Dan Marashi Lets us know what he’s been upto since His first bodybuilding show!

Where did Dan Marashi Go to? We caught up with the JW Training athlete to see what hes been upto as of late! he even posted some brand new pics of himself! please bare in mind that dan is in what we call an ‘off season’ putting on muscle before stripping off all the fat for a boybuilding show!

heres what he had to say:

“It’s been a good number of months since the BNBF Southern Championships in Bognor Regis. So I’m sure a popular conversion topic heard around gym floors, ice rinks, internet forums, and radio and TV talk shows across the country has been “whatever happened to that Dan Marashi?” Yeah right! Anyway, I figured it was about time that I gave an update as to what I’ve been up to since winning fourth place in my first ever bodybuilding contest.

Due to my success in Bognor Regis, I qualified for the overall natural bodybuilding finals that were to be held in September in Glasgow. So after taking a week off from training and dieting to try and recuperate, I got back to work with the intention of competing in Scotland. However I came across a few speed bumps along the way. Firstly, I overestimated my body’s ability to recover. My preparation for Bognor had pushed my body to the absolute limit, and due to plain inexperience and a few miscalculations I definitely had ‘over-dieted’ and over trained for the show, staying on the ketogenic diet for too long. The result of this was that my body didn’t know how to respond to, and for a long time rejected carbohydrates. Carbs are arguably essential for muscle growth and for keeping testosterone levels high, so this posed a problem. I went through quite a long uncomfortable transitioning period, in which I tried to get my body to start growing and accepting ‘normal food’ again. Additionally, it took time for me to realise that my body was still so worn down from the contest that I had to reduce the frequency of my training.

The next ‘bump in the road’ if you will, is that Ramadan (the holy month in which Muslims refrain from eating or drinking everyday during daytime hours) fell during August. So basically, as soon as I started to feel normal again in my body being able to tolerate carbohydrates, I was forced to change my eating habits yet again because of fasting! Despite this issue, I still carried on sticking to a strict diet by eating at intervals throughout the night until the sun rose early morning. I also drove twenty miles for three days a week to a 24 hour gym that I joined just for that month, so to carry on with my training. However, despite my efforts, I continued to retain a low level of body fat but could not maintain my muscle mass so I did lose some size. With the contest date of the finals rapidly approaching, I had a heart to heart talk with Joe. We both regrettably agreed that it was best to withdraw from the contest. I still could have competed and maybe performed at an OK level, but neither me nor him were happy to go all of that way without giving it 110% with the intention of taking home silverware.

So where does that leave us? “What’s next?” you might be asking. Well that would be next year’s BNBF Southern Championships which will probably be held in Bognor Regis again. Having won fourth place on my first attempt, I will be looking to improve on that previous performance and hopefully again achieve the honour of going to the national finals. Fingers crossed Ramadan won’t be so close to the date of the finals this time! At this moment in time I’ve been working hard to try and gain mass and bring a bigger better version of what was on stage at Bognor.

Additionally, as word may have spread, I’ve started playing hockey again. I’m not taking it as seriously as I once did, and I’m not quite as good as I used to be. But I definitely have fun doing it, and it’s a good form of cardio to keep my body fat low. The only issue I have to deal with is avoiding overtraining and making sure I eat enough!

So basically, yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to over these last few months. I’m still training hard, getting a real buzz from seeing the weights I lift increase every week. I’m still working as a personal trainer and nutritionist. And I’m still under the protective wing of sensei Joe Webb, who makes sure I’m keeping on track and that everything’s running smoothly. Hopefully next time I won’t make you wait so long for an update. But until then, train hard and take care.”

-Dan Marashi-

Here are some recent pics of Dan, as you can all see, he has added some great size so far!