What influences in your capability to focus?

Taking your first mighty steps into bodybuilding depends on you and around you.

 

Pics & footage provided by OnCeTr.

 

When OnCe Tr was 17 years old had to pass through his first heavy test in bodybuilding. He contested  in Junior Category along Talara Province  (Piura, Peru) . “I was the youngest among all them up to that day,” he remembers. He did it very well – he got the second place.

 

“My parents and my uncle motivated me to do it, so achieving experience.” Only for the record, the uncle he refers to is the pro bodybuilder and South American champion José escobar.

 

Just one year before, at 16, he has started his training  in this discipline, but  he already brought the experience from other disciplines he had doing before. Muay Thai among them. “Because before I didn’t like the fitness world much, but I began to train from nothing, then I held on this,” he affirms.

 

At the moment we post this entry, OnCe Tr is 19 years old, 5.7 feet height, 170 lbs weight. He’s plenty focused in bodybuilding, he started to work as a trainer and a personal trainer at Séco’s Gym, his parents’ facility in Los Organos, one of the cities in the Talara Beaches Circuit, Northwestern Peru.

 

It’s “a part of the process”

From Monday to Saturday, his days begin at 7:00 in the morning. His first work is training other people. Afternoons are dedicated to him training his own body. After 10:00 at night, OnCe is already in the bed.

 

“It’s hard because standing so much time inside one only place is stressful, but it’s for a purpose, so I assume it as a part of the process.” That doesn’t mean he leave to amuse in his free time: “I like to go out eating with friends, going to the beach, or sometimes playing video-games.”

 

And when you are 19 years old, friends try you many times to get out the rule  once a time. Your will power comes in there. “If I have no time, then I say I can’t, or if it’s something I don’t like, I say I don’t like or not for now.”

 

Motivation comes from home

OnCe Tr works out as a bodybuilder, in his own words, because he likes it. But that affection has been influenced by a bodybuilder dad and a mom who involved into fitness by the motivation of OnCe’s dad, Rigoberto Paredes a.k.a. el Séco. Although it’s not a general rule, wouldn’t it logical if your parents are athletes, you end to be an athlete?

 

For sure, OnCe didn’t want to do anything with the bodybuilding in the beginning, despite the pushing of his parents. “I remember once upon a day I said them when they sign me up in a martial arts academy, I enter the gym that day.” The wish was granted. But OnCe also had to accomplish his part of the deal. “I entered the gym that day ignoring I settled it down.”

 

His parents’ support has been total. In return, OnCe support them by working at the gym. And that support extends to what is already his sports career.

 

To be strong

Regarding, his friends think OnCe has gained something like a lottery: “They say I’m lucky for having parents so because it seems they give me all, but that’s not so – I simply live quiet, that’s it.”

 

OnCe sustains you must be strong on what you want. He has it more than clear in his case: “Following up on my own, because when something gets inside your head, you must not leave despite anyone bloks you to do what you want.”

 

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“I do it to feel good to myself”

One of the most becoming-frequent answers in persons who begin any type of training at gym, home, or outdoors, is “I do it because I want to fffeel good to myself.” And they mark aa very clear posture  compared to who go with the evident intention of building muscle or simply keeping fit.

 

The profile of the ones giving this reason is usually professional people with much job or family load, empowered during Covid-19 pandemic, which stress levels are high. In this bunch, there are also who lost relatives or quite beloved people due to the plague that passed away dozens of million lives around the world.

 

There’s no much to explain from the mental health’s perspective. The power of physical exercise as an emotional balance generator is pretty proved because of the simple reason that the training makes your hormonal segregation to be more efficient, especially that avoids or controls conditions like depression or anxiety, and rules your metabolism.

 

“I already sleep once now from 11 at night to 6 in the morning,” a 30-year-old accountant tells us in Tambograndé, Peru, requesting us to be anonymous. If he has played soccer during much time, the untreated anziety has betrayed him almost without warning. “I ate any time, I didn’t sleep good.”  From 154 pounds, he raised to more than 220 pounds! And he’s just 5.6 feet height.

 

After entering a bunch training gymnastics and functional, he is losing weight (he’s around 187 pounds), he has noticed his physical & mental health has improved, add to this that his mood passed from anger to laugh and calm. However, when we asked him to pose for some pictures, he declined: “No, thanks – I just do it because I wanna feel good to myself.”

 

It’s also like a media specialist in Piura, Peru, 31 years old, 6 feet height, who from 220 pounds, today it’s 198 pounds… and decreasing. “I don’t work out for the people to see me or to admire me but because I feel better to myself,” he repeats. And every morning, he attend to the gym for his dumbells-&-functional routine. And testimonials like theirs repeat.

 

If you’re a trainer, you’ve already noticed it. Perhaps it disappoints you that, unlike other pupils who really want to improve their physiques whether for competition or simple vanity, this bunch doesn’t put that goal foreward.

 

Don’t get wrong interpretating they are not interested in growing as visible, what they are really interested in growing inside. Your job, instead criticizing them for not being like the others or mistaking to compare them to the pretty muscled pupil of your class, is raising their personal motivation levels, encouraging them to be a better version of themselves. Maybe sometimes they need to talk to heal, so we remind you how to proceeed in these times.

 

As much as they receive this kind of feedback, it’s probable that you progressively  go stimulating their sport-competitive spirit, and themselves to be who go adding greater exigency levels until reaching similar or better results than your competition pupils or who work out to look fit. Don’t get surprised if someday themselves ask you to prepare them for the next tournament.

 

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Robinson Ruíz – At least just once in lifetime

Interview by Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo, special to ChulucanasGym. Photographs Courtesy Robinson Ruíz.

 

Getting to a very important tournament like the 2019 Lima Pan-American Games costed Robinson Steven Ruíz Calle (Chulucanas, Peru, Sep. 5^th, 1998) to stay far away his homeland for training properly, and giving time to extra-sport activities such as working at a restaurant, gathering plastic bottles, or giving maintenance to bikes, but he got it – he got for Peru and for himself, a bronze medal in road biking. His speciality is track speed.

 

Although he initially trained at his hometown, he might move to the other side of the nation for perfecting, in Arequipa, where the High Performance Center is located, and one of the major biking hotspots in Peru. In that same place, another highlighted biker trains, his older brother Hugo Ruíz. Was all that effort worthy?  His name already appears in the international records of biking. We talk to him while he rests from one of his most recent competitions.

 

Since how old do you do biking, already in competition mode?

Since I was 17 years old.

 

Have you ever done biking or have you do other sports?

I began in soccer when I went to the school, and I also highlighted in athletics, but I felt they weren’t for me.

 

So, how do you get to biking?

Because of my father and my older brother Hugo, whom I admire much. He began in biking. He did it before than me.

 

When you did athletics, what tests did you highlight in?

In 100 flat meters.

 

And that test is more power instead of speed, isn’t it?

Yes, it is so.

 

Then, you have got the speed and resistance of soccer and you have got the power of 100 flat meters, and a good leg is necessary in both. How did that help in biking?

So, since I was a child, I was very disciplined in my trainings, whether in soccer, athletics, or biking. And I’d add genetics to that, not dismissing the hard work for sure [laughs].

 

What factor of your genetics do you believe it plays in your favor?

I think I have some runner skills, reaching good speed peaks in short distance, and a good power management by Nature, and the ease to gain muscular mass. I add to that much pure resistance work, resistance to power and speed.

 

How do you get to 2019 Lima Pan-American Games?

After a set of selectives to all pre-selected athletes, who highlighted the most in different resistance and speed tests were selected. I was one of the chosen ones.

 

When you arrived, what was the first thing that came into your head?

The first thing I thought it was my first and last chance to show the class in home. I like much to do something thinking it will be the last time I do it. It makes me to deliver 100%.

 

How much did that thinking way work to you?

Well, the truth is I continue applying it in every phase of my life. I believe it helps me ever, it turned me into a very passionate, dedicated man. It’s about the life is too short and someone doesn’t know where someone will be tomorrow. The road biking is a sport that is not respected in Peru by the drivers, there are road accidents risk ever.

 

You took an interesting issue. There are campaigns asking to respect the bikers everywhere, but it seems the engine vehicles drivers don’t understand it. How do you feel about?

It’s something very sorry that fills me with much impotence and anger. It’s easy for them to take a seat in the safety of a big vehicle that protects them. We go on a bike – the only stuff protecting me is a helmet. I demand respect to the life of us, the bikers – five feet distance wwhen you want to pass beside me, that’s it. You can lose a minute of your time and passing in a safe way for us. We can lose our whole life full of goals, dreams, and along.

 

Also, the bike produces zero polluting emissions to the atmosphere and it’s a recommended exercise to keep the health of body and mind, isn’t it?

Right, my buddy.

 

You talked about a life of dreams and along. Where has the biking got you to, and if did you ever dream at least to get until there?

Once upon a time when I was a kid, I dreamed much to be featured on TV riding on my bike with all these professional bikers who run the tour right there in Europe, and because of the work and constancy, the biking gifted me that opportunity by participating in the San Juan Tour, a classic in Argentina where all the professional teams participate. The dreams are to be accomplished and they can make real, indeed. I’ve known places I never thought, diverse countries, cultures, moments, friends, experiences I will keep forever.

 

Please, mention these countries, aside Argentina, and don’t forget anyone.

Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Spain, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile. These are what I remember.

 

Almost all Iberoamerica. To finish for now, I remember when we met your brother Hugo, one of his major challenges was getting a sponsorship and it was very hard. How was it in your case?

Well, I took a part-time job a little time ago to fundraise some trips to certain competitions. It still continues to be a challenge for me [laughs]. I don’t travel to all the rides because the budget lacks – biking is expensive.

 

But, do you know what you have, aside the genetics? So, the pride and the enthusiasm. I hope more people look at your work and your colleague bikers’ because the international results you get really makes worthy any funding.

Thank you very much, buddy.

 

You can check out the international records of Robinson here. Also, follow him on his Facebook and Instagram accounts.

 

 

Do you have a similar story? Write us at chulucanasgym@gmail.com or contact us on our Twitter account. 

The right weight

Grandma was reasonable in everything but this.

 

It’s not a game. Obesity has begun to charge very expense bills to our communities. Only in Piura Department, the medical statistics establish it is the first cause of heart diseases (stroke, arteriosclerosis) and diabetes. In fact, it occupies the second place across Peru in this condition prevalence, that treated out of time can be mortal.

 

The diet and the lack of physical activity are the recurrent causes, according to specialists. The usual food is ever made of rice, tubers, and fried or boiled meat and much spices, and beverages with much sugar and colorants that have replaced to the natural juices and refreshes.

 

Growing besides

In the other hand, the new lifestyle consists in spending long hours in front of the TV or the PC, many times interacting with other pairs virtually but forbidding spaces and moments of physical encounter. This frame is not supposed.

 

The medical doctors coincide that during the teenage, instead growing upside, we are growing besides. Also, they point out that the problem gets worse if we have haven a bad or deficient nutrition during our childhood, so we don’t gain enough height and the body trends to accumulate fat instead of mass.

 

The most optimistic medical forecast is that before 40 years old, many of us already will experience our first stroke or, at least, will have blood stream problems. And the problem is in rural and urban ccommunities, as well.

 

The lifeguard plan

There are actually ways to reverse the frame, and everything depends on a strong personal commitment with your health. Here we present you some useful ideas:

1. Eat according to your real energy requirement: Not all the people need the same wear, so a nutritionist (or specialist in nutriology) can advise us what we have to eat, how much quantity, what time, why and how to combine it in a healthy way.
2. Do exercise: World Health Organization suggests that, at least, 30 daily minutes at home, a park, or the gym, are ideal to improve all the body functions including the slow down of the cell aging.
3. Set your mind free: encourage yourself creatively to take out the stress by doing an activity that take your brain out of the routine, but that enriches it.
4. No vices: If you don’t find a way (or even if you have it clear), don’t run to the alcohol, the tobacco, the drugs, or something that generates you damages for your remaining lifetime. If you think it convenient, visit a mental health specialist for having a guide.
5. Try not to stick to the technology: It’s actually possible to live without it. It seems hard but what the advertising doesn’t say us is the continuous dependence to the electronic devices causes us sedentarism, so problems with our weight. The other part that the advertising doesn’t say us is that a kind of techno-addiction is developed.
6. Appreciate yourself: The key to be happy is loving because of who you are, not who you look like. But this doesn’t mean you uncare of yourself.
7. Choose a medical consultation: If the physical body has problems, or it doesn’t respond like it should, the best is looking for a medical doctor. The friends and relatives –unless they have a diploma in Medicine and be competent—can give ideas but not a professional opinion that can save our live. However, ever look for second and third recommendations to go to the right place.
8. Research and share: On the Internet, there is everything, and especially the information that will open you up a positive perspective to care your health. If you access those contents, study them, file them, discuss them, and share them with your people. Who knows – the fact that can improve the life of somebody else could come from you.

 

The model featured on this entry is André Verona and the photographs are © Marco Mejía.

 

The benefits of the placebo effect

A strategy to improve the treatment of chronic illnesses.

 

Every year around the world, there are millions of people diagnosed with a chronic illness, what means a set of conditions weakening the health in the long-term that, if not having immediate attention, can get worse as the time goes by. Some people asume the news as a death sentence despite the strategies and the treatments have advanced so significantly in the last three decades.

 

In fact, many of them are now designed to attack the existent ill more precise, reducing the disgusting secondary effects they used to cause years ago. But the conventional medicine won’t be useful if the patient doesn’t adopt an attitude going beyond the active principles and the prescribed doses.

 

The self-convincement of a future improvement to experience plays in a big part for dealing and even surviving the chronic illnesses. The holism insists that the mind plays much in the recuperation processes of the person, even provided to be adequately harmonized.

 

This flow suggests the human body prones to get ill or to attract the illness if the deharmonization vulnerates it. The problem aggravates if we believe there are people or stuff that can propitiate such illnesses. That’s called nocebo effect. An example is the charm or the witchcraft.

 

There is a division among who practice the holism about if it must or must not add to conventional medicine. However, independent specialists advise to add for improving the effects and guaranteeing the success of treatments. But, if the holistic theory of every illness breaks out by the accumulation of wrong decisions or guilt between the conception and the 12-year-old is taken, is it possible to reverse the frame?

 

The opposite of nocebo effect is the placebo effect, that doesn’t refer only to the wellness sensation based upon somebody or something, but how it is conducted until getting an eventual cure. A first step is the manner how the treatment or healing plan is provided. The attitude of the healing person (a medical doctor, a therapist) based on just giving the prescription helps but it doesn’t necessarily contribute to the cure.

 

Many times, what catalyses the success of treatment is releasing the whole negative mental energy of the folk. Knowing to listen, and based upon that, knowing to advise or to guide results favoring the healing of the people. That’s why patients with chronic illnesses that have a good attention quality react better and, if they don’t heal at all, approach to a state that makes the ill to be easily manageable.

 

But, what happens when the patients comes back home?There are ways to complement the achievement of the treatment in the clinic space, what doesn’t mean turning the home into another hospital but to follow up a very advantageous strategy, and that, with the adequate attitude, will help widely the person to recuperate.

 

If we start from that the mind contributes much in the healing processes, the basis of everything is the self-valuation and releasing the guilty feeling. If many illnesses can be acquired by the uncare, for good, it must do a break-up and get aware that as much as we propitiate the cause, we can propitiate the cure. That attitude depends on the individual.

 

It’s the same if we didn’t put our lives in risk but we were exposed to by other people. In this sense, knowing to manage the resentment can be healthier than only following up the treatment exactly as prescribed. Forgiving yourself and forgiving someone else is the other ingredient. Upon those two basis, here we introduce a plan that will favor any healing process, but that, we recommend, must be agreed with specialists to assure its effectiveness.

 

1. Healthy feeding: They say that the ill person who eats, doesn’t die, and that’s pretty true. But, ever have to choose that healthy and natural food, if possible. Specialists in nutrition can help us much, although reliable websites can also help us in the effort. The hydration and the medical treatment itself are here too. Everything is complementary.
2.  Leave me breathness: The people forget completely that the air we breathe influences in our body processes, so while it’s purest, they will be better, especially the fluid stream and the own breathing process. Then, it must guarantee the air quality.
3.  Educate your senses: The soul also feeds and it does through the senses. If we don’t care what we see, feel, and hear –also what we eat and breathe—, we will generate a disorder that won’t favor the body. The noise, the graphic violence, and the physical mistreatment, just mentioning some examples, raise our stress levels and contribute to open the door to the health deterioration. Then, we should look for the opposite.
4.  Manage your emotions: We, the people, ever must fight to generate tranquility and harmony environments. The addition of the three first points favor such state. There will be a time for everything, for sure, but the idea is the negative emotions don’t become constant, if not, they will disturb any effort to balance mind, body, and space.

 

As a necessary complement, the physical activity is important. We must agree with the specialists who examine us wwhich one would be the most adequate for our healing process, but never –unless they order the opposite— it must prescind on it. Let’s remember that, like the other alive beings, the human body was designed for the action.

 

The model featured on this entry is Christiam Tineo.