For those that have known me my whole life know the struggles I had to endure when I was diagnosed with Spinal Meningitis. It made a major impact on the nerves around the right side of my body and scrambled my brain to the point where it would either kill me or make me live my life as an unintelligent member of society. When I was little, I used almost nothing but the left side of my body and barely did anything with the right side. Couldn't even pick up a pen or pencil with my right hand because the nerves were badly damaged. I struggled for decades but I kept fighting.
By the time I was a teenager, I could do quite a few things here and there for basic daily life but some things still weren't possible. I could lift some decent weight and move ok without the assistance of my left arm. Still can't shoot a basketball or throw a baseball or football with my right arm. After my leg injuries, I focused on getting stronger in a different way than ever before (as you may have read) but I also needed to challenge my right side even more. In gymnastics, I had a moment where I could do a one arm hang either on the horizontal bars or the rings with my right arm and that was an amazing feat for me, I was 24 at the time.
As I got older, I had to find more challenges, I was bending steel bars, nails, ripping phone books, levering hammers and holding myself up in a one arm push-up. Yesterday was a defying moment that made all those years struggling worth while. You've seen the videos of me pressing the Darth Vader Kettlebell with either hand or doing one arm farmer's carry with it, I wanted to make it harder so I thought I would attach one of my fat gripz to the handle. I never thought I'd be able to even clean it, let alone lift it with that thing attached and to my surprise, I did it with each arm and didn't use any assistance with my left when I did it with my right. I got it up to my shoulder and pressed that son of a bitch 10 times each arm, this thing is 70 lbs BTW and took a lot of concentration to use the muscles I needed to lift it. At 3-4 years old I have gone from not being able to pick up a damn pencil to basically cleaning and pressing a thick handled kettlebell that weighs 70 lbs. more times than I ever thought I could. This to me was decades in the making and I made it possible.
You have the power to overcome adversity beyond anyone's expectations. Some never thought ever that you could do something they thought was impossible. You have the power to become stronger and make the impossible possible. The struggle is part of the journey but its those moments in time where everything came together and something incredible happens. Look at some of the old-time strongmen and what they endured to become legendary figures in the world of strength. I made something happen for myself that I never dreamed would happen and yet, it came to light when for years there were dark clouds over me. Although the fighting never stops, it's in those brief moments where you have won the battles over yourself and those who told you it wasn't going to ever happen. You made things happen and you CAN continue to make things happen. You are a bad ass my friend and never stop becoming something YOU were meant to be.
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