at our 5:30 pm time slot.
A lot of our athletes have training history with commercial gyms, doing the typical ‘bodybuilding’ style training they find on the internet.
The novelty and variety of movements if often a cause for apprehension with some athletes, so we wanted to know if this was a factor for Brendon when he joined.
“I guess the intimidation of being a newbie and having no idea what to do or expect.”
My initial thought was “well that didn’t last for long” and you could forgive me for thinking that, given how well Brendo had taken to the classes, however, he raises a good point.
“I really wanted to change my physique.
It really stands out because I had let myself go before starting to train again, and now I’m the happiest with my body I have probably ever been in my adult years. My goal was to lose weight and try to become happy with how I look.
The unknown is scary and we know how challenging adapting to a new environment can be, which is why we take the time to assess each client individually through our fundamental, foundation-sessions.
This is where you spend time with your allocated coach and go through the fundamentals of movement, nutrition and mindset to get you set up for success on your journey with us and whatever comes after that.
“Once I completed the initial sessions, there was absolutely nothing to be scared of. I’m now in the position where I see new people coming and I realise that there is nothing to be worried about because everyone had to start somewhere.”
It’s been epic to see Brendo’s confidence and Aura build over the last 5 months. Obviously Brendo wasn’t always the shredded Adonis that he is now – there had to be something deeper driving him to this massive shift.
We enquired about his reasons behind his drive.
“I really wanted to change my physique. It really stands out because I had let myself go before starting to train again, and now I’m the happiest with my body I have probably ever been in my adult years. My goal was to lose weight and try to become happy with how I look.
Safe to say he has smashed that goal out of the park. Since last September, Brendo has dropped a massive 11kg and 12% body fat along the way.
Amazingly, 7kg of that came off during the Feb Shred!
“There have been many times where I have thought to myself there is no way I would have pushed myself to do those reps or row that distance or push through the pain if I was doing it by myself. The results really speak for themselves.”
So, after hitting his previous goals for six, we asked Brendo what his next big goal was.
“What’s next? After totally changing my body within 6 short months now I want to become stronger. Not using a gym in a long time really has a big effect on your strength, its as if I’m starting from nothing, so now just have to build from the ground up.”
We love his humility, it’s been an amazing journey.
From not being able to complete a “proper” set of pushups to now getting upside down and handstand walking like an expert.
‘At first, I started training at BodyByBrando because I needed to take the plunge and get back into working out as I had really let myself go. Now I train there because I see solid results in half the time it would have taken me elsewhere, as well as the great friends I have made already and the good times we all have whilst training”
Often what holds people back from body transformation is social isolation (not the COVID type, the internal struggle). Typically you’ll have to give up going out with friends to stick to your goal – which can often be a limiting factor. We take massive pride in the community that we’ve fostered and believe that having a tribe of performance-driven, high achievers is one of the reasons that all of our clients obtain (and sustain) epic results.
But where is he now you ask? We asked the big man how he was currently feeling towards his training.
I feel great, I’m stoked and still in disbelief at what I was able to achieve in no time at all. If I had known it was this easy (still a lot of hard work, sweat and hand-tears later) I would have done it a long time ago.”
Ah yes, hand tears are the Carole Baskin to our Joe Exotic.
So obviously having trained previously elsewhere, something had to change for Brendon. We wanted to dig into what had made the difference for him.
“I’ve trained at generic gyms before and the main difference is the lack of motivation and having no idea what you’re doing, even though you pretend like you do. If you set your goals out, you have all the help and support to get there in the best way. You just can’t achieve that training by yourself. You really notice the difference when you’re grinding through a workout. There have been many times where I have thought to myself “there is no way I would have pushed myself to do those reps or row that distance or push through the pain if I was doing it by myself”. The results really speak for themselves.”
Wise words from a wise man. As we bid our farewell, Brendo was kind enough to leave us with some parting words.
“The only thing I’d like to add is to just give everyone a big wrap. From the coaches and other members who are just like me. The motivation everyone gives you really drives you to do better. When you add that on top of great coaching, it really makes for an addictive atmosphere. Going to the gym is easily the highlight of my day”