The story of my transformation.
From the very beginning
First, how do you describe “being young”? If it is a set of conditions like being able to run fast, climb the stairs without pain in your knees or painfully hard breathing, then I’ve turned old at the age of 15.
“You have joints as if you are already 50”
I remember it as if yesterday, a 15 year old kid standing in front of the doctor who just told him: “You have joints as if you are already 50”. To be honest, it did not sound like particularly important to me. Probably, when you are 15, you feel like everything is fixable.
She told me, that from now, I cannot play any sports, except for swimming, because any sport, or at least anything that a 15 years old kid would consider a sport, will destroy my joints even faster.
“Well, I will give myself a rest” I thought to myself, hoping the pain in the hip will go away. And it did! It took me about two months to feel totally normal again. After three months, I started my Taekwondo classes again… But after the first training, the pain started coming back.
“You cannot play any sports, and you have to lose weight”
Fast forward, 6 years. By that time, I had already:
- Visited every rheumatologist in my town (Not that big, only about 300 thousand people) and the state’s head rheumatologist
- Alongside with vague diagnoses “joints as if you are already 50” I have been diagnosed with cervical spondylosis, scoliosis, and joints tissue dysplasia syndrome
- I think I tried every possible medicine with the word “chondro” in it. Some of them were very painful and looked like white powder mixed with water injected in my butt, others I had to drink. Some of them I needed to take for a month and some, to take a course once a year.
It is hard to say if all those medication helped me or not. Maybe, if I had not taken them, the situation could have had became much worse. At that time, I had already stopped playing any sport and my life was pretty much ok and only when I tried to lift some heavy weights or do a few Taekwondo kicks, I would feel pain again.
But there was another problem which started to become more and more serious to me. My weight started to become an even bigger problem.
I never was a skinny guy. As long as I can remember all the way to elementary school, kids used to call me fat boy. But things were starting to get out of control. One of the doctors had told me that I cannot play any sport including swimming (apparently swimming was bad for my scoliosis) and I had to be a very skinny person, otherwise, my joints will suffer even more.
You can argue that the key to losing weight is a proper diet, but if for your whole life, your lifestyle is just spinning around “not moving” it will end an endless race which you will never win. And, since I did not know any other way, the following six years became that race, where I kept jumping between 85 and 95 kg. But with every iteration, it became easier and easier to gain weight. And much harder to lose it.
Hungry student
In 2010 I moved to Tokyo, Japan. Before that, I was able to lose about 10 kg so my weight was around 80kg at the time.
As a Japanese language student, who just came to Japan, I was unable to speak nether English nor Japanese so finding a job was not a realistic option. Keeping my spending on an extremely low rate was the only option.
My average daily meal was 27 grams of milk chocolate (half of the bar) with 200 grams of yogurt (half a pack) in the morning, the same for lunch and plain rice or noodles with a pack of sauce for dinner.
But I was happy. Because it was my record — 70.5 kg. I had lost 20 kg total!
Back to an old track
After about half a year, I was finally able to find a job, and as you might have guessed, I started to put on weight. Not super fast though. Within the next year I had only gained about 6–7 kg, and 77kg did not sound bad at all. People started to tell me that I looked healthy and my teachers did not try to feed me anymore (I kept studying for another year after having found a job).
Long story short, in 2011 I got married! And after that, I started to put on weight like crazy! 80, 85, then 90! After that back to 85 and after a trip to France, now I am 95! Second trip, and now I am 106!
You might ask, how could he remember all those numbers but for those who are in the same situation like myself the entire life, everything spun around those numbers! That’s right, I remember those exact numbers!
Once again, I tried to jog but after one or two attempts my knees would hurt for weeks. And every doctor would always just give me another portion of painkillers.
In 2015, after another attempt, I ended up in a doctor’s chair again. This time I had some hopes since it was a sports physician. But…
— Again!? Another subscription of painkillers?! It obviously didn’t help! I will take them for two weeks but once I started jogging again the pain always came back! It didn’t fix anything!
I was angry! Japan is a country of calm and polite people but I was angry! And spoke angrily!
— You should build muscles as much as you can. They will protect your joints.
My original thought was “seriously? 18 years people told me that I cannot do any sports, especially weight lifting, and you are telling me the opposite! You’re all just guessing!”. So I left, again disappointed.
You should start from something
In the same year, I moved to a new company. On my way to the office, there was a gym and for the next few months, and every time passing, I recalled the words of that doctor. At the moment I decided “Why not, hard to imagine how things could be any worse”.
The story of how I decided to approach it deserves an article of it’s own but let me say a few words on how I started:
- First I bought supports for my knee, elbows, and wrists. Basically places that would usually hurt after even minor activity.
- Second, I decided that I will go to the gym three times a week
- Third, I created a 100 week plan for myself.
Why a 100 week plan you ask? Well, first I thought, I have ruined my body for 33 years. It is stupid to think that I can fix anything within a few months. I needed a long yet at the same time, a measurable plan.
Second, I didn’t really believe that this would work, so I needed something else to keep me on track.
Third, one of my colleagues did climbing and he mentioned that his goal was to conquer 100 famous Japanese mountains. For me, I decided that each week was going to be my mountain!
I never expected such results
In the beginning it was painful. And I am not speaking about muscle pain. That one I enjoyed! IT was my joints… they hurted everywhere! So I had to slow down with the speed and weight and it did help.
After two months, I realized that I did not need elbow supports anymore! After another month, I started experimenting with workouts without wrist supports. And finally after 4–4.5 months I started to do the same with my leg workouts… Well, even today I still have this fear for my knees.
And this was not the end. In the beginning, I did not mention that I also have been diagnosed with gastritis. As long as I can remember, doing a poo was a challenge for me. I could live without going to the toilet for a whole week! And all of a sudden, this also changed. I started to go to the toilet everyday or even twice a day! I never expected these type of results!
You see, when you start eating more meat, especially lean ones, you naturally start craving for something juicy! So, even though I never was a big fan of vegetables, salad became one of my favorite meals!
It also changes your mentality. Once you are able to achieve something you thought was impossible, everything becomes possible. Every time I have doubts about myself, I think to myself, “I did once and I will do it again. I will make it”.
Path to my youth
Now, more than 3 years after, I feel stronger than ever before. Yesterday I did a 100 kg squat 5 times and being able to do this feels damn good!
I can cycle 20 km to the Emperor’s palace, then jog 10km around it and then cycle back straight to the gym. No supports or painkillers.
I have never been as strong and fast as I am now. I have never been as confident as now.
I can run, I can cycle. I train every day and I enjoy it. I enjoy it so much! People often ask me, how can I push myself to go to the gym every day, but I do not! You do not need to push your self if you enjoy it!
So let me ask you again, how do you measure youth? I guess, If I feel better than when I was 15 then I suppose I can say that I have gotten younger.
Final words
If you were able to read all the way to the end, Thank you!
I feel that I was very lucky with circumstances that led me to my current life and I really hope that my article could help other people struggling years with problems like me.
