How Bodybuilding
Changed my Life
Through
primary school I was larger than most of the other
children and due to this was bullied. As you can imagine
this restricted my friendship circles and inhibited
my social skills to the point where I had to take
special help classes for reading, writing and other
educational needs, as I would switch off in school.
My
family knew little about nutrition and this obviously
affected my health and weight at a young age. had
they known more, I may have benefited, however, as
with anything, education must come from the grass
roots up and I feel it is important to educate children
now and support the parents through understanding
the importance of proper nutrition.
At
the age of eleven, I took up three sports, judo, tennis
and rugby and started to feel healthier, however,
my nutrition was still poor and the weight remained
until I was about fourteen years old. At this point
my social experiences became much better and I was
accepted by a wider group of individuals. This made
me more positive about school and my learning started
to benefit, however, I was still without direction.
I
went to college studying PE, Geography and ICT. In
my first two years my motivation was poor. This was
probably affected by my eating patterns, as in secondary
school there was no proper education of diet and nutrition
and the importance of an active, healthy lifestyle;
I had adopted the 'eat less is better' mantra.This
was to keep my friends and my confidence, however,
through skipping lunch everyday and overloading on
junk for dinner, my body image remained poor.
It
was then that I came across bodybuilding. After six
months of training and learning more about nutrition
I suddenly had more confidence, drive and motivation.
Originally, I had not wanted to further my education
but bodybuilding gave me the power to say "Yes
I can!". I found a course at the University of
the West of England, Bristol, and I realised I had
to do a foundation year first. This did not bother
me as I knew what I wanted to pursue. Through bodybuilding
I had learnt proper nutrition and had become extremely
interested in this area as well as physiology, so
I undertook the course.
I
knew it would be hard, due to my dyslexia, to keep
my English up to University standard, but now that
I was eating correctly I really put my mind to the
self-improvement I needed in these areas.
I
am now going in to my final year of the full course
- Sports Biology - with a First, having achieved 75%
grade average. Only the dedication from hard training
and the perseverance I learnt from pre-contest bodybuilding
allowed me to do this. The skills, morals, confidence,
self-fulfilment, persistence, dedication and nutritional
habits I needed for bodybuilding had crossed over
in to other areas of my life, allowing me to apply
myself and reach heights I never thought imaginable.
The
hardest aspect of bodybuilding is understanding training
and proper nutrition, and although I knew a lot this
year, I was fortunate enough to stumble across and
be awarded with an ENROL BNBF-U-Phorm scholarship.They
have helped to further increase my knowledge and mental
attitude. Since being on the programme, I look better,
have more energy and feel better. These are the programmes
I feel our community in the education system would
benefit from, as well as seminars from these groups
for all, including support for the parents.
Bodybuilding
has had bad press coverage at times but this is largely
inflated and the individuals interviewed and portrayed
are at the extreme end of our sport. In fact, many
bodybuilders have PHDs, something I now wish to do.
There are many great role models showing the above
qualities that children can strive to emulate, for
example, look at Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder,
honorary doctor, movie star and successful governor.
It
is also important that the bodybuilding shows and
federations grow to allow more opportunity for young
people to watch, enjoy and participate in the sport
that has so much to give. By supporting programmes
like U-Phorm, it will allow this to happen. Performance
and shows will become more mainstream and entertaining
to the point where everyone will want to learn more
for fun.
All
these points are why I believe the practice of bodybuilding
could, and should, be a part of education. It is multi-faceted
in what it teaches and it is important to note that
anyone in a gym actively trying to change their body
shape is bodybuilding, and the extremes of competitive
bodybuilding is not a must to learn the many lessons
it has to offer.
Feeling
better than ever, Kai Paul.
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