BRYAN RIVERA 
"It all started by simply playing a game called “Hulk Ultimate destruction” at the age of 5 on the GameCube. From that point I started to become a fan of everything superhero and monster related, that would be Dragon Ball Z, Godzillla, Marvel, DC, Transformers, stuff like that. But it was around my college freshman year was when I really wanted to be strong like my favorite fictional characters like Vegeta, Goku, Godzilla, King Kong, Optimus Prime, and Hulk. That gave birth to my powerlifting training. Months, and then a year, and then two years. I started seeing real progress, for the first time in my life I felt I was great at something.
When it comes to being someone who only had one win under his belt for high school wrestling, and barely any playtime or scoring in high school lacrosse or football, this gym success meant the world to me. Finally I realized what greatness I was really capable of. And now this year I also am committed to strongman training, and already am seeing great results, I mean getting an 800 lb tire for 6 flips sound pretty darn satisfying to me. And every day, all days I ever worked out is the time of the day where I really get to sit back and genuinely have fun.
What I mean by having fun is that I feel like I literally travel back in time to my childhood every time I work out. What I mean is that the only difference between me as a 5-13 year old kid playing his favorite video games and watching his favorite movies and me working out now, is that before I was the dude playing the game or watching the movie, and now I literally feel like I am all the video game characters I have played as and all movie characters I have watched in action merged into one warrior everytime I work out. Everytime I workout I feel like am literally Vegeta, Goku, Hulk, Godzilla or Optimus Prime in action. I feel like am in a video game as a video game character instead of playing outside a tv with a remote every time I workout, and the same goes for feeling like a badass movie character in a movie instead of watching the movie outside the tv. And a fun fact about me, if you happen to come across me working out, with heavy tire flips, atlas stones, yolk walks, deadlifts or anything like that, there is a 95% chance that if you look at my phone, the YouTube video that am listening to either is a dragon ball z video of Goku, Vegeta, or another character being a badass, Godzilla beating up a three headed dragon, Optimus Prime beating up deceptions, or King Kong beating up dinosaurs, or any video like these. And those same videos are exactly what pushes to surpass my limits in the first place.
Even though am already so damn strong, I want more, I don’t want to be just strong, I want to somehow become a 1 percenter among strength based gym rats. After much research on the hardest lifts that I can do with a barbell, I decided to incorporate a different variety of lifts that even though their not that common, their very challenging. That’s what I love to do, challenge myself, push myself beyond my comfort zone, trying things that not many others would do, try to create the best underdog story in my life possible.
I Am already pretty strong now, imagine how strong I’ll become 10 years into the future with everything that am training on right now. I Am enjoying what am doing and that’s what is most important, and that’s exactly what will keep me going in the long run. And of course, especially with a real professional strongman that trains in my gym and who recently broke the world record axel push press, that motivated me more than ever to become something legendary just like him, who knows how far my strongman career will go, but it’s a journey am excited to be in.
Another big inspiration of mine is Jujimufu, an Instagram celebrity who is famous for extremely unusual but also downright amazing feats of strength, him and a few other beasts like him are the ones who inspired me to try and be great on as many lifts as possible.What my words of advice would be. DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY!!! See what works for you and what makes you happy and stick to that stuff. Never let haters control your actions because they just trying to make you feel insecure, the fact that your great at something difficult and their not makes them feel insecure, so those haters try to make you how they feel, so show your not listening to them and do your thing! Even if something has a risk to it, remember that everything you do will always have a risk no matter what, but there also will be a benefit too.As long as you enjoy the process no matter what are the risks and setbacks that you run into, that’s what is important.
No matter what setbacks or injuries you might face in heavy lifting or in sports, nothing can stop you if you having a burning passion for what you love. No one should tell you what you should with your life, it’s your life and your the one who should decide what’s best for you. And remember that many are gonna judge you no matter what you do, which is another reason why you should do whatever you want. So yes, it doesn’t matter what your past is, sure for a lot of you your story may not have such a happy begin when it comes to fitness or sports just like me.
Whether if it’s being the scrawniest kid in high school, the worst at a particular sport in high school or being the weakest in the weight vroom during high school football. Pasts like those don’t matter, what matters is the rest of your story, who you choose to be. That means you are the one who chooses to work hard in a particular activity for greatness no matter how many failures happened in the past. Whether that be training to become the best in powerlifting, strongman, Olympic weightlifting, boxing, mma, or anything.
There’s many underdog and late bloomer stories out there, so why can’t the next one be any of you or me. I don’t know about of any you, but when it comes to starting from the bottom, having only win in high school wrestling, one goal in high school lacrosse and only playing varsity at senior year, barely having play time in football with no touchdowns, and basically being one of the worst athletes in all sports I have played, to going all the way to the top 1% of strength athletes by mastering at least 50 lifts and possibly more, there’s the lifts am doing for powerlifting, strongman, Olympic weightlifting, weighted pull ups and dips, and a ton of other lifts that am working on.
If I manage to accomplish all of this, I don’t know about y’all, but I believe this would be an amazing underdog story worth being proud of when it finally comes. But for now, all I can do is to work for it for all the years to come!!"
