West Newsmagazine 6-13-18

14 I
June 13, 2018
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
Wildwood man accidentally becomes world champion
@WESTNEWSMAG
WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
By BAYLOR TALCOTT
Daniel Sides, a 60-year-old Wildwood
resident, competed this May in the World
Free Weightlifting Championship in Finland.
He came home with the gold medal in
the Masters division and two world records
in the benchpress. But he says his involvement
with the sport happened by accident.
Accident or not, Sides has competed
in nearly every World Free Weightlifting
Championship for the past 15 years and
has medaled in all but one.
This year was special. It was his first
time winning gold and first time breaking
records at the World level.
Sides wasn’t your average child. He
grew up in Dr. Edmund A. Babler State
Park where his family owned and operated
the horse stables. Diagnosed with Attention
Deficit Disorder [ADD], Sides said
he felt, in his younger years, that he didn’t
necessarily fit in and that he was an outcast.
He began lifting in high school and continued
to work out over the years. It was a
solitary undertaking.
“I just did like everyone else. Working
out without knowing what I was doing,”
Sides explained.
Down the road, he developed a deeper
interest that led him to design his own
weight machine, which he sold to a company
in 1990.
As the years went on, his interest grew.
He started competing in his early forties.
“I accidentally got into the real competitive
part. I pretty much always worked
out alone, but as I started to learn more I
started to get better,” Sides said. “I guess I
had some natural ability because I won the
competitions that I went to.”
Sides said he qualified for his first world
championship by accident.
“I stayed to myself at the meets. I was
just there [at the national competition in
Orlando] doing my lifts and it turns out my
lift was the best one of the meet. If you win
nationals, you qualify for worlds. I wasn’t
even trying to. At that point, I didn’t realize
that’s how the process worked,” Sides
said.
That accident opened up many doors for
the free weightlifter. Qualifying for numerous
national and world competitions, he
became a well-known competitor. He said
the most surprising thing for him was that,
over the years, he has been able to do what
he is doing and his insecurities and ADD
have never stopped him from succeeding.
“I [changed] from someone who was
very dysfunctional to someone
who’s semi-functional,” Sides
said. “I came to a point to where
I felt I really needed to grow and
I needed to be able to speak in
front of people.”
He uses those experiences and
skills in his career as a personal
trainer and second-half life coach.
Sides has been a personal
trainer for six years and is a
second-half life coach to mature
individuals who need instruction
on how to better their lives physically
and mentally. He said the
reason he began the second-half
life coaching business was due to
his late father.
“I watched my dad die in a nursing home
and I decided that wasn’t going to be me
in any way, shape or form,” Sides said. “I
feel right now that I will never be in a state
where I’m not useful, and if I am then I’ve
done something wrong.”
Sides increased his training in his mid-
50s and has overcome some severe injuries.
Having had 13 surgeries, nine of
them orthopedic, he said he is still “getting
better.”
“I don’t know that I’ll ever reach my peak
Daniel Sides brought home the gold from the World Free
Weightlifting Championship.
... eventually, as you age, you’re going to
lose some strength. I don’t know if I’ve
reached that point, and I don’t know if I
ever will,” Sides said.
His second-half life clients range in age
from 30 to 60. He advises them that “looking
at what you have and learning how to
better yourself is a way you can improve.”
“Unless you’re totally [unable to move],
I can find a way for you to exercise,” Sides
said. “Whatever your limitations are, you
have to learn what you can do with what
you have.”
Donna Abrams
(314) 406-2476 mobile
(314) 993-8000 office
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