As a kid, Camryn Bynum was never pulled aside and told that he was too underweight to follow his dreams of becoming a pro football player, it was just a reality that he knew would need to be changed if he were to have any chance of success. Fast-forward to today, and Bynum is on fire as an NFL superstar playing safety for the Minnesota Vikings. M&F sat down with the inspirational athlete to find out how he changed his trajectory, and why all things are possible — with some seriously hard work.
“Really, my whole life, I grew up smaller than most people, especially on the football field, because I was a late bloomer and really didn’t hit my growth spurt until I got to college,” recalls Bynum, who attended Centennial High School in California. It wasn’t that a coach or a peer had put him down — the feelings of inadequacy came from the man himself, but rather than accept his plight as undersized for the sport that he loved, Bynum instead gave his all to becoming the athlete that he always wanted to be.
“I see that now, as one of the best things that ever happened to me,” says the baller. “Because I grew up smaller than everybody, I knew; I had to work harder. So really, going up through grade school and then through high school, knowing that I was smaller than everybody, and being called undersized and being called less athletic than most people, my only option was; okay, how can I work harder than every single person to be able to make it, regardless of how tall I am, regardless of how much I weigh, regardless of how fast I can run, how heavy I can lift?”
He added: “More than anything, I was thinking; how much better can I be than everybody just off of my work ethic? And, how much more detailed work can I do, just to pass everybody else up? So that was always my mindset. And, I think me growing up smaller than everybody really set my foundation for the fact that I had to work harder than most people. Then, the fact that once I did start growing, now I had the work ethic plus the size and the strength and speed. So, then I was able to start passing people up.”
Camryn Bynum Went From Underdog to a Prized Football Player
While Bynum did not play on the varsity team during his junior year at the University of California, as a senior he went on to record 70 tackles and nine passes defended for the Golden Bears. For our man, these were the fruits of a labor that began during his sophomore year at high school. In tenth grade, he had found a life-changing coach, Anthony Brown and the two remain close to this day. Brown believed in Bynum so much that the two would meet for training every morning at 5am before school.
To work on his size, Bynum began each morning in the weight room, then he’d hit the field for football training where he would perform drills without a ball, running up-hill, working on his conditioning and stamina so that once he played football on the flat field he’d be faster than the rest.
“That moment where I was able to find a coach that believed in me, and paired with my work ethic, that’s where I took off,” explains the player. In addition to his morning weights and drills, Bynum would have a second gym session in school, and then he’d have football practise with the team. Incredibly, Bynum didn’t end his days there because he would meet with Coach Brown after school to work on his speed with exercises such as sprints and treadmill work. Still, Bynum’s physical growth wasn’t a straight diagonal line upwards. “I’ve taken care of my body, made sure I’m doing all
the workouts, but what was probably my one thing that I wasn’t consistent with was my sleep,” he explains. “Because I wanted to work so hard and wanted to do so much, to be able to make it with football. But then I’d have to get home and do homework and manage that. So, sleep was the one thing I had to sacrifice, I wasn’t too educated on sleep.”
– Asian & Asian American Sports (@amaznhq)Camyrn Bynum Learned That Progress is Not a Straight Line Upwards
While Bynum was getting faster, stronger, and better at football, he was still struggling to put weight on, despite eating six meals each day, because of the thousands of calories that the young player was burning. Fortunately, as puberty hit and Bynum’s natural testosterone levels surged, his body slowly began to grow. “And, once college hit, I was more educated on not just eating calories, but needing to up my protein,” he explains.
Bynum doubled his protein intake, made sure to stay hydrated, and even got those extra hours of nightly sleep. “That’s when I really started to actually build my body up,” he shares.
To this day, Bynum likes to eat clean, tries to avoid refined sugars, and doesn’t touch junk food. He’s a huge fan of salmon, which is high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids, and is perhaps even more committed to being in the best physical shape possible now that he’s the pro player that he always dreamed of becoming. Bynum says that he eats 210 grams of protein per day. That’s one gram for every pound that he weighs. Not only is Bynum an inspiration for “undersized” young athletes everywhere, but he is also representing his heritage in the Philippines, where he lives and trains in the offseason. “
I’m having a lot of fun,” he says proudly. “I didn’t realize the impact that doing something in the NFL or just doing something in a spotlight, as a Filipino, would have. I didn’t realize how big of an impact and how inspiring that was to people until I got out there and started hearing people tell me stories about them being inspired by my story, and seeing people starting to play flag football because they saw me waving the flag.”
Bynum’s recent form with the Minnesota Vikings, his home since 2021, has been scorching, including three forced turnovers in just three games. For anyone born with an obstacle to becoming an athlete, Bynum feels that the challenge will only serve to make you a better performer. “A lot of people who are born gifted, born bigger than most people, and and born with the athletic ability, kind of get away with things at a young age,” he explains. “Whether it’s overpowering people or being bigger than anybody, but me, I had to actually create a skillset based off of technique and based off the details of the game.”
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