My Fitness Story
I first began to take exercise seriously during high school because I wanted to play football. I poured myself out in the weight room and devoured every piece of information I could find about strength training and bodybuilding; and for my effort gained a lot of strength and put on about 35 lbs of solid muscle over a few years. After high school, I continued to lift weights to stay, and more importantly to me at the time, to look in shape. Despite lifting weights 3-5 times a week, avoiding fat in my diet, and doing cardio, that great body I wanted still eluded me. Oh, I had some decent muscles for my small frame and a flat stomach, but never could quite just get my six pack to show. I thought I just needed to train harder, get more rest so I could do so, get stricter with my diet, take the latest supplement, or a million other things; basically that I just needed to buckle down and get with it. I was doing everything that I thought was right and was getting far less than I was putting into it. I was also trashing my joints and supporting muscles. A sore elbow here, strained shoulder or bicep there - I just thought that came with the the territory.
However, it wasn't all for naught as I've been privileged and blessed to learn a lot of different training philosophies from many different people, put it to the test and take the best of each. I've been able to travel and do a good deal of backpacking; and training for high altitude trekking opened my eyes to how marvelously God designed our bodies with the ability to adapt to stress and become stronger and more fit. I've also found enjoyment in extreme sports and it's in this part of the story that my fitness journey took a major leap forward.
I was about to go riverboarding in New Zealand and it had been almost a year since I had been in the water. While discussing the best way to train for riverboarding, one of the people going on the trip with me pointed me towards a body weight training program called Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey. Wasn't all that stuff great for gymnasts and acrobats, but not for serious weight trainers? Wasn't it great for warm ups or conditioning, but not for packing on serious strength and muscle? How could you get that strong with just the weight of your body? I was already pressing more than I weighed. Were my friend's claims that, after three months following these exercises that he hadn't suffered any loss of strength in the gym and was in better condition than before, true? I was skeptical, but bought the book and tried it anyway. I began by simply doing a body weight session in the middle of the week between the two full body weight training sessions I was doing. Wow, talk about getting humbled! I was so strong, right, then why could I only do 30 hindu push ups or 50 squats? I enjoyed the training though for the challenge, the variety, and the knowledge that I was gaining balance and working stabilizer muscles that had been neglected when I was only doing weight training. This new addition to my routine did indeed help me get in shape to riverboard some big, difficult rivers in New Zealand. Body weight calisthenics had worked great once a week and now I was ready to take the plunge. I tried doing body weight exercises only, a few times a week for a month and was astounded at how well things went. The chronic joint pain stopped and I didn't turn into a well conditioned weakling like I feared I would. I've stuck with it since and continue to learn and push myself.
Since then, I've become a professional riverboarder and began racing in competitions which has driven me to push my body harder, yet I feel like I've only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of how far I can go in strength and conditioning. I've also finally gotten that six pack that eluded me, but more importantly, I've caught a better vision of what health and vitality looks and feels like, and a better method to get there than what I was doing. Reaching where I am as an exerciser and athlete has opened my eyes to how much further I can go, so as a fellow climber on this mountain, I'm pressing on to new heights and hope I can inspire you and start you on this path. I'm still trying to get to point of doing a one arm handstand against a wall and also training to get into devastating shape for riverboarding competitions, but know that when I reach those goals, there will be even greater challenges to chase after.
