Hybrid athlete elevates himself and others

Samuel Burgess crosses the finish line. Photos submitted

By Tom Victoria

Samuel Burgess is achieving a higher version of himself and he’s taking his followers along for the ride.

The British hybrid athlete explained why fitness is important to him.

“It's good for my mental well-being,” he said. “I need it in some sense because I used to not really have a foundation upon any sort of fitness. It's something I feel I need and I feel other people need in their life in a foundation basis way. It's routine-orientated and then over time I found that I managed to flip how I feel about myself. I'm in a best state of mind. That's why it's important to me.”

Samuel, 22, of Cheshire said he lifts weights for confidence and runs to improve his mental state.

“If you want to change your life and your mental state, you need to change your habits, you need to change your lifestyle,” he said. “That's what I've found within the last three, four years from being in a not so good state, especially with social media overuse as well.”

Samuel described his regimen.

“I wake up about around half 6 and then I try to do some either breath work or meditation, even if it's for five minutes,” he said. “I'll have some Himalayan salt, but it's nothing special. It's literally electrolytes. And then I'll either stretch or trying a new routine of running in the morning. I'm still alternating running and gym at night and then I'll be at work for 9 till half 4 most days.”

Samuel lets his body decide when rest days occur.

“I listen to my own intuition from my body to when a rest day happens,” he said. “At the moment, I do push/pull/legs, but it's always good to rotate your training plan because it's scientifically proven. Plus, you get a bit bored of doing the same one for six, seven months, so I do change it up.”

“The main thing that I want to get across is the fact that if you are in a bad place mentally, you can change it from changing your lifestyle over time.”

Samuel keeps pace training for marathons as well.

“At the moment, I'm running about 30 to 40k,” he said. “It depends on what the goal I'm trying to achieve is. I've got a half marathon coming up in February, so right now I'm just trying to do a whole baseline about 30, 40K and then 12 weeks before that is when I'm gonna actually do the plan to achieve a certain time. I ran a marathon and the training before that, I was just trying to up my mileage pretty much. I became more accustomed to run a marathon, but wanted to see if I could just run one.”

Samuel wants his followers to understand they can improve themselves.

“The main thing that I want to get across is the fact that if you are in a bad place mentally, you can change it from changing your lifestyle over time,” he said. “You just got to give yourself time. I used to be addicted to my phone, just not in a good place mentally. With time brought changing my lifestyle and turning to the weightlifting and then the running and confidence in myself and then doing other things as well.”

Samuel said others can do the same.

“Just go for it in some way,” he said. “I also preach as well to get off social media to detox from it, escape the digital world, take a step back to see the bigger picture. Especially with people my age, I see so many people so consumed by it. It's like their personality comes from the pictures they post online and it's like that's their identity.”

Samuel posts content based on when he has something to say.

“Right now, I want to make more content to do with hybrid training because I've only been running a year,” he said. “If I've got something to say, I'll make a video. If I feel like it would benefit the person on the other side, then I'll say it.”

Samuel previously ran shorter distances.

“I used to sprint and compete in long jump for my local county to reasonably so about a regional level,” he said. “I used to do athletics and football (European soccer) as well. Now, I do dabble into a bit of Muay Thai, a little bit fighting, and then it's resistance training and running as well. I do want to do triathlons and Ironmans as well.”

Samuel started lifting as a teen.

“I was 16, but I had no consistency,” he said. “I didn't really know what I was doing. From 16 to almost 19, my headspace was just not there. I don't blame social media, but I needed to detox from it. Had I detoxed when I was 16, I probably would have started making a better transformation back then. I started lifting properly when I was almost 19 years old.”

“I started turning up to the gym and then from there just built a habit.”

Samuel as a teen before starting to lift weights.

Samuel recalled when he thought of embarking on self-improvement.

“I realized that something's got to change because whatever I was doing isn't working, so I had to change something,” he said. “I feel like I kind of knew it for a while, but I just wasn't doing it. I must have scrolled for two hours on my phone. Just felt like I wasn't doing anything productive or fulfilling towards myself or anything. I started turning up to the gym and then from there just built a habit. Just a lifestyle now. I'm a lot calmer. I feel like a completely different person.”

Samuel also adjusted his diet.

“It's actually pretty simple,” he said. “A lot of times on the Internet, there's so much information overload. You just take a step back. But if you find your calories you got to eat every day and the amount of protein you have to have every day and as long as you tone your muscle in the gym, it's going to grow. It's a lot simpler than people may perceive it to be. It seems out of reach, but it's not.”

Samuel also directly helps others one-on-one attain their self-development goals.

“I'm seeking to help the type of person who knows that they can achieve a higher version of themselves but don't quite know how to achieve it,” he said. “I'm basically there to both keep them accountable but at the same time tell them that it's relatively simple as long as you start actually turning up. That's what matters.”

Samuel also has created an online community to help others.

“I've just launched some online school community called Higher Self, which is for anyone who wants to achieve a higher self that they already know is there but at the moment is listening to their lower self, which wants instant gratification,” he said. “Essentially, that's what it's about.”

Samuel started running longer distances to test himself.

“It was actually an experiment,” he said. “I basically ran every other day until I achieved a sub 20-minute 5k, which is a milestone in the running community. The sub 25k classifies you as a fairly decent runner. I thought it was definitely attainable. I didn't really quite know what I was doing. I learned along the way. I made a video on that. It took me under a month to achieve the sub 25k. But I did come from a relatively decent standpoint because before I was doing about 22 minutes.”

Samuel was hooked on pounding the pavement.

“I enjoy running and I incorporated it with the resistance training,” he said. “I'm a hybrid athlete now as such, but there's nothing special about myself.”

Samuel also decided to start posting videos about his fitness and other aspects of self-development.

“I wanted to for quite a long time,” he said. “I remember when I was 16, I was like, I want to make bulk videos. But I was so distracted. My mental health was not very good. When I made my six-month transformation video where I went full send for six months. And now, I just make content when I feel like I have something purposeful to say.”

Samuel wants to improve his running and help others in the future.

“I want to get a sub three-hour marathon,” he said. “I do want to bench 100kg (more than 220 pounds) for reps pretty easily but my goal is more orientated towards running and also to help individuals who feel changing themselves is not attainable.”

Samuel is working on a project that could become a career path.

“As much as you would like to be a personal trainer, I feel there's got to be something else alongside it,” he said. “So working on a project with my mate currently. I'm not going to disclose it but it’s part of what I would like to do and something I enjoy. I don't want to be in an environment which you just don't want to be in pretty much.”

Samuel started attending college after high school.

“I went to six form and got A levels based on a point system,” he said. “I got the equivalent to pretty high score. But then I knew university wasn't the way to go for me. For a lot of people, it isn't the way to go. I went traveling for two years. I worked abroad, met loads of people, had awesome experiences, grew myself as well, grew my confidence. That's something I would definitely recommend to people as well. If you just finished school, you're around age of 18, unless you're truly passionate about something, just take a step back. Broaden your perspective.”

Samuel doesn’t need motivation.

“I see it as a lifestyle,” he said. “I don't even think about going to the gym now or going for a run. Obviously, I plan it. It's something I do because you feel good because of it, releases endorphins. You replace where I was getting endorphins, scrolling on my phone, other stuff as well. You replace them with resistance training and running. Just part of my lifestyle. I don't try and stay motivated like it's some form of a chore.”

Samuel does get the occasional day when he doesn’t feel like working out.

“I just do it,” he said. “There will be occasional days where I will miss but then I'm back on it straight away pretty much. You just turn up pretty much every time. As long as your training regimen isn't stupidly strenuous, then you're going to be obviously really demotivated because it's just out of your reach. It's about building up over time.”

Samuel offered advice to aspiring YouTubers.

“If you feel like you've got a greater cause or higher purpose to give to somebody, then just start one,” he said. “Whatever your message is, I would grab a camera, get okay lighting and then talk and just go with it. I'll just pick up a camera whenever I feel like I've got something valuable to say.”

Samuel said anyone wishing to start self-improvement starts with one step.

“To detox from social media,” he said. “To get rid of the distractions out of your life that are limiting you first. That's the first step.”

Samuel said fitness should be a component of self-development.

“Yes, 100 percent,” he said.

Samuel said people shouldn’t compare their fitness to others, but look at where they used to be.

“It's quite difficult in some sense because human nature comes into play,” he said. “But as long as you're mindful about that, you're fine.”

Samuel stressed two points.

“Detox on social media and know that whatever you're trying to achieve is probably more attainable than you think.”

Samuel’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Samuelburgessofficial