As a busy dentist in his early 30s, Nish’s life was filled with social engagements and work commitments. He tried to keep himself fit by playing football once a week and running occasionally but he never had any interest in training at the gym. His commitment to his physical well-being was intermittent at best.

“Working on myself was never something I thought about before, I was always told:

‘You’re very skinny and you should join the gym’.

Or I would hear:

‘If you want girls to like you, get some muscle on you.’

However, I never felt the urge to do anything about this.

This all changed when I was recommended to talk to a life coach particularly about dating and relationships. I kept an open mind and began to understand the importance of self-development, as well as my values and priorities. I always lacked confidence and I never realised until diving deeper that I lacked confidence in my body too. I wanted to be able to fill out my T-shirts and have a proper 6 pack. I wanted to be able to be stronger at football and not so easily be pushed off the ball.”

This is when Nish decided that something needed to change, his brother-in-law had just finished his RNT journey and he was blown away by his photoshoot pictures. The transformations he had seen on the RNT website and on social media spurred him to take the leap and sign up.

The Mindset Shift

Initially, Nish was looking at short term goals that were mostly aesthetic. This focus slowly shifted as he progressed on his transformation.

“I have realised that this is not a short term solution but a better way of living with so many other benefits beyond the physical. The coaching is brilliant, it’s been great building a rapport with all the coaches I’ve worked with and they all seem to know what to say at the right time with the appropriate balance of strictness, kindness and empathy. Of course there have been lots of moments that have been tough but the guidance has always been there to negotiate through these times and really, nothing good comes without hard work.”

The RNT Education

A lot of our members join with the notion that they eat healthy and understand nutrition, in most cases we find that in fact there are quite large gaps in the understanding of nutrition. Through our carefully constructed curriculum we address this misunderstanding and common misperceptions around various food types. We work with RNTers and show them how to apply this new knowledge of nutrition into their daily lives - giving them the tools they need to be fit and stay healthy without rebounding and yo-yoing.

“Education on nutrition has been one of the things I have really enjoyed. Classing myself as a “foodie,” I’ve come to realise you can make healthy food taste good. The information I’ve obtained from the podcasts has been brilliant and I would definitely encourage people to subscribe to it. I now enjoy the gym and feel like I belong there.”

The Physical Is The Vehicle

Whenever we ask the members who have reached a significant milestone on their RNT journey how they feel now that they have hit their targets, we almost always hear how much better they feel emotionally and mentally.

Through his RNT journey Nish found his self-esteem grow, he had new found faith in his abilities and sought out new avenues at work. His self confidence grew and he was less reserved while forging new relationships. In our article How A Body Transformation Makes You More Successful we talk about the far-reaching effects a physical fitness journey has on all aspects of life and Nish’s journey neatly illustrates these benefits.

“My RNT journey has been life changing. I always wondered how people who undergo transformations become successful in work, life and other aspects too. Now having experienced it myself, I can understand.

For me, I believe it was a change in mindset that RNT brought me. Learning about structures, strategies and systems and implementing them beyond fitness and into general work and life has worked wonders. I have learnt about priorities, decision fatigue, exercise and nutrition.

Physically, I feel great. The photoshoot went better than I had dreamed. I feel and look better in T-shirts, I feel stronger on the football pitch and I’ve started consistently enjoying my running and improving on my personal bests. However, the main changes go beyond the physical, I feel so much more confident in myself and comfortable in my own skin. The change in mindset has allowed me to have a more long term plan with work and I’ve been able to take heavy strides in achieving this. One example is undertaking a part time Masters in Endodontology, and another is taking the leap and starting new specialty jobs. I feel much more confident with dating and maintaining relationships.

What’s been really rewarding is inspiring others. Since I started this journey, I have seen massive changes in my friends and inspired them to go on the journey or even become healthier. I guess they do say you are like the 5 people closest to you. Many family members have asked me to help them out, which has been great to see and I’m happy to do so, but I would always recommend joining RNT, the results speak for themselves.”

Skinny Fat To Six Pack Muscle

Nish was in a rather unique and interesting position when he reached his Checkpoint as his weight stayed the same. What changed instead was his body composition, he was now 45kgs and shredded rather than 45kgs and skinny-fat. This is a classic case of how the number on the scale never gives you the whole story. You can learn more about this in our article How Heavy Will You Be When Lean which will dispel a lot of common myths about bodyweight and BMI.

Initially, Nish was training from home three times a week and was simply working on his technique and execution. Because he was quite new to training, progress was happening at a relatively fast rate which was motivating.

At the 20 week mark, his training frequency increased to four sessions a week as he was able to handle more work. We also added in harder variations of the exercises he was doing as our access to heavier weights were minimal. This would also lay the path for a strong foundation when he would finally enter the gym and get exposed to more heavier loads!

It wasn’t until almost 60 weeks in (mostly due to the pandemic) that he could finally get in the gym which is where things got really exciting! We stuck with the four days per week where he repeated two workouts twice per week. Simple, brutal and effective.

The focus was getting progressively strong on a few core indicator lifts and staying within the 6-10 rep range for his compound exercises. This is the rep range we like to use for many guys who struggle to put on muscle and if you want to learn more, check out this article.

By week 86, Nish was sitting at an all time high of 53.5kg while consuming close to 3000 calories. For someone at that body weight, that is A LOT of food and it was at that stage where he wanted to get in shape for a shoot to see what he has built up over the last two years.

Usually we like to have a little more time for a proper Process Phase but considering Nish was already quite lean (even at his heaviest) and had a solid foundation of habits, getting into shoot condition only took him 14 weeks where he ended up at 45kg with the following metrics:

• Calories- 1150
• Steps- 18k per day
• Cardio- 3 x 30 minutes at moderate intensity
• Weights- 4 sessions per week

Remember, he is a busy dentist with a relatively active social life and throughout his entire prep he had to navigate many situations including a three day Indian wedding which literally fell 4 days before his shoot! That’s right, he attended the wedding celebrations on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before rolling into his shoot on the Sunday.

We cannot overstate the impact a photoshoot can have on accountability and if you truly want to level up your results, this is one of the best ways to do it.

Future Plans

Nish is happily investing now where he is still focusing on building muscle but also wanting to maintain his fitness and cardiovascular health. His running has never felt better and he can really notice the difference during his football matches.

Because of his priorities, he has gone back to a three day training split for weights while incorporating two cardio workouts each week along with a 12k step target each day. Over the coming months, he is happy to slowly reverse out and build his calories up gradually which is the path we recommend for most. You can read more about how we do this here.