On December 4th 2019 I made a post on the "Calgary Roast & Toast" facebook page which is a place for people to rant about negative experiences in Calgary or toast to people doing great things in our city.
I posted on their a "Toast" to two guys at World Health gym on my first visit there that messed me up for quite awhile. I was sitting on a exercise bike in front of two guys on a treadmill. I heard laughing behind me and of course being a very self conscious almost 400lb guy I immediately in my head assume they were mocking me. I then heard one of them refer to the back of my neck looking like a pack of sausages and laughing about it together. I left that day and didn't go back and it honestly messed me up for quite awhile afterwards. I didn't go back to the gym for almost a year later when I joined Fit4less and started my weightloss mission. I needed motivation to not quit so I decided to pledge to donate $1 for every pound I would lose to VETS Canada. A registered charity that assists struggling Veterans and gets homeless Veterans off the streets. On November 10th, 2019 I hit my goal and made my donation along with several others matching me we were able to donate $750 to Vets Canada.
The post on the Roast & Toast page received a lot of mostly positive comments and support from people all over Calgary. I even had about 20-30 people reach out to me in the same situation asking for tips and advice on how I lost the weight. That to me is one of the greatest things about posting my story on there.
ON Thursday December 5th I received a message on the post from Jonathan at Southpaw Boxing gym in Calgary. He told me that him and Warren saw my post and were inspired by my story. They assured me that it was like a family there and no judgement from any of their members and told me to come in and try it out. They gave me a one year membership and unlimited training for a year which blew my mind. There were no stipulations like "You have to post this on all your social media channels, you have to bring in X many members" or anything like that. It was just real.
On December 10th I went in to Southpaw not knowing what to expect.
I met Warren Grenier who gave me a tour and introduced me to some members. I met Steve Claggett on day one and his first words to me "Hey Champ lets do this" Steve is a professional fighter that is pretty highly ranked in Canada and that day he gave me a shout out on his Instagram calling me a champ. That simple gesture meant a lot to me after everything I had been through in my previous fails at some of the bigger gyms.
The next day I did my first Circuit class with Bryenna and it was rough. She is amazing and so
To most that may not seem like a big deal but I have half a muscle in my left leg from a stabbing in 1994 so I hadn't even tried to run in over 25 years. I looked at her and said "I don't know if I can do this" she just nodded and said "Just try" so I did and succeeded. The next class with her it wasn't one of the stations but I had adrenaline going and decided to run again. She gave me a belief in myself that I haven't had in a very long time.
At Southpaw they also have a 12 x 12 Russian Army Boot camp. I had seen the videos posted and honestly I was terrified to try it and that's when I met Anthony Johnson. The class is 12 stations of insane workouts, things I never in a million years thought I would be doing with very little breaks in between. After my first class it took me almost thirty minutes to catch my breathe but felt pretty good. For the next three days I couldn’t move that much, I was sore in places I didn’t know I had places but two days later I went back and it got a little easier.
After six weeks at Southpaw and trying various classes I started to eye the speed bag. I had seen people using it and decided to give it a try and having the coordination of a turnip I could only keep the thing going with one hand for about ten seconds at a time. My first attempt at the speedbag. A coworker said "You look like a little kitten playing with a ball of string in this video" I shrugged it off and it just let my fire to go and keep trying.
On my second day trying it (after the 12x12) Vlad Goldenstein who is one of the trainers at Southpaw say me struggling and came over to give me some pointers. It helped a lot and I could get the speedbag going for about twenty seconds now.
On January 28th I went in with a mission and I wasn’t leaving until I kept it going for forty seconds and not only did I achieve that goal I was on that thing for forty five minutes. Steve Clagget was sparing in the ring that day and also came over to me and said “Stop looking at it, close your eyes and listen to it” very wise advise and on my most recent speedbag day I kept it going for three minutes straight eight times with thirty second breaks. Other members also have stopped up and given me more tips so thank you Kyle Beattie. I also want to say thank you to Kenny Dusseault for always coming over to talk and offer tips even while he’s training other people.
Southpaw is my new home and a second family. This is not a sponsored post or advertisement it’s just some real feelings from someone who was mocked and ridiculed several times which in the end I used as motivation to keep going. I signed up for their Chump To Champ competition and will be having my first fight on April 25th. Am I nervous? A little but I know I’ll give it my all and make the Veterans and First Responders I’m doing this as a fundraiser for very proud.
If you’d like to know more about what I’m doing for Veterans & 1st Responders CLICK HERE. This is also a write up I did about my second chance at life and how I am trying to make the most of it.
Plain and simple Southpaw has changed my life, I have never had so much belief in myself. I am a different person at work and at home. I have more patience and it takes an awful lot to bother me these days. I used to have a lot of panic attacks & anxiety attacks from my incident in 1994 but those are gone. There is nothing like going to let off steam after a hectic day at work and I am hooked.
If you’re out there reading this and want to try it out please send me a message and you can join me at one of their classes for free. Trust me you will fall in love with this place and will be the best decision you ever made. Finally Thank you to all the members who have come up to me in the past seven weeks to introduce themselves after seeing my posts online.
Southpaw Boxing Gym - 6624 Centre St S – (587) 433-2218
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/southpawboxingyyc/
Twitter : https://twitter.com/DaveMurYYC
I want to send a huge shout out to Crackmacs for sharing my original posts throughout the year about my weight loss and also matching my donation to Vets Canada for year one. Also Howie`s Pizza in Calgary, The Canadian Hero and Kirk Lubinov for matching me as well. Crackmacs is also behind the Calgary Roast & Toast page and have been very supportive. Thank You
I want to send a huge shout out to Crackmacs for sharing my original posts throughout the year about my weight loss and also matching my donation to Vets Canada for year one. Also Howie`s Pizza in Calgary, The Canadian Hero and Kirk Lubinov for matching me as well. Crackmacs is also behind the Calgary Roast & Toast page and have been very supportive. Thank You
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| Click Here To Sponsor me for my fight for Veterans & 1st Responders |
