Kai Greene: Bodybuilder

            Kai Greene was born July 12^th, 1975 in Brooklyn New York. He was a ward of the state due to a hostile home environment and throughout all of the moving around, according to his own written story on Kai-Greene.com, weight lifting was his one “refuge.” Not only is Kai good at weight lifting and shaping his own body, but he is an extremely talented artist with a pencil and paper. And in his grade school years he made the two coincide. His situation of living had a very strict lifestyle and would never have exposed him to bodybuilding competing at a young age, but at his school he was introduced to it. In his teens he started winning competitions against people in his age group and then eventually becoming the youngest pro and natural bodybuilder in the world at the age of 19.

            Eventually after unsuccessfully reaching the IFBB- International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness- Kai went back to school to work on his art career while still honing his physique to make a comeback. After five years of not competing Kai came back and made the stage as an official IFBB pro through a unanimous decision which started his path towards Mr. Olympia. In recent years Kai has repeatedly lost to Phil Heath but has not been deterred from winning at least one Olympia crown, even at the age of 41. Overcoming a difficult home life is no easy task and coming back on stage five years after being rejected takes guts and hardwork, Kai Greene is a very inspirational figure. 

Dorian Yates: Bodybuilder

            Dorian Yates was born in 1962 in England, and unlike the other fitness figures I’ve gone over, Yates found his love for the sport of bodybuilding in a much different way. As a teenager Yates was a bit of a trouble maker and undisciplined. This mind set landed him in a juvenile detention center for six months. Fortunately for Yates this was a wake-up call for him. He didn’t want to go to prison for the rest of his life repeating foolish and illegal activities. And while in the detention center he pledged to never return to a prison system as an inmate ever again, according to his biography on dorianyatesnutrition.com.

           Yates is argued to have some of the most impressively developed muscles to have ever walked the stage, but he only was able to acquire six Mr. Olympia titles due to injury. Something admirable about Yates is his resilience. In two different Mr. Olympia competitions that he won he had torn muscles which take months to heal. Call it dumb, but I call it dedication for something he loves, he still continued to train with some extraordinarily painful injuries. In 1994 it was his torn bicep muscles and in 1996 his torn triceps were the result to force his retirement. For anyone to flex on stage with torn muscles let alone do intense workouts to prepare for the most prestigious bodybuilding competition is nothing short of inspiring character. Dorian Yates is a symbol for people who are not happy with the direction their life took and proof that hard work can change its course.  

     

Ronnie Coleman: Bodybuilder

Ronnie Coleman, unlike the previous athletes, had a relatively normal upbringing minus being raised by a single mother. He excelled in sports and was always working out in the off season as well as during season. He also got an accounting degree at Grambling State University, but it wasn’t quite what Ronnie wanted in his life and eventually was unemployed and couldn’t find an accounting job once he moved to Texas, from his home town in Louisiana where he originally became unemployed.

Once in Texas, Ronnie had found that the police station in Dallas was hiring and he applied. His physical prowess and college experience got him an instant job. Once Ronnie was in the academy, according to Ron Harris at Goldenmuscles.com, his fellow officers noticed his ridiculous genetic stature in the station weight room and recommended him to meet the owner of Metroplex gym, Brian Dobson, who was in need of a workout partner. Progress that takes years even on drug use, Ronnie achieved in a matter of four months under Brian Dobson’s training. Bench pressing 500 pounds and leg pressing one ton, it was obvious Ronnie was going to be big.

Ronnie dominated the amateur competitions within a year of training and still clean of drug use. Being an underdog in most competitions he left the stage with almost a sure win. Ronnie is extremely significant in his rise to an eight time consecutive Mr. Olympia legend. Only one other bodybuilder has achieved eight wins ever before. In his first Olympia win, in 1998, Ronnie had much to live up to. Every contestant was there to be the successor to the legendary Dorian Yates, who finally stepped down. With much pressure and a surprising amount of ease Ronnie started his legacy of eight wins from 1998-2006 when he decided to step down after he tied for first with the longest lasting record. Ronnie Coleman is an inspiration because he took hold of opportunity and worked extremely hard to make it to the top. In many of his early competitions he was an underdog and came out with jaw dropping results. His titanic form won Mr. Olympia in 2005 at a lean 296 pounds. Ronnie is truly a dedicated figure to aspire and inspire hard work. 

Sylvester Stallone: Actor

            Sylvester Stallone was born on July sixth, 1946, in New York City, in a household with two parents who fought until divorce finally won. Stallone had a difficult time in school as a child and as an adolescent until he went to college for drama, which he eventually dropped out of to pursue acting. According to the Biography.com writing staff Sylvester had his script for the first Rocky film written but refused to sell it until he was permitted the lead role in the movie. So he was stuck doing mediocre work such as cleaning out Central Park Zoo cages and ushering movie theaters until he got the job through persistence. Which is one thing I find that most successful and inspiring extreme fitness athletes to have is persistence to work towards a goal others don’t believe they can achieve until they get it. Sylvester eventually won the role and grossed millions of dollars. He is not inspirational solely for his fitness but also his character. Not strongly educated, he became an actor, writer, producer, and director and has made a name for himself.

Sylvester Stallone has a rather different inspirational story to me than any other figure on a more personal level. I first saw Sylvester as Rocky in the Rocky Balboa series the summer before my sophomore year of High School. This time period was around when I had first started my fitness journey, and also when it had a period of no progress. 

That summer I was at a party for one of my lacrosse teammates who was moving away, he had a big house with quite a bit of acreage as well as a large area of woods. Long story told relatively short, my friends all wanted to go into the woods and once there I got jumped. I broke my hand in the fight and ended up being depressed since friends betrayed me, I couldn’t work out, and stayed inside most of every day. Then I saw the first Rocky movie on television. Maybe because he was actually a good boxer or because he worked out in his movies I aspired to be like him, rather than the depressing lazy kid on the couch. In his movies he was always at an extreme state of physical fitness and being unable to workout seeing him showed me how much I valued weight lifting and how big of a part in my life it plays to natural stress relief and confidence. Sylvester Stallone is essentially one of the biggest reasons I love working out.

           

Dwayne Johnson: Actor/Wrestler

Dwayne Johnson was born in 1972 from a generation of wrestlers. His grandfather was a professional wrestler and his father a wrestler. Dwayne was doing rather well for himself including not planning on following his father’s footsteps. He was making a name for himself as a college football player until he had a back injury that shattered his chances in the NFL. Without having professional opportunity in football he turned to wrestling to continue his family legacy. Dwayne Ascended through the WWF winning the WWF heavyweight title six times as well as the WWF tag team championship five times.

Dwayne started off in a relatively poor household even with his families wrestling background and was determined to make a name for himself. In interviews with Dwayne Johnson, as well as his own social media posts, he likes to emphasize his intense dedication to fitness. In the movies we see Dwayne act in as well as wrestling he is extraordinarily fit. According to Dwayne he wakes up at 4:00 am every day to work out before he goes on set for a movie for the rest of the day. He is no professional bodybuilder but his work ethic eclipses many in the industry and he applies much of his life to staying fit. Closely related to Arnold Schwarzenegger in the sense that his muscularity attributes to his acquisition of hardcore character acting roles, one example being Agent Hobbs from Fast and Furious six and seven.

Dwayne Johnson appears to be extremely dedicated to everything he does, whether it be fitness, acting, wrestling, or even reaching out to his fans in a genuine manner, he does everything 100%. It’s not just his muscular stature that makes Dwayne Johnson an inspirational figure, it’s his compassion to his fans, he doesn’t work just for money, but for the belief that he is giving his fans something they want. One of the hardest working men in the business of acting as well as a very well disciplined athlete, Dwayne Johnson is surely an iconic figure for the fitness world.