FOR MANY, hitting 40 means it’s time to start waving the white flag in regard to staying in shape. By that stage, keeping fit requires a different approach than what it did in your 20s, and your metabolism is no longer as forgiving as it once was. Plus, those ambitious fitness goals you once set start seeming more and more out of reach – if you haven’t run a marathon, bench pressed your bodyweight or scaled Everest by now, when will you? – is what the voice in your head will tell you.
Enough of the pessimism. Forty isn’t the death knell you think it is, and a super fit guy like Steve Harris – who recently got into “the best shape I’ve been in” – proves that you can get the results you want, whenever you want, as long as you’re willing to commit to a stringent workout routine and diet plan.
Like many who decide to undergo a physical transformation, Harris’ journey started when he stepped onto the scales and wasn’t pleased with the number he saw. “It was my all-time high in terms of weight,” he tells Men’s Health. “I felt unhealthy, despite going to the gym regularly. My clothes weren’t fitting right and I felt tired and lacking in energy staring at a screen all day as a financial analyst. I figured this was the motivation I needed to kick-start the journey to getting back in shape.”
While he recognised he needed to make a change, Harris was no stranger to working out and living an active lifestyle. He’d been going to the gym for more than 20 years and playing basketball competitively and socially for most of his adult life, but as he reached his late thirties, he began realising that the same training methods that once served him well no longer got the job done. “Keeping in shape became far more challenging,” he says.
Already training regularly without getting the results he wanted, Harris sought out a personal trainer at Ultimate Performance Sydney to help optimise his routine with expert guidance. “I figured it was time to address it, bring in a professional and learn the skills required to make meaningful change as I approach middle-age.”
Looking back on his progress, Harris says finding the right trainer was crucial in achieving his goals. “Having someone there with the expertise to alter my training regime and specific exercises to cater to my age and injury history was critical,” Harris says. “My Ultimate Performance trainer (shout out to Tom) built my training from the ground up. I relearnt multiple exercises I had been cheating myself on for years. Slowing movements down, focusing on training to failure and forgoing the ego-lifting.”
Harris’ journey to getting jacked was no cakewalk. The 40-year-old trained four times a week – twice with a trainer and twice by himself – with a consistent, full-body plan for every workout. Each session included one compound exercise, like squats or deadlifts, followed by alternating sets of flat and incline chest press, dead-hang pull-ups, seated rows and leg press.
This routine wasn’t all that different than what Harris had been doing for years already, but his methods changed drastically. Under the guidance of his trainer, Harris adopted a focus on time under tension, meaning he slowed down his reps and reduced his use of momentum during lifts. This was challenging, especially during Harris’ least favourite exercise, the pendulum squat, but it paid off. “I didn’t realise how much I was resting at the top of the rep to catch my breath. The pendulum squat essentially took that away and I was load bearing the entire set.”
As for his diet, that required a wholesale rework. “I always believed I ate relatively healthy, but during the transformation my trainer, Tom Coker, laid out my daily calorie limit and macros. It was definitely eye-opening,” Harris says.
On his new diet plan, Harris’ standard breakfast was oats and black coffee. He kept things light over lunch, with rice cakes, tomatoes and tuna. Dinner was typically poached chicken and vegetables, or a pre-made meal. If he was hungry between meals, a protein bar or shake would suffice..
After going cold turkey with his new lifestyle, diet and training routine, Harris struggled for the first week but found major compositional changes shortly after. Overall, he lost 10kg and 14.5 per cent of his body fat in about five months, but the changes weren’t purely physical. “The most life-changing part is the way I feel on a daily basis. Without sounding cliched, there’s a spring in my step. I feel on point, I feel healthy, I feel fit,” he says.
Let’s not pretend there weren’t physical changes though. “I’m a lot stronger now, my energy levels have significantly improved and I’m sleeping a lot better,” Harris says. “I’m still as sore today after a session as I was back then, so the training regime doesn’t get any easier, but that’s a good thing. It gets harder as you progress.”
Now, Harris’ focus is on maintaining his newfound lifestyle for the long term, but he isn’t finished progressing just yet. He says he’ll be ramping up his training even further heading into summer to put what he’s learnt into practice.
There’s something to be learnt from Harris’ story. No matter how set in your ways you’ve become, it’s not too late to shake things up and get the results you want. As Harris himself says, “Trust the process. The journey to achieving your fitness goals could be short or long, but being disciplined, following a healthy diet and doing regular exercise is really the secret sauce.”
Related:
How Clint Stanaway became stronger than ever in just 12 weeks
How this Aussie school teacher lost nearly 20kg in nine months
