Edwin Alicea
I talk to a lot of people via the Garage Gym Competition. It is honestly my favorite part. I’m an introvert by nature, but I love connecting and hearing peoples stories. What continues to make me incredibly grateful is seeing how honest people are with me about their journey. Their struggles, their bumps and bruises, every last nasty detail. What is even cooler is that people share how lifting, and sometimes the GGC, has helped them over those hurdles to a place they never thought possible. Today we talk to Edwin, who has a story many can relate to. Growing up unhealthy, picked on, and finding excuses to avoid change … but he took control and made a change. Even when people doubted him, tossed out the “do you even lift bro?”, and more. He kept his head down, focused on himself, his goals, and moving forward. EA, as he goes by, is a man on a mission.
Alright EA, tell us a little about yourself.
I’m not really sure how to start this off, but I wanted to write this because I wanted to share my experience with the Garage Gym Competition to others. After talking with Joe, he asked me if I’d be willing to share my experience on paper and I gladly accepted even though I feel like I’m terrible at writing. I feel like I’m terrible at a lot of things. My entire life I’ve struggled with this, I’ve never been happy with who I was and I was too scared to make any changes.
Where did lifting come into your life?
I was caught in a vicious cycle until 5 years ago when I decided to make a change. I was done not being who I wanted to be. I was done giving myself excuses so I could avoid the pain that comes with change. I was 120lbs at 23 years old and extremely unhealthy. A past surgery on my heart, allowed me to give myself an excuse to not care about my physical fitness, even though I really did. That and being fearful of the judgement I would receive at the gym.
But I chose to change all that, I wanted Fitness to be apart of my lifestyle. I was done being sick, but to do that I needed to make some major changes in my routine. Over time I made those changes, and in order to avoid people I’d go to the gym at 4am to get a workout in.
How did you start your garage gym?
Eventually, I wanted to have my own garage gym so I could save myself time, and fortunately I saved enough money to put one together. My drive and love for powerlifting grew but I hadn’t fully faced my fears of lifting in person. Often when I was younger, I was ridiculed because of my size. Often bullied through school and even now that I’m 29 years old I still have people who ask me if I’m ever going to hit the gym. Little did anyone know I had been lifting for 5 years, but that’s ok because I started this because I had a desire to change myself, to embrace the pain and understand that I can’t allow others to stop me from growing. I began to have aspirations to try and compete one day but was too afraid to even try…
In comes the GGC
… And in comes Joe with his Garage Gym Competition page. A good friend of mine José Urbina (Hoz1lla) introduced me to the page and told me how the community he had built was really a judgment free zone online where anyone could compete, and lift any amount of weight.
I was really excited to finally be able to find a great community like the GCC, because it was everything I wanted and the fact that I could do it from my home gym took away a lot of fears that I had.
In fact, the support I received for participating was phenomenal and helped me conquer my fears leading me to try out a local competition for fun.
I’m really grateful to what the GCC stands for and how it’s helped me to conquer my fears.
Got any advice for those considering the GGC?
My message to any late bloomers out there who are too anxious, nervous or even fearful to try a competition, just try the GCC. It’s a great way to introduce you to the community that’s out there and to people who help you embrace your pain, and help you to embrace yourself.
Thanks to the GCC I was able to pull over a 1,000lb total for the first time ever!
And I look forward to many more.
Thanks again Joe!
