Jordan Luck, a 30-year-old grad student and warehouse manager from Placentia, California, grew up as an All Star athlete, even receiving a soccer scholarship at a Division 1 school. But after an injury side lined him in college, a suddenly sedentary lifestyle led to serious weight gain. It took one epic guy’s weekend pit-crewing at World’s Toughest Mudder, and finally stepping on the scale, to set Jordan on the path back to peak physical fitness—and to Mudder Nation. Meet Mudder Jordan Luck and read his story.
Transforming into a Tough Mudder
In 2017, my best friend, who is an avid fitness and OCR fanatic, asked me to be part of his pit in Las Vegas for World’s Toughest Mudder. A few of our other friends were also running, so it promised to be an epic guys’ weekend.
The race went off perfectly. Shane finished 55 miles and we had a great time with friends, saw some amazing things done on the course, ate some amazing buffets, and then went our separate ways.
A few weeks later, I realised I wanted to be on the course, not just in the pit and in no shape to even walk a lap. I talked to Shane a lot about diets and exercises, and he was nothing but encouraging.
The Obstacles
Around this time, though, I lost my grandmother, and I went right back to food, being lazy, and just feeling worthless. Then, in April 2018, I found myself buying size 54 pants—not because my old ones were worn out, but because I had outgrown them. I realised the time had come; either I was going to die because my health was so poor, or I was finally going to do something about it.
On May 1st 2018, I stepped on the scale and weighed 378 lbs. I was mortified. I stepped off the scale and walked straight to the kitchen to start actually prepping my meals for the first time. My diet was strict; if eating pizza, beer, chips, and all the other crap any time I wanted had gotten me to this point, it was time to do whatever it took to get the weight off. Even if it sucked.
My new diet consisted mainly of chicken, ground turkey, turkey bacon, eggs, avocado, and organic peanut butter. Eventually I began to see progress through just changing my diet, and I decided it was time to start hitting the gym. Under the guidance of friends and a lot of Google searches, I started working out three times a week.
Morning cardio was by far the hardest part of the journey. I started off on a treadmill, completely shot after walking just one 23-minute mile. But I stuck to it and eventually worked up to 20 miles a week, running almost every morning, and increased weight training to six days a week.
The AHA Moment
Ultimately, I think this whole process has been one giant “aha” moment. Every few weeks there is some new personal best set, or new clothes to be bought because my body had changed a bit more.
The goal of my first Tough Mudder in October 2018, weighing a little over 300 lbs, was just to finish the course by any means necessary. With the help of my friend Shane and my fiancé, I accomplished it. At my second Tough Mudder, a few months later, I achieved my goal of finishing in under three hours of time spent moving.
Then on May 1st 2019, I stepped on the scale and weighed 257.7 lbs. The first year had passed. In that time I ran two Tough Mudders and two Obstacle Course Race 5Ks, but more importantly I had drastically and permanently improved my quality of life. As fun as Tough Mudders are, it was more important to know I was doing everything possible to not die of some sort of preventable cardiac failure at age 40, because I was fat and lazy.
Jordan’s Story Continued
It’s been 30 months of non stop grinding for Jordan, and his continued training has more than paid off. He has lost 190 lbs and far exceeded his own goals. He has said: “2021 will be all about feeding the fire and becoming the best athletic version of myself possible. The capstone for the year will be a 50+ mile attempt at Worlds Toughest Mudder 2021 in the Laughlin desert. Nothing at all is off the table for the year.”
“A lot of people have asked what my goal weight or size is, but all I’ve ever said is: I want to be in whatever shape I have to be in so that I can crush my WTM goal.”
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