PEOPLE OF PINNACLE

Neil Nakamoto, In Pursuit of Greatness

The year 2020 has changed the lives of many in a lot of ways. The first half has caught us off guard while the rest of the year is uncertain. And it is during times like these that we search for some source of hope to keep pushing on — and we have just that!

Meet Neil Nakamoto, 58, a Pinnacle Performance Manila member since November 2017 and winner of our recently concluded Six Year Athlete challenge.

‘Lolo’ Neil (translates to ‘Grandpa’), as he is commonly called, is one of the older members in our Pinnacle community, but his age never got in the way of reaching his goals. He is focused on taking one step at a time while challenging himself to grow.

“I guess you could say I have an internal drive that always makes me want to improve and get better at whatever I’m doing.”

But Neil wasn’t born an athlete. In fact, he was far from it during his younger years. He mentions that his only sporting activities were the required Physical Education (PE) classes in High School and University.

“You see, I was always the last person picked for athletic teams. I was overweight as a child up to age 15, and it left a mark on me that I wasn’t an athlete.”

It wasn’t until his 30s, having friends who were athletes, that Neil thought he should work out and get in shape. This positive change in his lifestyle was also affected by the early passing of his father.

“My father died at a very early age due to heart disease, and in some ways, I was motivated by that to make sure that I took care of my body so that I could live a long and healthy life.”

It’s been 3 decades since he started investing in his health and fitness, and being with Pinnacle for almost 3 years, he continues to smash his goals.

Coach Bernice Atienza, Neil’s Lead Coach shares,

“Neil is super hardworking, persevering and oozing with humility. He embraces challenges head on. He will not back out and will push thru it the best he can.”

Just before Metro Manila was put under ECQ (Enhanced Community Quarantine), our member athletes were preparing for testing week and Neil recalls hitting his max rep for deadlift at 115 kgs and max rep for back squat at 105 kgs.

“I’m not a professional athlete, and whenever I worked out on that level, I’m surprised that it wasn’t intimidating. Everyone implicitly knew that we were all competing against ourselves for our specific goals, and our roles were to encourage one another to meet our goals and to cheer each other as we work towards them.”

Even during ECQ, when fitness facilities like Pinnacle were advised to close for operations until further notice, his dedication to his health and fitness didn’t falter. In fact, as sessions were made available online, Neil has been consistently working out 6 days a week.

The latest achievement for Neil arrived when Pinnacle Performance held a week long event from June 8 - 13, 2020 across all it’s facilities in Hong Kong and Manila to celebrate it’s 6th year anniversary, - an epic Six Year Athlete challenge. As fitness facilities remained closed, for Pinnacle Manila, the event was done fully online. Daily challenges were made to test the members’ strength, endurance and grit. And after 6 intense days, only one was worthy to be called the Pinnacle Six Year Athlete, only Neil proved he deserved that title.

The challenges weren’t easy, and Neil recalls that the 6th day was the most challenging since his muscles were all sore 5 days into the event.

“The last challenge was the pushup segment with ‘Bring Sally Up/Down.’ I don’t like that video at all! My whole body was shaking and in definite pain toward the end of that segment but I was able to complete it. I was so relieved once we were done and I thought to myself, “Wow, I can’t believe I finished the Six Year Athlete challenge.”

Neil looks forward to working out each day, and mentions that the ‘family feel’ that the Pinnacle community has nurtured and the unmatched professional care and attention of Pinnacle is a huge contributing factor to this.

“I do miss the weights at times, but I feel like the Online Membership that Pinnacle has innovated for us has kept me in shape. I actually can see muscle development too. I book 8 sessions from Monday to Saturday, that’s including 2 MOBE sessions, and will continue to do so through the pandemic.”

Looking back, Neil never imagined to be at this fitness level at age 58.

“When I think about my journey, I sometimes forget that I’m in my late 50’s. In my mind, I don’t see myself in my 50’s but rather in my 30’s. I think of what I need to learn still and how I can best help others around me. Honestly, I’m a bit surprised at my level of health in comparison to others who are my age and I’m grateful that I’ve taken the steps to be healthy and physically fit. My goal in life is to be generous with others and to share with them any inspiration that I’ve received. If my life can be a model for others, I would be grateful to inspire and challenge others to be the best version of themselves and to encourage them to pass it forward to others.”

How about you? What motivates you?