martes, 12 de diciembre de 2023

Freddy Pozo’s 7 big challenges

This athlete reveals what made him to hold on a sport career despite the obstacles.


 

 

All photographs provided by Freddy Pozo.

 

Freddy Daniel Pozo Guerrero was born in Piura City, Peru, on October 7th, 1982.  When he still studied at San Miguel School, in this city, he premiered as an athlete in 1994 School Games. He was recruited because of his talent into the so-called Achievement Poles promoted by Cuban trainers.

 







In 1997, he classified to a Peruvian Northern tournament. He got a place that same year for a nationwide’s else.

 

Since 1999, he began to train with Jose Bonilla Cortez. The next year, he won marathons in Piura City, Trujillo (both in Peru), and Macará (Ecuador). His achievement as a top athlete allowed him to enter directly the university in Trujillo, in 2001, where he highlighted in the 5K, 10K pedestrian tests, while he got high scores  in lane – 800 meters, 1500 meters tests.

 

When his sport career was rising, the first difficulty came in. An injury forced him to break it all. He lost the scholarship.

 

He had to return to Piura where he entered another university. His body seemed to react again as much as he was an athletics university champion between 2005 and 2007. One of his major achievements was winning in Cuenca (Ecuador) amid his category.  He covered 44.4 miles  in 6 hours.

 

Despite he was the Best Piurano in Piura’s Half Marathon, he decided to leave the sport and focus in his studies in 2008. Then, he faced his second big difficulty. He looked for sponsors but no one granted him. “Sports are not profitable because you have  to train 6 daily hours,” he tells. Aside the time, he might invest in feeding and supplements. There was no money.

 

This decision carried him a third difficulty. Freddy is 5.5 feet. In 2008, he was 123 lbs. Breaking suddenly made him to increase 88 lbs, slightly .

 

A fourth difficulty returned him to athletics but not in a competitive level. His mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2016. In the beginning, she survived it, and the physical activity was part of the treatment. Freddy turned her coach.

 

He lived a fifth difficulty with his mother. An apparent medical negligence caused her to pass away in 2019.

 

Freddy sheltered in the sport. He went out running in the mornings, he went to the gym at nights, beginning himself in Olympic disciplinepowerlifting, very different to bodybuilding, because the first one addresses to hold on a weight in the air the most time in the less number of moves as possible, the second one basically addresses to model the muscles.

 







“Many people remembered me from my time as an athlete,” Freddy comments.

 

It was when the sixth difficulty came in. Somebody used a pesticide to poison one of his colleagues. Somehow, Freddy got poisoned. His central nervous system was under attack causing him a temporary paralysis that has turned a fibromyalgia –defined by Mayo Clinic as generalized muscular pain and sensitiveness—through the years.

 

In freddy’s case, it turned him off some flexibility. As the physical therapies were very expensive, he had to learn applying them. Even, he opened a specialized center but he might close it because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Here we have the seventh difficulty.

 

During the lockdown, he studied handball and volleyball which he graduated as a technician. The interesting is he never has done any of them in his lifetime. “I’m a little self-taught,” he affirms. “What I have learned was by my own.”

 

Up to this date, Freddy Pozo coaches handball teams in sub-13 and sub-17 categories, he’s 135 lbs, he believes the sport helped him to overcome every difficulty. It rejuvenated him,even: “The training and the lifestyle make me looking like a 27-year-old dude,” he assures.

 







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Las siete grandes pruebas de Freddy Pozo

Este atleta revela qué lo hizo sostener una carrera deportiva a pesar de los obstáculos.

 

 

Todas las fotografías del archivo de Freddy Pozo.

 

Freddy Daniel Pozo Guerrero nació en la Ciudad de Piura, Perú, el 7 de octubre de 1982. Cuando todavía estudiaba en el colegio san Miguel de esta ciudad, debutó como atleta en los Juegos escolares de 1994. Por su talento, fue reclutado dentro de los llamados Polos de desarrollo promovidos por entrenadores cubanos.

 







en 1997, clasificó a un torneo a nivel del norte peruano, y ese mismo año logró un cupo para otro de alcance nacional.

 

A partir de 1999, comenzó a entrenar con José Bonilla Cortez. Para el año siguiente,  ganó las maratones de Ciudad de Piura, de Trujillo (ambas en Perú), y de Macará (Ecuador). Sus logros como deportista calificado le permitieron ingreso directo a una universidad en Trujillo, en 2001, donde destacó en las pruebas pedestres de 5K  y 10K, mientras que en pista obtuvo lugares destacados en las pruebas de 800 metros y 1500 metros.

 

Cuando su carrera deportiva iba en ascenso, llegó la primera dificultad. Una lesión lo obligó a detenerlo todo. Le quitaron la beca.

 

Tuvo que regresar a Piura donde ingresó a otra universidad. El cuerpo pareció responderle de nuevo al punto que fue campeón universitario de atletismo entre 2005 y 2007. Uno de sus mayores logros fue ganar en Cuenca (Ecuador) dentro de su categoría: acumuló 71,5 km en 6 horas.

 

A pesar que ese año se colocó como el Mejor Piurano en la Media Maratón de Piura, en 2008 decidió dejar el deporte y concentrarse en sus estudios. Enfrentaba su segunda gran dificultad. Buscó auspicios, pero nadie se los otorgó: “el deporte no es rentable porque tienes que entrenar seis horas diarias”, cuenta, y aparte del tiempo, hay que invertir en alimentación y suplementos. El dinero era lo que faltaba.

 

Esta decisión le acarreó una tercera dificultad. Freddy mide 1 m 66 cm. En 2008 pesaba 56 kg. Frenar de golpe lo hizo aumentar paulatinamente 40 kg.

 

Una cuarta dificultad lo regresó al atletismo aunque no a nivel competitivo. Su madre fue diagnosticada con cáncer, en 2016. Inicialmente ella lo sobrevivió, y parte del tratamiento fue la actividad física. Freddy se convirtió en su entrenador.

 

Junto a su madre vivió una quinta dificultad. Una aparente negligencia médica provocó que ella falleciera en 2019.

 

Freddy se refugió en el deporte. Por las mañanas salía a correr y por las noches iba al gimnasio donde se inició en una disciplina olímpica: el levantamiento de potencia, muy diferente al fisicoculturismo, porque mientras en el primero se busca sostener un peso en el aire la mayor parte del tiempo con la menor cantidad de impulsos, en el segundo básicamente se modelan los músculos.

 







“Mucha gente me recordaba por mi época de deportista,” comenta Freddy.

 

Fue cuando llegó la sexta dificultad. Alguien usó un pesticida para envenenar a un colega suyo. Por alguna razón, Freddy resultó envenenado. Su sistema nervioso central fue atacado provocándole una parálisis temporal que con los años se ha convertido en una fibromialgia, definida por la Clínica Mayo como “dolor y sensibilidad muscular generalizada”.

 

En el caso de Freddy, le quitó flexibilidad. Como las fisioterapias le costaban muy caro, él tuvo que aprender a practicárselas. Hasta abrió un centro especializado, pero lo debió cerrar debido a la pandemia de la Covid-19. He aquí la séptima dificultad.

 

Durante el encierro, estudió balonmano y voleibol, de los que se graduó como técnico. Lo interesante es que nunca en su vida los había practicado. “soy un poco autodidacta”, afirma. “Lo que he aprendido es por mi propia cuenta”.

 

A la fecha, Freddy Pozo entrena a equipos de balonmano en las categorías sub13 y sub17, pesa 75 kg, y cree que el deporte lo ayudó a superar cada dificultad; incluso lo ha rejuvenecido: “El entrenamiento y el estilo de vida me hacen ver como un chico de 27 años”, asegura.

 







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lunes, 4 de septiembre de 2023

Go training sustainable in time!

Peruvian host Elías Velasco shows us what the fitness gave him but from an alternate perspective.

 





Photos by
Jair Tacza Herrera, special to ChulucanasGym. Special gratitude to Legion Fitness Gym (Lima) for allowing us to shot the star of this entry during his training session.

 




In 2007 Mister Lima, 2007 Mister Summer, and 2007 Mister Peru (Photos from
Elías Velasco’s archive).

 

“I live sustainable in time inside-to-outside,” Elías Velasco (Lima, Peru, November 21st, 1974) affirms. Almost turning 49 years old (at the time this entry is posted), the director, creator, and host of Café & Conversa, a Spanish-language streaming TV talk-show, looks like an amazing body, that highlights from other guys of his generation.

 

Elías began in bodybuilding in 1993 like a psychological therapy. A love disappointment, a dismissal in a job opportunity, and a good friend were the blasting recipe that turned a thin guy, 5.6 feet, 119 lbs, into a128-pound athlete in the lapse of one year.

 

In 2004, he studied and specialized in fitness. Later, in 2007, he started contesting  in Mister Summer, in Lima, what he wan. Then, Mister Lima selective came on, what he reached the second place in classic bodybuilding category (137 lbs, 7% body fat). Ultimately, in the same category, he got a third place in Mister Peru (141 lbs, 10% body fat).

 





Bringing down, then being reborning

He couldn’t go ahead in the competitive field because he took anabolics that activated a bone disease that reduced him to 108 lbs. elías depressed so much that he almost committed suicide.

 

In 2008, when he healed in body and mind, he returned to the gym  but another thinking. He never left it from that moment on, restoring his physique – his inner peace, over all.

 

Inclusive, he was summoned to work as an artistic model  in three times, even, between that year and 2012. Eventually, he played the role again for one of his shows in 2023 – he continued to look like amazing. At this entry closed, Elías have scheduled to feature his body for another  art exposition. Meanwhile, the pictures we present you here, all were produced exclusively for ChulucanasGym.

 





A new philosophy

“The humankind has built pretty fragile, easy-to-corrupt personal issues in time because it don’t know itself, it don’t train inside neither,” elías says to ChulucanasGym.

 

“People vainly live decorating the front yard in their lives, but  not generating substantial changes because they hardly negotiate and deal for living collectively  healthy,” he adds.

 

Elías Velasco affirms the main benefit of training sustainably in time is having found the balance between body and mind, at least speaking by himself.

 





The power of mind

Training with emotional intelligence, having reached living inside-to-outside seem to be the break point, in his words.

 

“Because you achieve training and empowering yourself plenty finding harmony, balance, fullness, and a pretty mighty and clean decision power  to live in health connected to the cosmos, so you apply it into your daily life, then you will look like strong inside and outside,” he advises.

 

Additionally, Elías has found his vocation working in the media, and he is preparing more and more each time, learning from the guests to his TV show. “We’re what we decide,” he states.

 

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