Uploaded December 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
If you enjoyed this video please like, share and or comment to help it spread.
Ben Wachenje aka Bro Ben is a family man, a filmmaker, an artist, a musician and a fitness enthusiast. The renaissance man has used his talents to pay tribute to his passion for health and fitness. And he is well known in the modern calisthenics movement for giving the sport cinematic shine.
A huge, huge inspiration to me (Ify) and plenty of others connected to the calisthenics movement I thought it would be cool to see the man in front of the camera for once and get to know what makes him tick.
Thanks to Ben for the use of footage from his films:
FAT MAN DOES MUSCLE UP AND CHIN UPS - youtu.be/gl30mbu9ULI
FAT MAN GOES CRAZY FOR CALISTHENICS AND LOSES 46lbs IN 100 DAYS - youtu.be/PsseOOmS-Uc
CALISTHENIC RAP - youtu.be/Q7YD-eVTjDs
BLOCKWORKOUT (FITNESS IN THE STREETS) - youtu.be/25JHyXtqChY
THE BRIXTON STREET GYM LAUNCH - youtu.be/Tt2NE_GZKXU
Filmed and edited by Ify Osi.
Subscribe to Bro Ben's channel - youtube.com/user/wachenje
Subscribe to fizzYcaL TV: youtube.com/user/fizzYcaLtv
Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fizzYcaLtweets
Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/fizzYcaLofficial
Follow us on instagram: instagram.com/fizzYcaL
fizzYcaL is an independent, self-funded labour of love, but if you'd like to help maintain the quality of our work please visit our store - fizzycal.com/store
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ben: "My name is Benjamin Wachenje aka Brother Ben. And I'm 40 years old. I've been married for 16 years and I've got three children.
I'm known for having the crap muscle up - a one armer. No, I'm best known as a filmmaker. Someone who documents the movement.
My first calisthenics video was 'Fat Man Does Muscle Up'. I documented it I thought that would help me stick to my goals.
I put it online and it just sat there for a couple of months and there wasn't any kind of activity on it. Ed from Barstarzz posted the video on the Barstarzz forum page and my video jumped from 200 hits to 10,000 hits and loads of people had watched it and I was getting all these messages of encouragement. And anybody I reached out to in the calisthenics community I found that they responded back to you. And that was quite interesting to find out how humble an approachable all these people were.
I'm not training to look good naked. Even though we do that. As well you want to feel confident, you want to feel good about yourself. But it's just not about that now. It's kind of like I want to try and shape the body that's gonna see me into my twilight years and I won't be a burden on my wife and I won't be a burden on my children. I don't want my children to have to push me in a wheelchair because I've eaten too much food.
That's what I do for a living I'm an illustrator. And most of my clients are American based. I work through an agency called Bernstein and Andriulli. I've also got an agency in the UK called Central Illustration Agency. I recently painted Jonzi-D who is a rapper. It was on show at 'Late at the Tate'.
I've been rapping since I was 9 years old. But I don't take my rap seriously because I have enough hobbies going on that are bringing money home.
Not long after I put out my 'Fat Man' video, I was training in Brockwell Park and I kept seeing this big group of boys training. I just looked at one of them and I just said are you the facilitator and he goes "yeah," and this was Boost, right. And I said "yeah, like I'm kind of interested in like maybe getting in contact with the council about getting some decent equipment. Would you be interested in talking to them with me and making sure we get the right equipment here." And he was like, "yeah, yeah definitely." And he said to me "do you want to train now?" And already done a 10k run that morning but men's ego I didn't want to look like I am scared to train with them. So I said, "I'll train with you."
Hanging around with people like Terroll (Boost) and Freddie who are all a bit younger than me I think it helps to extend your youth. Things that they do as young people will refresh your memory of what it was like to be younger and it helps you to kind of, not in a stupid way trying to stay young forever, but not to age prematurely."
If you enjoyed this video please like, share and or comment to help it spread.
Ben Wachenje aka Bro Ben is a family man, a filmmaker, an artist, a musician and a fitness enthusiast. The renaissance man has used his talents to pay tribute to his passion for health and fitness. And he is well known in the modern calisthenics movement for giving the sport cinematic shine.
A huge, huge inspiration to me (Ify) and plenty of others connected to the calisthenics movement I thought it would be cool to see the man in front of the camera for once and get to know what makes him tick.
Thanks to Ben for the use of footage from his films:
FAT MAN DOES MUSCLE UP AND CHIN UPS - youtu.be/gl30mbu9ULI
FAT MAN GOES CRAZY FOR CALISTHENICS AND LOSES 46lbs IN 100 DAYS - youtu.be/PsseOOmS-Uc
CALISTHENIC RAP - youtu.be/Q7YD-eVTjDs
BLOCKWORKOUT (FITNESS IN THE STREETS) - youtu.be/25JHyXtqChY
THE BRIXTON STREET GYM LAUNCH - youtu.be/Tt2NE_GZKXU
Filmed and edited by Ify Osi.
Subscribe to Bro Ben's channel - youtube.com/user/wachenje
Subscribe to fizzYcaL TV: youtube.com/user/fizzYcaLtv
Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fizzYcaLtweets
Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/fizzYcaLofficial
Follow us on instagram: instagram.com/fizzYcaL
fizzYcaL is an independent, self-funded labour of love, but if you'd like to help maintain the quality of our work please visit our store - fizzycal.com/store
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ben: "My name is Benjamin Wachenje aka Brother Ben. And I'm 40 years old. I've been married for 16 years and I've got three children.
I'm known for having the crap muscle up - a one armer. No, I'm best known as a filmmaker. Someone who documents the movement.
My first calisthenics video was 'Fat Man Does Muscle Up'. I documented it I thought that would help me stick to my goals.
I put it online and it just sat there for a couple of months and there wasn't any kind of activity on it. Ed from Barstarzz posted the video on the Barstarzz forum page and my video jumped from 200 hits to 10,000 hits and loads of people had watched it and I was getting all these messages of encouragement. And anybody I reached out to in the calisthenics community I found that they responded back to you. And that was quite interesting to find out how humble an approachable all these people were.
I'm not training to look good naked. Even though we do that. As well you want to feel confident, you want to feel good about yourself. But it's just not about that now. It's kind of like I want to try and shape the body that's gonna see me into my twilight years and I won't be a burden on my wife and I won't be a burden on my children. I don't want my children to have to push me in a wheelchair because I've eaten too much food.
That's what I do for a living I'm an illustrator. And most of my clients are American based. I work through an agency called Bernstein and Andriulli. I've also got an agency in the UK called Central Illustration Agency. I recently painted Jonzi-D who is a rapper. It was on show at 'Late at the Tate'.
I've been rapping since I was 9 years old. But I don't take my rap seriously because I have enough hobbies going on that are bringing money home.
Not long after I put out my 'Fat Man' video, I was training in Brockwell Park and I kept seeing this big group of boys training. I just looked at one of them and I just said are you the facilitator and he goes "yeah," and this was Boost, right. And I said "yeah, like I'm kind of interested in like maybe getting in contact with the council about getting some decent equipment. Would you be interested in talking to them with me and making sure we get the right equipment here." And he was like, "yeah, yeah definitely." And he said to me "do you want to train now?" And already done a 10k run that morning but men's ego I didn't want to look like I am scared to train with them. So I said, "I'll train with you."
Hanging around with people like Terroll (Boost) and Freddie who are all a bit younger than me I think it helps to extend your youth. Things that they do as young people will refresh your memory of what it was like to be younger and it helps you to kind of, not in a stupid way trying to stay young forever, but not to age prematurely."
