Sometimes patients who haven’t seen Dr. Doug Tran, a Naperville internist, for a while notice he’s in better shape than the last time they saw them. What have you been doing, they’ll ask.
“Weightlifting” is the response. As in competitive weightlifting on a national level.
The Edward-Elmhurst physician does it in part for his patients: to be a role model and to show them it’s possible for someone who’s older and busy to develop a new fitness routine — and stick to it.
“I use it as a starting point for their own health, whether it’s talking about setting goals, dietary plans,” said Tran, 50. “I use my own experiences, both positive and negative. How difficult it is to get to the gym or eat appropriately when you’re bogged down by life and stress and work and family. So it makes it definitely relatable.”
On Friday, Tran will be in Salt Lake City for the 2022 National Masters Weightlifting Championships, which is being livestreamed at liftcast.tv. He lifts at 2:30 p.m. Central time.
About five years ago, Tran got into CrossFit. But he hurt himself, he said, “trying to keep up with some of the 20-year-olds.”
Then COVID-19 hit, and his gym shut down. But he knew one of the owners at Locked & Loaded CrossFit in Plainfield, who let him work out at the facility after hours.
A coach there who’d done competitive weightlifting encouraged him to try the sport, and offered to help train him. Why not, Tran thought.
He dove right in. “For kicks and giggles” he decided to enter a contest in Villa Park and ended up going home with a gold medal. A year and a half after picking up the hobby, he’s preparing for nationals — only his second competition ever.
“I’m gonna take it all in,” he said. “I expect to have fun, to compete, do my best and see what happens, and then from there set more goals, regardless of the outcome. It’s just going to be a good experience, and I’m not going to let this competition define me. So hopefully I’ll continue in the sport.”
On Friday, the Naperville resident will be matching up against seven other 50- to 54-year-olds in the 102-kilogram weight class. He’ll have three attempts each at the “snatch” and “clean and jerk” Olympic-style lifts, and whoever hoists the most weight at each event and in total wins.
Tran said the sport has helped him not only physically but mentally amid the pandemic, a time when he was also dealing with the death of his mother and his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis.
Besides his patients, he hopes to inspire his kids, who are in competitive gymnastics and dance themselves. He joked that his wife thinks he’s “nuts,” but says she appreciates his commitment and the example he’s setting for their son and two daughters. Tran’s family will be by his side Friday in Utah.
At his medical practice, Tran is a “medication minimalist” and always tries to first prescribe diet and exercise, he says. He doesn’t expect patients to start “banging and clanging” weights but they can incorporate fitness into their daily routines where possible and focus on portion control and consuming good protein and carbohydrates.
Often they’ll return a few months after making those lifestyle changes with lower blood sugar or cholesterol levels, he said. “Those are the things we high-five our patients about,” Tran said.
In preparation for Friday’s event, Tran has been training about five days a week, for roughly 90 minutes at a time, and limiting his fat and alcohol consumption. Basically, he’s been taking the advice he gives people every day, he said.
“Anything that I’m going to ask my patients to do, I’m going to try to do it as well,” he said.
Giles Bruce is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.