Everyone who has kept up with teamRIPPED for any amount of time is very familiar with John I. (aka INDO). He’s a physician, so his expertise on matters of health, nutrition, supplements, and fitness have been a huge asset to our team. He’s also got an unmatched passion for these workouts and is constantly pushing himself to new levels with P90X, Insanity, Asylum, and Body Beast.
So now, without further delay, I give you Indo, the warrior doctor!
Indo’s Story in his own words:
My name is John Indovina, but most people just call me Indo.
I’m a 46 year old Surgeon who had neglected my health for far too many years. Like most physicians, I was more concerned for everyone else’s health to the detriment of my own. I had always been very athletic in the past, but my career and other aspects of my Life kept getting in the way. I had belonged to several gyms in the past and I was very active in going to those gyms, but as the years progressed I had gone less and less and that’s when I started gaining weight. In 2003 an old knee injury re-surfaced and I began riding a bicycle on a regular basis to strengthen the knee. The weight came off and I felt that I was in Good Shape, riding 20 miles a day during the week and 50 miles on Saturdays. Once again, Life reared its head and Hurricane Katrina forced me to relocate and start a whole new Surgery practice which required a huge amount of my time, and the bicycling stopped. I ultimately joined a gym, but was unsatisfied because of the numerous “Gym Rats” that always seem to be socializing right when you want to use the bench or the machines. So I joined a second gym. This was much more to my liking as there were no “Social-Lifters”, but time constraints again caused me to go less and less frequently—I hated wasting time that I didn’t have driving to and from the gym and I eventually stopped going.
All of this time I was continuing to indulge in my bad eating habits without any care for the future consequences. I would drink beer and eat a whole pizza at one sitting. Fried chicken was on the menu at least twice a week. But I didn’t care because I knew that I would start working out again—Someday. I began to have horrible reflux that often woke me up at night choking with a burning in my chest that felt like someone had started a fire in my esophagus! I began taking medications for it without any help until I started taking them twice a day. At the same time, I was also experiencing random (and severe) joints pains for no good reason. I kept gaining weight throughout this entire time. It got to the point that I didn’t even recognize the person looking back at me in the mirror. I was telling people on a daily basis what they needed to do to improve their health, but I wasn’t listening to my own words of advice. It then occurred to me that there is a strong history of heart attacks and strokes on both sides of my family, some of which have occurred at an early age. I knew that I was headed for disaster if I stayed on the same Path that I was travelling—one that would end up either in a hospital bed or a pine box. I knew that something had to be done—soon!
I knew that going back to the gym wasn’t a good answer because every time I had previously gone I had wished that there was some way I could work out at home. I seriously considered buying a tread-climber device—one with the rotating and elevating tread. In fact, I was reading a brochure about the Mobia, which is made by Nautilus, and I turned on the TV as I sat on the sofa just to hear some “background noise” while I was reading. That’s when IT HAPPENED…
I have always been one to believe that things and events in our lives happen for a reason—that we need to pay attention to these events because we need the lessons that they teach.
As I looked up from the brochure I noticed that an infomercial was playing on the TV—the P90X infomercial. Of course I had heard of “X-P-90” or “90P-X” (everybody had always seem to get the numbers and letters in the wrong order!), but I was skeptical and figured it was just another one of those “Get healthy Quick” schemes that didn’t really work. As I was watching, I sat up and really started to pay attention. The transformations were just incredible! The concept of Muscle Confusion seemed sound. And there was a complete Nutrition Plan included. THIS was for me. I had to try it. I had absolutely NOTHING to lose and it was going to cost less than 3 months of my (unused) gym membership.
When the P90X arrived I immediately read through it all and set up my exercise room and chin up bar. The workouts were TOUGH. I remember thinking, “What have I gotten myself into?” sometime in the middle of Plyometrics. But then I thought that I was either going to get through this—the whole 90 days—or die trying because anything was better than going out the way I was living.
Somewhere along the way I realized that this was not just a 90-day workout program, but a complete change in Lifestyle. I finished P90X with fantastic results–I lost 37 lbs and dropped my body fat from 29% to 12%. I decided to keep going and for Round 2 I did a DOUBLES round of Insanity in the morning and P90X resistance workouts in the evening for the next 60 days. Again the results were incredible.
P90X and Insanity have not only allowed me to regain the healthy Lifestyle that was missing for so long in my Life, but they have also given me the opportunity to continue to impact the health of others by becoming an Independent Beachbody Coach. I now have the opportunity to Pay It Forward by helping others realize their health and fitness goals as I continue along my Journey. That’s why I started Fitness Warriors–a community of like-minded individuals who have come together as a Team to support one another in conquering their fitness goals.
Need a coach?
My email: coachwayne@teamripped.com
IG: @wayne_wyatt
