Jack Steven always had a commanding presence. No matter what room he entered, people would stop what they were doing to marvel at his towering six foot eight inch frame.
“Imagine a life where you look down on almost everyone, literally. I have unobstructed views at crowded concerts, and I reach items on high shelves with great ease,” says Jack, adding that most people assume he is good at basketball.
While he basked in the attention, his skinny body took a toll on his confidence. For a long time, he could not put on weight, no matter how hard he tried. He had given up on the idea of a ripped physique until his friend challenged him to try the gym.
When BDLife goes to interview him at the Workhouse Gym in Nairobi, his chest muscles are “pumped” and appear well-formed, almost like a bodybuilder at the peak of his career.
The 38-year-old IT specialist’s arms display impressive vascularity thanks to the brutal barbell biceps curls. When he warms up his core at the end of the day’s workout, his abs are visible.
Steven’s bulking up is the reward for a rigorous training regime.
“Would you believe me when I say I had never worked out in my entire life until one and a half years ago? I discovered the gym at the age of 36,” Jack tells BDLife.
In a year and a half, Jack’s transformation has been remarkable.
“Because of my current physique, few people believe me when I say I have only been working out for such a short time. Building muscles takes years if done properly. That’s why many don’t believe my journey has been that short. But again, they never met the skinny me,” he says.
By his 36th birthday, Jack had come to terms with his skinny physique. He thought he was born to live and die skinny. He was content and happy until a friend said something that made him think more about what he wanted.
“I would eat plenty of food—well, at least that’s what I thought then—and always wondered why I wasn’t getting any bigger or seeing any change. That’s why I had a difficult time believing one of my friends when he said with my height, I could easily bulk up and acquire a proper, gratifying physique and body posture,” says Jack.
His friend advised him to increase his food (calories) intake and train with him for two months to see how it would go.
“With weight training, I found myself increasing my meal intake from three because I was super active and my body needed more fuel to function,” explains Jack.
In the third month of his training, he enrolled to study nutrition.
“I was curious to understand my body and food intake and why it was so hard for me to initially get bigger. What I realised was that I have a higher metabolism rate, which means I couldn’t bulk up because I was operating at a calorie deficit of my required body intake,” he says.
At the moment, Jack eats between six and eight meals a day depending on the day’s activities.
“Most of the days I wake up at 5.30 am, then take three eggs. I would then have another meal, a blend of ashwagandha (a herb used to enhance physical performance), banana, and milk. I use that as my pre-workout because ashwagandha is good at boosting testosterone hormones, thus ensuring strength,” he elaborates.
Before heading to the gym, he takes his creatine supplement with Himalayan salt.
His third meal of the day comes around 9am, after a two-hour workout session.
“Then I will have two eggs and about 100 grammes of sweet potatoes. Between 11.30 am and noon, I have another meal, which could be minced meat and/or chicken with rice,” Jack adds, saying the meal is meant to fuel his body until 3pm, when he sits down for his fifth meal.
“Rice is my staple carbohydrate source. In most cases, I will do rice again with fish or beef. I am very cautious with the grammage of my meals to ensure I am doing the right quantity. For every meal that I have rice, it’s always 200 grammes. As for the protein, it’s between 200 to 250 grammes for every meal,” he says.
From 3pm, Jack snacks mainly on nuts, Greek yoghurt, and fruit until 7pm.
“Some people consider snacking a meal. Maybe it is, I don’t know. My last meal of the day is usually potatoes, and could be with beef, fish, or chicken. Rarely would you find me eating ugali. I know for someone skinny and trying to bulk it would be good because it’s high in carbohydrates, but it tends to make one feel tired because the body spends a lot of energy and time processing it. It also lacks the basic nutritional value in my opinion. Try having ugali for supper and you will wake up feeling you lack the energy to push you through the day,” Jack argues.
At his thinnest, he weighed 71 kilos. Last week, he stepped on the scale again and the needle tilted to 84 kilos.
“My goal is to get to 89 kilos of lean muscle, then I can think of starting to incorporate cardio in my workout plan. For now, being a hard gainer (of muscles), cardio wouldn’t be ideal for me,” he says.
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