Česky
On social media you have a picture of you when you were a kid and underneath is a picture of you as a champion. In both cases, in a classic bodybuilding stance. Does that mean you've been into weight training since you were a kid?
I've done a number of sports since I was a kid, whether it was football, athletics or martial arts, but bodybuilding wasn't explicitly a sport back then. It didn't win me over until I was in my twenties when I started working out. What I really liked about it, and like, was the aesthetics of the body and working with it. You could say it's a kind of living sculpture. During the workouts, you assess that it needs a little more here, a little less there, and you work with what you have and what you build up. Then in bodybuilding you're on your own, so you can only possibly mess it up yourself (laughs).
Or maybe win the Czech National Championships.
That was my dream come true. Just since I was a kid I always wanted to achieve something. Thanks to circumstances, it turned out that it could be in bodybuilding. I set out to become the best in the country and I succeeded four years ago in Frenštát po Radhoštěm in the category up to 80 kilograms. But it was a long way to go. For example, the first competitions were a total fiasco. But I didn't get discouraged and kept working on myself. Bodybuilding is not just about working hard in the gym, it's also about personal discipline. This was true several times over when I was training alone in the beginning. But you can work out well over time. With experience, I gradually picked up advice from other athletes, including Pavel Čvančara, the fitness coach of the national football team. Then I took a coaching course myself and started to pass on my knowledge.
Who in bodybuilding did you look to for inspiration?
The initial motivation was in various magazines, then of course it would be Arnold Schwarzenegger - probably like several million other people (smile). However, in my case, it was mainly the American bodybuilder Jay Cutler who drew me to bodybuilding, not only from a competition point of view, but also from a personal life.
I imagine it's not easy to learn bodybuilding stances perfectly. Is it?
It sure is. It's a full-body job. For example, when you're posing biceps, you also have to work your abs correctly and firm them up, have your thighs retracted and your back stretched. So it looks like it's nothing, but I would say it's a lot harder than just lifting weights. Again, it's about training hard.
You're also a fitness trainer privately. So I'm sure it happens to you too that people quit exercising quickly. What are the reasons?
I'm often approached by overweight people or moms after giving birth who want to get back in shape. Then there are people who, on the other hand, need to gain weight and get stronger. As I've already indicated bodybuilding is a lot about self-discipline, both in the gym and in nutrition. Similarly, this is true with fitness. So the major demotivation is often a lack of patience, because clients think that results will come in a month. They don't, it's a long run, and actually it's ideal if you think of going to the gym as a lifestyle. Moreover, with exercise, you will achieve the desired results when you set a goal and go for it firmly. Every day at the gym is better - you're stronger and the extra pounds come off, even though you may not see it yet. That's how you gradually reach that goal.
Please tell us about your job at our hospital.
Most often you will find me in the large gym of the Jan Calty Rehabilitation Center. I work with patients who are usually coming out of knee or hip surgery and help them get moving. This includes exercises that focus on stretching and stretching the whole body. Another setting where I work with clients is the pool. The water provides natural resistance while reducing stress on the joints, which is ideal for knee rehabilitation, for example. Because there are also patients who move very quickly in rehab, where they get significantly stronger and their range of motion is also noticeably restored, in these cases it is a good idea to switch to machines and weights. So, as in my private practice, I try to motivate them to continue with the exercises and to adopt them naturally after they leave our facility.
