📍#002 - Masked Mediator
An exclusive interview with the anonymous athlete.
Welcome to Calisthenics Corner!
This week we have an exclusive interview with the anonymous athlete who goes by the name of @masked_mediator. 20 yo with 186k followers, millions of likes and notorious on the London scene, he gave us an insight into his story and philosophy. We’re stoked to have him as the first in our series of interviews, please go check out his IG if you haven’t already!
The usual weekly meet-ups can be found at the bottom of this issue.
In his own words, here is Masked Mediator…
Masked Mediator
I discovered calisthenics just like almost everybody else - I met a crazy Eastern European at the park.
Aged 17, I stumbled across some bars at Wormwood Scrubs park (London) whilst cycling, it was a dark cold evening and there were only a couple of people there. I proceeded to do some pullovers (a move I had just learnt) thinking I’m the shit. At the time I had one year of resistance training under my belt (max pull up was at 25) and experience in boxing so I knew what hard work tasted like. In the corner of my eye I noticed a guy in a hoodie doing push ups. He kept a consistent pace. I did a few more sets, checked on him - he was still going.
I was nervous approaching him but nonetheless I asked him how many he did. He replied “100”, I told him I was impressed only to be met with “that’s nothing”. He was doing multiple sets of 100 like it was just the warm up.
It turned out I was conversing with Kestutis Sadkovskis otherwise known as @kes_k_. I still find it funny how I began asking questions like: can you do a handstand? Since this is such a basic skill for the level of strength this guy was capable of. He proved to me that you can build muscle with just bodyweight training and would be one of the reasons I switch to full calisthenics training later on. This was my first real encounter with calisthenics.
I was never a social media person. In fact I got my first smartphone when I was 18 years old, my screen time was something like 30 mins per day for the first few months of having it. Prior to this I would just walk around with one of those Nokia bricks, my parents were strict and wanted me to get one only once I finished school, in order to prevent me from getting distracted.
I never planned to be an influencer. However, after one year of training it came to my attention that Kes had a decent following online. I remember thinking to myself “well, I’m going to progress anyway, might as well film it and get something out of it along the way ”. However, there were plenty of fitness accounts already, I didn’t see the point in being just like everyone else. There are many people stronger than me, why would someone consume my content over theirs?
So I came up with the idea of wearing a mask to make it more interesting. In the beginning I only planned to wear the mask from ‘squid game’ as seen in my very early Instagram posts, however it’s impossible to breathe in that thing, so the idea evolved into wearing anything that conceals my face.
The other reason for remaining anonymous may surprise you. I started ‘going’ to the gym when I was 15, however I had no clue what I was doing so I would watch fitness influencers on YouTube to try their workouts (e.g AthleanX). One thing that jumped to my attention was that these guys were constantly shirtless, as if they were always trying to show off. Don’t get me wrong, I understood that in order for them to sell their ‘product’ they needed to show their audience the body that their regime produced. But shirtless whilst describing something on a whiteboard? Come on bro. I knew that entering the fitness industry, I too would need to film with no top on, but I didn’t want to come across as arrogant. By wearing a mask I’m able to film guilt free and decouple my identity from my videos. This way people are able to focus on my message of hard work and discipline rather than on who I am.
Lastly, I did not expect my Instagram audience to grow so quickly, I presumed that it may take me a whole decade before I reach my current result and I was ready to put in this work. I came to the realization that no matter how much following I accumulate I’m able to appear in gyms or public places freely which sometimes is not possible for other fitness influencers that get constant recognition by fans. This also gives me the ability to remain the same person and remain humble, rather than be changed due to newly acquired social power.
I currently don’t give my @masked_mediator account to anyone, I don’t have personal social media either, there have been many times when someone has asked for my Instagram but I’ve had to respond that I’m unable to provide it. I have also met people that follow me, yet don’t realize they know me in real life. Who knows? Perhaps whoever is reading this is one of you.
Masked Battalion is an anonymous sports movement aimed to spread mental strength.
Masked Battalion was always part of the plan. Having taken note of other successful influencers such as @smallspartanjay or even Niko Omilana I came to the conclusion the next step after establishing an internet reputation was to build some sort of collective or movement. Jay is the founder of Bar Sparta which is a group of elite calisthenics athletes raising the bar of entry to only those that are highly skilled. Niko is the founder of ‘NDL’ to which you can join simply by subscribing. I chose the difficulty of entry to be somewhere in the middle - produce fitness content, remain anonymous, use the #maskedbattalion. If your content promotes hard work and dedication you are likely to be asked to join officially. I also decided to accept people from any type of sport rather than to fixate on calisthenics, in order to allow as many people to join in. At the time this decision felt like leaving the superclass with fewer instance variables just so that there’s more subclasses that can get implemented in the future (Java nerds will understand;))
At the time of writing there are a total of 6 official Masked Battalion members. The goal is to spread the message of hard work and discipline in order to give people hope when going through hard times.
Calisthenics is just a tool that I use in order to push myself, it could have easily been any other sport, the domain doesn’t matter. In doing so it gives me the perception and hope that I do have control over my life, that I’m not just a victim. In the last year alone both my best friend and girlfriend have left me, when things like this happen it’s very easy to sit back and begin to feel sorry for yourself. You need to realize that no one is going to come and help you, you have to do it all yourself.
The biggest physical challenge for me this year was cold water. I currently swim in a lake every other morning, all year round. In the winter the water gets as cold as 1 degree Celcius, the last thing you want to do at 7am is get your ass out of your cozy warm bed and into this water. There have been times when I would wake up in the middle of the night because I’m too agitated knowing that I will have to get up in the morning and swim. I remember giving up on one occasion - I didn’t show up simply because I didn’t feel like it. That caused me to stay at home that day and reflect on my life even dropping some tears. Having felt that defeat, I have always shown up since then, even the cold water is not as bad as feeling so weak and hopeless.
When coming up against a tough challenge I find it to be easier to focus on a shorter time frame. Rather than thinking of the 4,800 reps I have to do in the upcoming week I think of the 700 I just have to do today. Same goes with the cold water and studying, focusing on one day at a time.
If you give up, as I have described above, the most effective way of coming back from defeat is to attempt the activity again and win as soon as possible. In my case, I couldn’t wait for the next morning swim so that I could take back control. If you don’t do this you will be stuck in a negative cycle and ultimately lose respect for yourself. It’s not worth it.
My next big physical challenge is the 4x4x48 challenge. I am currently running every other morning to prepare for it.
In terms of advice, one thing I never did was film myself. I only began recording when starting my social media channels, I did not realize that I had the most horrendous push up form ever. Like it was terrible. You then have to be humble enough to accept this and drop your reps so that you are doing them properly, this can be frustrating since you can fall into the trap of believing that you are doing worse when you are not.
One of my biggest goals is to achieve a Guiness World Record in calisthenics, most likely dips in a set amount of time. I am yet to start preparing for this, we will see how it goes. I feel like calisthenics is very underrated as a sport, especially with it being so accessible and ancient. You do not need a pitch or a court, just the ground and gravity is enough. I believe that calisthenics has the potential of becoming as big as crossfit since the two are similar in a sense. I hope there will be a time where there is a world wide league where the most elite calisthenics athletes can compete. Wouldn’t it be something to watch 2 guys both capable of 1000+ push ups in one set go head to head?
Weekly meet-ups
(Note - these are not necessarily taught sessions. These are just times and locations for people to get together and workout.)
Didn’t find a meet-up that works for you? Choose a park and time that works for you and let us know - we will add it to the list for next week! Reply to this email with the details.
Take a moment to share this newsletter with a friend that does calisthenics - let’s create a community.
Follow us on Instagram @calisthenics_corner
Email us at: officialcalisthenicscorner@gmail.com