HellaGood is a vegan athlete and former pro soccer player who most of us will know because he started out with an attempt to run every day for a year (365 days) and has instead recently completed a run every day for 3 years (1096 days). He’s also one of the many amazing ambassadors onboard with Vivo Life, Gymshark and Whoop and has joined us for the latest episode of My Lockdown Workout.
How did you get into fitness?
Growing up, soccer was always my main source of fitness. As a kid, you don’t realize you’re getting a great workout while playing a sport but that’s definitely the reason I got into fitness as a whole. When I got to high school I saw athletes around me that were more muscular than me and I was motivated to make myself stronger. I’ve always been competitive by nature – sometimes a blessing and other times a curse, but I try to always see the positive in it! One of the things I liked least about soccer was running – GO FIGURE – and now it’s what I do every single day to stay in the best shape. Fitness has kept me healthy and happy my whole life and I am so grateful that I’ve been able to build my life around it.
What is one of your favourite lockdown workouts?
My favourite workouts are definitely ladder drills. Anything that involves explosive movements. With just one piece of equipment (and you can even do without it) you can do SO much to help with speed, agility, quickness, and get a great HIIT workout in. I like to do a mix of all different drills to make sure I’m targeting my fast-twitch muscles vs the slow-twitch muscles I work on during my long runs.
What’s your nutrition like when doing a lockdown workout?
For the most part, I like to do my daily runs first thing in the morning, fasted. The only thing I do beforehand is to drink a bunch of water. I don’t bring anything with me on my run and I think I’m able to go a very long time without drinking water because that’s what I got used to while playing soccer. When I get back from a run I like to have a smoothie (with my Vivo Life protein of course), or oatmeal. If I do a really long run I’ll usually drink some of the Vivo Life sustain or electrolyte drink to help rehydrate me fast.
Do you have any tips for those new to working out?
Take things slow and enjoy the process. When I started my run streak I told myself I just wanted to run for 10 minutes every day for 2 weeks. That sounds like an attainable goal right? Starting with a goal you really think you can attain is a great idea because when you do reach that goal you’ll start trusting yourself more with bigger goals. Slow and steady really does win the race! All about consistency and dedication. Don’t get down on yourself if you don’t get where you were hoping right away either. Just keep working hard and it will pay off.
You can follow HellahGood on Instagram (@hellahgood9) and YouTube (HellahGood).