No excuses: "Do what you can't!" - interview with powerlifter Stanislav Burakov

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Stanislav Burakov is a professional athlete. He is engaged in barbell, track and field athletics and para-workout. Watching this guy pull himself up, you think: “Wow! So cool! . And only then you notice that he does it with the stroller.

Time to get out, dude

- Hi, Nastya! Glad to be called.

- I was born in the Latvian city of Saldus in a military family. When I was seven, we moved to the Murmansk region. This is a fabulous place: polar day and night, northern lights. There, in the military town, I spent my entire conscious childhood. He played hockey, went fishing with his father. In the North, if you are not a fisherman, then you are a hunter. Memories from there are the most joyful and warm. Then we moved to Yaroslavl, where I graduated from high school, entered the university and in fact still live.

- I had a chemical and biological class, but for some reason I entered the mechanical engineering polytechnic. If it is calendar, then with grief I studied there for three years.

- I never liked to cram. At school, I went to my favorite subjects and active participation in events. At the institute, studies did not go at all: they were expelled - I was restored. Until he finally quit and went to work. He worked in the construction business until the accident.

- I was 27. On a summer night I was riding a motorcycle, sober, quiet. The technique failed - he fell, the bike broke his spine.

There was no anger. I didn't even suffer from depression. I just said to myself: “Dude, this has already happened, there is no time machine - you can't rewind it. Let's get out! Of course, there were many difficulties: three months in the hospital, two operations, long rehabilitation and a complete lack of understanding where to run, what to do. But there was no anger at fate, which means that it should be so. After all, it is not known whether I would now go in for sports or while away the evenings on the couch with a can of beer and a remote control in my hands.

Do what you can't

- It all started with rehabilitation. Soon after the accident, I found a good hospital near St. Petersburg. At that time, I still couldn't really sit, but there they immediately put me on a walker, forced me to practice.

For the next five years, I spent all my money, energy and time only on rehabilitation. He equipped a “gym” at home: wall bars, bicycles, mats, exercise machines.

You wake up in the morning and think: "We must go to study." Or rather, go and try to do what you cannot: crawl, move your legs, and so on …

Two difficult psychologically and energy-consuming workouts a day.

Honestly, sometimes it was damn hard to force yourself: it's better in bed, you can watch TV or surf the Internet. But when I caught myself thinking that I was looking for an excuse, trying to evade training, my conscience just ate me up from the inside: “You're a weakling! You gave up! . Self-criticism taught me discipline. Therefore, when I started to play sports professionally, I had no problems either with self-discipline or with motivation.

- Was. For two years only one thought was spinning in my head: "Now I will work out and get up, a little more, another half a year …" I think all wheelchair users go through this. But there comes a moment when you stop getting hung up, you understand that time is running out and you need to live on.

This realization came to me about five years later, when I arrived at the Moscow rehabilitation center "Overcoming" and saw dozens of children who live actively, go in for sports, create, and benefit society.

There I met Sergei Semakin. He taught me to bench press, took me to the Moscow Powerlifting Championship. Returning home, I already clearly understood that I wanted to play sports.

- I immediately began to look for where and with whom to study. A coach was needed: you can't hang pancakes on your own, you can't fill the information vacuum with literature and videos alone. I didn’t know if anyone was training wheelchair users in Yaroslavl. But the desire was colossal! I did not stop searching for a single day.

Once I heard about Lena Savelyeva - an athlete, countrywoman, also in a wheelchair. I contacted her through social networks, she talked to the coach, and after a while began to ride and train.

Athletics also joined powerlifting. Lena and I were offered to try ourselves in this sport, since it was not represented in the region by anyone. I tried it - I liked it. From the achievements so far silver in the championship of Russia.

- Equally. Trainings every day: Monday, Wednesday, Friday - powerlifting, the rest of the time - athletics. I am happy to go to one and another workout.

- “Workout” is translated as “training”. The prefix "steam", respectively, means that this is a workout for people with disabilities. The trick is that classes are held in an open area, where everyone can come. It's free. There is no schedule, there is no coach who will control and force you. There is only you and your desire. Can you overcome the force of attraction to the sofa or not?

In addition, the workout area is an area without stereotypes. Both physically challenged and healthy children study there. And everyone is driven by interest to understand, but what can you? Do you just do push-ups, pull-ups, walk on the handle, or come up with some element that you have never done before?

But for me a para-workout is more a social project than a sports one. My friends and I agreed on how important it is to involve people with disabilities in mass sports, and organized the project "" (ParaWorkout). In the summer we held trainings in the Luzhniki Stadium, in the winter we are looking for a gym. We want to create a paraworkout federation.

The goal is to get people out of their homes and motivate them. Not necessarily sports. Just for a person with a disability to come to training, see all this movement and want to change something in his life. Looking at the activity of others, you start looking for your own motivation.

- I realized that sport is my chance to break out into people. The prospect of sitting at home and typing on a computer did not appeal to me. Therefore, he initially catalyzed the search for his place in life.

Sport has become a springboard for me and improved the quality of life. I felt it almost immediately: the internal organs work better, you feel better, you don't get sick.

My sporting ambitions are not exhausted: I want to go to the World Championship, I want to go to the Paralympics (both of my sports are Olympic). But in parallel with these goals, new ones appeared - social ones.

Stay in … ope

- From the forums. First there was "Seliger". She invited us there. It was a little scary to go somewhere, to live in tents. But the organization did not disappoint, and it was very interesting.

This year, the paraworkout guys and I visited the "Territory of Meanings" forum. We had a shift for non-profit organizations (NPOs). We got a lot of useful information and necessary acquaintances. It became clear where to move, how to achieve the set goals.

And just recently we were at the Community forum. It is organized by the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. First, the regional stage takes place, and then the final forum in Moscow.

- Yes, this is an award established by the Public Chamber, which is awarded to authors of the best social projects in the country. There are 12 nominations. I was declared in the category "Healthy lifestyle" …

- No, the guys applied without my knowledge. I only found out about everything when I got on the shortlist and won.:)

- I know that many do not understand what the Public Chamber is doing, why NGOs are needed, because this is not even a social business. I myself did not understand until at all these forums I began to communicate with people who, not for money, not for power, but purely from their inner ideas about good and evil, are implementing completely crazy projects. Someone opened a hospice and realized the dreams of terminally ill children, someone helped homeless animals, someone organized a volunteer movement.

Yes, there are not so many civic activists and their followers yet. But if nothing is done, then stagnation will be even greater. Therefore, I will answer your question by paraphrasing the well-known phrase: “How to create a civil society? No way! Stay in … opera!.

The easiest way is to sit on the couch with a beer and a TV remote control in your hands and think: "Nothing depends on me, I will not change anything."

But, if my public initiative makes at least ten people happy and they want to do para-workout or something else, it will be cool. And if these ten people pass the baton to another ten people, it will be awesome!

To each his own

- Since childhood, I have remained passionate about hockey. For Yaroslavl, this is more than a sport: the city loves its Lokomotiv. This is a passion that makes you experience and empathize.

- Absolutely! Above the Buchenwald gates it was written: "To each his own." Here's happiness for sure everyone has their own. Someone to eat bread and drink water is already happiness, but for someone a yacht for 200 million is a dubious joy.

For me, happiness is inner harmony. I think I achieved it.

- I distinguish between the concepts of dreams and goals. A dream is something grandiose, but at the same time realizable. Agree, it's pointless to dream of a pink unicorn. Therefore, my dream now is family and children.

- People make excuses to themselves. For your laziness, for your weaknesses. Therefore, you need to be honest with yourself, then you won't have to make excuses. After all, this is just your life. There are relatives, friends who influence her in one way or another, but they cannot find motivation for you and take the fifth point off the couch.

The life of any person - no matter if he is healthy or in a wheelchair - is an overcoming. Make efforts on yourself, overcome yourself. Each new victory - even a small one - is a step from the sofa to the life you deserve!

- Thanks for the project!:)