CANADIAN PHYSIQUE ALLIANCE September/October 2020 | Page 23

During this time Tory received a weekend pass to go
home. He immediately entered a local bench press
competition. With the hospital bands still on his wrist
he benched lower than his personal best but achieved
a sense of euphoria he had not felt since before the
accident.
Not even months after the accident Tory had some
direction towards that fire still burning, with the new
aspiration of becoming the very first Canadian male
wheelchair bodybuilder to earn their Pro-Card at a CPA
event. To join the ranks of Canada’s only current IFBB
Wheelchair Pro Jack McCann.
“I was so excited to get back to my gym, but I hated every
second of my first few work outs. Transferring into the
benches was hard, none of my favorite workouts hit the
same. I seriously thought of giving up bodybuilding all
together, but I am not a quitter. I knew with some hard
work it would get easier.” Tory is now back training 5-6
days a week.
Chelsea recently wrote in an “Chairversary” IG Post,
Tory would later find out his T-12 shattered and he was
paralyzed from the waist down. He was flown to the
Vancouver General Hospital for surgery where he spent
3 weeks, then an additional 6 weeks at the GF Strong
Rehabilitation Centre. Tory recollects that he had to
relearn how to do everything from dressing himself,
siting up, to “you name it I had to learn it”. He states it
was a dark time even with the incredible support of his
wife, family, friends and hometown.
He was alone a lot during this time, while Chelsea, his wife
and stay at home mom remained in Kamloops with the
kids. She packed up their life, sold their home and found
a rental that would fit the modification requirements for a
wheelchair. This needed to be done before Tory could go
home, and he wanted to go home. He wanted to sit on the
couch and watch a movie with the family and go in the
garage to put in his new lift but that wasn’t happening.
This provided a lot of time for Tory to ponder what his
life was going to look like. To get through this incredible
level of uncertainty, what did he do? He trained using the
“crappy cables” at the rehab centre and he “got to work”.
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