BC Bound’s BodyBlog

Hey Bodyspace,

I just got in from the gym, and I hit 315 twice RAW! Not bad for a guy who weighs 163lbs, eh? The spring is officially here, and that means I can hit the track again! Get out and run some routes on the turf, so I’ll most definately be looking to take advantage of this weather we’ve been having….

Also, I got an email the other day with a video that I found very inspirational. It’s about a guy name Jamie Gillentine. In August of 2007, Jamie was paralyzed from the 6th vertabrae down, leaving him with only limited mobility in his arms. The series of events that follows in this video are just awe-inspiring. He serves as a testament of the human spirit’s struggle to achieve the impossible…..Give it a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DivRJm65ADc

Be Blessed, Bodyspace….

What’s Up, Bodyspace!

As some of you may know, I recently opened a personal training business. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to be playing football, but this will be my off-season job….LOL! (I’m laughing, because to me, there really isn’t an off-season…..) But I’ve got a young group of guys that I’m working with to prepare them for their first seasons of high school football. So I wrote them a group email today, and this was the subject line:

Throughout my life, which hasn’t been very long, I’ve learned that there are two groups of people in the world. I know that we categorize ourselves in many different ways, (i.e. black/white, male/female, rich/poor, etc.) but when you really break it down, you only really have these two groups of people, co-existing together. They are the ones who live in fear, and the ones who walk in faith.

The ones of live in fear are constantly failing at something, but it’s really because they never truly try. They are afraid of not only what happens if they fail, but what if, God forbid, they succeed? They work mundane jobs when they don’t have to, do so-so in school, and put their dreams on the back-burner, all to lead an ordinary, play-it-safe, don’t take risks, life. But, in the back of their minds, the seeds of greatness that God has planted in each and every one of us are struggling to take root, as if they are trying to grow the concrete.

Then there are those who walk in faith. They are the ones you see playing football on a Sunday afternoon, or dunking a basketball during prime time, or even just smiling leading a normal life. The people who walk in faith, aren’t the ones cowering wondering about whether or not they’ll have a job in the morning, because they work for themselves, they always seem to have time to enjoy the good things in life while the fear-livers are nose to the grindstone, 24/7. These people have learned one key thing in life, and I couldn’t train you in anything else unless I taught you this, It’s okay to fail…..JUST AS LONG AS YOU TRY, WITH A HERCULEAN EFFORT! My college football coach used to always say, "Hey, if you make a mistake, make it big! I’m not going to chew you out for that, we can come in make the adjustments we need to, why? Because the effort is there….." Don’t be afraid to fail, because if you afraid to fail, you’ll definitely be afraid to succeed. That fear will get you just what you were afraid of the whole time, failure…..Give life your ALL, boys…because you truly only live once.

Now faith can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. People have faith in God, faith in themselves, faith in each other, or faith in their favorite teams. But what i’m telling each of you is to have faith in yourselves, and in the abilities that God has blessed you with, no matter what they are. That faith will carry you a long way. It will make you stronger, faster, more agile, tougher, it will make life a little bit easier to handle. I know that we’re having our big SPARQ challenge at the end of the summer, and that they’re going to be some great performances when we get there, but I probably won’t get to be there personally, because I’ll be playing in a CFL regular season game somewhere. But that doesn’t change the fact that a challenge has been issued….so work hard, have faith in the system that I’ve given you, and get ready to be the best football players and people, you can be at this point and time in your lives.

Faith can carry you to the stars, but fear can’t carry you anywhere but down….

So, which group do you belong in? Are you a faith-walker, or a fear-liver? I know which one I am…..

Hey Bodyspace,

I just thought that I would take a chance to talk to a lot of the younger guys out here, who are trying to follow their own dreams. Whether they be bodybuilding, fitness modeling, playing a sport, whatever. I get asked alot by young players what my workout is, or how do I train for speed, etc., but i honestly feel as though I would be doing these young guys a HUGE disservice if I didn’t cover the MOST, I mean MOST important thing in chasing a dream: That is BELIEF IN ONESELF.

As you can tell, I’m not the biggest guy on the planet, and through HS, this was an issue for me when it came to sports. Now I played everything, baseball, track, football, basketball, wrestled for day, and even was on the swim team until I got that speedo…..(Not gonna happen.) But I always had to answer questions about my size, strength, duribility, whatever nice term they use to say, "We just don’t think that you’re big enough to play with the big boys." But the important thing is to answer the call.

You see, in essence, you’ve been issued a challenge, by a coach, a recruiter, a scout, whomever. This is the reason why I think of it that way: You ever watch kung-fu movies? Well in them, there’s a main character who runs into some sort of trouble with one or maybe even a group of bad-asses, who issue a challenge to him to stand and fight. Now, the good guy usually goes and prepares him/herself for the upcoming throw-down, and goes and kicks the guy ass. But, you may not realize that the movie could’ve gone an entirely different way. Our hero could’ve just tucked tail and ran! Heck, he could’ve pissed his pants, and disappeared from town in the middle of the night. But he didn’t.

So I decided at a very young age to NEVER BACK DOWN from a challenge. In high school, my coaches told me I was too short to play receiver. So I proved them wrong. In my mind, I instilled in myself the belief that I could score a touchdown whenever I touched the ball. So I did, my entire high school career, I had ten catches. But do you know how many TDs I had? 14! I scored everytime I touched the ball! (Once as a RB, twice as a KR, and I had an INT for a TD.) That all started with a mindset, that I could score everytime I touched the ball. I carried that thought into my training, I was always working, always pushing the envelope. There is NO OFF-SEASON. WHEN I get signed this year, I’ll probably go on vacation with my fiancee, play a few rounds of golf, but I’ll always be training…..Because each second in the mid of a champion, is invaluable.

I do all kinds of things, yoga, westside weight-training, track workouts, but my favourite workout is……VISUALIZATION! I see myself doing it, I see myself running a 4.2 in the 40, or jumping 42" in the vert, or scoring 15 TDs in the CFL this season. Because, if I could see it, it’s just more evidence that I’m able to do it.

Bodyspace, whenever you truly, I mean, TRULY believe in yourself, that’s when you’re in the zone. That’s what LT so dangerous, why you’re a fool to kickoff to Devin Hester, they already scored the touchdown before they even touch the ball….

They score in the, "off-season," when they run hills, do their plyos, hit the weights 5 times a week. They score their TDs when they eat a clean diet, choose not to go out to the club, because they know that everything counts…..EVERYTHING adds up in the total picture. So train hard, rest in-between workouts properly, eat right, but most importantly…..BELIEVE!

Hey gang,

Today, I did alot of footwork, footspeed, and overspeed work at the track. We’re shutting down the lifting portion, in the event that I have to go to Hamilton for a tryout next weekend. Still no word from Edmonton, which isn’t nessassarily a bad thing, but it’s not a good thing either. They probably have had anywhere between 300-400 players that they’ve been looking at over the last few weeks, and to get an invite to training is a great feat in itself. I still feel pretty good about my chances, since I haven’t seen anyone get signed this week. So they’re still looking….Hopefully, I have what they’re looking for…..If not, we dust ourselves off and try again.

I have to admit to you, this is hands-down the HARDEST part of the whole experience, the waiting and not knowing anything….It’s driving me nuts. Oh well, it’s completely out of my hands, so I just have to let it be…..

Until Monday, have a safe weekend, and most importantly, keep it movin’!

Hey Bodyspace,

I’m getting closer to my big day, and the butterflies are turning into helicopters. I have to keep myself from constantly asking, “Did I do everything I could’ve done? What about adding one more sprinting workout?” It’s crazy. I’m just thinking about how much this could change my life for the better. But, as I weigh out everything, even if I don’t make the team, I’m still in pretty good shape. I have another year of eligiblity left to use and I can go back to school and play and develop one more year.

My everything stopped by last night and left me some very touching words. So I decided to put them here for motivation.

And don’t get it twisted, my baby ain’t no couch potato. She’s our Uni’s record holder for the 60m hurdles. See?

Posted in Motivation