PT reveals how he 'built his body back up' after ending up in hospital

How personal trainer ‘rebuilt his body’ in amazing transformation after ending up in hospital from tank water at a music festival

  • Dylan Rivier, 40, shed 17kg when he drank tank water in Byron Bay at a festival
  • He ‘built his body back up’ slowly by focusing on nutrition and gut health
  • Shared tips for getting defined abs, and said alcohol consumption must lower 

A personal trainer has revealed how he ‘built his body back up’ after he lost 17 kilograms when he contracted a bacterial infection from drinking tank water and ended up in hospital.

Dylan Rivier, 40, from Sydney, posted on Instagram recalling the experience that took place in 2013 when he was working at a music festival in Byron Bay.

He said he shed 17kg of muscle in just four weeks when he was ‘in hospital sick AF’, and it took him ‘almost a full 12 months to get back my strength and fitness’. 

A personal trainer has revealed how he ‘built his body back up’ after he lost 17 kilograms when he contracted a bacterial infection from drinking tank water (Dylan Rivier pictured now)


Dylan Rivier, 40, from Sydney, posted on Instagram recalling the experience that took place in 2013 when he was working at a music festival in Byron Bay (pictured then)

Dylan wrote: ‘The first picture is me almost 10 years ago, in hospital sick AF after drinking water that had a nasty bacteria in it. The second photo is what I looked like exactly eight weeks earlier’.

He added: ‘I hadn’t weighed that little since High School. My mineral levels and protein were rock bottom, my blood pressure was 90/40 and my HR was 96 – all big problems in personal trainer land.’

Dylan said: ‘It took me almost a full 12 months to get back my strength and fitness, I cleaned up my diet and had to take my training back to level one, but I got there in the end and haven’t stopped.’

Dylan said just eight weeks before he got sick (pictured), he was as fit as he has ever been (pictured before at the gym)


In order to ‘build his body back up’, the Bondi Beach personal trainer said he made his nutrition a priority like ‘never before’ (pictured afterwards), and he had a specific focus on gut health

Dylan Rivier’s day on a plate 

* First thing: Apple cider vinegar with green powder of some sort (Welleco Super Elixir or Vital Green work well).

* Breakfast: Poached eggs, avocado, spinach and mushroom, no toast and a long black or turmeric latte.

* Snack: Tin of tuna.

* Lunch: Grilled chicken and halloumi salad, with beans, beetroot, lettuce and sprouts.

* Snack: Protein shake with 20g protein (whey, rice, pea or whichever), berries, banana, a little Greek yoghurt, a few walnuts and almonds and water.

* Dinner: Grilled fish and steamed vegetables.

In order to ‘build his body back up’, the Bondi Beach personal trainer said he made his nutrition a priority like ‘never before’.

‘I shopped at the farmers’ markets for fresh produce, and made sure everything I bought was organic and locally-sourced,’ he previously told FEMAIL. 

‘I also treated myself like one of my clients, starting their fitness journey right from the very beginning.’ 

Dylan added apple cider vinegar to his diet, which he has with some sort of ‘greens powder’ first thing in the morning.

Elsewhere, he prioritised plenty of protein through the day, by way of poached eggs, snacks of tins of tuna, grilled chicken salads and Greek yoghurt.

‘You can be training your butt off, but if you’re not complementing that with good nutrition – or you’re drinking too much – you’re not going to see much progress at all,’ Dylan previously told FEMAIL. 

‘I do a bunch of ab exercises to help to strengthen and tone my mid section, but if there’s a layer of fat over my abs then I won’t see them.’

He added: ‘If you want to see your abs, you need to cut down on refined sugar, watch your alcohol consumption. 

‘And keep your diet pretty balanced when it comes to fat, carbs and protein.

‘My advice to people who want to see results is to find what works for you and stick with it,’ Dylan said.

Dylan complemented his diet with sessions between five and six times a week; he said he had to build up to this frequency as when he first started, he couldn’t do more than three (pictured)

Dylan complemented his clean diet with training sessions between five and six times a week. 

He said he had to build up to this frequency as when he first started recovering, he couldn’t train more than three times each week.

Nowadays, Dylan does a variety of workouts, including HITT sessions, steady state soft sand running, outdoor workouts combining pull ups, push ups, squats, straight leg raises and runs.


Nowadays, Dylan does a variety of workouts, including HITT sessions, steady state soft sand running, outdoor workouts combining pull ups, push ups, squats, straight leg raises and runs 

Dylan says you can ‘achieve the body of your dreams simply by using your own body weight and one or two props’:

‘I like HIIT or steady state soft sand running on my home beach at Bondi to shift stubborn stomach fat,’ he said.

The 37-year-old also loves doing an outdoor workout combining pull ups, push ups, squats, straight leg raises and runs, and does frequent circuit training using his own bodyweight as a prop.

‘If you live in Australia, we’re already blessed with some of the most incredible outdoor training locations in the world,’ Dylan said. 

‘I guess the point of all this is to serve as a reminder to anyone who has fallen off the fitness bandwagon and is unsure of how to get back on it.

‘It’s definitely possible, even though sometimes you feel like there’s just no way. At the end of the day, our fitness journeys should be life long. They’re not just 12-week programmes or six-month memberships.

‘They’re something you should be able to do for the rest of your life – and that’s what I plan on doing.’ 

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