Jamie Yau was having enough of ”always being the big lad”, so with a little help, did something about it.
“I’ve got two brothers,” says Jamie Yau, a member of Virgin Active Northampton Riverside, “Whenever I go home now they say that my parents had another son – that can’t be you Jamie.”
Such is the difference Jamie has made to his life and his body since joining the gym. Three years ago, he moved away from home to partake in a graduate scheme, weighing 125kg.
“That’s when I decided to get fit,” says Jamie, “I was always a big lad, and one day I decided I wanted it for myself.”
First of all, like many who join a gym, there was one goal – racking more and more weights into his gym routine. Jamie was more interested in lifting big than anything else. Being a big guy helped a lot with this goal and he was getting stronger, but not fitter. Then someone asked what he was training for.
“That’s when I asked myself,” says Jamie, “what do I want? What am I training for? You can be very strong, but that doesn’t help you in your everyday life.”
Not just stronger, but fitter: Jamie's progress
Jamie decided that fitness was more important than just strength, so he started to make his training more functional and incorporate high intensity intervals. This means using movements that replicate real life rather than moving heavy stuff attached to the end of a bar, and losing a load of weight in the process.
Around six months ago Becki, swim manager at Virgin Active Northampton, suggested Hydro as a HIIT alternative in the pool once she knew that Jamie’s goal was to get fitter. Pool based workouts are a great way to burn a lot of calories, and do away with the risk of damaging joints in the same way running may do for heavier people.
“I used to swim as a kid,” says Jamie, “but when I started Hydro I used to cramp up every time, week in week out, and think ‘bloody hell, this is really hard.’”
Jamie didn’t let himself quit, and in a class like Hyrdro, motivation from the people around you becomes just as important as any exercise, “when you have that group, you get motivated together.”
Of course a little healthy competition helps too.
“There is one woman I am very competitive with. We would have to do the set 12 lengths, but then we would just keep going,” says Jamie, “the amount of times you want to give up, but then you realise there’s someone behind you.”
Not only is Jamie fitter and faster but the technical elements of his swimming have improved. Becki has been key to motivation in the pool, but also fine tunes each swimmer’s breathing, stroke and a host of technical elements. The better a swimmer is technically, the faster they glide to fitness.
After six months of Hydro and an admirable fitness routine of cardio, weights and sheer tenacity, Jamie now weighs 85kg.
He’s achieved so much by making some big changes across his lifestyle too, changing up his nutrition and helping his body burn excess weight. He says that for him eating clean accounts for 70% of his success.
“I used to have two sugars in my tea, then one, a half, then none at all,” Jamie laughs, “if you had asked me a few years ago about fruit as a snack I would have said hell no!”
It’s consistency that has led to change for Jamie’s fitness, being able to stick to his self-taught routine wherever he is in the country. And it’s far from only him and his brothers that are noticing the difference.
“People who don’t even know in the gym say ‘I can’t believe how much weight you’ve lost’,” says Jamie, “but you’ve got to want it for yourself first, haven’t you?”
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