‘I turned my pain into power:’ Army veteran aims to break 3rd world record

LONG COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) — Trenton Williams spends his time working as a firefighter in Long County. When he isn’t rushing to the aid of strangers, he and his wife are enjoying raising their two daughters. It’s the life Williams always dreamed of but never envisioned for himself in his younger years.

He joined the U.S. Army infantry at 26. Shortly after enlisting, he deployed to Iraq. The following years were brutal on his body, but even more so on his mind.

“I was in a total of five years, but a lot of that last few years were doctors’ appointments,” Williams said.

The injuries he suffered throughout his service ultimately led to an early retirement. It wasn’t until he found himself without the support and brotherhood the Army had provided that he realized how broken he felt.

“I mean, you are with guys that you literally have to trust with your life,” he said. “And you just wake up one day and they aren’t there. That’s depressing.”

PTSD and the sudden loss of companionship drove Williams to find a way to numb the physical and emotional pain.

“Anything I could get my hands on, I was just trying to fill that void,” he said.

He turned to painkillers and alcohol, which only pushed him deeper into depression.

“I was homeless there for a while. I was literally living in my car outside of the VA in Oklahoma City,” he said. “I didn’t know who I was without infantry. That was a big piece of me… I was finally good at something.”

He was lost. He was broke. He was at rock bottom.

“I had a picture of my daughter in one hand and my gun in the other… and that was it. That was it for me.”

Help came in the form of a father’s love.

“I decided to be the father and husband my wife and girls deserved.”

That’s when Williams started channeling his pain into working out — a new, much healthier addiction.

“The feeling I got when I was working out is what kept me going. I needed it.”

He said he was determined to be the hero his daughters saw him as. As he rebuilt his mind, his body began to change too. One day, he decided he wanted to be good at something again, just as he had been in the military.

“I said to myself, what am I good at? Tricep dips.”

He isn’t just good at them — he’s great. In 2022, he clinched the world record for most weighted tricep dips.

“My girls and my wife got to watch me become a world champion… best in the world.”

Ranked the best in something, in a place he once wanted to escape from, Williams proved that pain can produce power — but only if you let it.

Now he’s at it again. As he works toward his newest world record, he’s tying together his past life of military service and his current career as a first responder. He works with the nonprofit Stomping Out the Stigma to remind first responders that it’s possible to work through trauma with the right support and determination.

“First responders aren’t machines… we’re not,” he said. “What we see every day at scenes… it’s trauma too.”

He says his main goal is to change the culture that suggests first responders can’t talk about or feel emotion — a mindset he once had himself.

Years have passed since that night with his pistol, but he says each day is a blessing and a reminder of everything he almost gave up.

“I just want people to get to experience just how beautiful life is… because… man, it is.”