Zarko Rebuz: His Fitness Journey
By Nadine Tomlinson
By Nadine Tomlinson
Fitness has always been an integral part of life for Zarko Rebuz. Yoga, martial arts, snowboarding, you name it, he would do it. But something happened that forever changed the life he knew.
In 2009, while in Germany, Zarko had a snowboarding accident. He was lucky to be alive. However, he could hardly stand up or walk, and was constantly in pain. Despite this, he chose not to do surgery. What happened next would change not only his perspective on life, but also his fitness journey.
Zarko flew to Turkey for a vacation. There, in solitude, he started walking on a beach every day. A week later, he noticed a positive change in his body. That was a starting point for his recovery, which also included physiotherapy and yoga. He was back in form after a year.
At 46, Zarko is living a life he loves and enjoying great health. While he enjoys different types of workouts, he particularly likes bodyweight exercises to keep himself fit for his big passion, kitesurfing. Now that he’s one of our gym trainers at eXtreme, he’s also giving others the gift of fitness and good health. In the mornings, six days a week, you can find him teaching classes here with us in Cabarete, Dominican Republic, where he now lives.
A firm believer in self-healing, Zarko practises fasting, both intermittent and prolonged. “Fasting heals the body,” he said, in an interview with Patricia Bohl, the Marketing Manager at Extreme. He also thinks it opens the way for us to reconnect with food.
As terrible as his accident was, something good came out of it: a new purpose and outlook on life. For Zarko, failure and his past injuries helped him to understand his body and life in a deeper way. His advice to those who are starting their fitness journey is simple. “People are fit in different ways, and lifestyle changes take time,” he told Patricia. “Take things slowly. Switch things up. Be humble. Try new things.”
If you enjoyed this article and are thinking about starting your own fitness journey with Zarko, consider booking one of our fitness camps.