Story
Building a positive outcome
words TODD KUCHEL
PHOTOGRAPHY pete thornton
It can be challenging to find something to be passionate about and even more difficult to apply the motivation required to succeed. But few things can be harder than having your chance to achieve your ambitions taken away.
Jake Noack was first inspired to play football after participating in Ozkick as a young lad.
He went on to play for Tanunda and was soon striving to become the best he could on field.
When he was 14, he set his sights on pursuing a professional football career and joined the gym to gain more fitness and strength.
“I was in the gym to strengthen up for footy,” Jake explains. “That was the main goal.”
Then, one Saturday after the game, Jake went to a mate’s place to ride dirt bikes and suffered a horrendous crash.
“I broke my femur, kneecap and had a fracture beneath my eye,” Jake explains.
Jake was hospitalised for only three days but spent the following three months on crutches, only to find that his femur fracture had moved and required a second surgery.
Jake began to regain strength and returned to footy, training with Centrals, until a nasty pain led him back to hospital.
It had been one year since the last surgery and the femur fracture still wasn’t healing.
A third operation was required.
Jake did return to footy, but his body wasn’t handling it.
“I was sore from Saturday to Saturday,” Jake admits. “That’s when the femoral head collapsed, which led to my hip replacement.”
Avascular necrosis in the femur developed, which stopped the blood supply to Jake’s femoral head, causing it to collapse. This meant Jake needed a hip replacement at only 18 years of age.
Going to the gym kept Jake sane during this difficult time and after his hip replacement, he made the difficult decision to stop playing football.
“The first couple (of) years were very difficult,” Jake admits. “I’d still go watch on weekends and just want to be out there playing.”
Jake decided to focus his efforts on the gym and signed up for a personal trainer course.
It was in this course that Jake met a body building competitor, who asked if he’d ever look at competing.
“I didn’t know how to answer,” Jake grins. “I had never considered it.”
That brief conversation inspired Jake to research the sport of competitive body building and left him thinking, “Well, I can’t play footy anymore, why not give it a shot?”
Jake acquired a coach with a holistic approach, designing specialised workout schedules, meal plans and recovery.
He reduced his training from six to five days a week and continued Hypertrophy Training, which causes stress on the muscles to help increase muscle mass.
“Cutting back my training gives my body more time to recover,” Jake explains. “Training the same muscle before it has time to recover will lead to overtraining, and not seeing the best results.”
As soon as Jake switched to eating properly and being strict with the regimen, he saw massive progression.
“Obviously it’s hard,” Jake admits, “but if you want results the fastest way possible, that’s the way to do it.”
Last year, when Jake started bulking with his coach, he weighed 90kg. He is now 110 Kg.
It took Jake only nine months to get on stage for the first time and compete in the IFBB (International Federation of BodyBuilding and Fitness) league.
He entered the men’s physique in South Australia and won overall in his category, then flew up to nationals in Brisbane where he placed second in his class.
“I was not expecting those results for my first time,” Jake beams. “It’s an amazing experience seeing all my hard work paid off.”
“No matter what challenges you face throughout your life, don’t let it hold you back, there is always something else out there that you can excel in”
- jake noack
Jake is now training to enter the classic category in the IFBB which is weight capped at 108kg.
“So, my goal now will be to hit that weight cap,” Jake explains. “It won’t be next year, but that’s the overall goal.
“Obviously, footy was the main thing I wanted to do,” Jake says. “I was trying to push and do everything I could to be the best I could be, but then having something happen to me where I couldn’t do that anymore, it feels like it at the time, but it’s not the end of the world.
“You can find something else you can do and be passionate about and excel in. It’s like a blessing in disguise, because if I never had that accident I wouldn’t be where I am today, and I wouldn’t know the people I know today.
“No matter what challenges you face throughout your life, don’t let it hold you back, there is always something else out there that you can excel in.”
