COLOMBIA'S CAMILO VILLEGAS IS A FITNESS FANATIC
FROM THE GOLF.COM WEBSITE
By Josh Sens
His second move was to clamber up a ladder and stencil on the bold-faced, finger-wagging message — a jolt of motivation for a man with plenty of his own.
"I'm not the kind of guy who hits the snooze button in the morning," Villegas says. "But I still like to see those words when I wake up and get going. They help keep me focused on what it's all about."
Sacrifice or regret. In the choice between them, Villegas, 29, has never wavered. At least not since the fall of 2000, when he showed up as a freshman on the University of Florida campus, a 138lb wisp from Medellin, Colombia, and the shortest hitter on the Gator golf team.
Back in his home country, he had prowled the fairways as an alpha male, racking up an amateur record that made him something of a Latin Tiger Woods. College brought about his first Charles Atlas moment.
"I realised," Villegas says, "that I was going to have to get longer and stronger if I wanted to compete."
Into the campus gym he went — weights, yoga, cardio, pilates — with a fervour worthy of its own Rocky soundtrack. Out he stepped four years later, having trimmed his body fat from 12 percent to 4.5 percent while adding 25lb of limber muscle to his threadbare frame.
By graduation, the Florida team's shortest hitter had transformed himself into its longest bomber. Peter Parker had become ... Spider-Man.
"Without fitness, I wouldn't be on Tour. No doubt about it," Villegas says. "It's absolutely central to my success."
Success for Villegas — three wins and more than $13 million in prize money in four years as a pro — has come in the kind of torrents that allow for private jets and five-star hotels, both breeding grounds of softness.
Villegas has responded by hardening his resolve and his already rippled core. His methods have the ring of the masochistic. His sit-ups aren't sit-ups: They're seated cable crunches in which he perches on a medicine ball and abuses his abs against 90 pounds of tethered weight-machine resistance.
One way he works his lower body is throhttp://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,2037449-2,00.htmlugh a freakish feat of strength and athleticism: Standing on one leg, he jumps to the top of a 3ft-tall box, then jumps down, landing on the other leg, 10 times fast.
Fresh from that torture, he grabs a 25lb medicine ball in both hands, squats with the ball between his legs, then leaps as if to dunk it through a basketball hoop, repeating the maneuver for four sets of 10.
His approach sounds obsessive, ritualistic. "It's not a program or a regimen," he explains. "It's a lifestyle."
TO READ THE REST OF THIS AMAZING STORY ABOUT CAMILO VILLEGAS,
By Josh SensCamilo Villegas would no sooner skip a work-out than miss a meal. But Villegas isn't one for taking chances. Emblazoned in block letters on the wall of his home gym is a warning that serves as his reminder: SACRIFICE OR REGRET...YOU CHOOSE!
Three years ago, when Villegas bought his house, a two-story stucco spread on a leafy street in Jupiter, Florida, his first design decision was to furnish a downstairs bedroom in the manner of a 24-Hour Fitness Gym.His second move was to clamber up a ladder and stencil on the bold-faced, finger-wagging message — a jolt of motivation for a man with plenty of his own.
"I'm not the kind of guy who hits the snooze button in the morning," Villegas says. "But I still like to see those words when I wake up and get going. They help keep me focused on what it's all about."
Sacrifice or regret. In the choice between them, Villegas, 29, has never wavered. At least not since the fall of 2000, when he showed up as a freshman on the University of Florida campus, a 138lb wisp from Medellin, Colombia, and the shortest hitter on the Gator golf team.
Back in his home country, he had prowled the fairways as an alpha male, racking up an amateur record that made him something of a Latin Tiger Woods. College brought about his first Charles Atlas moment.
"I realised," Villegas says, "that I was going to have to get longer and stronger if I wanted to compete."
Into the campus gym he went — weights, yoga, cardio, pilates — with a fervour worthy of its own Rocky soundtrack. Out he stepped four years later, having trimmed his body fat from 12 percent to 4.5 percent while adding 25lb of limber muscle to his threadbare frame.
By graduation, the Florida team's shortest hitter had transformed himself into its longest bomber. Peter Parker had become ... Spider-Man.
"Without fitness, I wouldn't be on Tour. No doubt about it," Villegas says. "It's absolutely central to my success."
Success for Villegas — three wins and more than $13 million in prize money in four years as a pro — has come in the kind of torrents that allow for private jets and five-star hotels, both breeding grounds of softness.
Villegas has responded by hardening his resolve and his already rippled core. His methods have the ring of the masochistic. His sit-ups aren't sit-ups: They're seated cable crunches in which he perches on a medicine ball and abuses his abs against 90 pounds of tethered weight-machine resistance.
One way he works his lower body is throhttp://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,2037449-2,00.htmlugh a freakish feat of strength and athleticism: Standing on one leg, he jumps to the top of a 3ft-tall box, then jumps down, landing on the other leg, 10 times fast.
Fresh from that torture, he grabs a 25lb medicine ball in both hands, squats with the ball between his legs, then leaps as if to dunk it through a basketball hoop, repeating the maneuver for four sets of 10.
His approach sounds obsessive, ritualistic. "It's not a program or a regimen," he explains. "It's a lifestyle."
TO READ THE REST OF THIS AMAZING STORY ABOUT CAMILO VILLEGAS,
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posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Monday, January 03, 2011
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