Vinny Petrie was in a dead-end job, massively overweight and about to become a father. Everything was going against him until he took charge and changed his life for good.
VITAL STATS
Before
• Age: 21
• Height: 5″11
• Weight: 315lbs
• Body fat: 48%
After
• Age: 28
• Weight: 197lbs
• Body fat: 10%
New Beginning
Everything I am today I owe to my sons Caiden, 6 and Jaxon, 3. When I found out that I was going to be a father everything changed. I was 21 turning 22, working at a dead-end job as a machinist making barely enough to support my family. I weighed 315lbs was already extremely depressed about my life and the way it was going. Then the news of my first son kind of drove me into a deeper depression at first. Not knowing how I was going to support or take care of a baby given I could hardly take care of myself. It took me about three months before I decided to make a change and I’m not just talking outside of the box – I blew the box up. I decided to enlist in the services and set the right example for my son.
Unfortunately, thanks to my ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease this stopped me from being able to enlist. However, this news came after I had trained for a year and lost 125 lbs to get to the DEP (delayed entry program) standards for weight and BMI required to enlist. By this time my son Caiden was already six months old, I continued my training trying to figure out what my next step would be. It wasn’t until I found out about my second son that I wanted to make an impact on people’s lives. I wanted to help others who were in the same mental, physical and emotional state I was in before. I scraped together enough money and applied for the International Sports Science Association Personal Training certification. It has been four years now almost to the date when I officially started as a trainer in a local gym. I have dedicated my life to helping others to not only achieve their fitness goals, but make a real long lasting lifestyle change.
Challenging Start
When I started, it was difficult to balance between working 12-hour days at a physically laborious job and going to the gym but I did what I had to do to achieve my goal. I was so driven nothing really seemed to deter me from what I was set on achieving. Even when I developed gallstones from the dramatic weight loss and had to wait nine months to have my gall bladder removed because I didn’t have insurance, I continued to train. With every new challenge I only found myself wanting to push harder and further then I thought I ever could. Between deaths of immediate family members, strained relationship with people I loved and trusted the most, to living in extreme poverty with my kids – everything negative only pushed me harder to reach my goal. I say that I kept falling through the bottom of the barrel until I finally hit rock bottom but I found out that rock bottom was one hell of a place to build a foundation.
Winning Plan
Before I started I came up with a game plan. I removed every unnecessary thing that could interrupt my schedule and sacrificed everything that wasn’t helping me reach my goal. I planned when I had time to train, meal prepped, got lifts from co-workers and even ran miles in steel toe boots because I’d forgotten my running shoes. I made it so I had no excuses not to achieve my goal and held myself highly accountable for my actions.
Getting Help
A lot of my training methods and ideology comes from the training my stepfather gave me when I was a kid. It was a “basic” (and I use that term loosely) bodybuilder spread, five days a week of isolated muscle group strength training and a hour to sometimes two hours of cardio seven days a week. I did a basic 4×10 rep/set scheme per exercise and added drop sets, supersets, and pyramid schemes to help with lagging areas.
Future Plans
This journey has taken me further then I could ever have expected. I recently became an independent sales rep for 1st Phorm supplements to further assist my clients and my followers help make the best decisions with supplements on the market. I also hope to eventually become a sponsored athlete by this same company one day. I am also working on several social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, etc (@renegadefitness63) and developing a podcast. I am just trying to motivate and educate people to become the best versions of themselves.
MY WORKOUT
CHEST
Warm up – push-ups x100
Barbell bench press 4×10
Incline dumbbell press 4×10
Incline barbell press 4×10
Flat dumbbell flyes 4×10
Incline close grip press 4×10
Low cable flyes 4×10
BACK
Warm up – pull-ups to failure
Barbell rows 4×10
Rack pulls 4×10
Deadlifts 5×5 heavy
Lat pull-downs 4x 10
Low cable rows 4×10
Single arm dumbbell rows 4×10 each arm
High cable pull-downs 3×10
LEGS
Warm-up – air squats x 100
Barbell back squats 4×10
Trap bar deadlifts 5×5 (heavy)
Leg press 4×10
Walking lunges 4×10
Leg extensions machine 4×10
Leg curl machine 4×10
Standing calf press 4×10
SHOULDERS
Warm up: push-ups – x 100
Seated overhead barbell press 4×10
Arnold presses 4×10
Upright rows 4×10
Shrugs 4×10 (heavy)
Dumbbell lateral and side raises 4×10
ARMS
Zottman curls x10
Skull crusher 4×10
Ez-bar wide grip curls 4×10
Ez-bar overhead extensions 4×10
French bar curls 4×10
Flat close grip press 4×10
ABS
Flutter kicks 4×20 each leg
Scissor kicks 4×20 each leg
Leg arm crunches 4×25
Knee tucks 4×20
Hanging leg raises 4×20
Side bridges 4×20
MY MEAL PLAN
Meal 1: Omelet: 1 ¾ cup liquid egg whites (18 egg whites) w/ 1 cup chopped green veggies, 1⅛ cup old fashioned oatmeal w/ cinnamon & stevia (sweetleaf), 1 oz raw almonds (24)
Meal 2: Smoothie: 2 ¾ scoops whey protein isolate with water, 1 ¾ tbsp natural peanut butter, 8.5oz red potato
Meal 3: 8.5oz chicken, 8.5oz sweet potato, 1 ½ cups asparagus with garlic, 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Meal 4: Same as meal 2
Meal 5: 9.5oz canned tuna (solid white in water), 1 ½ cups brown rice, 2 cups spinach, ½ a medium avocado
Transformation Hacks
Plan ahead
This involves every second of your day. It gave me the ability to prioritize what was important and made me extremely accountable for my actions. It allowed me to be consistent and not make any excuses.
Study
Do this as if you are a law student trying to pass the BAR. There is a lot of misinformation in the fitness industry so taking the time to learn what is right and wrong will make a massive difference in your success.
Fail at everything
Failure is a natural process in this journey and you will do it a lot. But from your failure you also learn what didn’t work and have a better chance at succeeding when you try again.
Positive Affirmation
The body will only go where the mind is willing to lead it. If you talk negatively about yourself your body will respond accordingly. Same goes when you speak positively.
