Guy Loses 47 Pounds in 9 Months Pretending to be a Wizard

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Mel is a 45-year-old marketing manager for a comic book company in Los Angeles, and a self-proclaimed “nerd.” Until recently, he’d never been able to stay on a workout regimen for very long. Nine months ago, he weighed 320 pounds, and by his own admission, was “lethargic and slow. I would lose my breath just by walking up a flight of stairs on the subway.”

But all of that changed this year. Today, he says he’s 273 pounds, and losing more weight every week.

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he workout is called “Eye of Sauron,” and it was created by Andrew Deutsch, the head coach and owner of Nerdstrong Gym in North Hollywood, California.

Deutsch started Nerdstrong in his garage in 2013, when he became the personal fitness trainer for the dungeon master at his Dungeons & Dragons group

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What’s involved in the Eye of Sauron workout? It goes like this: “In The Lord of the Rings, the bad guy is represented by a giant eye—The Eye of Sauron—and the eye has a beam that sweeps across the land and the characters have to get down to avoid being seen by it,” Deutsch said.

Deutsch continues: “So in the workout, every three minutes the Eye of Sauron sweeps across the gym and everyone has to hold a plank position for a minute until it passes.”

“Also, Frodo and Sam had to climb a lot of stairs, so our members do stepups with a weight on them. The ring has a heavy burden to it, so we have them have to carry a weight the entire workout to represent that.”

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Nerdstrong isn’t the only gym trying to create a safe space for people who normally avoid gyms. Mark Fisher Fitness in New York City takes a similar approach, catering to Broadway buffs, nerds, geeks, and unicorn lovers.

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it’s also a place to, well, let’s say let your freak flag fly.

“We make it a space that’s safe for someone who wants to dress as an S&M unicorn pirate,” explains Fisher.

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