Former Navy football player drops 50 pounds
Larry Cylc Jr. was an outstanding Delaware high school football player who was talented enough to go to Navy where he was the starting noseguard two years in a row. After he graduated, though, an old football injury stopped him in his tracks and he was forced to take a different approach to fitness.
Larry’s injury started during his days at Navy, but became progressively worse years later and eventually was serious enough to cause him to be bedridden.
“It got to a point where it hurt so bad that there was nothing I could do but lay in bed for about two weeks. The doctor said I needed surgery to repair herniated disks causing my pain."
After the operation, Larry felt a lot better, but his weight had ballooned up to 290 and he was too nervous to work out for fear of hurting his back again. It just wasn’t worth it.
At the time, Larry’s dad, Larry Cylc Sr., had just finished my 12-week body transformation and figured it might be a great way to help his son get back in shape, so he bought him my transformation and I set up an appointment to get him started.
Larry Jr. made quick progress, and it wasn’t long before I realized that his background in athletics would be a huge advantage. He quickly began losing weight and getting in shape, but in addition we began strengthening his core to make sure his back would heal correctly and he would not have any more pain that would derail his progress.
During the transformation, two things happened that inspired me and gave me great respect for Larry's ability to stay on track. The first was the birth of Larry’s fourth child, Sawyer Cylc. During this time, Larry sent me a text announcing the good news and telling me he would continue to stay on track and at the end of the week he still lost weight despite juggling the birth of his child, his job and the rest of his family. As many people know, it’s hard enough to get to the gym, but when you have a new baby it must be extremely difficult.
The next bump in the road came when Larry changed jobs and he no longer worked in Sussex County. This meant that whenever we were scheduled to meet, Larry had to drive from Annapolis to get his program upgrade and on week 9 he left at 3:30 a.m. in order to get to Rehoboth for the workout and make it back to work in Annapolis.
By the time Larry finished the program, he had lost 50 pounds in just 12 weeks and dramatically strengthened his back.
“It's not as challenging to follow a healthy diet anymore, and it has become a household routine for my entire family,” he said.
His workouts are much different now and no longer focus on building size and strength but rather quality muscle, cardiovascular health and core strength.
“When I was in college. my life was based on what’s good for football, but now it’s more about a healthy lifestyle,” he said.
The irony of this story is in 1987 I was selected to play in the Delaware Blue-Gold All-Star football game for the Blue team and the coach was none other than Larry Cylc Sr., Larry Jr.'s dad. Since then, I have had the pleasure of putting three family members through my 12-week body transformation and helping them lose over 100 total pounds. When I asked Larry Jr. if he thought his background in sports helped him achieve great results, he said, “Participating in wrestling and football makes it easier to attack any challenge because you get used to turning your mind off and just doing the task at hand because you are used to working hard.”
I couldn’t agree more. Larry, you did a great job.
Chris Antonio is a personal trainer and former world-class weightlifter. He has been lifting for more than 20 years and has trained a wide variety of clients ranging from All-American athletes to the average person trying to get into shape. To send a question to the Ask the Trainer column, email Chris at Askthetrainer@antoniostraining.com or check out AntoniosTraining.com for training tips, news and inspirational stories.
