CANADIAN PHYSIQUE ALLIANCE JAN/FEB 2020 ISSUE | Page 53

After Nationals I hired a new coach as top 10 was no longer in
mind, it was an IFBB Pro Card.  I was hungry for the top spot.  We
made amazing progress week after week and kept it rolling with
the plan to take enough time off so that when my feet hit the
stage again I would be competitive in the chase for an IFBB Pro
Card. Previously I had gotten to a soft 230 lbs. in my off-seasons,
however this time around it was different. I was tipping the
scales around 250 lbs. and I was not lean but was by far the
leanest I had ever been in an off-season. I was a robot.
My life became engulfed around bodybuilding. You know what
they say – Eat, Train, Sleep, well that was it for me.It was decided
between my coach and I that the target show would be the 2019
Arnold Classic in Columbus Ohio, so all sights were set on this
date. July 17, 2018 – a typical day for me…or so I thought. I trained
clients in the morning then left to the other gym I worked out at
and met my coach for a leg workout. We went through the
motions of warming up, and on my last warmup set of squats I
felt light headed, so we racked the bar and took a few moments.
It faded so we went for one more quick set before getting into the
real work for the day.
Two days later, with my loved ones gathered around my bed
holding my hands, my eyes flickered, and I came out of a
medically induced coma I had been placed in after suffering a
major heart event on the floor of Bullpen Gym. We would later
learn that I had split the wall of my Aorta (main artery of heart)
into a V where the blood would clot, and my body would enter
what is called ventricular tachycardia or in layman’s terms – a
heart rhythm that does not support life.