00:00At 372 pounds, even day-to-day tasks had become a huge struggle for Simon.
00:05So, when he made this insane claim...
00:08I'm gonna pick and attend next year a bodybuilding show.
00:12No!
00:13It was difficult to believe, but for Simon, it was deadly serious.
00:17See, in 2020, Simon was fighting for his life against Crohn's disease.
00:21It's a condition that would usually be manageable with proper care,
00:24but his symptoms became exacerbated by the fact he was also morbidly obese.
00:28His symptoms got so bad that he was stuck in the hospital for seven whole months,
00:33undergoing 11 different surgeries, with his body becoming septic
00:37and nearly completely shutting down three separate times.
00:40Simon desperately wanted to make a change in his life,
00:43but he was constantly drained of energy,
00:45and he soon discovered that he also had dangerously low levels of testosterone.
00:50However, after starting testosterone replacement therapy,
00:53Simon finally started to feel normal again,
00:55and he soon rediscovered an old passion that he'd almost forgotten.
00:59Powerlifting.
00:59And, with his imposing size, he was actually pretty good at it.
01:03However, despite his increasing strength,
01:05he quickly realized that focusing on such a narrow aspect of his health
01:09wasn't going to get him where he wanted to be.
01:11He knew that he was going to have to make some drastic changes.
01:14If you're gonna do something this crazy, you have to be a little bit psychotic.
01:17Let's be real with each other here.
01:18So, that's when he set a goal that many people thought was out of reach.
01:21He was going to try and compete at the 2024 Summer Shredding Classic in Toronto, Canada.
01:27It was only a year away, and for Simon to make the cut,
01:30he would have to get his body fat percentage from 52% all the way down to 5%.
01:35It seemed impossible, but he was determined, and he had a plan.
01:39Instead of doing it all on his own and risking falling into old habits,
01:43he started building a community on Instagram to hold him accountable.
01:46He posted his weight every single day,
01:48and he put himself out there as a real professional bodybuilder.
01:52Simon spent every day in the gym, he worked with a nutrition coach,
01:55and he even quit his job so that he could focus all of his energy
01:59on building his own brand as a bodybuilder and a coach.
02:02And it actually started working.
02:04Your biological age is 18.
02:11And as he got healthier, his Crohn's even went into remission.
02:14Then finally, on the morning of the competition,
02:17he hopped on the scale at 217 pounds.
02:21He'd officially lost 155 pounds in just one year,
02:25and his body fat percentage had come down just enough to qualify.
02:29However, after he went through his routine,
02:31he thought that was it.
02:32He thought he'd achieved everything he set out to accomplish.
02:36But as he stood nervously on stage,
02:38in awe of how far he'd come,
02:39the judges announced something
02:41that he could never have possibly imagined.
02:44One in 24 is the first running champion,
02:46goes to...
02:487 of all time!
02:51Simon won his class,
02:53and he took home the trophy.
02:54And...ea...
02:59And that's
02:59See you later,
03:00trophy. And now... Let's
03:00with the ability to be a trophy. And then, let's see
