Roberto Starnino
377 St-Paul West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2Y 2A7
From Personal Triumph to Personal Training
Taunted by classmates for being an overweight child, Roberto Starnino decided to change his fate. He retreated to his family’s basement and started to body build with gallon jugs and a warn-down York bench. He joined a gym at the age of 15 and began training people within a year.Gaining 60 lbs. of muscle impressed the Rocky Balboa types at the gym. It also caught the attention of college football recruiters from across the country. Competitive scholarship offers poured in for this rising star. Following his heart, Starnino chose to stay with his girlfriend in Montreal. He became an All-Canadian Academic lineman, while studying for his Bachelor of Commerce degree at Concordia University.
Starnino had it all—a beautiful girlfriend, a promising football career and a job training people at a traditional health club. Then the unthinkable happened. During the last practice at training camp before turning pro, Starnino suffered a stroke.
Overcoming Tragedy
Partially paralyzed and bed ridden, Starnino lost his career, his friends, his girl and his dream. What would he become, if not a pro football player? It was his identity, his world. The depression was just as crippling as the stroke. Starnino was grief stricken, a broken man. (* I know “Hemi” paralyzed is the correct term, but the general public will recognize “partially paralyzed” and keep reading. Otherwise, they might stop reading at a medical term that isn’t familiar.)After two months at the Montreal Neurological Institute’s intensive care unit, he got the wake-up call he needed. Starnino noticed a sixtysomething year-old man suffering from hemi paralysis, but this elderly patient was sitting in a chair and gamely trying to feed himself. With newfound resolve, Starnino began to move—to will his body to comply. At that moment, Starnino decided to overcome his accident.