Alexander Myburgh, 28, is a retail associate in Leeds who found himself heavy and feeling unhealthy during the height of the Covid pandemic. When he saw that the gym he wanted to train with was a 400-mile round trip from where he lived, it didn’t deter him. He went all in and signed up, anyway. Here, in his own words, is how he ended up traveling back and forth, making changes, eventually moving closer, and losing 42 pounds.
THE WAY I looked physically, and what I thought of myself because of how I looked, plagued me throughout my teen years and most of my twenties. I was never obese, but being overweight really skewed my sense of self-worth. I always wanted a fitter version of myself, but never attained it. I had an almighty fondness for food like pizza and suffering from what has seemed to be a lifelong case of laziness and procrastination.
However, during the Covid pandemic, I got to my heaviest of nearly 245 pounds. At this stage, my focus on how I physically looked changed to “I need to make a change because I am concerned about my health.” Medically I was okay, but I was feeling and looking very unhealthy. I knew I needed to change. After browsing the internet, I came across the personal training gym Ultimate Performance (U.P), which piqued my interest. Seeing the amazing results clients were achieving in such short periods inspired me.
By late 2022 I was living in rural Queensland, Australia, and the closest U.P. gym was in Sydney—which was too far away. However, I started using their online service and was assigned a trainer from U.P. Dubai. I found the online training very difficult. However, I persevered and slowly gained traction moving in the right direction by using the U.P. program given to me and doing it in a nearby gym. I did make very slight progress, losing a little more than 5 pounds in 51 days and saw some physical change.
Not long after signing on, I moved from Australia back to the United Kingdom. Studying, university exams, moving, coming back to a winter climate and new environment, and seeing people I hadn’t been around since November 2019 caused my fitness motivation to fall off a cliff edge.
I knew I wanted to restart my transformation with U.P. but go from online training to their in-person service. However, I lived in a rural part of Scotland–where the availability of gyms is limited. From what I had researched, there was nothing comparable to U.P. It wouldn’t have been impossible to make a plan to try to achieve similar results somewhere local. I had tunnel vision and knew U.P. was where I wanted to go.
I was disappointed to discover that U.P. Leeds, the gym’s most northern and closest location to where I was living, was still 400 miles away, roundtrip. But I was committed. I knew a commitment to train with the best was a valuable investment for my mental and physical well-being–something I owed myself to go all out and “win.”
Initially, I started with U.P. at the end of February 2024 for their 12-week program. I trained at Leeds U.P. three times a week, and aimed to get to my home gym twice per week. The week prior, I would book the cheapest accommodation I could find and stay in Leeds from Monday to Wednesday.
On Monday morning I traveled from the Scottish Borders to Berwick-upon-Tweed to catch a train from 7:30 am and arrive in Leeds around 11 am. On Wednesday I would get a train back home early in the afternoon. Depending on the train service and any delays or cancellations, each leg of the journey would take anywhere between 2 and 3 hours.
Once it came near to the end of this period, I renewed for a further 12 weeks in June. I could see how well I was progressing, and I wanted to see how far I could push my transformation. However, by this point, I always felt extremely tired and the travel and being in two different places during the week was starting to take its toll on my enthusiasm.
I decided to try living in Leeds for personal reasons (like saving money) and to focus more on the transformation. Being in the same area as U.P. really gave me the opportunity to focus on the training and eating more cleanly. My meals were stable and I felt far less tired.
Once I moved to Leeds, I would train with U.P. on a Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. I would do my two home workout sessions around these days. The U.P. sessions would typically focus on exercises that needed more support and guidance to execute correctly and safely such as 220 to 250-pound back squats while the home workouts focused more on biceps, triceps, lats and traps. Throughout the transformation, I would hit my daily target of 15,000 steps and occasionally swim 2 km at a local swimming pool if time and energy allowed.
One thing that a trainer at U.P. told me was simple but profound: motivation will burn out, but discipline is what needs to take over. I may not want to exercise one day, but I do it because I’ve adopted this lifestyle and it is now part of my daily routine, Plus, nine times out of ten I will feel far more accomplished and proud of myself for getting the workout done.
What I Learned About Lifting
The pieces of advice for lifting weights that stuck with me were:
- Heavier weight does not always equate to better results and could cause injury.
- Don’t simply thrust a dumbbell, for example, but control the weight throughout the movement to maximize the effects of the exercise.
- Always focus on the target muscle and be conscious of engaging it correctly.
- Mind over matter will have a profound effect on your performance lifting weight and exercising in general.
What I Learned About Eating Well
I ALSO CHANGED my diet. Cooking and cleaning up afterwards has always been something I’ve loathed. This has always been the downfall of my relationship with food, as I’ve usually wanted something quick and easy to grab. I was a big snacker and would always grab cookies, chocolate, white bread, pastries, etc. instead of eating fruit, vegetables, whole grains and nuts, etc. I would binge eat, especially when I felt stressed or even bored.
I knew going into the transformation that changing my diet would require me to dig deep and be disciplined. Even though I did not love cooking, having a day where I prepared all my meals for the week was beneficial, as I could just take the meal out of the freezer, chuck it in the microwave, and have it ready to eat in minutes.
When I started at U.P. Leeds, I was about 207 pounds and my body fat was at 28.2 percent. By the time I was finished, my weight was about 165 pounds and body fat at 8 percent.
Admittedly, I still find myself forgetting how my body has changed, and my mental view of my physique is still playing catch-up with how I actually look now. I didn’t know what to expect but in the beginning, I told my trainer that simply feeling comfortable wearing a t-shirt was what I wanted. My results have surpassed what I thought I’d achieve by the end of the transformation.
While it has taken me until my late twenties to finally achieve this level of fitness, I’m proud that I got here and proud of how it has given me a sense of relief that I am capable of anything I set my mind to. This new physique is physical proof of my new mindset and how chipping away at something over time (no matter how big or small) will get you to where you want to be.
Be bold and tenacious. Before signing up with Ultimate Performance, I did not think it would have worked out because of the distance. However, instead of doing what I typically did (put a procrastinative and excusatory barrier between me and my fitness goal), I took a leap of faith and made it work. Sometimes the circumstance may not be ideal, but there will never be the perfect moment to start, and you need to dig deep and give it your absolute all.
Once you start, trust the process, believe in your capabilities and have patience. It sounds cheesy, but the phrase “Do something today that your future self will thank you for” would snap me out of a slump. Never lose sight of why you’re doing it and remember very little success comes from staying in your comfort zone.
