Natty lifter influences others

Jack AB poses to check his fitness progress. Photos submitted

By Tom Victoria

Jack AB not only is building his own strong mind and body, he is inspiring others to be the best version of themselves.

The New Jersey teen offers such video content as How to Grow That Gorilla Back, Go Chase That Dream and Trying the Arnold Schwarzenegger Chest Workout.

Jack, 18, said it’s more vital than ever for folks to be healthier.

“With obesity killing millions of people, this is the biggest wake-up call to get fit,” he said.

Jack said fitness is important not just for physical gains.

“I, throughout the years, struggled a little bit with anger and just finding my thing,” he said. “I tried therapy. Nothing really worked. Then lifting brought that part to my life that I felt like I was missing throughout the years. I'm a lot less angry, a lot less all over the place. Lifting balances my life out.”

Jack does standard and body weight exercises.

“I do bodyweight squats, push ups,” he said. “When I do the body weight, I do it superset. For example, I'll do normal squats till failure. When I can't do with the weight anymore, I do three, four of the squat. At the end of the squat, I don't lock my knees. I proceed to keep them in that position of not locked and keep going up and down until I can't do that anymore either.”

Jack works out throughout the week.

“I used to do six days a week, but now I do five,” he said. “Right now, I do leg; shoulders; then chest; and tris, back and bis, and then rest on Thursday. Then Friday, I do shoulders, arms and legs. Saturday, I do chest and back. Rest again on Sunday.”

Jack’s goal is to enter competition.

“I like to get my pro card for bodybuilding,” he said. “I would like to compete probably 2026.”

Jack was inspired by a few pros.

“Definitely Alex Eubanks,” he said. “I would definitely say him and Lexx Little, probably David Laid. Those are probably top three.”

Jack intends to make fitness his career.

“I do want to make this whole thing my permanent career,” he said. “Also, I'm going to college for sports medicine to become a physical therapist, so just keeping that in the same realm.”

Jack wants to help others in his work.

“Throughout my whole life, I wanted to be a dentist,” he said. “I started looking at more options. My uncle's friend did it, and he said he enjoyed it. So I started looking into physical therapy, and I started to enjoy the process. You got to help people, things like that. So that became my interest.”

Jack hasn’t needed physical therapy for any sports injuries, but did as an infant.

“When I was a newborn, I struggled a bit with walking and things like that because I was born a month early,” he said. “I had to use physical therapy when I was really young.”

Social media and Jack’s buddies led him to start working out.

“I watched a lot of YouTube, and that was correlated in it,” he said. “And I had friends around me that were in it, so that kind of just got me to hop on.”

Jack noticed his increased strength in daily life.

“My mom went to the grocery store and got the groceries, I’d always try and see how many I could hold,” he said. “Now, I just do them all versus two or three bags from before. My parents asked me to help move stuff around the house now and things like that.” 

Jack started his fitness journey by entering a running event two years ago upon the urging of his mother.

“I ran a 5k at my church,” he said. “I came in first, too. First time running. I was like, damn, I can make something out of this. And then I got into lifting.”

Jack, who always was an athlete, is now interested in boxing.

“We all have been in situations where we've been scared and maybe didn't feel like we could protect ourselves,” he said. “I don't ever want to be in that situation, especially if I'm with my future wife or kids and run into a little bit of an issue where I need to defend myself or my family.”

Jack wants his social media followers to become motivated.

“I want to inspire them,” he said. “I want to bring them closer to God. I want them to understand that there's more for them than what most people see in themselves and just inspire them to be the best version of themselves and not stay at where they're at and get stuck. As you know in America, the obesity rate is crazy. There's a lot of unhealthy stuff going on here, so just want to try to make people be the best.”

Jack isn’t bashful about his religious faith.

“I uploaded a YouTube video,” he said. “It was finding myself a sign from God. I had a lot of backlash on that. I had a lot of backlash on some of the Instagram stories I posted. You're always going to get hated for stuff, but it happens. Just got to get past it.”

Jack’s faith was tested in his teens.

“I actually got really far away from God, just hating everything,” he said. “I want to say I was close with God pretty much my whole life, up until around my freshman year of high school. Then freshman year to middle of my junior year, I was really far the farthest I've been. Nothing was going right. What brought me back was feeling lost and going back to Him to find myself. I found God again, and I will never look back.”

Jack draws on his followers and faith to stay motivated.

“I learned that motivation, it's going to come and go,” he said. “Even when I don't want to do it, I just tell myself you have to. You have people following you. You have people who sent you messages saying you've inspired them. I use people that watch my stuff and people around me that want me to be in a better place as fuel and just get it done. But there's definitely been times where I did not feel like recording or did not want to film anything. I just suck it up. I did it and it ended up being a great video. In times like that, though, I also do pray to God and talk to Him.”

Jack offered advice to those considering working out for the first time.

“My best advice to them would be start with the compound movements,” he said. “I feel like gym and God go hand in hand. So if you're not already praying to God, trying to start a relationship with God, I would do that also.”

Jack also made a suggestion for aspiring content creators.

“The number one thing I would tell them is don't listen to what people are saying because that will ruin you,” he said. “Because at first you're going to get all the hate, and then the love will come later. The love does come, people do start appreciating you, seeing your face more.”

The Grid does not disclose the full legal name of people who don’t use it on social media.

Jack’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Jackablifts

Jack’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j_ab_fitness/

Jack’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Jackabfitness