About Goran Borkovic and how it all started
BULK HACKERS interview, January 2020.
Hello. My name is Goran Borkovic and I’m 31 y.o. Croatian. Past four years living and working in Dublin, Ireland. Bodybuilding is my love and it describes my life a lot.
I have FISAF (Federation for international Sports, Aerobic and Fitness) International license and a Master of Management college degree. I used to work in the biggest gym chain in Dublin as a personal trainer. Now I have my own business.
Back in days when I was 12 and I’ve started to eat more unhealthy food like pizzas, burgers, and bakery. I was active, either on physical activity class in school or after school with my friends but obviously, it wasn’t enough to prevent me from getting chubby.
All the sweets and McDonald’s brought me to the point where I was 180 cm tall and 80 kg with just 15 years and slightly active. I knew that I have more kilos than most of my friends but didn’t worry too much because I felt good and some people older than me told me I’m still growing, it’s just a phase and I’ll lose it when I grow up, which is not some theory that always works.
So at the age of 15, a big tragedy happened to my family and I’ve started to think of my health and wasn’t happy with my body shape. The new plan was to shred fat and gain muscles. So as I got interested in getting a nice and toned body, I told myself I’ll eat less but right and start to exercise.
My motivation came from different magazines and pictures of the muscular guys that looked f*** awesome, just like Marvel superheroes. In the beginning, I made mistakes both with my diet and workout plan. I had three meals per day and was active for an hour-hour and a half each day.
For breakfast, I had just a no-bun hot dog with a little bit of mayo, soya medallions stuffed with cheese and ham + some spinach or boiled veggies for lunch, and for dinner, I had mixed salad and pan-fried eggplants with a bit of sour cream.
My idea of getting as many veggies I can, soya food, and a bit protein and fat without starch and sugars showed right, but just in a calorie deficit and losing weight. It was just efficient for losing fat, but not so smart when it comes to preserving health and muscle mass what can be again seen from all the meals and in the end in deficit in calories and nutrients.
Every day was more-less the same, 100-200 hundred pushups and 100-200 crunches combined with a poor diet.
In 45 days, I lost 15 kilos and I could see how the numbers on my scale from week to week are getting smaller and smaller. One day scale showed 65 kg and my father asked me if this is the end, because he got worried about such a fast and big loss of my weight. I noticed it is enough when I saw my reflection in the mirror with all the ribs, thin hands, and narrow shoulders.
Other people were shocked by that big change in that short period. My friends asked me if I’m sick and what happened to me that I lost so many kilos. I told them it was on purpose and my own decision to live healthier and get fitter.
A few months later, my neighbor asked me if I want to go to the gym with him to gain some muscle and that was the moment where progress came and I fell in love with the gym. That’s how it all started, guys.
15 years of working out are behind me today and fitness, in general, is my lifestyle. I came to the point where I was 101kg in weight and my PRs were 180 kg on the bench, 200kg squats, and 220 kg deadlifts.
My hobby is also cocktail bartending in the past 10 years and it all started with hospitality school back in days.
Many summer seasons on the Croatian coast and islands, different cities, a lot of good contacts, people, and of course earning kept me interested till nowadays. My other hobby is motorbikes for sure. That’s something I got from my father.
I’ll say today there is nothing better than good training, riding a motorbike, and sometimes to have a nice classic cocktail in a good company.
