While some families share food or religion, Victor’s family shared break dance. Taught to dance by his father and uncle, who were old-school B-Boys in Mexico, Florida-born Victor had a broken DNA. He started breaking up at age six, but didn’t take it seriously until he was 10 years old. It was only when he regained it in his early youth that he realized how important it was to him.
Victor entered his first battle at just 14 years old. Now that it has become a career for him, his relationship with how his body moves has changed. Although breaking up has been a part of his world for most of his life, doing it full time requires much more of him mentally and physically.
Breaking takes precedence over everything else. While Victor trains to compete most of the year, his main goal is to keep fit. While the breakup is at the forefront of your mind, it’s only a small part of your training that leads to an event and it really isn’t until the month before an event. The month before an event is when you really start to get serious. For example, the World Games are approaching in July, but will not begin training specifically until late May or early June.
But that doesn’t mean Victor isn’t active the rest of the time. Running and road cycling are two essential parts of your training regimen. Several times a week, Victor will ride his bike 20 miles or more just to maintain cardio and strength. If you are not training with your bike, you can find him doing sprints. In addition to running and cycling, he will also do interval workouts and creativity training before an event. Working to increase and maintain your endurance, as well as integrating new movements and styles into your dance is key in the weeks leading up to a competition. If all goes well at the World Games, Victor is hopeful that his training will lead him to his breaking debut at the 2024 Olympics.
B-Boy Victor poses for a portrait during the Breaker Summit in Austria
© Markus Berger / Red Bull Content Pool
Victor’s favorite types of cross training are those that put him in the same state of flux as breaking. Boxing and Muay Thai bring balance to it in a way that cycling and running do not.
“Boxing is like breaking because it’s more mental than physical. It’s more about technique and how you breathe while you fight,” Victor said.
Like breakup, boxing helps you perfect your mental and cardio game. Find inspiration by watching interviews and documentaries with the boxers you admire. Victor also finds that training and dancing with friends from other styles such as hip-hop and house are a source of creative influence. Formerly a krump and house dancer, he still relates to his hip-hop friends to help him brainstorm and invent new steps to break.
But more than the activities themselves, the results of his training are what keep Victor motivated. Feeling good and being able to do the things he enjoys, in addition to seeing the improvement in his fitness and ability, inspire Victor to maintain balance in his training.
“It’s really like a meditation for me when I’m crazy, or when I’m going through something personal; I just go ahead and train and relieve myself,” Victor said. Seeing him dance, it is clear that all the training he does is part of what sets him apart from other dancers. Its breaking is fluid and easy while marking and concise at the same time. A perfect blend of endurance, strength and creativity combine to form Victor’s unique style. While his true passion lies in breaking down, finding a mental break in cross training is what allows Victor to keep moving and an essential piece to staying in the best shape possible. “My lifestyle is a hobby,” he said of his active lifestyle.
In the early days of his career, Victor was not always as in tune with his body and routine as he is now. He would train like crazy, but since he didn’t eat well, his results weren’t as good as they are now. Remember to just try to eat a lot to get energy, but not have the best diet. In turn, he would compete in events and get tired much faster because he was not getting the right nutrients to accompany his rigorous training and constant movement. Looking back, I wish I had known how to stretch and eat well to better prepare for the big competitions. Now, good nutrition is a key element in his routine and Victor loves to cook and incorporates it regularly into his day to day life.
Victor’s successes could be attributed to the pieces of his active lifestyle along with strong mental play. If he could go back, he would tell his younger self that he was an athlete and that he would not let his losses dictate so much to him. Now, he says, the losses serve as inspiration. But your favor to put your head in the game? Videos of James Brown and a Red Bull energy drink. “I like to see James Brown. It really inspires me to let go and have fun when I’m very tense and I think too much before the competition. I need to see something that shows me I can have fun,” he said. Victor.
The last key piece to Victor’s success? Good melodies. Instead of dancing all the time breaking specific music, he likes to change it. Old school soul and funk music are key candidates for exciting songs. Specifically, Khruangbin’s “C-Side” and Jason Joshua’s “Rose Gold” are at the top of their list of favorite songs to break.
Other songs: “Final Days” by Michael Kiwanuka and “Listen to Your Heart” by Duran Jones. Check out Victor’s full active lifestyle playlist here.
