{"id":3135,"date":"2019-09-30T20:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T20:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/blog\/overcoming-injury-hes-stronger-ever\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T19:48:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T19:48:53","slug":"overcoming-injury-hes-stronger-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/blog\/overcoming-injury-hes-stronger-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"After Overcoming an Injury, He\u2019s Stronger Than Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kwabena Miller, a 44-year-old transit driver in Knoxville, Tennessee, has always been enthusiastic about his fitness. He prides himself on being a sharp dresser and a regular gym-goer. But staying in shape hasn\u2019t always been easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last October, a driver ran a stop sign and plowed into the side of Kwabena\u2019s van. The door crumpled into his arm and shoulder. The doctor put Kwabena\u2019s arm in a sling and told him to stop going to the gym for three months. Kwabena went on medical leave from his job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those three months were difficult. He became a couch potato, fell into bad eating habits and lost a sense of structure in his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how I got fat,\u201d Kwabena says. His body fat percentage grew to 24 percent, which is on the high end of the American Council on Exercise\u2019s<\/strong> <\/a>acceptable range for men. He also had to go on blood pressure medication. \u201cI had fallen so hard. I didn\u2019t have any wind. I didn\u2019t have any motivation. I was in a rut.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily for Kwabena, his doctor allowed him to return to the gym the last week of December \u2014 just when the Gold\u2019s Gym Challenge<\/strong><\/a><\/b> was about to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I saw the 12-week Challenge, I knew it was the motivation I needed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becoming a superhero<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ever since he was a kid, Kwabena has been inspired by superheroes like He-Man, Superman and the Hulk. When he went back into the gym last January, those muscle men were on his mind. \u201cNow I get to aspire to be that,\u201d he recalls thinking. \u201cI want to be the \u2018Super Me.\u2019\u201d He wanted to win the Gold\u2019s Gym Challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exercising after injury isn\u2019t easy, though. For the first time in his life, Kwabena got a personal trainer, Byron Gillespie, and they created a fitness plan. \u201cThere\u2019s no way you can achieve goals without commitment and discipline,\u201d Kwabena says. \u201cThis taught me discipline on a whole other level. Pushing yourself, exhausting yourself physically \u2014 it goes into every aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On most days, he went to the gym twice a day. Strength training after 40 has its own particular challenges: Muscles are more vulnerable to injury and can take longer to recover<\/strong><\/a><\/b>, for example. Gillespie showed him how to split workouts \u2014 working out different muscle groups at different times \u2014 and use variation to avoid plateaus<\/strong><\/a><\/b>. Kwabena also attended Gold\u2019s Gym group classes. Although he says they \u201ckicked my butt,\u201d he thrived in part because of the support of other gym-goers. \u201cThey\u2019re people I can trust,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s priceless. I know I\u2019m with good people when I\u2019m at the gym.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwabena had been around the other people in the gym before, but once he got more serious, they all started to learn about each another and trade workout knowledge. The support helped Kwabena get better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of 12 weeks, Kwabena lost 52.2 pounds and 14 percent of his body fat. He was able to stop taking his blood pressure medicine and could do sprints. He became his own superhero, and he was crowned the 2019 Gold\u2019s Gym Challenge overall male winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he flew to Las Vegas to be honored at the annual Gold\u2019s Gym\u2019s Global Convention, a few of his gym friends joined him to celebrate. \u201cThere\u2019s no way I could have trained that hard on my own,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It\u2019s bigger than me\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Raised in a rough neighborhood in Knoxville, Kwabena has been through difficult phases of his life with drugs and gangs. But he has worked toward becoming a positive force. He helped organize a program through local churches to help young people who were caught up in gang violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that he\u2019s a Gold\u2019s Gym Challenge winner, he feels he has a larger platform to spread a positive message and be a model for others looking to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Challenge helped me create a vision and showed me how to move toward that vision,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you do something positive, you also affect other people. It\u2019s bigger than me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That impact has spread to his coworkers, who noticed his transformation. He\u2019s been encouraging them to work on their own fitness, and one coworker, Shaun Boland, has started working out and has lost 10 pounds. \u201cI needed to make some changes, and he\u2019s got me going to the gym,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwabena is now competing in men\u2019s physique contests around the country. The next stage for him: natural bodybuilding competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for the Challenge, I never would\u2019ve known I could do this,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like a continuation of the Challenge: making fitness a lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get more inspiration and exercise tips:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Father Celebrates Better Health With Family and Followers<\/strong><\/a><\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When the Journey Gets Tough, Follow These Tips<\/strong><\/a><\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ask the Experts: The Most Effective Cardio Strategies to Achieve Your Goals<\/strong><\/a><\/b><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<p>Kwabena Miller, a 44-year-old transit driver in Knoxville, Tennessee, has always been enthusiastic about his fitness. He prides himself on being a sharp dresser and a regular gym-goer. But staying in shape hasn\u2019t always been easy. Last October, a driver ran a stop sign and plowed into the side of Kwabena\u2019s van. The door crumpled […]<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":6237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[152,153,103,146,154,119,155],"class_list":["post-3135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-body-transformation","tag-challenge-winner","tag-community","tag-golds-gym-challenge","tag-personal-trainer","tag-transformation","tag-weight-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8034,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions\/8034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goldsgym.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}