Q & A : Willie Combrink – 1st in Men’s Transformation

Please give us a short history of your journey to health and fitness before the challenge.

I have always been active, but yo-yo dieting has been my downfall.

I have done bodybuilding when I was younger, switched to OCR racing for 3 years, and then got a bone Tumor that broke my leg and basically replaced my left femur with a Tumor.

I then got a bone transplant and while I was doing rehab I got stronger and decided I want to try powerlifting. And that is my hobby now.

What prompted you to join the Sleekgeek Transformation Challenge?

I needed to drop weight to be able to compete in my weight class. Powerlifting works in weight classes. So I wanted to compete in the 105kg class.

But I was struggling to get my weight down. So I decided to enter the challenge so I can have some extra motivation and accountability.

And it worked, seeing everybody working hard every day, pushed and motivated me to keep going!

Give us a quick overview of the nutrition and eating plan that you followed during the challenge.

I do intermittent fasting. So I fast for 20 hours and eat for only 2.

I can’t follow a diet that says precisely what you should eat. As the saying goes, the best diet is the one you can follow.

Then when I ate I just made sure the foods I eat is nutrient-dense and fueled me to have energy throughout the day and also perform in the gym.

So I don’t follow a strict plan. I just look at the food and ask myself if I eat this, will it make me lift more, run faster, be a better father, be a better husband, make my heart, bones, teeth, muscles, liver, kidneys, brain, sleep pattern better and stronger or will it impact any of those negatively.

But believe me, I am not perfect and no one should be. I do eat food that doesn’t do that once or twice a week… sometimes 4 times, but that is the way I like to look at food.

Give us a quick overview of the training and exercise plan that you followed during the challenge.

So I trained for powerlifting and still do. So my focus in the gym was to get stronger each week and not to loose fat.

I believe this is the best way of achieving health. You see I could have done a lot of unhealthy things to loose weight faster, but that would only make me a “thinner” person and not a healthier one.

So I train to get stronger in the squat, bench, and deadlift. I do each of them once a week ( 5 reps x 5 sets ) and then I work on getting the muscles stronger which helps me do the lifts on the other days.

I train 5 times a week.

But the thing that people don’t understand is that what you do outside the gym helps you burn way more calories than inside.

So when I am at work I have an elevated stand where I can work on my computer. This makes me stand while I work. And this burns a lot more calories than sitting.

I also do short walks after I eat. 10min at most. This helps with digestion and burns a lot of calories.

I also play with my 20-month-old son a lot outside. This also burns calories and you bond more than sitting and watching TV with your children.

If you could give 3 pieces of advice to future challengers, what would they be?

1. Train for some event other than just loosing weight and winning the challenge. Train to run a 5k,10k or 21k in 8 weeks time, or any sporting event. So training must be focused on becomming better at something, rather than just loosing weight.
2. Focus also to be healthier, rather than loosing far. People with anorexia has way less fat than you do, but will die sooner than you to. If you focus on health, the fat will go down.
3. The best diet and exercise plan is the one you can follow. Don’t follow my 2 hour eating window and powerlifting routine if you don’t like it. Eat food that you like, that is healthy, and the amount of calories you eat in a day is way more important than what diet you follow.

Any diet works. Keto, Paleo, Vegan, name them, but if you can’t follow it long term, it won’t work long term.

Why should people enter the challenge?

For motivation and accountability.

People in the Sleekgeek FB group help motivate you more than you think and more than they know. My 1st place should actually be awarded to each and everyone who posted their own routines and hard work.