GIDEON CONNELLY: CANCEL YOUR CHEAT DAY
At age 21, a motorcycle accident took most of Gideon Connelly’s left leg. His foot was severed at the Achilles tendon, and his knee and right arm were snapped in half.
That was in 2011. Today, nothing stops Gideon. He’s an American National Guard staff sergeant and an entrepreneur. With a prosthetic leg, he continues to train for track-and-field events, and has an impressive post-accident ability to reach finish lines.
In 2014, at the Warrior Games in Colorado Springs, he ran the 200-meter dash in 29.4 seconds. At the Invictus Games in 2016, he ran 100 meters in 13.46 seconds, and 27.48 seconds in the 200-meter competition. At the 2016 Paralympic Nationals, he ran 12.9 seconds in 100 meters and in the 200-meter race, he ran 27.2 seconds.
He’s originally from Baltimore and currently living in Tampa, but other destinations and plans await. When Gideon runs, he carries along with him a genuine sense of optimism and determination.
He also has a head full of fitness and nutrition knowledge that he can share with us. This vital information plugs into your plans for rocking your underwear and swimwear.
“I love running. I’m a runner. That’s what I do,” Gideon says. “I usually don’t have to throw cardio into my workouts because I’m running regularly. I spend three-to four-days a week in the gym – I make sure I’m hitting that. On the weekends, I’ll try to hit the body parts I haven’t hit. I’ve got to keep myself centered around that to keep myself accountable to the things I am doing. And not go overboard on the cheap meals.”
Ah, those cheap-meal temptations that always seem to get in the way of your long-term plans for your body. Gideon, though, says not to stress, but he also doesn’t believe that the occasional cheating should be a day-long activity. Instead, here’s his mix:
“I’m not a believer in cheat days,” he says. “If you’re going to cheat, do it during that one meal, not the whole day. Have the pizza or the ice cream, get it out of the way, but don’t take the whole day to cheat. Stay on top of your caloric intake.”
Here’s Gideon’s plan to stay on top of that:
“I’m going to make my meals and buy my meal preps for the week,” he says. “What I do is very quick and very easy: I crock pot chicken. I buy two packs of chicken per week, about three pounds per pack. I put it in the crockpot and throw some white rice on the stove. I also get bags of broccoli and steam them up in the steamer. Those are my meals for the week, man. I also get some healthy fats in there: humus, avocados, coconut oil, egg whites, and spinach. That’s my Monday through Friday. I may go out for a nice meal on the weekends. Keep your carbs low and moderate your fat.”
He also advises to keep your carbs on a strict schedule, too:
“You want to make sure that you are eating carbs around your workout,” he says, “as opposed to eating carbs late at night. Eating carbs early in the morning is usually fine if you have all day to burn them off. You don’t want to be scarfing down loads of carbs unless you are going to be working out.”
When it comes to burning off those carbs via running, Gideon says the difference between outside and inside comes down to personality, not physical fitness.
“If you are a person who gets bored very easily, I would definitely say go running outside,” he says. “A bad treadmill can be hard on your limbs, so make sure you are running on a good one. A treadmill may keep you more inclined to work out and keep you more motivated. But for me, inside, it gets boring. There is not a lot of room for you to think outside the box. Outside, you have more options: you can run on a trail, a track, uphill, downhill. I find it more exciting.”
The overall takeaway, though, is to keep your body moving, no matter which type of exercise you choose.
“As long as you are getting your body going,” he says, “doing jumping jacks, leg raises, arm and abs twists, and getting your whole body moving, that’s the best workout. As long as your body – and your core – are being engaged the entire time. Those are the kind of workouts that will make you shred those pounds. Those are the kind of workouts that will get you into the ‘underwear’ kind of look that you want. That full body technique, which will burn those calories.”
Which brings us to Gideon’s preferences underneath.
“For underwear, I like compression shorts,” he says. “That’s because I’m an active guy and I like everything to be nice and tight and ready to go -- so that when I’m about to work out, I don’t have to change underwear.”
From what we see in the photos, looks like Gideon is more than ready to go.
Click here to discover the best selection of DailyJocks’ compression pants.
Photographer: Vincent Alain
Model: Gideon Connelly
