17 Regular Guys Who Will Make You Want to Be Better
It’s impossible to not be moved by these unbelievable stories
We talk to a lot of impressive guys here at Men’s Health. Some men have overcome tremendous adversity to emerge stronger than ever before, while others have made it their mission to improve the lives of their friends, family, and total strangers.
Then there are the guys who are just plain badass.
But all of the men on this list have something in common: They inspire us to be better.
We dare you to read these guys’ stories and not feel motivated to make a change in your life, whether it’s striving to reach a new PR, dedicating your time to a worthwhile cause, or being a more attentive father.
And for more life wisdom from inspiring guys, check out Men’s Health’s Everyday Heroes.
Collin Clarke
In May 2015, Collin Clarke weighed 201 pounds, with 37% body fat. But then the 22-year-old walked by the multipurpose studio at Bob’s Gym in Evansville, Indiana where he worked behind the front desk.
He peeked inside the room and spotted personal trainer Glenn Ubelhor practicing his bodybuilding posing routine in the mirror. That was the moment Clarke’s life changed forever.
Six months later, Clarke stepped on stage at Kentucky Muscle, a bodybuilding competition in Louisville, wearing only a pair of posing trunks. He weighed 137 pounds, with 7.2% body fat.
Now, when he walks through the doors at Bob’s Gym, “I feel happy,” says Clarke. “It puts a smile on my face.” His new go-to slogan: “Never give up."
And he wants to inspire others to live healthier, happier lives, too. Click here to watch Clarke’s entire story—and see his amazing before and after photos.
Ricky Smith
One day in 2013, comedian Ricky Smith was hungy for a pizza, so he jokingly asked his Facebook followers to pony up for the pie. Thirty minutes later, Smith watched in amazement as a piping-hot Domino’s box showed up on his Los Angeles doorstep—courtesy of an online acquaintance from Chicago who called in the order.
That’s when Smith realized that total strangers are capable of sending goodwill to each other—and actually like to do it, no strings attached. He was hooked.
Since then, Smith has traveled the country many times chronicling his actions—from buying a new wardrobe for a homeless man in California to organizing a blanket drive in D.C., to simply planting a kiss on a delighted 92-year-old woman’s face in Atlanta—via social media using the hashtag #RAKE, or Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere.
Smith’s organic movement grew so fast that he launched a nonprofit, the R.A.K.E. Fund. “Sometimes you just need a push to do something for others,” he says, “and I can’t stop helping people.”
Related: He Tried to Give Out Money On the Street and Nobody Would Take It. Would You?
Zack Ruhl
You know that thing that’s keeping you from getting to the gym today? Maybe you have a work deadline? Forgot your socks?
Whatever your excuse, Zack Ruhl has two better ones—and he still made it.
Ruhl was born with birth defects that forced doctors to amputate both his legs when he was 2 years old.
Now he’s a CrossFit trainer with biceps that rival The Rock’s. The guy can do muscleups while hauling a 29-pound wheelchair! (Click here to see the incredible feat.)
He’ll never forget the time a client texted him to ask whether she should cancel her training session because she had injured her foot.
His response: “Are you seriously asking your no-legged CrossFit trainer if you can do CrossFit with a sprained foot? I’ll see you Monday.”
Randy Pierce
For a guy who was dealt a pretty lousy hand in life, Randy Pierce has an unbelievable perspective—and a taste for corny puns.
“Most people would probably say it’s crazy for a blind man to be climbing mountains, and I guess I see their point,” says Pierce. (Ba-dum ching.)
Yet Pierce—who has been blind since 1980—has scaled all 48 peaks taller than 4,000 feet in his home state, New Hampshire; ascended to the top of the 19,341-foot tall Mount Kilimanjaro; nailed the Boston Marathon in 3:50:42; and became the first blind American to compete a Tough Mudder.
“We’re all going to face challenges in this world,” he says. “You can let them define you, or you can use them to redefine yourself. For me, pushing forward is what matters most.”
Michael Lin
On his way to a burglary call in Phoenix, Arizona, in March 2014, Officer Michael Lin spotted a man on a bicycle clutching a small child in pajamas at 3 a.m.—a victim, it turned out, of a kidnapping and sexual assault.
So he activated his patrol car’s lights. When the cyclist accelerated, Lin cut him off, removing the little girl from the man’s clutches.
Lin prefers not to think about what would have happened to the girl if he hadn’t been there, but according to the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children, 75 percent of kidnapped children are murdered within the first 3 hours of the kidnapping—and 99 percent are dead within 24 hours.
For his quick actions that night, the National Association of Police Organizations named Lin one of the country’s Top Cops.
“I definitely didn’t understand the gravity of the situation in the moment,” Lin says. “I was in the right place at the right time, doing my job the best way I can. As a cop, you hear about these kinds of scenes, but this was my scene. I’m just glad I was able to reunite this little girl with her mom and dad.”
Briggs VanNess
When Briggs VanNess walked into a Salt Lake City Denny’s at sunrise on a snowy day in December 2014, he wasn’t trying to be a hero.
But after he finished his breakfast, he paid $20 for his meal—as well as $700 to cover the bills for every other person in the restaurant, and a $1500 tip for his waitress, a single mom.
VanNess, a formerly homeless criminal, is motivated to help people who fight and struggle every day, but don’t ask for help or handouts. “So if I see someone who I think deserves help, then I do what I can,” he says.
This kindness has triggered a chain reaction of sorts. Shortly after his Denny’s story went viral, VanNess heard from a man in Texas who followed his altruistic lead by tipping an incoming college freshman a cool $1,000.
“In a world of darkness, the smallest light can make an impact,” he says. “Even if it’s completely pitch-black around you, you’re still shining a light.”
Related: This Man’s Rap Sheet Once Boasted 32 Counts of Aggravated Auto Theft. Now, He’s Being Called a Hero
Finny Akers
Every man loses his parents eventually. But Finny Akers was 21 years old when his father murdered his mother and then killed himself.
“I have two married parents, things are going great . . . and then all of a sudden, the unfathomable, worst-case scenario, crazier-than-a-movie thing happens,” says Akers, who reached the finals of the Ultimate Men’s Health Guy Search in 2014.
That day everything stopped, and a kid who was enjoying a gap year before starting at the University of Virginia had new responsibilities: caring for his 10-year-old brother and 9-year-old sister. He moved them from Washington, D.C., to a small town in Alabama, where his father had family.
There he not only helped raise them but also helped them heal. “I knew the right thing was to go with them and make sure they were okay. I attended counseling sessions with them and acted as a dual brother-father figure as best I could.”
It would be very easy, especially for a 21-year-old, to become bitter. But Akers never fell into that trap. And because he didn’t, neither did his siblings. What saved him? Fitness.
“Fitness can be misconstrued as being very vain and self-centered,” he says. “But it’s deeper than that. You can overcome and achieve anything with mental fortitude, determination, and discipline.”
Michael McCastle
Ever flipped a massive truck tire? It’s a punishing, all-or-nothing exercise. Most guys are totally gassed after exerting the kind of effort it takes to complete even a few sets of 10 or so tire flips, where they might cover about 300 feet of ground total.
Michael McCastle isn’t most guys. He flipped a 250-pound tire nonstop for 68,640 feet. That’s 13 miles. What was he thinking?
“I wanted to do something that hadn’t ever been done before,” says McCastle, an air traffic controller for the United States Navy. “What would it be like if I flipped a huge tire for some crazy distance? I decided on 13 miles and committed to doing the challenge to raise awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project.” That non-profit assists American soldiers who were wounded in battle.
For the full details of the tire-flipping feat, check out McCastle’s story.
Shane Burcaw
Since age 3, Shane Burcaw has lived with a disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type II, which has caused his muscles to progressively deteriorate. He has sat in a wheelchair almost his entire life, unable to eat, brush his teeth, or take a nap without assistance.
He’s a shade over 60 pounds, gets the bulk of his nutrition from feeding tubes while he sleeps, and might not live to see his 30th birthday.
Yet an uncertain future doesn’t faze him in the least. “I don’t want to live my life saying I’m going to die in 5 years,” he says, “because how much fun would that be? So instead I try to move on, focus on more positive stuff, and think about all the reasons my life is awesome.”
That’s the gist behind Laughing at My Nightmare, the popular blog Burcaw launched in 2011. He sought an outlet to share his funny stories—bathroom mishaps included—and was shocked when his Tumblr followers started growing from the hundreds to the hundred thousands.
So he wrote a memoir and launched a non-profit by the same name, sending proceeds from the events he throws—5K races, open-mike nights, cross-country speaking tours—to muscular dystrophy research. In other words, he’s making every moment count, doing his damndest to beat every long-term prediction his doctors throw at him.
“Yes, I have shit in my life, but so does everyone else,” Burcaw says. “[Laughing at My Nightmare] is about the idea that no matter what your problems are, humor helps.”
Alon Loeffler
In high school, Alon Loeffler pushed himself to be a dedicated 100-meter sprinter, posting the third-fastest time in his home state of Victoria, in Australia.
But suddenly during his sophomore year, he was diagnosed with myelitis, a rare inflammation of the spinal cord. The condition left the once-elite sprinter unable to walk or even stand without clutching his IV pole. He was bedridden for three weeks.
With the help of physical therapy, Loeffler relearned how to walk and, eventually, run again. He came out of the ordeal with a new appreciation for what his body could do.
“To even be able to run was one of the most amazing things,” he says. “I feel like I was given a second chance, so why not push through and become the strongest I can be?”
So he started hitting the gym, lifting three to four times per week, alternating squat/bench press days with deadlift/overhead press days. He also does interval stationary cycling twice a week.
Once he discovered that the program was working, he set a personal goal of squatting 220 pounds. Seven months into training, he reached his goal.
“Going to the gym shouldn’t be a chore,” says Loeffler. “Every day I get to push myself to get to my goals. I’ve loved every second.”
Related: This Man Was Paralyzed 4 Years Ago. Now He Can Squat More Than You
Chris Ihle
Chris Ihle, a Wells Fargo mortgage consultant in Ames, Iowa, was walking back to his office after a lunchtime motorcycle ride when he spotted a stalled Pontiac Bonneville stopped on railroad tracks—and the train crossing gates about to drop.
So he sprinted over to the car to move all 3,500 pounds and save the elderly couple trapped inside. “I could feel the ground rumbling,” says Ihle.
He smelled something hot and metallic. “Probably the train’s brakes,” he says. “Or my own fear.”
He didn’t consider the danger—he just put his weight into the front grille, told the couple to put it in neutral, and moved the car a few feet.
The car budged . . . and cleared the tracks just before the locomotive roared past, missing him by inches. “I thought the train was going to clip my feet,” he says.
Ihle shrugs at the attention, but there’s one depiction of the event that he quibbles with.
“One paper compared me to Clark Kent,” he says. “Really? Clark Kent? I pushed a car out of the way of a train. Why can’t I be Superman? Why do I have to be his nerdy alter ego?”
Related: The Crossing Guard
Brian Kennedy
When Brian Kennedy’s 28-year-old daughter, Emily, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he and his wife moved into her and her husband’s house and helped her finish graduate school.
But Kennedy’s efforts to help his daughter didn’t end there.
Though Kristy has two doctors, they have limited resources. “There are a lot of advancements coming out from drug companies, and we want a doctor who is on top of them so we can get access to them with no delay,” Kennedy says.
So when Kristy’s phone calls, emails, and faxes to a MS specialist in Orlando, Florida went unanswered, Kennedy took matters into his own hands.
He crafted a fake newsletter about Kristy’s story and sent it directly to the doctor’s office. Within two days, Kristy finally heard back from the doctor.
How far would you go to help your family? Check out Kennedy’s full story here.
Kavan Lake
He’s a Marine. He’s a football coach. He’s a dad. And he defines himself by the service he gives to others. And yet, when Maryland man Kavan Lake applied to the Ultimate Men’s Health Guy Search in 2014, he told us he comes from “nothing.”
Lake was raised in poverty, rotating through only a couple of different outfits in high school, and being unable to go to school some days because he didn’t have shoes to wear. To some, that might be embittering. He says, simply: “That kind of stuff made me stronger.”
To Lake, it was a lifelong lesson that he should work hard for everything he can get. So he hustled at McDonald’s to help his family make ends meet, joined the Marines, put himself through college, became a combat pilot, an engineer, a head football coach, a husband, a father.
Now, the Ultimate Men’s Health Guy Search runner-up manifests strength in so many ways, whether it’s training other soldiers for combat, preparing athletes to do battle on the field, or teaching his kids what it means to give everything they have.
“When people say I can’t do something,” says Lake, “I quietly take it as a personal challenge. I never tell myself no. Everything is achievable.”
Paul de Gelder
In 2009, Paul de Gelder, an Australian Navy diver, had been swimming on his back for 5 minutes in Sydney Harbor at 7 a.m. when he felt a hard thump against his right thigh. It took him about a second to realize that a shark had just clamped down on his leg, biting through his wetsuit.
The next 9 seconds were essentially a real-life scene from Jaws.
“When I looked down, I saw that my hand was in the shark’s mouth!” says de Gelder. At that point, no pain had set in until the shark started shaking and tearing off his limbs.
de Gelder was sure he was as good as dead—but then three Navy buddies pulled him out of the water and quickly transported him to the emergency ward.
When he woke up two days later, the trauma surgeon advised him to lose the right leg. Just 48 hours after the surgery, de Gelder began doing one-arm pushups using the bar placed above his hospital bed to assist him in sitting up.
“I knew that if I kept myself moving and motivated, then my mind would follow,” de Gelder says. “Staying positive and focused was always going to be the biggest challenge.”
de Gelder left the Navy after penning his harrowing autobiography, No Time for Fear, in 2012, and has since become a full-time motivational speaker. “I’m no longer afraid of sharks, but I still can’t look at ‘em in the teeth,” he says.
Jeremiah Curtis
Jeremiah Curtis nearly died at 4 years old, when a gun that he and a friend discovered in his mom’s purse accidentally discharged. Though Curtis survived the shooting, it was only the first chapter to a grisly back story.
Curtis’ parents divorced soon after, and they both developed separate addictions—mom to her career, dad to methamphetamine.
Shortly after Curtis graduated high school, his father succumbed to a drug-related illness. “I was completely lost. I had no direction. I couldn’t feel anything.”
But then came a game-changing gift from his brother-in-law: a set of weights.
“Every time I worked out, I felt great,” Curtis says. “My head was clear and balanced. I was energized. I felt my confidence coming back. Working out became a passion for me—and it probably saved my life.”
More than a decade removed from his darkest days, Curtis now coaches his roommate, a military veteran, through injuries and physical impairments. His goal: to transform his journey into a platform for motivational speaking that can generate profound healing for others.
“When I see someone in pain, someone who’s vulnerable, I actually feel it—and I try to do something about it.”
Brian Munoz
Police Officer Brian Munoz was on a routine night shift in Clearwater, Florida when he answered a call about a domestic disturbance. The case: A widowed father, who had resorted to drinking after losing his wife, was having a disagreement with his three children.
Nobody was hurt, but Munoz took the opportunity to talk to the youngest son. The boy asked Munoz a devastating question: “Could you be my daddy?”
In the moment, Munoz remained stoic, but when he returned to his cruiser, he broke down.
“I cried like a little baby, as embarrassing as that may sound,” Munoz says. The boy looked identical to Munoz’s own son, Anthony, “except he was depressed, dirty, motherless, and basically abandoned by his biological father.”
From that pivotal moment, “I became much more appreciative of my family, and of the kind of father that I was being to my kids,” says Munoz.
As a cop, SWAT team member, and volunteer coach for his son’s soccer team, strives to show his kids what it takes to be a good man. He also helps improve his coworkers’ lives.
In 2012, Munoz accidentally founded a personal-training business when he helped a fellow officer work out consistently. The colleague lost 50 pounds in about 6 months, and a new venture was born.
“I got hooked on that feeling of helping other people become the best versions of themselves,” says Munoz.
Related: The Heartbreaking Moment That Changed This Cop’s Life Forever
Scott Brawner
On an early morning in May 2014, off-duty firefighter Scott Brawner was working out at his local gym in Oregon when he received a series of alerts on his iPhone.
The notification came from PulsePoint, a 911-connected mobile app designed to let him, and other CPR-trained citizens in the area, know that someone nearby was suffering Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) and needed assistance ASAP.
A map suddenly popped up on his screen, and within less than a minute, Brawner found the unconscious man, 57-year-old Drew Basse, in the gym parking lot.
So Brawner grabbed Basse by the arms, pulled him out of his car, and immediately started chest compressions while waiting for an ambulance to show up. When paramedics arrived within 5 minutes, they were able to quickly get Basse breathing with a pulse again. But they were only successful at reviving Basse because of Brawner’s life-saving efforts.
Four days later, Brawner visited the hospital to check in on Basse and meet his family. “I’ve had a lot of people live throughout my career, but I’ve never had that one-on-one connection with somebody. I’m really happy how well that app worked. It allowed me to find him so fast,” says Brawner.
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