I was so broke I donated plasma twice a week, eight times a month, to pay for my first fitness coach.
That was January 2022. I was 203 pounds. I was hiding fast food wrappers from my roommates. I was Uber Eats-ing pizza at 11pm. I was the fitness guy on the outside and the guy rotting on the inside.
This is the story of how I got there. And how I built it back.
Welcome to Episode 1 of Built Back. I'm your host, Maximus Ramminger, founder of Gladiator Academy. This is the podcast for anyone who used to be the person they want to be again. Or honestly, anyone who knows they were never that person yet and they're sick of waiting.
In this first episode, I'm going deep on my full story for the first time. Not the highlight reel. The real one.
Here's what we cover:
• Growing up on Cedar Lake in Wisconsin, and why I wouldn't take my shirt off at the pool from age 8 to 12• The blue t-shirt I wore every summer that became the first symptom of body dysmorphia I still deal with today• Being the perfectionist kid who carried every strikeout and every fumble for days• Finding V Shred in high school and running three 90-day cuts that broke me every single time• Why the rebounds after every cut were more violent than the discipline during them• Waking up during football's dead week at 17 years old and falling straight to the floor with sciatica• Getting the MRI that told me I might never squat or play football again• Learning the next step if I reinjured it was a spinal fusion, the same surgery my mom had lived with my whole life• How that MRI room was the darkest moment of my life to that point• Watching physical therapists and chiropractors light up when they helped me, and finding my future career in that room• Transferring to Oshkosh, getting clinical training hours, and falling in love with coaching for the first time• The dirty bulking phase in college that turned into full-blown binging• Hiding wrappers from my roommates, hiding wrappers from my mom• The Milwaukee photo on New Year's Day 2022 that finally broke me• The fat filter my friends put on our buddy Carter as a joke, and the day I started putting it on myself• Reaching out to Nick Justice, a coach I'd met drunk at a bar a year earlier• Being so broke I donated plasma twice a week to pay for coaching• Why plasma money was the first time I ever had real skin in the game• 110 days, 33 pounds lost, and the moment I looked in the mirror and saw actual muscle for the first time in my life• The one line Nick said to me that I now say to every single client I work with• Walking the beach shirtless that summer for the first time in my life• Meeting Brian Mark, finding an expiring bank account with almost the exact investment amount, and building Gladiator Academy• Why I'm doing this podcast, who it's for, and what to expect from every episode
This show is for anyone who used to be the person they want to be again.
If you used to be fit, confident, and dialed in, and somewhere in the climb of building a career, raising a family, or paying the mortgage, you lost yourself in the process, this show is for you.
You can build it back. But it's going to take the hard work you've been avoiding.
WORK WITH ME:
Apply for 1:1 coaching: https://link.coachescorner.io/widget/survey/VwXPy71jQKDiZinHBuZS
Book a call: https://link.coachescorner.io/widget/survey/tO8fpzdrpjyz9BOKny5M
Free macro calculator: https://gladiatoracademy.vip/get-macros
Or DM me "TRANSFORM" on Instagram
FOLLOW ME:
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New episodes every Friday.
If you got value from this episode, hit follow, drop a rating, and share it to your story. That's how this show grows.
This is Built Back. I'll see you in Episode 2.
