Bulking up with supplements

As you bump into this, James Mwirigi shouldn’t be walking, at least not on his twos, in fact not even limping.

But the hulking 30-year-old leans on his black executive chair pushes back then stands without a flinch, stretches and strides a few steps welcoming me with the one—shoulder-touch manly hug, as I enter his office in Nairobi's central business district.

The gargantuan weighs 95 kilos and it’s been weeks since his last workout. When in the shape of his life, the scales tilt between 85-90 kilos, the perfect weight for a typical rugby wingback.

“I haven’t trained for two months now, my knee has gotten worse with time and I am now scheduled for a corrective surgery in May,” the fitness consultant says swinging on his seat.

Even with the eight weeks without exercising, Mwirigi who trained as an engineer, still spots a lot of lean muscles, enough to convince many he’s hardly missed the gym.

Nearly 10 years ago, the telecom engineer slid on a wet floor awkwardly landing on his right knee resulting into muscle tear that he did not know of until years later.

“Of course, the pain was enormous considering I’m big, but as a young guy, your body tends to heal faster. The pain eased after a few days but the damage had already been done which I wasn’t aware of,” Biggie (his pet name) explains.

For years he continued working out with ease, bending his knees in all directions and sometimes lifting heavy weights, something he no longer does.

It wasn't until last year that he started realising a sharp acute pain whenever he did leg workouts or stretches.

“When I did the first MRI scan it showed that it was an ACL tear (anterior cruciate ligament injury) and I was to do surgery last June but postponed because of a busy schedule,” he says.

But then, Biggie realised the pain was manageable with reduced workloads and so continued training with less intensity, which eventually escalated the injury unknowingly.

“In January the pain worsened, there were positions I couldn’t fold the knee. I had an interlocking knee while climbing stairs and a second MRI scan confirmed that the injury had aggravated to a posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) tear. To someone who doesn’t work out even an ACL injury alone is enough to have him grounded. He won’t be able to walk, to see me able to walk with both ACL and PCL tear, that means my quad, hips and hamstring tendon muscles are strong enough to continue supporting the knee,” he points out.

PCL is located inside the knee joint and becomes injured when the ligament is torn or stretched.

Dream of a chiselled physique

Since his teen years growing up in Meru, Mwirigi has always been active. He played basketball in primary, rugby in high school and got introduced to kickboxing by his late father.

Then while at the university studying telecom engineering, he spotted a well-built muscle-chiselled senior student.

“That’s how I got to the gym. I wanted to have his physique. All my life I have been involved with physical exercises and so if lifting weights would get me that body, I cared less. All I wanted was to look good.”

Nutrition classes

But over time, Biggie got fascinated with not only the exercise regimen but also the nutrition aspect and body science.

He started consulting nutritionists, reading body science journals and any material that would enrich his understanding of how the body works.

“At some point during my six-year engineering studies, I enrolled for online classes on nutrition that encompasses not only the nutrition aspect of things but also how the human anatomy which is a big machine, operates. Most people think they understand how their bodies work but they don’t. The body is complex,” he says.

His elder sister, a medical practitioner also played a part in introducing him to the world of supplements, which now forms part of Mwirigi’s main business.

The big fallacy

“The first time I took supplements was in 2010, they were Amino Acids from my medic sister. At the time there was this fallacy that supplements are drugs and harmful, some even argued that they were steroids. Over the years I have been advising people on fitness and supplement usage as I sell them as well.”

By 2018, while still in the university Mwirigi had already begun selling supplements to gyms rats.

When he graduated, he worked for four months for Jamii Telecommunication but quit and ventured full-time into the fitness and supplement consulting business.

“What people need to understand is that supplements are extracted from normal food. The reason we have them is because they are in the right amount that our body might not be able to squeeze out of food.

Let’s take Vitamin C for example, a normal average body needs between 75 mg to 90 mg. One orange contains 70 mg, which means you need to eat more than one orange to have the right amount of Vitamin C intake. Sometimes absorption of these minerals is lost when the body is breaking down food. Besides, how often do you eat oranges? This is where supplements come in,” Biggie explains.

The three body types

But if that doesn’t make sense, Mwirigi says the human anatomy is built into three body types which dictate one's body mineral needs.

“This is important to note. Are you an ectomorph, endomorph or mesomorph? Endomorphs are someone who will bulk up with little subjection to carbohydrates. Ectomorphs are the opposite, no matter how many calories they consume it’s very difficult for them to gain weight. Then the mesomorph easily loses or gains calories depending on their food intake.”

Biggie says these body types vary in how they take up minerals and it’s the reason supplements become an important element once you understand what is your body type.

An ectomorph will have to be subjected to high volumes of calories, both food and supplement, to gain the desired growth.

Mesomorphs are the best bodies to have because they are able to adjust easily to different situations and as such their calorie intake and supplements will vary from the other body types.

How much is enough nutrients?

“You can never have enough nutrients and minerals from food. For example, Amino acids have 16 macro and micronutrients. The macro you might get from food are the basics such as the Luceine but the micro you have to supplement them because they are elusive and that’s why we have multi-vitamin supplements which are majorly micro,” he explains.

For the last two months, Mwirigi has been on Amino Hydrocut supplements.

“Because I am not working out, hydro cut helps to retain the muscle by feeding in the necessary nutrients that stimulate growth.”

As we wind up, Mwirigi advocates for multivitamins as one key supplement you shouldn’t miss.

“As I said, multivitamins are responsible for one's immune system and functionality.

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