ABOVE: Trainer and fitness guru Bill Maeda does squat curls outside his Oahu home. The 55-year-old has recently found fame on the internet, where he's amassed millions of awestruck followers.
"Training started at eight years old," he says after his afternoon workout, which today consists of pull-ups at the Kapiolani Park fitness station. "I was like a lot of boys my age: I saw Bruce Lee for the first time and immediately started doing push-ups, sit-ups and squats. But unlike them, I turned my boogie board into a punching bag."
Most of Maeda's posts show an impressively shredded man in his fifties exercising outside his Honolulu apartment, at the park and occasionally at a gym to nearly three million followers across multiple platforms. A typical post reads like an entry in a fitness journal: exercise, weight, repetitions, date, age, time of day. "When I first posted during COVID, in April 2020 for a few friends and clients, I didn't say anything. I had to get past the stage fright."
In an era of innumerable fitness influencers and programs, Maeda stands out for his sheer athleticism. He might be lifting a hundred pounds with his teeth, levitating on the handle of a kettlebell with consummate control, barefoot sprinting or lifting various heavy things: mace, club, kettlebell, sled or loaded cooler. The comments are full of breathless awe from other fitness buffs ("RESPECT," "Are you sure you're 55?" "Not sure what bro is training for but you is looking ready my guy").
Extreme physicality helped Maeda recover from colon cancer after being diagnosed in 2012 at the age of 42, and he still trains others to find their inner beasts, if at their own pace. "There are plenty of people saying 'suck it up' in the industry, and for younger people that's OK. A lot of folks want something more relaxed," he says. "The concept of one percent better every day is unrealistic. It's better to show up for something you're positive you can do again tomorrow—and the next day. I tell people to get strong legs and make ambidexterity an obsession—use your nondominant hand to brush your teeth or cook, chew food on your nondominant side and use your nondominant eye more often to build good circuitry. Strength training tends to amplify inequalities in the body. That, and quit sugar."
How does he feel about his virality? "I get recognized daily now," he says, stopping to greet fans at the pull-up bars. "I'm as honored to meet people as they are to meet me. My job is to keep people interested in their health. It's not just for entertainment."
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