Ines Subashka: Introduce yourself.
Krustyo Tyutyundzhiev: My name is Krustyo Tyutyundzhiev and I am 25 years old. I live in Panagyurishte- a rown in Bulgaria. I work as a fire fighter and emergency rescuer.
IS: When and how did you get involved in sports? What are the sports you participated in during the years?
KT: The story starts long time ago. My whole family has something to do with sports. My grandma and my grandpa were track athletes and later on they became PE teachers and coaches. My father used to be a sprinter and my mother was a sport shooting competitor. Sport is just in my veins! 😉
I started competing in track when I was 8-9 years old. My coach was my grandpa. I competed in different disciplines, but the best one was hurdling. I have a couple medals on national level competitions. After that in seventh grade, I had to move to another town, and there weren’t good conditions for hurdling preparation.
I was forced to stay in shape, playing other sports, like fitness, basketball and swimming. In 12thgrade, when I was 18 years old I started doing freerun with the boys in town. The freerun was just getting popular and it was like a dream came true! Finally I managed to participate in something that was keeping me in shape and in the same time it was extreme enough to suit my character!IS: How did you decide to compete in the professional sport of firefighters and the stunting? These two are really extreme and not very common sports!
КТ: My desire to participate in these sports comes from my competitive and extreme personality. I am always there searching for more adrenaline and if it could be combined with competition- that’s perfect!
After I graduated high school, I became a student in the Academy of the Inner Ministry in Sofia. I moved to live in the capital- a city which offers a lot of opportunities. As a future firefighter, that was when I started competing in the professional sport of fire fighters and rescuers in Europe. It turned out that besides the fire fighting part, this sport has a lot of elements from track and some of my skills from the freerun, also gave me precedence over.
In 2008 I joined the national team of Bulgaria and we participated in the World Championship for rescuers and firefighters. This was my first international competition in this sport. During the next couple years I had the opportunity to participate in other international competitions from the same rang. In September of 2011, I participated in my last competition in the firefighting sport.
As I already said, in the big city there are big opportunities. When I moved to live in Sofia, I met a lot of interesting people with interests like mine. In 2007 I started attending the stunting workouts. My coach was Emo Videv, from the National Sports Academy- “Evdemonia”. People from “Evdemonia” became something like my second family. I attended the workouts not only because they were extreme and included a lot of variety, but because I wanted to spend more time with my best friends! Even today, when I have the opportunity to go to stunt training, I never miss the chance!
IS: Everybody who works out with you, eye witnessed your unique capabilities. You know your body pretty well, you know how to move it and at times you perform stunts that are really dangerous. What are the qualities that a person should have, in order to hang from the parapet of a tall building, to do a back flip from a ramp, to jump over walls, sprint on a girder and etc? Does it come up to just being athletic?
КТ: It’s not all about being athletic. This is a quality that can be acquired. In my opinion one of the main qualities that an athlete should possess is consistency. Everything you listed above is the result of a lot of hard work, tough workouts that improve your coordination, flexibility, strength, agility. You can’t achieve big things if you don’t work hard. You need to have faith, will and consistency!
IS:Do you follow a nutrition plan? If yes, did you notice some “special” behavior from your friends or do they accept what you do?
КТ: I don’t follow a particular nutrition plan, but I am trying to follow some basic rules for healthy eating. I avoid eating processed foods and instead I eat foods that contain more proteins, healthy fats and fiber.
Yes, I often get asked about my nutrition. People often ask me what I deprive myself from. This makes me think about the fact that most people consider “diet” and “nutrition plan”, to literally mean starvation and deprivation, and in reality this is far from the truth!
IS: For some time you’ve been making videos of one of your workouts every week! Your workouts are in the style “Krustyo- The Machine”. What is your goal with these workouts?
КТ: “Krustyo- The Machine”. – 😀 This sounds good! The idea came about two months ago. One of my ex classmates encouraged me to start filming the workouts.
Physical education is one of my hobbies. I think that my desire and my discipline are enough to motivate more people to start paying attention to their athletic skills and health. I would be really happy if one day, somebody tells me that he got more athletic, because he got inspired from my workouts! You are really familiar with this feeling, aren’t you Ines? I want to have the same opportunity like you- to experience the enlightening strength from helping somebody to change in a positive way. Then, I will see more clearly the purpose of it all!
Here are some of Krustyo’s workouts:
IS: How did you find out about “Workouts for machines” ( these are the group workouts that I coach)? What do you like about the workouts and what makes you come back every single time?
КТ: I understood about “Workouts for machines” from one of Alisa’s pictures (Ines: one of my clients). I’ve heard about them before, but I haven’t tried such workouts. What I really liked was that these kind of workouts develop your strength, endurance, agility and coordination.
I just liked your method, and I think it works great!
The other reason, to work out with you is the amazing, positive, atmosphere. There everybody is smiling, everybody encourages you, everybody tells you how great you are and never lets you give up. And it is all because of you Ines- the coach! Every week I can’t wait for my days off of work, so I can come to Sofia and work out with you, get a really good workout and recharge my mind with positive emotions. “Workouts for machines” are starting to become my family!
Here is a video of Krustyo, trying to jump as high as possible, during last week’s workout!Watch after 40sec 🙂
And here is Krustyo during another workout, doing burpee with a back flip! 🙂
IS: What would be your advice to people who want to start moving and controlling their body the way you do? Where do they start from and does everybody have a chance to succeed?
КТ: The chance for everybody is as big as his desire to succeed!
My first advice would be to not rush it. Don’t try to do everything at once. Set goals and achieve them step by step. As I said consistency is the key! My other advice would be to never give up! Forget about tomorrow, and act today! Because even the easiest workout today is better than no working out at all!
IS: How would you finish the sentence “ I work out, because…”?
КТ: I work out, because I love my body and I want to keep it healthy for all surprises that life has for me!
Stay positive!
Don’t forget to like Krustyo’s Facebook page, where you can follow him and enjoy his unique workouts and get inspired by his unlimited abilities!
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