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Sport | Bodybuilding

Adrian Owen: Boulders for shoulders

Five years ago, Adrian Owen was 175 kilograms, morbidly obese, and on his way to an early grave. His situation was so bad that he couldn’t bare to look at himself in the mirror.

Four years down the track, the father-of-two has trimmed down, flaunting chiseled deltoid muscles Arnold Schwarzenegger would be proud of.

He made drastic changes to his lifestyle following numerous “wake-up calls”. The result? A vast shift in not only his physical health, but mental health also.

42-year-old Adrian is no stranger to physical well-being however. He has a Bachelors degree in Physical Education from the University of Otago, furthermore, his father, Ray is a three-time Mr. New Zealand, so the rigours of immense physical training should come as second nature.

However, after moving to Dunedin to run his own bar, Adrian began to let his body “get away on him.”

"You just sort of get lost in the day to day things and it all just got away on me”, recollects the 42-year old.

He does credit a lot of his successes today to his father.

He says, “I think he found the pool of youth, there is benefits in simply picking things up and putting them down”

Disaster nearly struck four years ago, a moment in his life which would intrinsically and literally shape who he would become.

“I fell asleep behind the wheel of my car. I had my two children, and my former partner, their mother, with me. My partner woke me up just before we were about to crash,” as he recalls the moment that would change his life.

Currently based in Wellington and working as a personal trainer, Adrian went and got a medical once-over. The findings were far from exciting.

“I went to hop on the scale and it went right the way round – the doctor had to get a second scale to weigh me”, he says.

It was then, Adrian, father to Maia (7) and Ryder (9) knew he had to make a change.

Adrian has lost 75 kilograms to date, through sticking to a ketogenic diet – a high fat, low carbohydrate eating schedule, which has helped him achieved his goal, not only shedding the pounds, but following in his fathers footsteps and entering his first bodybuilding competition.

Adrian adds, “don’t be afraid of failure, if you fall off, get back on”

Something he says, is part and parcel of where he is today.

Te Kāea reporter, Raniera Harrison speaks with Adrian Owen tonight at 5:30pm.