Dwayne O’Connor suffered a rough breakup but managed to cope by hitting the gym hard.
It is never a pleasure finding out your long-term girlfriend has been cheating on you. There are a lot of ways to cope and some better than others.
Dwayne O’Connor’s coping mechanism can undoubtedly be added to the list of better ways – he took his stress and pain to the gym and came out almost unrecognizable.
Talking to Men’s Health, O’Connor, a 26-year-old personal trainer from Derby, United Kingdom, told that he initially turned to fitness after his unexpected breakup because he saw it as “something I could depend on, something that wouldn’t let me down.”
He had been working as a personal trainer before then, so he knew his way around a gym. But he was looking for something more than the old routine gym routine that kept him in okay enough shape.
“It was more about feeling better at the start,” he said, “I just didn’t want to have a belly anymore.” But that quickly evolved into something else — a passion for bodybuilding. “Through bodybuilding, you can shape your own body, and that’s pretty awesome,” he said.
O’Connor revealed he was also motivated to pursue bodybuilding because he’d always admired the big, strong characters on television shows. He means he was inspired by the good guys who always seemed to win in the end. “I wanted to look strong, so I felt strong… then maybe I wouldn’t lose anymore, either,” he said.
“Plus, cardio sucks,” he added.
He said it wasn’t as simple as flicking a switch and heading into the gym religiously. Early on, the wound left by his ex was still pretty raw. “The hardest part of the routine was accepting that this was the new routine,” he said. “My old life was over. When you’re with someone for a long time, you do things together all the time… I had to admit to myself that whatever I had before was gone forever.”
Today Dwayne really looks shredded as he keeps motivated and seems to now have a lot of female admirers. O’Connor’s Instagram is filled with pictures and videos of him working out and showing off his jaw-dropping physique. This is precisely what it means to turn lemons into lemonade.
“If you end up with egg on your face because you’ve been cheated on, don’t take it so personally. It’s a reflection of the person who did it, not you,” he said. “Don’t damage your body or health with drinking or junk food… keep busy, productive and positive.”
