Earlier this week a trainer friend of mine from the USA, Luka Hocevar, posted a video called ‘What’s Your Why?’ Some of you might never have thought of why you train regularly and eat healthy and strive for a healthier life.
Your ‘WHY’ is what keeps you moving towards you goal.
Check the video out below:
- Why are you training?
- Why are you getting out of bed early?
- Why are you out running when everyone else is sleeping in?
- Why are you doing that triathlon on the weekend?
- Why do you want to run a marathon?
- Why do you want to swim to Rottnest?
- Why are you on that diet?
What is it that motivates you to keep on going when everyone else is giving up? Discover your why and you’ll discover your power to keep going.
Luka is the guy in the video who say’s ‘cos I always wanted to be a superhero.’ He trains like he’s preparing to be a superhero! No matter what your ‘why’ is, it’s only gotta matter to you and motivate you.
What’s my WHY?
When I was around 15 I got my first dumbbell set. I was always a real skinny kid and when the wind picked up I had to hang onto something so I wouldn’t blow away. True story.
I didn’t want to be skinny. I wanted to grow up bigger like the basketball players I was watching on TV, so I did everything I could to get there and trained as hard as I could. It didn’t work.
When my dumbbell set wasn’t enough, I saved some money and bought a bench press and some more weights. I trained as much as I could and I still couldn’t seem to make anything happen. It still didn’t work. So I joined a gym.
I first started training there when I was 18 weighing around 60kg, and from the start I was in for some disappointment.
One of the trainers told me I’d never put on any weight. ‘Great a personal trainer’s telling me I’m going nowhere’, but I didn’t stop. I never believed him.
Over the next few years I gained a few kilos. I wasn’t always a member of a gym but I often trained with my weight at home trying whatever new program I could find.
I’d start to make some progress but then get stuck and go nowhere again.
My thirst for information led me to studying personal training and in 2003 I completed my course and got qualified. I weighed 65kg at the time and was the fittest I’ve ever been.
When I finished I went straight to Canada to work on a cruise ship where my gym was provided and my food was always cooked for me. There was more than enough to fill me up and then some, so I ate and trained and ate some more.
I reached 78kg in 4 months and knew that personal trainer from the gym was wrong. I still didn’t look like a big guy but it was a massive improvement from where I started.
When I got home I didn’t eat as much and my more active lifestyle led to some weight loss, which was fine considering I’d gained a lot of fat. But I settled around 70kg and started working at a gym and after a few months of eating again was up to 73kg.
I quit working at the gym after 8 months and started training at home and various gyms experimenting with everything again. There was heavy weights, Olympic lifts, weighted chin ups and dips, static contraction training with a fancy machine from the USA and all sorts of other things. My progress was minimal over the next few years, I’d picked up a ton of injuries from 15+ years of basketball and I’d pretty much given up.
More disappointment
Not long after that I stumbled across a few trainers in the US who wrote articles that jumped out at me and slapped me in the face. These articles such as ‘Westside for Skinny Bastards’ by Joe Defranco were written in my language and explained how I was doing it wrong. I listened and tried as best I could.
Finally the results were coming my way and I got up to 86kg. I was a fat 86kg but I was injured and doing whatever I could and eating everything in sight and that was the strongest I’ve ever been.
Injuries slowed me down again and forced me to drop some weight back around 78kg. I couldn’t train as much or as hard and thus wasn’t eating like I should. But I did my rehab program and made some good strength gains again.
My biggest obstacle of all
Then my strength started going backwards and my weight started dropping for no reason I could understand. This was the start of my battle with Chronic Fatigue. I had to stop training and was losing weight quickly despite what I was eating. All the progress I’d made was gone.
It continued to get worse and early this year I dropped down to a low of 66.3kg. I was weak and unable to train or have any social life. Despite all of this I continued on and kept to a strict diet as best I could and as my health improved I slowly crept back up in weight.
The heaviest I’ve been this year is 73kg after my trip to the USA, mostly due to eating and rest. I’m down around 69kg right now but free from injuries and have started regular training again although I am very weak compared to where I was.
I’m eating the most disciplined I ever have and know that my health and strength is improving every week. I am driven by my ‘WHY’.
So what’s my WHY?
- I always wanted to look and perform like and athlete. Like the basketball players I watched on TV when I was growing up.
- Then someone told me I would never get bigger and that drives me to prove them wrong.
- Through the years hundreds of people have told me I’d always be skinny or made skinny comments and I just have to prove them wrong.
- Because I believe I can, I will keep working towards that goal every day until I make it.
My goal now is specific. I want to get to 85kg at 9% body fat. I’m 69kg at 11% so I have a long way to go, but I have a plan, I have coaches and I have the motivation.
The day I reach my goal I will have a massive celebration. It will be a day I will never forget and a day I think about often.
I’ve had more failures than most people at this health and fitness challenge I set for myself so many years ago and yet I just wont give up, not matter what life throws at me.
My ‘WHY’ drives me every day.
Find your ‘why’ and you’ll find your motivation to reach any goal you set for yourself no matter the size.
And because of my ‘WHY’ for my own personal reasons, I strive to keep getting better and give you the best training, nutrition and health information I can find so you can keep stepping forward each day too.
Oh and I still have that dumbbell set…and I still use it and I won’t ever get rid of it. It set me on a path I’d never imagined to a career I enjoy every day.
