Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Muhammad Isa and his brother Ahmed had been meaning to join a gym and get fit.
Ahmed was clinically obese and had been diagnosed with type two diabetes, and his younger brother weighed around 14 stone and had worryingly high blood pressure.
But before they were able to put words into action the family, from Bolton, were rocked by tragedy. Having spent months shielding, Ahmed contracted coronavirus whilst holidaying in Dubai in November 2020.
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After his condition deteriorated he was transferred to intensive care, where he sadly died. Muhammad and his family were left shocked by Ahmed's sudden death. He was just 39-years-old and had two children.
Muhammad, now 33, saw his brother's death as a warning that something needed to change in his own life, if he wanted to be around for his wife and four young children.
Speaking to the M.E.N, he said: "His death really hit me. I thought maybe if he did live a healthy lifestyle things could have been different. Before his death, my family and friends were saying I was starting to look like him in terms of my weight.
"I was around 89kg at that point. A lot of my weight was around my stomach area. My blood pressure was very high and my BPM wasn't great either. I was eating takeaway every night.
"All that triggered this and I wanted to make a change. I have four young children full of energy and I needed to make sure I am alive for them so I thought let's go for it."
In January 2022, Muhammad decided to sign up to a 12-week course with Ultimate Performance Manchester, embarking on a high-intensity training programme and calorie-deficit diet. "After my brother’s death a friend showed me a post from Ultimate Performance Manchester so I contacted them and had a meeting," he said.
"It even got to the point where I decided to move from where I live in Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester city centre to train for it. I was doing high intensity training three times a week and was in a total calorie deficit. I also had to do my own cardio training too.
"As the weeks go by you start to see some changes. I was faced with Ramadan during that time as well, which was a big challenge. That is when I saw a massive change in my body.
"I started in January 2022 and the programme was initially for 12 weeks but I continued for 25 weeks. I stayed in Manchester for 20 weeks and then moved to Bolton for the last five weeks."
Following the gruelling programme, Muhammad looks barely recognisable and has traded stomach fat for toned abs, gaining muscles on his back, shoulders and arms.
He said when he first showed the before and after pictures to his friends and family, they thought it was "photoshopped" and could hardly believe it was him.
"I think my brother would be extremely proud," he said. "He used to say to me 'we need to do something about it'. He used to say 'let's go to the gym' but we never did. I think if he saw me now he would have been motivated too."
"It's made a massive difference to my life," Muhammad added. "I can run around after my children without getting out of breath now, and my blood pressure has dropped significantly.
"When I started reflecting on my body and my unhealthy lifestyle, my brothers death, I came to realise that we weren’t honoured this body for us to abuse it however we want, but rather it is a blessing which we should look after and nourish accordingly, spiritually as well as physically."
Muhammad has decided to continue training with Ultimate Performance over virtual calls. He now aims to build more muscle.
Ultimate Performance is based in Spinningfields. The company says it specialises in life-changing body transformations in short time frames, with the help of specialist personal-training.
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