The Chicago Bears revamped their offensive line offseason and tackle Teven Jenkins is at the center of that transformation as the former second round pick has lost a ton of weight following a ‘torture’ workout and new diet.
Jenkins, who was drafted with the No. 39 overall pick in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft, stands 6-foot-6. Entering the NFL, he weighed 320 pounds. However, after suffering a back injury last year, he returned to the field at about 345 pounds, which simply wasn’t going to cut it.
Under the new regime in Chicago with general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus, there is a new standard. They want their team to be light and fast, particularly on the offensive line. Jenkins spoke to the new system last week.
“There is a big difference,” he said. “It’s a lot more faster pace, a lot more up tempo, getting around, setting edges, all that stuff. How that affects you is you’ve got to slim down a little bit more, get faster and speeding up in certain areas.”
That meant that Jenkins had work to do during the offseason. So that’s exactly what he did.
Jenkins spoke to the media earlier this week and shared his secret to dropping 20 pounds before the start of minicamp. It came with two different stages.
Step 1 for Jenkins was to cut alcohol and carbs out of his diet as best he could:
“There are a lot of things you have to cut out,” he said. “At dinner, I try to cut out carbs. You know how hard it is to cut out mac ‘n’ cheese, rice—it’s a perfect go-to when you’re going with a meal. You’ve got to cut that out, so it’s mostly protein and vegetables.
“And I’ve been trying to cut out some more alcohol out of my system. I’m trying to get more cleansed out, I guess. And also that does help with your body fat. Instead of drinking all that beer, all that fat just sits on you, so you burn it off.”
Step 2 for Jenkins was a new workout that he described as “torture, for sure.”
Jenkins has been doing pilates. It has helped him strengthen his core after suffering a back injury last season and has helped him drop significant weight and to also become more limber.
In the process, Jenkins has cut his body fat from 30% to 24%.
Pretty awesome.
