From Ningbo to Dallas – Yang Liu
Yang Liu was born in 1986 in the city of Ningbo of Zhejiang Province (East) in China. For more than a decade he has been into weight training and a big fan of GASP. This led him to ...destination Dallas where he met with our CEO, Michael Johansson. Later on, Michael also went to China to visit Yang Liu in his home country.
Yang Liu is now working as a part of the team, helping us stay connected with the dedicated GASP community in China. Join us as we get to know him a little better. Where does your passion for bodybuilding come from in the first place? My passion for bodybuilding and weight training began with my father. When I was around 10 years old, I noticed that my father was doing exercises with dumbbells at home, like biceps curls and lateral shoulders raises, and he was doing a lot of push-ups. He told me since day one that a real man has to have a strong physique to overcome obstacles in every aspect of life. So that’s where my passion rooted.
How many years have you been training and how do you train? I have been training for 15 years. I have never had any coach, I learned everything I know about weight training from magazines like Flex and Muscular Development, and of course The encyclopedia of Bodybuilding by Arnold himself. Like most guys out there, I began with pure bodybuilding training, like 4-5 exercises for each body part, 3-4 sets and 8-15 reps each exercise. After years of training like that, especially addicted to those pictures and articles of Branch Warren and Johnnie Jackson in FLEX and MD, I fell in love with heavy training, I found my niche. So are you now a competitive athlete and professional? No, not really. After graduating from college, I became a diplomat. I speak French and English. I have worked in both Europe and Africa. I am now a journalist. Work is work, but weight training for me, that’s my calling. The relentless way of training, that’s what I am supposed to do my whole life, and that’s where I found myself in GASP. "You don’t have to be a professional athlete to be relentless, you earn your right to keep killing it day in day out by hard work. I work hard and play hard, with no compromise."
What does GASP mean to you? Oh man, GASP is a way of life. GASP means every dream could come true, if you work your ass off and like you really mean it. So many people talk about their dreams, but only a few realize what they are really talking about. 10 years after falling in love with the GASP way of life, I am now a part of the team.
