Bodybuilding Tragedy to Triumph

By Daniel Przyojski

My life long involvement in physical fitness has been, to say the least, an adventure. Having an ectomorph body type has always made it hard on me to be involved in the physical activities that I longed to participate in.  In grade school I could not play football for my size and stature were just too small.  In high school I wrestled in the 98 lb. class and weighed 96 lbs. soaking wet!  After high school the bodybuilding bug bit me, and I was hooked.  Having an ectomorph type physique, I could not have picked a harder sport to compete in.  After two fruitless years of following the mainstream bodybuilding routines, I developed a bodybuilding system for myself that slowly but surely added muscle mass and strength to my frail physique.  Three years later I competed in my first bodybuilding contest and won.  Many people now took notice of how I totally changed my physique, and I was soon thereafter writing up training and nutrition programs for people.  In 1986, I competed in another Bodybuilding Championship and placed third in my class.  It was obvious to me that the steroids in bodybuilding were going to make it even harder on a natural athlete like myself, but I decided I would keep training hard and be the best I could be. 

Then one year later tragedy struck. While working at a steel company, 10,000 lbs. of steel came crashing down on my right lower leg.  The tibia and fibula were totally broken in half with some of the bone missing, every bone in the foot was broken and most of the frontal muscle and skin tissue were torn off the leg.  Because a doctor in the emergency room that I arrived at knew of my physical conditioning, he convinced them not to amputate my lower leg right then; they would wait until I came out of the coma.  The doctors informed me we had about a 20% chance of saving the leg—and that amputation was, in their opinion, the path to take.  When decision time came, I decided I wanted to do everything possible to save my leg. Over the next two years I had 11 major operations and numerous minor operations to save my leg; knowing at any time the doctors would have to amputate if progress stopped or my life was threatened.  Several times they wanted to amputate, but I said no and saving my leg won out.  I was lucky I trained with heavy weights for four years as that type of lifting thickened my bones and made it possible to use my bones for the bone grafts. 

The hospital rehabilitation program I was put on to strengthen and recondition my leg was not for me.  I knew if I was going to reach my goal of competing again, I would have to be much more aggressive, persistent and inventive in my approach to training.  Against the doctors wishes I quit the hospital rehab and started my own rehabilitation.  Slow, steady and progressive was my approach, always inventing new exercises and moves to accommodate my limited ankle movement in my right lower leg.
My driving force for saving my leg was to compete again.  I did not care if I won the contest.  I just wanted to turn the tragedy into triumph by walking on stage again. In May of 2001 I did just that.  I entered and won the Masters Michigan Bodybuilding Contest.  I realized my goal of 14 years earlier.

I became an NFPT certified trainer in 1994.  The reason I chose the NFPT for my certification program was I liked their approach to sensible and progressive training, as well as a balanced nutrition and supplementation regimen.  I opened Power Health Personal Training in 1999 and started training people full time.

I have just finished writing a book (From Tragedy To Triumph), which details my struggles with the accident and my physical and emotional successes using a Bodybuilding lifestyle.

As hard and as difficult as my challenges have been through life, I know that without having been challenged physically and emotionally as I have been, I could not fully understand and relate to the physical as well as psychological needs of my clients.  My motto is “Have A Power Health Day” and thank God we live in a country that allows it.

Daniel Przyojski is a contributing writer for the World Natural Sports Organization WNSO.com, producers of the popular FAME World Event Series FAMEworldevents.com.  Dan will be returning to the competitive stage in the upcoming year to try his hand at turning Pro with WNSO!

For more information on Daniel Pryzyojski or the FAME World Event Series, visit the website or email: compete@WNSO.com .

Train Hard…Train Natural…Compete!