Pelham resident Brendan Wright has faced his share of adversity. Growing up with a number of developmental and neurological delays, including Tourette’s syndrome and an Autism Spectrum Disorder, the 22-Year-Old has battled social and educational challenges all his life. But, as the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger, and Brendan has taken this to heart by placing fourth in a recent Toronto bodybuilding competition.
It all began around four years ago. Brendan approached Mike Browne of Fonthill Fitness about starting a workout routine, something that would keep him active and get him out of the house more often. However, Brendan soon found himself swept up in bodybuilding, and within a couple of years his casual weightlifting had become intense sessions dedicated to crafting a better physique.
“I first started going to the gym only 3-4 times week,” he said. “Now I’m in the gym 6 times a week, sometimes seven times a week, for an hour and a half to two hours every day, sometimes twice a day.”
Brendan, who has also been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, has learned to channel his tendency for fixation and use it to help achieve his bodybuilding goals, says his mother, Leanne: “Sometimes he fixates on something, and he gives it 200%, and that’s what’s happened with the bodybuilding.”
The results are easy to see. Since he began serious training several year ago, Brendan has put on visible muscle mass, to the point where he felt comfortable competing for the first time in November. “I’ve been training to compete for two years to get to a point where I could use my physique onstage.”
And it’s not only muscles that Brendan has developed while training at the gym. Leanne, who attended the competition to cheer him on, noted that his confidence has soared, and trainer Mike Browne lauded Brendan’s leadership when working with other gym members with disabilities as part of a Community Living Welland Pelham program.
Brendan hopes he can leverage these skills, in conjunction with a little more education, into a full time career in the near future. “I want to be a personal trainer,” he said.
While Brendan recognizes his experiences and talents might help him build a niche training people with disabilities, as with his day-to-day life he does not want to let disabilities overshadow who he is as a person “I’d like to train people with disabilities, but I don’t want that to define me. I also want to be involved with typical gym members as well.”
Until then, Brendan will keep working on his physique. He plans to continue competing in bodybuilding competitions, and hopes to improve on last month’s fourth place finish in the near future.
