CORE VALUES
I remember when I first noticed my belly fat at age 9.
I was pudgy compared to the other young athletes at camp,
And when we went to shirts and skins I went into my early vacuum practice–
Sucking in my gut as often and as consciously as I could.
For the next couple years I hid in baggy shirts and then finally I was fortunate enough to have a soccer coach show me how to properly do bicycle crunches. He happened to be a goalkeeper coach and I wanted to be the best keeper. He told me the best goalkeepers have amazingly strong abs and he advised me to do 100 bicycle crunches per day and that in 6 months I’d have a 6 pack.
The burn was insane. It felt like I was being stabbed and like acid was pouring on my abdominal walls. I fell in love with the burn. I figured, why just 100? Why not 200 per day? So I did that and in 3-4 months I had a six-ish pack. At age 12 I had a six pack, and I haven’t let that change since. I took what I learned from my abs training and attempted it with other muscle groups and found very little success with high rep, daily training.
This was when I began my in depth study into bodybuilding and strength training–at age 12 I bought Arnold’s Encyclopedia of fitness and read it from cover to cover. Then I thumbed through every Flex, Muscle and Fitness, and whatever other muscle mags I came across. When they were too good to put down, I’d buy them. After a little while I had quite the collection of literature and I had friend’s that were doing the same thing so we shared our muscle magazine knowledge.
This was a trial by error, bro-science study bodybuilding program. Yes I stumbled across lots of great training info and tips, but mostly I developed many bad training habits, ignored nutrition to a large degree, and overlooked important principles that would have really set me up better for the future. Assuredly so though, I fell in love with resistance training at an early age.
Since the age of 12, I have learned a few things. There are many things I wished I had known about and done sooner. More so, there is always more to learn and room to grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Teaching and coaching others through the fitness path as I continue to develop, is very important to me and an integral part of my growth process.
Since abs were my first muscle group to properly feel, “Working,” abdominal training is one of my favorite things to teach and share. If you are curious about learning the breathing, bracing, and contraction techniques for abdominal/core training, check out the BEEfit Saturday Core Camp @9am! Sign up via email ryanbeefit@gmail.com I am ABSolutely confident that I know what I am talking about!
Having a well developed core has done more than just provide aesthetics. Having a strong core has undoubtedly had a positive impact on my sport’s performance, injury recovery, posture, overall health, and I would definitely include my ability to adapt into bodybuilding in my late 30s to having a well developed midsection before ever seriously and strategically lifting weights to achieve optimum aesthetics.
Having good abs led to me getting a job as an underwear model. Getting that job made me take my health and physique more seriously–standing around in your underwear can make you self conscious after all. This experience occurred just before turning 30 and I had spent the latter part of my 20s in the bottom of a bottle, glass, cup, boot–you serve alcohol in it and name it I’d drink it I didn’t give an F–yeah, well this underwear modeling thing had me looking at and thinking more than twice about my belly–which was more in the 4 pack range, but could be flexed into a good 6 easily. Well I wrote an article on that whole experience titled, A Brief Minority Report, it should be posted on the ryanbeefit.com website.
The brief foray into getting more trim and looking great near naked got me back into fitness. I was running, lifting, skipping rope, playing soccer, drinking, but being very active. I got into taking a post workout protein shake, a daily multivitamin, eating protein centric and pretty wisely so pretty much only protein since I was drinking plenty of carbs.
Fast forward a few years and I have been lifting weight 4-5 days a week for a few years, skipping a lot of rope, and doing my abs training everyday to avoid the dreaded beer belly. This was going okay. I wasn’t really progressing, I wasn’t really regressing. I was treading physical matter. I liken it to a child collecting Easter eggs without a basket. They can only carry so many before they drop 1-2 for every 1-2 they grab–it’s a net loss. Classic basket case.
Well it turns out that if you train 3 x a day you can be a rather in shape basket case. That was my case. See the Rainierman daze/days…this is when I was working as a PE teacher for a preschool and as coach/trainer at a local MMA gym. I had gotten the trainer job there as my first gig training after they had seen me skipping rope and then my abs after I changed out of my sopping in sweat wet shirt. So my obsessive abs training, coupled with jump rope, got me my first training job.
Well it turns out that if you train 3 x a day and your meal plan consists of 60 plus alcoholic drinks per week, the wheels eventually fall off and important screws come loose at various points.
It also turns out that the best thing that can happen to you is to STOP DRINKING ALCOHOL. Oh I know it is sooo GOOOOD, and does so MUCH good for you I am sure. Habits are our doing and undoing. What’s your habit doing for you? I am certainly sure that after two alcoholic beverages your body prioritizes the expulsion of the chemical poison from your body, putting the processing of nutrients second to the detox.
After one month of not drinking, I put on at least 10 pounds of lean muscle. It was probably more. I wasn’t measuring it at the time and this was just the beginning. I was ready to pour myself fully into the training job, but they laid me off before I could do that. So I was on the move, again.
Just over a year later, I was back into personal training again. This time I got exposed to a better understanding of nutrition and I was introduced to the world of bodybuilding. This was also where I was introduced to my one and only supplement brand, dotFIT.
It wasn’t long until I got assigned to teach an abs class at the globo gym I was working at. I did well enough with that class that I was tasked with running a larger division of the training program. From there I went on to become a fitness director at another globo gym. You can see how I can ABsolutely say that having great abs and a strong core has been integral to my fitness journey.
