A personal trainer has revealed how he “rebuilt his body” after losing 17 pounds when he contracted a bacterial infection from drinking tank water and ended up in the hospital.
Dylan River, 40, from Sydney, posted on Instagram recalling the experience that took place in 2013 when he was working at a music festival in Byron Bay.
He said he lost 17kg of muscle in just four weeks while he was in hospital ‘sick AF’, and that it took him ‘almost a full 12 months to get my strength and fitness back’.
A personal trainer has revealed how he “rebuilt his body” after losing 17 pounds when he contracted a bacterial infection from drinking tank water (Dylan Rivier now pictured)
Dylan Rivier, 40, from Sydney, posted on Instagram a memory of the experience he had in 2013 while working at a music festival in Byron Bay (pictured at the time)
Dylan wrote, “The first photo is me nearly 10 years ago, hospitalized AF after drinking water that had some nasty bacteria in it. In the second picture I looked exactly eight weeks earlier.’
He added, “I hadn’t weighed that much since high school. My mineral and protein levels were rock bottom, my blood pressure was 90/40 and my HR was 96 – all big problems in personal trainer land.”
Dylan said, “It took me almost a full 12 months to get my strength and fitness back. I cleaned up my diet and had to get my training back to level one, but I finally got there and haven’t stopped.”
Dylan said just eight weeks before he got sick (pictured), he was as fit as he’s ever been (pictured before in the gym)
To “rebuild his body,” the Bondi Beach personal trainer said he made his nutrition a priority like “never before” (pictured below), and had a specific focus on gut health
To “rebuild his body,” the Bondi Beach personal trainer said he made his nutrition a priority like “never before.”
“I shopped at the farmers’ markets for fresh produce and made sure everything I bought was organic and locally sourced,” he previously told FEMAIL.
“I also treated myself like one of my clients and started their fitness journey from the very beginning.”
Dylan added apple cider vinegar to his diet, which he takes first thing in the morning with some kind of “vegetable powder.”
Elsewhere, he preferred plenty of protein throughout the day, in the form of poached eggs, canned tuna snacks, grilled chicken salads, and Greek yogurt.
“You can train hard, but if you don’t supplement that with good nutrition — or if you drink too much — you won’t see much progress at all,” Dylan previously told FEMAIL.
“I do a bunch of ab exercises to tone and tone my midsection, but if there’s a layer of fat over my abs, I don’t see them.”
He added, “If you want to see your abs, cut back on refined sugar and watch your alcohol intake.”
“And keep your diet fairly balanced when it comes to fat, carbs, and protein.”
“My advice to people who want to see results is to find what works for you and stick with it,” said Dylan.
Dylan supplemented his diet with sessions between five and six times a week; he said he had to build up this frequency because when he first started he couldn’t do more than three (pictured)
Dylan supplemented his clean diet with workouts between five and six times a week.
He said he had to build up this frequency because when he first started recovering, he couldn’t train more than three times a week.
Today, Dylan does a variety of workouts, including HITT sessions, running in soft sand, outdoor workouts that combine pull-ups, push-ups, squats, straight leg raises, and running.
Today, Dylan does a variety of workouts, including HITT sessions, running in soft sand, outdoor workouts that combine pull-ups, push-ups, squats, straight leg raises, and running.
Dylan says you can “achieve the body of your dreams simply by using your own body weight and a prop or two”:
“I like HIIT or steady soft sand running on my home beach at Bondi to get rid of stubborn belly fat,” he said.
The 37-year-old also enjoys outdoor exercise combining pull-ups, push-ups, squats, leg extensions and running, and regularly does circuit training using his own body weight for support.
“If you live in Australia, we are already blessed with some of the most incredible outdoor training locations in the world,” said Dylan.
“I think the purpose of all this is to serve as a reminder to anyone who’s fallen off the fitness wagon and isn’t sure how to get back on it.”
‘It’s certainly possible, even if sometimes you feel like it just can’t be done. At the end of the day, our fitness journeys should be a lifetime. It’s not just 12-week programs or six-month memberships.
“They’re something you should be able to do for the rest of your life—and that’s what I intend to do.”