"See Less of Bo" - One Amazing Journey!!!

Whether you have been a prayer warrior of ours through our sweet Kayleigh’s blog or just starting out to read some of the helpful fitness articles that I have written over here, you will know that 1) I have a sweet or scary looking tattoo up my arm, depending on how you look at it….and 2) I have a heart!

This week, I had the pleasure of meeting someone who is like no other person that I have ever met in my life. If you have ever made the comment or described someone as being a big teddy bear, I will have to show you whose photo has been inserted in the updated version of your Webster’s Dictionary.

A public figure in Wilmington, Bo Dean is a (6 ft - 328 lb) selfless man whose amazing heart has been called by the Lord to fundraise for practically all the major events and great causes in our city. He gives so much to everyone else and puts so much energy in to his love towards others that he has not made the time to take good care of his health. After a heartbreaking death of a very best friend, Dean realized that he would be no good to this world anymore unless he made a change.

After our sweet Kayleigh went to Heaven this past year, her journey taught us all about faith, hope and love. Aimee and I realized that true happiness and true love is only received when you are the first to give it to others. Bo has a huge heart that is filled with so much love for others that we decided it would be a blessing to help Bo get his health back on the right track.

O2 Fitness has graciously allowed me to take time out of my busy work schedule and give Bo Dean the attention that he needs. After being in the fitness field for such a long time, I have seen on a couple occasions what happens when someone with Bo’s health situation comes strolling in to the gym, passes up on personal training, and soon loses motivation to show up anymore. You try to reconnect, but before too long, you have to accept that your hopeful phone calls will just never get through.

Out of the few people who have crossed my paths, I remember two of them clear as day. Marge was over 400 pounds and after working so hard to lose 108 pounds, she started to lose focus of her goals and before too long, the excuses started rolling in which caused her to find more important things to do than come to our appointments. Once you reach that point, there is only so much a personal trainer can do sometimes.

The other person who stands out in my mind started working out in the first wellness center that I worked at in Charlotte, NC around ten years ago. This guy was a giant and I remember that day he came in to the gym with his family to join. He sadly declined personal training because he felt that since his whole life was based around athletics, he could easily take off the weight to reduce the negative effects that sleep apnea was doing to his body. Unfortunately, he passed away several months later. His name was Reggie White.

I can’t let motivation, neglect, pride, money or death get in the way of Bo Dean reaching his goals! Besides burning off the fat, Blood Sugar WILL be controlled, Diabetes WILL go away, Medication WILL be gone, and a huge smile of success will emerge. I am going to change this man’s life one session at a time!

I had the pleasure to sit down with Bo and go over his detailed history/limitations, and nutritional meal plan that was set up by Heidi Kaufman at Wilmington Endocrinology to figure out the best weekly fitness program to set him up on. Starting off, we are going to meet three days a week (Mon, Wed & Fri) at 7:00AM to focus on functional training, core strengthening and flexibility with Bo to build up some of the stabilizing muscles so he can properly develop full body strength to perform some more technical exercises as his body progresses through this amazing transformation.

On the days Bo is not training with me, he will be incorporating a cardio routine in to the mix to drop the body fat. We are keeping Bo in his fat burning zone to prevent him from training too high, which could still burn some fat, but it will also contradict the resistance training to quickly build back lost/unused muscle. By building his muscles back, his newly formed muscle will help us burn fat and allow the cardio we do to burn off fat too.

To sum my plan up so you all can see less of Bo is: Follow proper nutritional outline to increase resting metabolic rate, progress through function and resistance training to build muscle to help burn fat and keep the fat off long term, and cardio to perform as the quicker fixer and burn fat fast. The more fat reduced, the more flexibility is gained and the more ability to progress with muscle mass, strength and endurance.

It’s funny, if you ask Bo if he thinks he can achieve his ultimate goal of reaching 220, he would probably say yes but answer with the word “hope” somewhere in the sentence as I am sure I would if I were in his shoes. Being that my shoes practically have to be cleaned weekly from all the fat I have shed right off people’s bodies, my answer would sound a little something like this, “Hell Yeah…and them some!!!”

I would like to mention two things right now! One will be directed to everyone out there who either knows Bo Dean personally, knows him from a far or maybe wants to get to know him now that you have read this. Bo needs every single one of you like never before, starting today!!! Bo has a tough journey ahead of him and some weeks are going to be harder than others. He may lack motivation, will power or the strength to get out of bed some days. After our sessions this morning, he is probably feeling the muscle tension set in already. All I have to say is this is no easy task for him and he needs you now more than ever before. You only have two words that you need to say when you pass by him. So, if you know BO!!! You say…GO BO!!!!

Now, I would like to say something to you Bo. I have so much faith in you and I respect you so very much for making the decision to change your life around so that you can continue to help other people. That is just another act of kindness that motivates me to be more like the amazing individual that you are. You can’t even do something for yourself without the reasons being for someone else. That is truly a blessing and I am more than sure that everyone who has ever crossed your path can certainly agree to what I am saying. You are amazing!

I know I said more than just “something,” but I actually didn’t even say what I really wanted to say yet. Bo…I took this job as a Fitness Director at O2 Fitness to continue my outlook on life which is to honor God and my family, but to use the knowledge and blessings that God has given me to change as many people as I possibly can through fitness. With every challenge placed before me in my life, I do EVERYTHING that I possibly can to succeed in that challenge 100%. That means, if your ultimate goal is to reach 220lbs, then my goal is to help you get there by burning off 108 of those pounds, and I promise to do just that until we reach that goal together!

Go wish Bo luck and follow our journey from his point of view at: www.BoWilmington.blogspot.com

Best wishes & Happy Training!

Adam Freeman

Fitness Director/Personal Trainer

O2 Fitness Clubs

www.AdamFreemanPT.blogspot.com