Douglas Pieterse is the best advert for his latest fitness enterprise, the newly-opened Connaught Road gym, R3. But it doesn’t stop with him; Pieterse’s wife, Joey, is a kick-boxing champion, and a fellow get-fit fanatic, making them a power couple in the health world (they also happen to have the cutest kids in the 852, but that’s neither here nor there). But even Pieterse succumbs to the temptations of bad food, lazy days and more than the odd cheat meal. Though he’s constantly at the gym, he recently lost a bunch of weight, which might make him more able than most to help you on your own fitness journey.
Tell us a bit about your gym. What’s the concept?
Our company name is R3 which stands for Real Relevant Results. Our idea is that we are real people training, we are not interested in unrealistic ideals of who we or you are. I don’t force my goals on you but work on what is relevant to you. If you are training and not making a change then you have wasted your time. Results are where the motivation lies for both the client and us. There is no job satisfaction from having someone train with no progress.
People have busy schedules in Central – do people come in for quick workouts?
We do have a few clients that prefer to smash out a session in 45 minutes, with clients like this it’s all business and no chit chat, you come in and we start with 2-3 compound movement supersets with very short breaks and then follow up with some more aggressive anaerobic workouts. This is enough to give them a really tough and effective workout in a time frame that suits their work and lifestyle.
The holidays are a time for gluttony – what are a few exercises people can do to burn off calories quickly?
Unfortunately, you can’t out-train an excessive diet but you can try saving a few calories here and there by either building up some calorie credit or not eating until you are in a complete food coma!
Beer-belly be-gone workouts – what are they?
This is one of the most common questions, and there is no magic pill that doesn’t come with some effort, the key ingredient is nutrition with a strong dash of consistency.
Your first step would be deciding on how much you really want it, if your ambition is lower than a 9/10 then you might as well get comfortable with the dad bod, rumour has it that it’s a new fashion… but I wouldn’t bet any money on it.
They say that you build your body at the kitchen not at the gym. Do you agree?
This is unfortunately the truth, losing weight is not that complicated but it can be tough. Losing fat and building muscle – or even just building muscle – requires a lot more commitment to nutrition and training. If just seeing the number come down on the scale is important to you then start by finding your current BMR and putting yourself in a deficit. Start there before you complicate it too much.
You a lot leaner now than when we last met. What did you do to lose the extra weight?
I took up a 60-day challenge of monitored eating, efficient supplementing and consistent training. 60 days later I had dropped over 15kg and felt amazing. The truth is that it was easy, educational and a great way to show that with the right understanding of nutrition, fitness goals are not that unrealistic.
I’m almost afraid to ask, what did that 60-day challenge consist of?
Here goes:
Nutrition: Eat 500 calories under your daily calorie maintenance. Make sure you get enough protein, in fact base your daily intake off of at least three protein intakes.
Supplements: Recovery is much tougher on a calorie deficit; the body does not get as many nutrients as it normally would. The key for me was a good liver, brain and joint supplement and I followed this up with sleep support, morning energy and recovery. Everything I took was from a company called LifeOlogy but this was my preference as I did some research into their quality and was very impressed.
Training: A minimum of 3-4 workouts per week, divided into two long distance cardio days to help burn fat and two weights days to help preserve muscle. It’s very easy to lose muscle mass on a calorie deficit hence the importance of adequate resistance training.
To get fit in 2018, visit the team at R3.
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