For a large part of the population, a bodybuilder’s routine, which is based on weight training and restrictive diets, can be monotonous or exhausting. For Leonardo de Oliveira, however, sport is a “mission”. Blind, the athlete has participated in more than ten championships and faces the representation he carries: “I’m a mirror for many people. I can’t stop. That’s why I’m so dedicated.”
Also known as Leo Santo Forte, the bodybuilder remembers, in an interview with the column, when he realized he had this responsibility: “Once, a person called me and said that, when he saw me competing, he gave up on ‘doing something stupid’ with his own life. At that moment, I was a little discouraged with the result of a championship, but after that I understood that I have a mission.”
Santo Forte lost his vision after suffering a car accident that almost claimed his life. At the time, the massage therapist was already a regular bodybuilder, which meant he didn’t have “time to get bad”, since “the first thing” he did was “learn to walk with a cane just to go to the gym”.
He states that “the stage is just for you to show the results of your effort, but what I really love is training (…) I love bodybuilding”.
Challenges
One of the biggest difficulties related to this sport, for the practitioner, is the poses. He, however, uses his memories of when he could see to execute them. “I’ve been following bodybuilding for a long time, so I already knew the poses before I went blind. I rely a lot on those memories”, he highlights.
Assisted by trainer Hélio Henrique since the beginning of his career on stage, Santo Forte also points out that he uses “some exercises to improve” his “body awareness” and thanks everyone who helped him in this sense: “Pajé has also helped me a lot. There were even opponents who, on stage, helped me to fit one pose or another in the best way. That’s why I say that I’m not alone, that my team is great. There are a lot of people who inspire me.”
During training, the bodybuilder uses this body awareness to stimulate the muscles in the most efficient way possible. “What we sometimes call the connection between mind and muscle is much greater in them than in us,” says Henrique. The trainer guarantees that “some exercises are more difficult for them than for us, but they adapt. For example, a free squat. It is difficult to perform this exercise without looking in the mirror. But they can do it because they have a better perception than us”.
“I need to have exact awareness of that muscle to be able to activate it”, concludes Santo Forte.
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