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| Crossfit kicker of ass and my girl crush Annie Thorrisdottir |
I have a decent sized gob which is habitually filled with food.
What's more I get a great sense of accomplishment moving heavy iron objects
repeatedly, along with other demanding activities I am vigorous 6 days a week,
some days twice. Together with consistent hard work and a splash of dads
genetics I can get pretty jacked. I've been strength training on and off for 7
years, aside from a short stint posing as a house wife (falling in love is not
recommended, be selfish in your quest or partner with one who propels you to
greatness). Prior to that as a teenager I was not so muscular. I actually
wanted to be thin, model like thin, scary thin. I wanted to be what society
shoved in my face via gossip magazines and celebrities. At that time in my life
I was unmistakably delusional but don’t fret! I came to my senses.
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| Childhood consistency, flexing calves on ballet point creates thickness |
Photoshopped or artificial on the left? Stereotyping yet...
Stereotypes are a sad part of
life. I try not to use them but unfortunately it still happens. Hell there are
odd occasions when I've caught a glimpse of myself mid set and thought – you are
jacked as a MF! I often say ‘I just want to tone my arms’. That's a lie. I have
never said that. My body is a by product of the way I train, I don’t train to
create a particular physique. Alas no, I have never taken anabolic (banned substances) supplementation,
nor will I ever. Anyone who knows me knows I would never put that shit in my
body, ever, and my test results would prove that. The basis of the organisation I
founded would be fraudulent. I advocate to thousands of people to lead an
active healthy lifestyle eating as much pure food from the earth as you can – this would all
become null and void. I would lose sponsorships. Professional athletes and
their associated clubs would no longer work with my organisation. I would be
the worlds biggest hypocrite! You get the point, I have far too much at stake
and too many brain cells to do something so dumb. My brother Aaron is a natural
bodybuilder (let’s save the associations definition of ‘natural’ bodybuilding
for another blog) and powerlifter. Has he ever taken steroids or similar banned
substances? No. Will he ever? I’d like to say a firm no. If he did I would beat
the foolery out of him (at least attempt to, he’s much bigger & stronger
than me). The ethics of his programming business ‘Natural Physique Sciences’
would be compromised, and his belief system would be an absolute joke.
Traps how I roll
My
brother and I share many things in common, one is being stereotyped into using
banned substances. This one always makes me laugh, I used to get offended but
no longer waste my energy on peoples ignorance. In the world we live in, we can not control
how people treat us, only how we let their treatment affect us. Marianne
Williamson said it beautifully ‘There is a feeling of inner peace that comes
from total relinquishment of judgment. We don’t feel the need to change others
and we don’t feel the need to be different than we are. We can see, for
whatever reason, the total beauty of another person, and we feel that they can
see the beauty in us as well’ oh hold up, she screwed the end part up. Aaron
and I also share a high level of commitment and our work ethic is unsurpassed.
This is why we look the way we do. This is why we succeed in reaching our goals
in training and in life. Sadly for him he got mums legs, sorry pal. Do I know
others who use steroids? Sure, anyone who mixes in my circles is bound to meet
those types. Surely you’ve seen the PPP
(puffy pimply patrol) in the gym who balloon rather suddenly. Other side
effects include seasonal and erratic gym attendance with copious amounts of
mirror watching. I
wholeheartedly disagree with what they’re doing but who the hell am I to judge
their choices and what they put into their bodies. Surely they’re not out for
my approval (as I am not theirs) what they do has sweet FA to do with me. I
don’t treat them any differently, they might be using to mask another whole
realm of self confidence issues, who knows. My conclusion? The idea of getting
big artificially, then stopping to somewhat lose those gains, seems like a
vicious cycle. Don’t cut corners, gear your
lifestyle toward getting big and strong and you will.
Did the streaker have a good pre season leading up to origin debut?
Late in 2012 I had various
surgeries, some planned others not. Breast augmentation, double groin hernia,
melanoma removed from leg, lymph nodes removed from groin blah blah blah you
get it, I was all banged up. Couldn’t laugh let alone think about exercise.
Mentally I handled that 3 month period of complete inactivity surprisingly
well. It was only when I stepped back in the gym and saw the gains I’d lost it
hit me like a tonne of bricks. I remember one of my first sessions back
exploding into a sprint and a. not having the knee drive to propel forward b.
shuffling to almost trip over my own two feet and c. being as
uncoordinated as a baby giraffe. Sure I had a strong, thick looking pair of
trunks but I was learning to walk again.
My first outing after surgery (don't mind Aaron, his prep wasn't the greatest)
My first public outing
was to watch the kid bro compete. I’d shuffled my way into the auditorium of
Castle Hill RSL on the arm of my Dad with a forcefield of bodies moving with us
shielding my fresh wounds from being knocked. After what felt like a lifetime
squeezing through crowds of hundreds of screaming people we get to our seats
and there’s people sitting in them. Normal circumstances you respectfully show
your tickets ask them to move and they do. But these young girls don’ t want to
move and decide to give my mum some lip. My mum Gail is one classy lady. She
doesn’t swear nor does she accept cursing around her, she's a bit stiff but I
respect her for maintaining a standard and I refrain from swearing around her.
She watches me play sport, while I'm trash talking on the field she calmly takes
notes of every curse word from the sideline. Queen Beast the fearless warrior
on the field gets the biggest hiding after the game from her mum. I digress!
While in my head I’m giving the people in our seats ‘The Rock (move the hell
on) Eye’ in reality I’m exhausted, dizzy, heating up and feel like I could cry
and/ or pass out any second. Moral of the story do not attempt a bodybuilding
comp within a week of surgery. The combo of stank broccoli farts, rank slap on
tan and not being able to stick up for my mum meant it was a shitty, shitty
day.
Cutting a long story medium,
thanks to effective muscle memory by body transforms after rest periods quite
well. After lifting
consistently I made some incredible gains in only 6 weeks. It’s time like these
a coach is separated from a trainer. I needed a stable supportive base to have
a decent comeback. A number of my coaches label
me ‘the perfectionist’ athlete. Positives? An incredibly strong work ethic,
highly motivated, committed to my goals and want nothing more than to learn and
improve. Negatives? Criticize myself for mistakes, hold extremely high
demands on my performance, get frustrated easily after making mistakes and even
after a successful result can analyse with negative self assessment. I had surgery complications
throughout rehab and was riddled with condition after condition preventing me
from an ideal full recovery. When it would be easy to give up one must power
on. Victory is achieved through adversity, resilience creates champions not a
perfect ride. It irks me when people get all down and out ‘I've torn a hammy
I'm out for 6 weeks I'm so pissed off I can’t train’ go deal with it! Take your
tales of woe to someone who cares, you still have 2 arms and legs quit
complaining.
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