I Stopped Chasing Size

I Stopped Chasing Size

Back in the day, when I was training my instrument more for vanity and how strong I was and trying to build size, especially after my friends at the time were all about putting size on, I was still trying and playing basketball at Westminster College. This is around 2011, in the spring, when I was headed to the gym with my boys. Still, at the time, I was trying to get big, get big arms, and lift 225 on the bench press for 15 reps or better. I was starting to see some changes, and at the time, my long frame began to shift into a different one. 

Look at this photo below. These are the remnants of the training I had that summer.  

I was so focused on adding muscle that I didn't work on my game as much as I needed to. My explosion wasn't there, and I had added weight, but I didn't fully connect the mind, body, and soul. Basketball is a different kind of sport, and I was adding weight like the community of friends I had around me, which was more of a vanity approach, but now it does have its purpose and has added some benefits. Still, with the perspective and insight I have now, I would have trained very differently: a lot of yoga, meditation, lengthening the muscles while adding muscle, more mindfulness, and greater cognitive awareness of the kind of strengthening or resistance training I was doing at the time. But this leads to my perspective now, when did it begin to shift? Well, it took some time for that to concur in my lifestyle because I was done with basketball a few months after the picture you see above (we will tap into that experience in a different Blogcage that will really be dark and light because it opened up my entire experience and led to me where I am today).

I kept this lifting style for another eight years or so, during which I began to pursue a different career path. I began to post videos on YouTube of myself training. I began training clients and inspired many people to change their lives. It even got bigger for me because I was able to help transform and inspire many people toward a better lifestyle. I began to really focus on the size and getting stronger and bigger. Yes, I felt AMAZING, YES, it was awesome to be big and strong and BIGGER and really be able to lift HEAVY WEIGHTS, wasn't it? I felt good, but my body was no longer as flexible. It was harder for me to dunk the basketball because I shortened my muscles instead of keeping them lengthened. It really was weird because, yes, I had the arm size and yes, I had some power, wasn't me for some reason, and it fit my character  "DieselDonlow" lol. 

So this kept going as I moved through movie sets, commercials, acting, and all kinds of things related to and woven into that world. I began not to lift as often as I once did, and I began to allow myself not to be in that alignment anymore, so when you have all that muscle, where does it go? I started to see that I wasn't in the greatest shape or looking my best, but I am still thinking the opposite. 

So what shifted it? When did I stop CHASING the SIZE? It was when my daughter was born. Something that came to me was to start YOGA. Yoga? Really? It was like a calling, and I listened to it. When my daughter was born in 2020, I began to do YOGA in her room every day, and my muscles were so tight it was hard to do a forward fold or sit cross-legged. But those days turned from 1 to 2, then to 10, and I began to notice a shift in my body. I began to connect to my body, mind, and soul. I began to feel the body connect with my entire body. Yoga honestly opened my entire being because it wasnt me chasing anything or trying to became stronger but I began to focus on the breath and my body I can hear and sense I began to notice my other body parts again it was an interesting perspective because things begin to evolve as I got into this training I was able to find some inspiration into this I began to tap into mediation, breath work, mindfulness practices, and other techniques where I will break down and another blog cage because it requires much more detail and me breaking down different muses and stories that helped me in that department in my life. 

Pilates WAS HUGE for me in the summer of 2025. I was going to this reformer class out in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. Why so far? I love traveling, and it was once fun to get out of the area and into a different environment to learn. I began to really stretch my body open and lengthened it to another level, which a reformer class brings you, and below I will show you a little teaser. 

As you see in the video, Pilates allows you to move your body in ways I could never have imagined before. I incorporated a lot of what I learned from one of my teachers, who taught me how to breathe better. In Pilates, it is important to use your breath. It helps open up the body and allows you to move with ease in the different exercises. My drive out to Hermitage helped me build discipline because class started at 5 am every day. 

The base of this story is that you never know how things could shape you and how the journey could evolve. I will continue this story one day. There are little gaps in there that may have you thinking and pondering, but the answers can and are revealed to you as you continue reading these different tales. 

It is within you. 

Namaste.