"Physique Phriday"
Physique Phriday
The first and maybe the only time I’ll post something like this.
Fair warning: this post has pictures of me shirtless, in only underwear, and NAKED with blur. I post these here today to talk about body image, progress, and challenges; not to show off or brag about myself.
At the end of the post, I’ll share some advice I’ve learned from a decade+ of living and lifting. I’ll share that advice in my next post, as this one is already too long!
Of course, everyone loves to receive compliments and celebrate achievements, but for me, the physical appearance is a side benefit compared to all the fantastic life experiences a person can have when healthy and fit. Being able to do all these fun activities and feel good while doing it is WAY MORE IMPORTANT to me than what I look like. This is part of why I rarely broadcast my appearance by posting pictures like this.
Additionally, this post is not to cast judgment on ANYONE in any way. I want to share my progress, but also make this a useful & educational post for viewers, so I’ll be putting some details of my training status for each picture.
Do not compare yourself to me!! It’s not fair to you. Health and fitness is my passion and career.
Looking at these pictures of myself while preparing this post, I fully realize that many people would love to look like I do…and white I’ve always been happy with my body, I have been surrounded by other athletes who were bigger, stronger, faster, more cut, etc. So it’s always relative. And on top of that, I’ve been more focused on what my body could do, rather than what it looked like.
👉 I enjoy the moments of physical effort and have been working out since 17 years old (15 years now).
👉 In college I studied Exercise Science and Nutrition….then was running a gym and working out while most people play hours of computer games, relaxed on their nutrition, and party & drink (no judgment, I’m just noting the difference).
👉 I have $XX,XXX of fitness equipment and weights filling the spare bedroom of my house.
👉 I work out 12 to 20 times per week while creating my live stream fitness broadcasts instructing my clients. Also, I participate in sports and martial art.
👉 When I'm not in those workouts, I'm participating in martial arts or physically challenging outdoor recreational activities like mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing, swimming, rafting, paddle boarding, etc.
👉 “healthy diet” (what a loaded term) is a little easier for me than most people since I *can’t eat* dairy, gluten, or lots of sugar. I get so SICK from these so desserts are simply not very attractive to me.
Quick Stats
Starting weight, height and age: 5’ 2”, 105 lbs, 16 years old —> 5’ 7”, 155, 31 years old. At 20 years old, I was up to 120 lbs
Results that matter more than stats: the first time I participated in the weight training class at my high school, I was scared to death of even attempting to move the barbell in the bench press rack. I knew it was going to fall on me and I would get hurt or be incredibly embarrassed with a huge crashing sound of dropping a way that other people were able to do literally hundreds of repetitions in a row. That was the “Iron will” challenge on the record board on the wall. Now the unloaded barbell is barely a warm-up, and I feel confident in the weight room and everywhere else.
Diet: Dairy-free since about 10 years old, gluten-free since 18, low-sugar since 24. Rarely count calories, but was very strict on portions and timing during wresting and BJJ competition prep.
Exercises: So many different programs and variations over the years but consistently full body in each workout. Opposing Squat vs. Hinge (deadlift), paired with a horizontal or very Push and H&V Pull; and daily direct core work, and loaded carries. Working at high intensity frequently, but always with EXCELLENT technique — to stay safe & un-injured…but injuries still happened.
Injuries: They happen anyways. Martial arts sparring, bike crashes, concussions, collisions, etc. I have a lot of damage on the ligaments in my knees, one meniscus problem, trouble with my wrists, a long period of my life with a lot of shoulder pain, and half a dozen car accidents… None of them my fault!
Longer story
I have always been very lean and fairly athletic because of playtime with my brothers, soccer, and then wrestling during high school. I and a few of my friends idolized some large bodybuilders and tried to mimic their workouts. We would spend hours doing all of these small isolation exercises and logging all our stats in notebooks.
Unfortunately, the big detail that we missed was that these guys were doing very heavy-loaded compound exercises like squats and deadlifts with weights that were vastly superior to what we were lifting… Long before they started in on their "finisher quote using all the cables and detailed machines. We skipped right to those machines because we didn't understand the importance of those barbell strength training exercises.
I really started to get serious about working out when I saw a video of martial artist BJ Penn jumping out of a pool of water and landing upon the deck. What a phenomenal performance because it was a 3-4 foot vertical leap paired with the challenge of the resistance of the water against his body. The thing was, he did not look like the bodybuilders I was following in my workouts with Ryan and Kyler.
When I saw this I knew that I wanted to do impressive things like that! With some research, I learned that he was participating in the EXTREMELY new and not yet popular CrossFit program. I found a local gym in my area and started working out with a great group of tough individuals. This was a really rugged place in an industrial zone…. Weightlifting chalk everywhere, kind of dirty, and with a spit trough/puke zone down the side of the gym. Suddenly I was working out in a place with no mirrors, no front desk, and no distractions. Also, my cohort at this time was suddenly law enforcement officers and other athletes with much more at stake from their workouts beyond just the appearance results.
This was long before the CrossFit games, TV shows, or really anyone even knowing what it was. I always had to explain and define CrossFit when I talked to people about it for the first time.
This was fantastic for me because suddenly it didn't matter that I was small and scrawny. What mattered was if you were strong and fast and push yourself as hard as you could. Everyone was working at his or her own threshold. We didn't even notice how much weight the other people were lifting… Only how challenging they were storming through the workout. The thing we celebrated above all else was being completely exhausted by the end of your session.
As I increased in strength and physical capacity, I felt such a fantastic improvement in my sense of self. The idea that I was in control of what I could do and that I could be the one who caused such a fantastic change in every aspect of my life. I felt strong and fit and fast and no longer concerned about being the smallest and shrimpiest guy in the room. Sometimes I had a serious disadvantage because of my small size, but in other exercise movements, I had a real advantage.
At this time I was finished with high school and had completed most of my general college courses at the local community college. It was time for me to move on to proper university and I chose Oregon State University for the exercise science program. The reason I wanted to do this was that I wanted to become a coach who could help other people achieve the same feeling that I had achieved. That feeling of being able to do things you never even thought possible, and getting to that point through the intense physical challenge of exercise. It hardens you mentally and emotionally and physically.
This gives you this underlying confidence that you can handle the challenges that you know you will face, AND the things life throws at you unexpectedly.
I wanted to do that for others. Help them get that feeling
During college, I ran a group workout session with my friends meeting in a garage and running around the neighborhood like psychos! After that, I was in charge of physical conditioning at a small martial arts school until I eventually opened my first small CrossFit studio. Unfortunately, a bad business partner screwed this over for both of us and I had to move on to opening another CrossFit studio in a neighboring city.
After that, I moved up to Portland, Oregon, and started work as a personal trainer and group exercise instructor at a brand new club.
This was actually the period of my life where I felt the most resistance to working out. Suddenly I felt like I was on display whenever I was doing my own personal workouts. I was a personal trainer and thought that I needed to always be the most impressive person in the gym. I talk about this now because I want people to know that fitness professionals are not immune to the pressures and challenges of working out. Somehow I got it in my head that if I wasn't lifting the heaviest or doing the most intense stuff… then people would think I wasn't really a true professional. To this day I still don't know where exactly this came from but I would find any possible reason for skipping my workout that day. If I didn't have enough sleep or coffee or time there was always a reason to do a little bit less or skip it entirely.
At the same time, I was spending a lot of my energy growing my online training business, which eventually became my full-time self-employment. But enough about all of that now let's talk about these progress pictures over the years.
I'm going to post several pictures below with some details on how I was training and feeling about myself for each one. This might not be as interesting to you as the rest of this post has been but work your way to the very end to see some tips and advice that I give now that I've been doing this for almost 15 years.
(link to advice post will be added here tomorrow — this post is already a long read)
If you are viewing in email, make sure you click through to see the gallery below. Galleries don’t go through on the email message. Also, on my site you’ll be able to see captions on each photo with some details about my training at the time of the picture.
Edit: captions are only on the Facebook post I created simultaneously to this post. Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1275164119574772&set=pcb.1275206699570514
Honestly, it feels weird to post this many pictures of myself, and it was hard to choose which ones would be interesting for others to see. One thing that does not show up in any of the pictures is my level of weightlifting strength. I've consistently been able to get stronger and stronger and as I mentioned before this physical performance is way more important to me than what I look like in achieving that weight lifting.
Ok wow thanks for reading this far!! 😊
Fitness Today | Daily delivery of easy-to-digest info to help cut through the vast amount of conflicting health and fitness information. Interesting, informative, and intriguing audio, video, or written posts.
Want to get new posts emailed to you?
Subscribe >> http://eepurl.com/chl8yb
You can also get these posts on my social media feed.
Follow >> www.joeydussel.com/follow
I’ll answer your #1 biggest fitness question. Ask anonymously and I’ll share the response on the blog and social media, or include your info and I will message you directly.
Ask >> https://goo.gl/forms/Sh60DnB93kGPPMfK2