I was just born as a human being, and then I learned this whole business of who I am and whether I'm good or bad, or achievement or lack of knowledge.
I was just born as a human being, and then I learned this whole business of who I am and whether I'm good or bad, or achievement or lack of knowledge.
My name is Jackson Hein. I'm from Glenwood, Iowa, and I'm 19 years old.
I'm majoring in cybersecurity and digital crime at Western Iowa Tech Community College.
And the time I spent at college, after studying, I usually go to the gym, and that's when I get my training in.
And my hobbies are, like I said, lifting during my free time. I like studying.
I'm not really a big partier, and then spending time with family and friends is the other big ones.
My personal history starts my freshman year of high school when I started running.
I first started out competitively running in track and cross country, and I took those sports seriously, not until about my sophomore year.
And I really started getting dedicated to athleticism, and I really liked staying fit.
And I used to run long distance, and I trained for half marathons.
My track coach and long distance coach, they both told me that it's what you put in every day to make yourself better.
And I put those words, and I put them into my mind, and I say it every time I wake up in the morning.
When I ran a lot, it was a mental barrier to run further, run faster, run in a certain amount of time,
because I had to push my body to go that fast or go that far.
They told me that if you're afraid to fail, you've already failed yourself.
There's things that I've tried, and I have failed at, but there's some things that I've repeatedly failed until I succeeded.
And it started with my running career. There are so many things that I love doing,
but sometimes you just have a bad day, and you can't run, or you can't run what you wanted to do.
The same thing with training and weightlifting, it's changed my life for the positive.
It's helped me talk to people, it's helped myself esteem. I feel better about myself.
Across the country, the last two years, I devoted myself to being a team captain, and I got that position.
And being a team captain, it helped me build up younger athletes to be in the same position.
Wake up, have the discipline to make your bed, make yourself food, and have the discipline to go train every single day.
After my senior year, about midway through is when I started getting interested in natural bodybuilding.
Not natural bodybuilding per se at that time, but I started to go to the gym and lift weights about midway through my senior year.
The difference between bodybuilding and natural bodybuilding is that in natural bodybuilding, such as myself,
I was abstained from using performance-enhancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids.
The reason I chose natural bodybuilding is because I like to, for more I've gotten, or for more I've started,
I'm very proud of what I've built for myself. And I'm in the sport for no one else but myself.
I like making my body the way I want.
It wasn't until about two years later, after high school, when a couple of people in the gym, including the gym owner,
that I go to in my hometown, came up to me and asked if I would ever be interested in doing a show, a natural bodybuilding show.
And I gave some thought and I was about to register for my first show about two years after I started lifting.
I used YouTube to visualize new workout routines.
There's also the widely known Arnold Schwarzenegger's guide to natural or guide to bodybuilding.
It's his encyclopedia. That's a good foundation to start with for just bodybuilding in general.
And after that, I started looking out new books about nutrition and health and supplements and learning more about what I put into my body,
like what foods are good and breaking down the different types of nutrition and the science behind it to create a better,
just overall better health for the show in Denver, Colorado. It'll be my first show, but I'm dedicated to this sport because I like the way it makes me feel.
It's really helped me form new opportunities for myself.
I want to be in the gym throughout my whole life. I want to make sure that I'm able to train for as long as I can in my life.
Because I think that weightlifting just makes my life overall better. And I think I would encourage anyone to start weightlifting if they can.
It's something that'll benefit your life in every aspect.
If it comes along, I'll like to have a family of my own, but right now I'm just focused on getting through school and finding a career that'll also accommodate my life goals.
Thank you for watching.
