Conversations with Elio Antonini

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elio Antonini.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass because it may take too long. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” Fitness has saved me. Now let it save you. My name is Elio Antonini. I am 35 years old, I am Italian, and I emigrated to the United States seven years ago to follow my ‘American dream’, acting and fitness… the real one. I’ve always loved writing, a way to express the deepest part of myself that I often hide. A forced quarantine, which tests me, you, and the whole world for the second time, another exam to pass, another imposed challenge to win, cause surrender is never an option. I can say it out loud. Our eyes only partially perceive reality. There are many other variations and shades more complex and deeper, frequencies that only a glimpse into the soul can tell. I have always loved acting, sports, martial arts, and fitness, and these are just some of the passions that characterize my life. Life as an actor and an athlete, unlike common thinking, it is not simply a life of success, fame, and achievement. Being an actor and an athlete is a hard choice, a lifestyle, a commitment with yourself that you must consistently fulfill day after day, a continuous work, a path of sacrifices that often do not pay as we would like.

A perfect body cannot be attained without an acute mind, and perfection in itself does not exist. Coexistence between body and mind, will, and execution is an essential factor in sport and life in general. The secret is knowing how to tell your body what to do, and somehow the body will find a way to do it. If you want something, you have to fight to get it. You have to work at 110% of your possibilities, sweat, and repeat specific actions daily to achieve success. You have to be determined and focused, never lose sight of the final goal, remember that you have to learn to enjoy your journey, pretend to find pleasant to face any kind of obstacle and adversity. Life very often tests us, a way to make us understand if we want to achieve our goals at any cost. Leaving Italy was the “simplest” step among those taken. Contrary to common belief, the adversities I have had to face to cultivate my dream are much more complicated and far greater in scope. We have not chosen to live this quarantine, but we have to face it. We have not chosen to stick to all these limitations, yet we have to live with them and overcome them.

In the same way, I didn’t decide to end up in a hospital after a simple meniscus operation when I was just 17 years old. This surgery has put my life at risk, between life and death for nine months, I was locked in a room, alone for most of the time, with myself, with my new scars, with uncontrollable pain, with a story that I want to tell you today. It is easy to see the final result, a statuesque body, to comment on and even criticize others who put in not only physical dedication but also that of the heart and of the soul, the real one. At just 17 years old, in my best ever physical shape, my life suddenly took a turn, and due to a mistake made in the operating room, I ended up on a hospital bed, where I almost lost my life. I used to fight, jump, run, train as hard as I could, then suddenly I found myself lying on a bed, having lost the ability to move… and it was total darkness, turned off in thin air. I could no longer run, jump, do stunts, or lift weights because I could not even walk anymore. Only my memories know how much I wanted to close my eyes and give up and accept the doctor’s opinions. They were repeating that I couldn’t save myself and that if so, I would have lost a leg (the left one), and my life would have changed forever: goodbye acting, sports, fitness, my life as an athlete.

All my dreams shattered, my sacrifices canceled like a swipe on a blackboard, my life canceled. It is in the worst moments, as I always say, that we give the best of ourselves. Pain is only temporary and often anticipates a change that is reflected in a general improvement, the 2.0 version of ourselves advanced and improved. After nine months between life and death, I had finally learned something important, I had learned to fight and that the real strength is in the heart and mind, and not just in the muscles. I ignored any person and any medical advice, the negative energies that surrounded me, and my body that was betraying and abandoning me. I didn’t know how to walk anymore (I had to learn to walk like a child again). I couldn’t move because every vibration of my spine caused me immense and indescribable pain. I only saw my legs transformed into two small pieces of wood without any reactivity, my body deteriorated, and I was just a seemingly hopeless vegetable. “You have to fight” I repeated to myself, “you have to get up, and you have to do it because it’s not over yet, actually… it has just started. Life presents the toughest challenges to its strongest warriors”.

I started meditating and training mentally, isolating myself spiritually and tried to get up from that same bed that had given me up for dead several times, until one day finally, I found myself doing pushups in front of the window of that hospital room. Hour after hour, day after day, weeks after weeks, months after months, years after years… yes, it took years to return to normal, to return to the light. You that are reading my words cannot surrender to a simple quarantine, you need to find the real yourself and do your best to come out victorious. They told me over and over that I would never be able to walk normally anymore, that I could not fight or train again, and that I should forget about my career as an athlete. I could enjoy sport, as I intended it, just as a spectator watching it on TV, and not as a protagonist. I’ve learned that if you want something, you never have to give up, and you can’t expect things to change just by standing still. At 17 years old, they gave me up for dead and told me to abound my dreams and put a pin in them.

Today, I want to tell the person who is reading these words, never draw a line under your life, never give up your dreams, always fight to achieve your goals. It is easy to search for someone’s name and take a quick look at what appears only on the surface; The reality is that many times the true essence of who we are, what we do, what we want, hides behind something much more complex and sometimes even painful and dark. Use pain as a ‘superpower’, use it in the wisest of ways, and I guarantee you will not be disappointed because, very often, it is in pain that the secret key to the purpose of our life is hidden. One repetition after another, learn to love yourself, look straight ahead and never back, run and don’t just stop and walk, there is so much to live out there, and this life is all for you. Today I live my life and I keep fighting to achieve my dreams with the love of my life (Karina) which I met during this amazing journey of moving to the City of Angels. At the end of my story, I want to share a secret with you and not simply as a Personal Trainer, but as someone who wants to help you remember that every day must be used to the best and that the real strength is already within you, just waiting to be discovered and released.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Has not been a smooth road at all. During my journey in the USA, I did not come back to Italy for over seven years and I spent most of my time alone. I traveled all around the STATES, from Miami to NYC, TEXAS, California…etc. The real struggle was not being able to have my family close to me, but I made this call…so I risked all to follow my American Dream. The beginning of my journey… My arrival in the USA has been the hardest part, I was all alone on the other side of the world, no family, no friends, nothing familiar, completely different culture and just me and my backpack, I remember like it was yesterday when I arrived in Miami, I walked all around the city for 21 days before getting familiar with it, which when I think about it is not even that bad :), CRAZY ME as people say.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am all about Acting and Sports. I specialized in Fitness and Martial Arts, athletically talking. I am a pretty humble person, but I got the honor and the luck to appear in some Italian Magazines and News Papers. I got also featured in Hola Latinos Magazine as MR MODEL DECEMBER 2014, one of my first accomplishments in the STATES. I am also really proud that I was able to start working as a stunt and actor for Telemundo in the beginning and later on for some American productions.

Before leaving Miami, I got the chance to be part of some amazing projects, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9172148/. I am not famous at all and is not about fame to be honest, it’s about challenging my self and discovering what I am really capable of. All I accomplished in the USA, I did it alone and looking back, I can say loud that I grow as a person a lot. I love helping people, and my life must be a constant challenge to keep me alive.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
They can not believe that an athlete as me is also an IT Specialist, I am all about tech. A lot of people can not simply believe that someone that dedicates a lot of his time on taking care of his body may also have some hidden professional skills 🙂

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trainerraiden/
• Facebook: https://it-it.facebook.com/elioantonini.fitnessmotivation
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9172148/