Bodybuilding Legend With Leg Amputation Relates to the Pain of Wheel Chair Bound Woman in Gym

Veteran bodybuilder Flex Wheeler dominated the Arnold Classic competition during the late 1990s. A then-record-holding four-time champion, his career was cut short after he was diagnosed with a rare disease in 1999. It aggravated into something worse, leading to his leg amputation two decades later. Today, Wheeler, still as motivated as ever, continues to impart his learnings to others and simultaneously seeks inspiration from elsewhere. Most recently, he found a connection with a woman in a wheelchair, whose story also inspired business personality Ed Mylett.

In a 2018 interview with Tom Bilyeu, founder of Impact Theory and Quest Nutrition, Ed Mylett talked about how his experience of watching a woman in a wheelchair entering the gym and working out beside everyone else inspired him. Wheeler connected to this story of overcoming fear and finding courage like no one else. Here’s what happened.

Flex Wheeler finds an instant connection with Ed Mylett’s story of a woman

In his latest Instagram story, Flex Wheeler wrote, “I know exactly how she feels,” with the caption “a daily dose of motivation” below. Wheeler shared a snippet from the interview of Mylett with Bilyeu, where Mylett is talking about a lady in a wheelchair who once walked inside a gym amidst all the other heavy figures there. Here’s what he said.

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Mylett said, “A woman in a wheelchair at a gym with her two-pound dumbbells because her legs don’t work. But she went in there anyway. And you know how insecure she was about going in there. She is the only person in a wheelchair,” sharing the unbelievable courage he saw in that woman. He continued, “She doesn’t know what she’s going to see, how people are going to react to her. She is not in shape. She’s never full makeup on, and her little, you know, halter top like the other girls in there….”

Mylett talked about how fascinated he felt about the woman soldiering on despite her insecurities with everyone around her. He went up to the woman and said, “I just want you to know something. You are inspiring me. This is wonderful”. Wheeler, who is also wheelchair-bound since 2019, felt a strong connection to that instance. Wheeler lost his legs after bodybuilding his whole life and found a strange inclination to overcome his despair and not give up.

Wheeler did not lose his passion for bodybuilding

Wheeler, who still remembers the moment vividly, thanked Jesus before taking his first step after his leg amputation. After his surgery was successful, Wheeler thanked the almighty and took his first step with a prosthetic leg. Wheeler retired from bodybuilding in 2000 but continued it for three more years. Years later, he also made a comeback in 2017 at the Mr. Olympia competition.

Flex Wheeler has shared his moment of truth on various platforms about what it felt like to go through such hardships and being completely aware that he might never step foot on the bodybuilding stage again. However, he continued to forge on and never lost his connection with bodybuilding. Just like that woman in the wheelchair, Wheeler, too, didn’t let his amputation stop him from getting there.

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