Wes Shore from Merseyside says playing padel “has literally been life changing” after regular matches took him from 21st to 14st 4lbs in just seven months.
Wes shed a total of 6st and 10lbs – more than the combined weight of his two young children – by playing around 15 times a month at Ignite Padel at Cheshire Oaks in Ellesmere Port.
The 35-year-old says he has never felt fitter and adds: “I wasn’t thinking about my weight, I was just playing the game and having so much fun.
“I would never have lost the weight without padel … if anything I would just have continued to put more on. I feel like a new man!”
Wes’s transformation began towards the end of last year when he suddenly decided enough was enough reagrding his lack of fitness.
“My chest was feeling tight, I didn’t have the energy I used to have, and I felt like an old man,” he explains. “I have a daughter of 10, Luna, and a six-year-old son, Myles, and I was dangerously overweight.
“I wanted to do it for them”
The first port of call for 6ft Wes was the local gym where he tried the CrossFit machine and the treadmill.
He left after just half an hour: “I hated every single minute of it and felt completely out of place,” he says.
It was by chance he came across Ignite Padel at Cheshire Oaks in Ellesmere Port – and started the sport ‘which has changed my life’.
“I was driving home from the gym and had a few bits of rubbish in my car which I thought I’d take to the tip,” he says, “and it was on the way there I drove past Ignite Padel.
“It was September and around the week they opened, and I saw some people playing.
“I hadn’t even heard of padel before, but I went in and spoke to some guys at reception who were fantastic. They put me in touch with their WhatsApp community and I was invited to play a game.
“I was exercising without feeling I was doing exercise and, because you have breaks when you’re picking up the ball, you’re not running around for the full one and a half hours, so you can rest and catch your breath.
“No-one’s good when they first start so I felt I was in like company, and after that first game I just couldn’t wait to play it again.
“I’ve been playing around 15 times a month and I can’t get enough of it. As I’ve got fitter, I’ve got better and the games have got harder.”
Pharma manager Wes, who’s married to Emily who works in asset finance, began watching what he ate but, with no other exercise, he says most of his weight loss is purely down to padel.
Having always been big – Wes was 16st at 16 – he says he can’t remember ever being so healthy. He sleeps better, has more energy and he even looks younger: “I get compliments all the time.”
While doctors had previously warned Wes he was pre-diabetic, his blood sugars are now normal and he’s been taken off medication for acid reflux and indigestion issues which have completely disappeared.
“There are social benefits too with such a great community and camaraderie,” he says. “I’m a senior manager. I work long hours and although I’m involved with people on a daily basis, I don’t think I realised I was probably a bit lonely.
“With padel, it’s a four-player game, sometimes with strangers, and the people I’ve met are now some of my closest friends.
“It’s good for your mental health too because you don’t think about anything else for the 90 minutes you play and the endorphins are pushing so it relieves stress.
“I feel amazing. I wouldn’t have lost the weight without padel and if the Ignite Padel people weren’t how they were, it could have been a very different story.
“I’ve found a sport I love, and I have never been this fit, not even in my teens.”
Padel Ignite founding partner Chris Watson says: “You can burn around 1,000 calories in a 90-minute game which makes it a really effective and enjoyable fitness activity. Wes has done incredibly and it’s great to see him looking so well.”
Wes adds: “The staff at padel Ignite know who I am and know my journey, and take time to ask how I am. It truly has been life changing.”
