Learning, Innovating, Publishing

Look at Mario Kanashiro’s manga

[Exclusive] Now, the dancer and model also amaze us as a cartoonist.

 

We’ve learned about athletes or bodybuilders who serve as inspiration to artists who take them pictures, shot them on video or film, draw them, or sculpt them. We’ve learned about bodybuilders or athletes who turn artists, or viceversa, exploring the different manifestation ways. Even, we’ve shown them here.

But, what happens when bodybuilders and athletes are also artists not meaning to exclude some of those dimensions?

Speaking much deeper, art and sports share common values what you never have realized neither: looking for perfection, wishing to overcome obstacles, needing to move, satisfying to reach goals, the discipline turning the unusual into daily, the recognized achievement.

 

Then, don’t get surprised if you decide to pass from physical culture to the artistic one, or reverse, and all during a single day, and returning to someone of them, or being between them not meaning it a conflict of time or personal/professional identity.

It’s the case of our friend Mario Kanashiro in Nagoya, Japan. We’ve already told you his story by here: after learning to dance and realizing he did it very good, now he is a trainer working in the Land of Rising Sun. But, let’s also remember Mario already came from a previous artistic experience – music.

Then, to get engaged to the dance costed but it was relatively simple to go achieving. Additionally, let’s remember he worked as a model. Review Mario’s story here.

 

Nevertheless, what we didn’t know is that Mario also has got skill for drawing. “When I was in high-school, I drew for some months as hobby,”  he tells us.  But once upon a day of 2021, he decided to retake it, and since June 2022, he is practicing it much intense – inclusive, he shares it on his social media accounts.

What he mainly portrays are manga characters, the Japanese art of comic, and animé ones, that would be something like bringing manga to the animation by hand or by computer. “I like drawings, I like to design them and creating something original,” he adds.

And this is very consistent with his facet of dancer and choreographer, which creations he continues sharing on his social media. In all them, he print his personal touch, his followers love it. “Inclusive, they advice me to improve.” Coming next, we offer you a selection of the drawings Mario himself did from his whole work. What do you look them like?

 

Drawings by Mario Kanashiro.

It’s necessary to say that the drawing, as any type of art, influences positively in mental health of any bodybuilder or athlete because it allows him to deal with daily pressures, develops focusing levels much effective as he doesn’t do the same thing ever, and it increases the mood to retake the physical activity. In some cases, the physical activity itself influences the artistic inspiration as it opens the mind from the body up to other conscience state.

Have you ever tried it? Tell us in the comments below, on our Twitter account, or at chulucanasgym@gmail.com. We’ll love to know what you do, and, if you agree, share it with our entire community.

Don’t miss Mario on his social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

 

The model featured in this entryis Mario Kanashiro. 

A bodybuilding-based cult?

By ChulucanasGym

VISITOR’S DISCRETION ADVISED

The story is not probably new., but who tell it did look for  picturing it as featured on this post. It’s about the young farmer male, who doesn’t find opportunities to develop in his environment and decides to migrate to the big city. But instead finding progress, he finds much obstacles and multiple temptations  those put him in the edge of social risk, mainly crime and drug addiction.

Then, a solidarian hand ddiscovers him at an eventual job that only provides him the necessary to survive, and realizes he has a potential to launch a career in bodybuilding. It opens him the doors of a gymnasium, the Young male wonders about the new world revealed to him and takes the opportunity. He begins to work out, grows up physically, changes his mind from conformism to competitiveness, feels motivated to contest, and eventually gets little-but-significant triumphs.

Itt’s evident the contrast between a life without goals and what seems to be the beginning of a career that promises achievements, and it could be the story of your own life. But the element that nobody would think is that the story were pitched to some magazines or websites specialized in bodybuilding, instead, it could have a religious use, rather. Yes, themuscular development of a bodybuilder becomes to use for enhancing a very little cult considering its followers, but what uses an ancestral symbology.

It happens in Jamaica, where the Church of Kyrios Christ, that proposes a big influence of the African culture in the three big religions of humankind, but what became invisible because of apparent race factors, has used the power of bodybuilding to make popular the cult for one of its orishas, a kind of demigods, named Olorun. The Church, which theology is based upon youruba  cults, also proposes the reinvindication of the African-descendant people into the world’s history, and it performs a ceremony every year when it renacts that orisha’s myth.

According to its parishioners, Olorun was made a slave during the colonial trafficking started in 16^th century (beautiful literary works have born from that time in the Americas). Once he lived at the barracks  of an estate located in the actual Chalacalá Town, near Sullana City, Peru, the orisha was a rebel mood, so the estate-owner used to punish by leaving naked and wearing a fetter with chains to humiliate to him, but Olorun, calling out divine forces, took the bold piece of metal with his hands and broke up by his own power.

A very ancient tactic

Independently this event was whether historically true or not, it’s enacted during this ceremony in Jamaica with the evident purpose that the parishioners not to forget about it, so reaffirming the cult values. And according to the Church, it looks for a model, usually Colombian or Jamaican, every year to perform the Olorun role, something that, as the organization’s leaders say, is accepted as a high honor by the chosen actor.

The idea of taking a real human being to remember or invoke an abstract reference or a belief is an oldest resource as  the art and culture of humankind. In Classic Greece, the Olympics’ winners used to be featured as the models for the statues of gods (and goddesses, because there were also  contests for women), and one of the philosophic principles at the ancient gymnasiums stated that the perfection of human shape was the closest way to look like a god or a goddess.

And that health-art-religion relationship has kept along the time, maybe hidden until the Renaissance (15^th century), but present up to today. Iff not, look around slowly when you go to the gym and have your own conclusions.

Good or bad?

So, only if the bodybuilder is aware he is actually training. It could be an interesting strategy  to reach constance, one of the values muchly hardworking to grow. But if the bodybuilder cannot take off the character of god or demigod, or celebrity, or famous person, or popular referent, it will be necessary professionalassistance with pairs advisory.

In this sense, the work of the trainer is crucial. It must not be reduced to care the athlete for doing the movement correctly, or complete the required reps or sets. He also has to take time to explore the psychology  of his pupil so giving him  the right support, and knowing to motivate him for continuing to overcome. Maybe, it’s not necessary to say him that he has to look like a god, but it’s important to feedback the goals  both proposed since the training began, and maybe this is one of the keywords – goals.

About the rest, the use of the religion to advocate a healthy lifestyle, only done with awareness and not falling into the fanatism, could result very positive. Many ancestral religions have very specific habits about feeding, for example, those have been incorporated as diet schemes accepted by international organisms, but stressing the basis of the variety and the balance.

And about the art-bodybuilding relationship, we think it’s an excellent combination only provided the bodybuilder assumes his artist stage as a dimension to set free in the whole sense of the expression, not like an obsession many times badly directed by some producers or career managers, who could be thinking the things more of audience or incomes matters. Like the food, everything in the right balance will be ever positive.

Shive Roy is featured as the model of this post. Photographs provided by Dwight Foster.

Do you have a similar story to share? Let us know it at chulucanasgym@gmail.com, our Twitter account, or using the comment box below.

Guillermo Checa – a muscled activist

One of his favorite places to work out is at the mountains. (All photographs provided by Guillermo Checa)

 

Passion, knowledge, clear plans.  But an excellent physical condition too. Many activists think it’s only necessary to know speaking well and creating. That’s important. But, where they do think they can get the whole vitality that job requires from?

 

Guillermo Checa commits a good part of his free time to forest every empty lot in Piura City, Peru.  “The job of planting is heavy, it requires much physical effort,” he affirms. That’s why he also commits part of his time to build muscle.

“When I go out to plant, I have to work with a shovel, to move sand, to carry up big bags, and ddealing with the Sun too.” That’s when building muscle helps him to have power, flexibility, and  a better response to the so hard weather conditions like Piura, where the highs can rise until 100ºF temperature.

 

Checa leads a volunteers team called Ksembrando Vidas. As its name in Spanish says it, its job is the forestation and the reforestation by using native species of Piura Department.

 

Also, Guillermo is an avid reader, an art-pieces collector, and he’s considered as one of the new leaders of his community. He thinks this is just the beginning of his public life. Oh, he also has time to work as a model, like we see in those photographs.

 

Support Sembrando Vidas | Contact Guillermo Checa | Follow us on X | chulucanasgym@gmail.com

  

Go training sustainable in time!

Peruvian host Elías Velasco shows us what the fitness gave him but from an alternate perspective.

 

Photos by Jair Tacza Herrera, special to ChulucanasGym. Special gratitude to Legion Fitness Gym (Lima) for allowing us to shot the star of this entry during his training session.

 

In 2007 Mister Lima, 2007 Mister Summer, and 2007 Mister Peru (Photos from Elías Velasco’s archive).

 

“I live sustainable in time inside-to-outside,” Elías Velasco (Lima, Peru, November 21^st, 1974) affirms. Almost turning 49 years old (at the time this entry is posted), the director, creator, and host of Café & Conversa, a Spanish-language streaming TV talk-show, looks like an amazing body, that highlights from other guys of his generation.

 

Elías began in bodybuilding in 1993 like a psychological therapy. A love disappointment, a dismissal in a job opportunity, and a good friend were the blasting recipe that turned a thin guy, 5.6 feet, 119 lbs, into a128-pound athlete in the lapse of one year.

 

In 2004, he studied and specialized in fitness. Later, in 2007, he started contesting  in Mister Summer, in Lima, what he wan. Then, Mister Lima selective came on, what he reached the second place in classic bodybuilding category (137 lbs, 7% body fat). Ultimately, in the same category, he got a third place in Mister Peru (141 lbs, 10% body fat).

 

Bringing down, then being reborning

He couldn’t go ahead in the competitive field because he took anabolics that activated a bone disease that reduced him to 108 lbs. elías depressed so much that he almost committed suicide.

 

In 2008, when he healed in body and mind, he returned to the gym  but another thinking. He never left it from that moment on, restoring his physique – his inner peace, over all.

 

Inclusive, he was summoned to work as an artistic model  in three times, even, between that year and 2012. Eventually, he played the role again for one of his shows in 2023 – he continued to look like amazing. At this entry closed, Elías have scheduled to feature his body for another  art exposition. Meanwhile, the pictures we present you here, all were produced exclusively for ChulucanasGym.

 

A new philosophy

“The humankind has built pretty fragile, easy-to-corrupt personal issues in time because it don’t know itself, it don’t train inside neither,” elías says to ChulucanasGym.

 

“People vainly live decorating the front yard in their lives, but  not generating substantial changes because they hardly negotiate and deal for living collectively  healthy,” he adds.

 

Elías Velasco affirms the main benefit of training sustainably in time is having found the balance between body and mind, at least speaking by himself.

 

The power of mind

Training with emotional intelligence, having reached living inside-to-outside seem to be the break point, in his words.

 

“Because you achieve training and empowering yourself plenty finding harmony, balance, fullness, and a pretty mighty and clean decision power  to live in health connected to the cosmos, so you apply it into your daily life, then you will look like strong inside and outside,” he advises.

 

Additionally, Elías has found his vocation working in the media, and he is preparing more and more each time, learning from the guests to his TV show. “We’re what we decide,” he states.

 

Follow Elías | Comment on X | chulucanasgym@gmail.com

  

Legs in shape because of the marinera

The time according to James Lenger

This sportsman and musician brings the ‘busy’ concept very close to ‘useful’ – and ‘inspiring’.

By ChulucanasGym. Photos Courtesy by James Lenger.

How does he make to have time for sports and music? He says he finds that time and he can accomplish everything he plans. But he doesn’t practice just one sport neither he just plays one instrument. He goes in and out five different sports and plays and teaches music as well . and he also travels!

The life of James Lenger  is the right opposite to inactivity. He is doing something around the clock, only stopping to sleep. Well, we hope so.

James has practiced sports along his life and tried the most different ones including soccer. But he is specialized in modern pentathlon, developed by modern Olympics’ promotor Pierr de Coubertin.

“I played those sports in high school and college, before I knew about pentathlon. I grew up always loving and playing sports.”

According to James’ website, de Coubertin wanted to save the traditional main event of Ancient Olympics created in Greece, around 3000 years ago. That he only did was to replace five ancient disciplines for modern ones: swimming, running, riding, fencing and shooting. James practices all those ones.

“It depends on the day. I usually schedule swimming 5-6 days a week, running 4-5 days, shooting 2-3 days, fencing 3 days, and riding 1-2 days. It sometimes depends on what my coaches want me to do.”

Beating

James’ motivation to have that pretty active life is very personal: “The pentathlon got me into all of the sports, and I dedicated my training to my mother, who had died a few years ago.”

It’s probable that many of us consider practicing five sports during many hours a day is enough. Well, many of us but James doesn’t, because he finds time to teach in GuitarCities, his own music school what promises you to approach proffessionally to that art, no matter if you’re a beginner or a senior.

“It's busy. It is around 30 hours training and 40-50 hours working every week. I own my own business, so my schedule can be a little flexible.”

James usually teaches in Chicago, Illinois, and sometimes he goes to the other studios in New York City, San Francisco or London. There are projects to come to Latin America, once he proves the teaching scheme is much more consistent than today.

“Eventually. I want to make sure we have a good system down, and we continue to refine it in the US first. I even had some conversations about doing sport and music camps in Latin America. It will just take a little while to get that going, but definitely something I thought of.”

Patience for combination

And having a busy schedule, James wins. How does he do? The simple answer is: he just does it. Why not you?

“It's therapy for me, so it has helped me out to cope with the loss, but I am also motivated to keep training for those that can't train. I want to make the most I can with what I have been given.

James assures that combination of sports and music, especially beginning the day, can make you more productive.

“Both can be very therapeutic. For myself, and many students, sometimes describing your mood can be difficult, so often we can write a song based on how we feel, and that can be a good outlet. Sports can also be a great way to get away for a while.”

And the key word, even being in a hurry, is patience.

“When I teach, I have to constantly remind the student to slow down when they play, so they are sure to get the correct technique. When I practice sports, I have to always remind myself the same thing, as I have a tendency to want to rush through things. On the other hand, I know how difficult it can be to learn something new (like fencing), and have to remember to apply patience when I instruct music, because it is a reminder to me how tough something new can be.

So the next time you think about 24 hours are not enough for you, you should think about James: playing and winning – all in time.

Post-produced by Sheyla Benavente.

Read also: Fran Checa’s wonderful world