Unconventional Athletes Issue 5

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THE FIRST APPLICATION OF
UNCONVENTIONAL!
My interest in training first started
when my dad took me to Karate
lessons. Being a small kid, I felt that I
had to try harder than everyone else
during our sparring sessions and this
pushed me to get stronger and faster.
It must’ve been around the age of 10
when I began doing push ups and
challenging my friends to climb trees
and race up hills etc. My training at
first was very erratic and I followed
lots of different random advice from
magazines and other media sources,
never actually sticking to one method.
Despite my lack of knowledge I
managed to put on a lot of muscle in
a very small space of time, with very
little body fat. I remember my first time
in the gym, I started at one end of the
machines and worked my way through
every one of them, it must’ve took me
about 2 hours to complete it. I did this
for a few months, and although it was
completely erratic and lacked sense, it
worked. I put on about 34lbs due to the
sheer amount of food that I consumed.
MOTIVATION!
The thing that motivates me the most
is the feeling of overcoming all of my
health challenges and keeping up with
people twice the size of me. Talking to
like-minded people and sharing ideas
has been a great help too. I think it
would be counterproductive if you let
your ego stand in the way of asking
questions and learning from others.
Even someone highly experienced can
learn simple nuances that can help
push their training to new levels.
BREAKING THE VICIOUS CIRCLE!
I think my health has been the biggest
obstacle in my training so far and many
times I have considered throwing in the
towel entirely. I must’ve been around
20 years old when my health started
to decline quickly. I had been training
in the gym for quite a few years at that
point and I had put on quite a bit of
mass in the process. Without going
into too much detail in case you are
eating your dinner, I had to be rushed
to the hospital with serious bowel
trouble. After spending time in the
hospital they had discovered that I had
Ulcerative Colitis which is basically
ulcers in the intestines. I had no idea
what this was and quickly dived on
the Internet and read various articles
like a madman to try to get clued up
on this rather crippling affliction.
Before I contracted Ulcerative Colitis
I weighed over 140lbs, which doesn’t
sound a lot, but I am only 5ft3 and had
very low body fat. I quickly lost all of
my hard-earned gains and lost over
30lbs in just a few months. Years of
work erased in barely no time at all, it
was very disheartening. I was unable
to eat, and every time I did – it would
do more damage. It took around eight
years of careful studying, and trying
different medication to finally get it
under control. I came to realise that the
medications had done more damage
than good, and the worst part was
coming to realise that the prednisolone
that I had been taking had undesired
effects on my bone density. I found a
great book called “Breaking the Vicious
Cycle” which was the catalyst in my
success against Ulcerative Colitis. I
removed all grains, and practically all
carbohydrates and things started to
improve in no time at all. Although
there were improvements, things still
weren’t right and I learnt to adapt the
I train outside mostly; lifting logs, kegs and
sandbags and anything else that I find awkward
to put over my head.
ISSUE 5 VOLUME 1 Page 28