Fort Carson, Colo.-Pius Agyemang, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, is like all the Soldiers that have signed on to defend our nation. He is determined to be the best Soldier he can be in both mind and body.
To that end Agyemang spends as much time being "fit-to-fight" as he does doing what he can to be the best he can be at his primary job in the Army.
Agyemang is beginning to get into the sport of bodybuilding and like many before him, he didn't begin his athletic career with designs on bodybuilding. The sturdily-built Agyemang was a jack of all trades in his high
school athletic years. He played football, soccer and ran cross country among the many sports he played. During his high school years he would lift weights to get bigger and stronger for football but one of his teammates convinced him that there was another sport he should consider.
"As we would lift weights to get ready for football, my friend would always tell me that I should look into bodybuilding and take it seriously because I had the potential to do well at it. He would push me and each month I felt myself getting stronger. Each month I was increasing my weight by 10 pounds," Agyemang said.
But even that persuasion didn't get him to look at the sport after high school. In fact it wasn't until he joined the Army in 2005 that Agyemang began to look again at the prospect of competing in the sport of bodybuilding.
"I was in Germany in 2005 and I was working out at the gym. This guy came to me and asked me if I ever thought about competing. I said 'no' and he told me that he wasn't going to waste my time trying to convince me, but that I should go to Google and type in bodybuilding and I might find it interesting," Agyemang said.
When he googled bodybuilding, the first person that popped up on the screen was Ronnie Coleman, who along with Lee Haney, holds the record of eight straight wins as Mr. Olympia.
"I checked out his videos and started getting into the sport but there was no one in Germany to help me out. Then I came back to the states and my friend in Virginia helped me get ready for a show two months ago. I finished in third place but I felt I could have done better. After returning here I met Tony (Claiborne, multiple
Colorado state bodybuilding champion) and he has been getting me ready for the upcoming tournaments that I will be competing in," Agyemang said.
Agyemang is currently training for the upcoming Colorado bodybuilding season where he hopes to improve on his third place finish in Virginia. His first local competition will be at the Steel City Championship in Pueblo, May 8. He will compete two weeks later in the Probody Solutions Southern Colorado Armed Forces Natural
Championships May 22 at Doherty High School in Colorado Springs. Keeping up his busy schedule, Agyemang will compete in a national qualifier for the first time when he takes part in the Max Muscle Mile High Natural Championship June 5 at Englewood High School in Englewood. He said he is getting great support from his unit and is ready to meet the challenge of excelling at the sport.
"My section leader (Sgt. 1st Class James Holyfield) has really been good to me. We are doing a lot of training and he is still making sure I get a chance to get to the gym to train for this because he know I am serious
about it. I can do whatever I want as long as I put my mind to it. You have to trust yourself and be fit-to-fight," Agyemang said.
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