From progamer to fitness, health and performance enthusiast
Sports was always a part of my life, may it be esports, soccer or lifting.
Being competitive and trying to become better at everything I love is just part of my personality.
Until the age of 16 I was playing a lot of soccer, but I was already hooked to video games, especially one with a competitive kind of nature like “Unreal Tournament” or even “Pokémon”
I stopped playing soccer because of two accidents in a short amount of time!
I broke my arm while doing a stunt while snowboarding and my foot during parkour.
This was the main reason I stopped doing any physical sports for a while and focused all my energy into gaming.
At that time “World of Warcraft” was released and I spent the majority of my day playing “WoW”!
One of the highest ranks in the game, several “movies” of myself playing, that got really popular, and playing on the highest level the game had to offer… required a huge amount of time.
At one point I got sponsored and became a progamer and I was going to tournaments.
Sitting all day, no physical activity, convenience foods (pretty unhealthy) and reduced social contact had to pay its toll at some point.
It is alarming that nutrition and health plays no part in esports… because a good diet can make you an even better progamer!
As I reached my goal or peak, I realized, I cannot keep pushing any longer and have to change something, so I quit.
Now… I had a lot of time!
I went snowboarding again with my friends and my legs felt horrible, pain everywhere!
No, not after snowboarding! During snowboarding, because I didn`t have any muscles left in my legs.
I wasn´t fat or chubby, but not lean either… just an average dude without muscles
This was the tipping point for me! It made click in my head! I couldn`t even do any real sports with my friends anymore…
I started going to the gym!
With my newly found time to spare, I was researching about lifting and nutrition for hours each day!
I found a knowledegable resource and his advice sounded legit, so I began doing Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe… also GOMAD
“Not everything that shines is gold” – an old german saying…
So I injured my shoulder doing too much pushing volume and not enough pulling or prehab / mobility, which is missing in the program. It could be optimized.
I also put on a bit of fat because of the excess calories. So the search for the holy grail began…
Martin Berkhan`s Leangains was an eye opener for me back then. His methods of fasting for 16 hours and eating for 8 hours, while lifting heavy 3 days per week and hitting your macros and calories got me into this condition after lifting for around ~13months.
Several other fancy nutrition and workout routines appeared and I had great success with “5/3/1” and Carbbackloading.
This was also the time I got hooked into improving every other aspect of my life, like in a RPG (role playing game) where you try to increase every “stat” of your virtual character!
Until I had a terrible car accident that caused many health issue and I wasn`t able to train for a year.
During this period I was doing “all kinds” of research about nutrition, so today I would say it was a gift, because it got me into the field I truly care about!
Look at everything that happens in your life with the mindset: “What if it was a gift?”
“Why do we fall? So that we learn to pick ourselves up!“
I`m up again! Injury free and “living in the now”, looking forward
My principle today is Bushido “the way of the warrior” – living clean, efficient and minimalistic!
May it be in regards to diet, training, gaming, health or performance and I want to share my experiences on this journey!