Against All Odds

HOW I BECAME A CHAMPION - Dan Smith IFBB Pro Bodybuilder

- Darren Nicholhurst

Having just witnessed the Winter Paralympics, it seemed such a shame there wasn’t a bodybuilding event. There is nobody that can take away the fact that to become a bodybuilder with any disability takes real determination and mental strength. What we seem to forget as non-disabled athletes is that we can rest our limbs that ache from training, allowing them to recover faster. But for athletes like IFBB Wheelchair Pro Dan Smith, it’s a very different situation. If he’s smashed a hardcore week of training and his shoulders, arms and chest are sore and weak, he still has to use those aching muscles simply just to move around. We forget that his arms and shoulders are continuously having to push his wheels around, only to go about his daily life.

In last month’s FLEX, we told how Dan suffered a horrific injury which led to paralysis and how he subsequently battled with mental illness. It was the bodybuilding thought process that kept him from giving in.

This month we learn how daily life as a wheelchair bodybuilder is significantly more complicated than that of a regular bodybuilder.