Becoming a Dad and nurturing the athlete in you.

I truly believe that everyone has the athlete in them... Just because your muscles don’t look like they are going to explode or your abs don’t look like you could grate cheese on them, doesn’t make you any different to those who spend hours on end building their bodies.  Nor do you have to be training for a major sporting event or the Olympics to be an athlete - it’s all about what is in the mind.

This is something I had to come to terms with when I became a new Dad. Prior to Harrison being born I was eating extremely well and had competed in one or two competitions and also did a fair bit of modeling. Having a child meant I didn’t go to the gym as frequently and the hardest thing to deal with for me was looking at my body and my arms not looking quite as big as they did and those ever elusive abs slowing slipping away. It was terrible.

Harrison was born five and a half weeks early on the 6 October 2014. Once we were home and settled I started having that burning desire to do something again. I had trained in Mixed Martial Arts a few years back and saw an advert for a Charity Boxing Event, it read free eight weeks boxing training and get in the ring at the end of it. This was exactly what I needed to start training and claw that motivation back. The key here was it was my choice. I was unhappy with myself; I couldn’t bear to not be doing something with the fear of becoming ‘stale’.

So, with the full support of my partner Rachel (I couldn’t have done it without her) I went head first in to training and gave it everything. It came flooding back, motivation, determination and desire to win. Everything I had when I trained in the gym. After the boxing had finished I had something back and that’s what I used to get myself back in to the gym. Now I’m not advising every one to go out and get into a boxing ring before they get themselves in to the gym but what I am saying is look for that reason or that ‘thing’ to get you motivated and use it…

What helps me now is this - every time I train I head home, take off my top and look at those minor improvements to my body after a training session. This might sound bizarre or vain but it’s neither. This is my theory and advice I have given to others in the past. When there comes a time you question whether you can be arsed to train in the gym today only YOU can get yourself to go. If you see those all-important improvements, for me that’s enough to say I can’t let it slip now. If you don’t look for those improvements then you’ll feel neither here nor there about going. It’s you that has to get yourself back in the gym. No one else, know yourself and THAT will get you back to that all important gym session. Have fun, feel great and look good.

You can find out more about Team JBC athlete Darryl Taylor on his profile page here.