My sports path began at age 6, when my father (Valerii Birger) brought me to my first training session - kickboxing at the Olimp sports club. In truth, all of my achievements would have been impossible without my father, whom I deeply respect and love. He has always supported me in everything, and I am endlessly grateful for every opportunity I have. Thank you!

At that time, my day looked like this: school until 16:20 (I studied at the Braty Izrailiu gymnasium), training until 20:30, then dinner and homework. I remember that period with joy, because that was exactly when the foundation of my future sports success was built.

Training sessions of 2-2.5 hours, strict discipline, and constant travel to competitions across Ukraine became normal daily life. My top kickboxing result was a silver medal at the Ukrainian Championship. I also repeatedly won regional competitions. My kickboxing background totals 7 years.

Kickboxing became the foundation of both my physical and mental preparation. This sport helped me achieve high results not only in athletics, but also in other areas of life. Coaches to whom I express deep gratitude: Ivan Danchenko, Vasyl Huk, and Taras Stefanyshyn.

As for other sporting interests, my childhood dream was to become a professional football player. I played football throughout my life, and it remains one of my favorite sports today.

As with everyone, priorities and perspectives change over time. After kickboxing, I decided to try water polo (I was 13 at the time). In a short period, I proved to my coach that my potential was not limited to physical ability alone, and I was appointed captain of the Aquapark Plyazh team. I progressed rapidly, with performance improving from session to session. This led to an offer to move into a sports school where water polo would become a full lifestyle. After discussing it with my parents, I chose to continue academic school and prepare for university.

After defining my development path and priorities, I moved into rugby. It is a tough and injury-prone sport, but also one that teaches you to treat your health with greater care. Beyond endurance, rugby demands significant physical strength. That is why I added bar work and pull-ups to improve upper-body function and strength. Training at outdoor sports grounds for pull-ups and push-ups became almost daily.

Time passed, and training intensity increased. One of rugby’s biggest loads falls on the lumbar spine. At that time I was 15 - a transitional age. Muscle development could not keep pace with bone growth, and this caused severe pain. As a result, I left rugby.

My next step was football again, but at a higher level. I competed in regional events for a local team. Over time, I realized my body is more suited to strength-oriented loads. Football players asked me for advice on improving physical form outside the field, and I answered with great enthusiasm.

At 16, I decided to return to kickboxing and compete in regional events. Preparation took me one year. In parallel, I was preparing for external exams and university admission.

During that period, one thing did not satisfy me - the ban on strength training. Kickboxers must be highly technical and fast, with optimal striking power. I had enough power, but lacked speed. To improve speed, coaches often prohibit strength work with bodyweight or added load (unless speed is already very high). This was one of the key factors behind my decision to move into strength sports.

After entering Lviv Polytechnic in 2014 (major: Economics of Enterprise), I focused on developing strength as a physical quality. My first gym training sessions (which I began in 2013) were at the Halla fitness club under one of Lviv’s most experienced coaches, Viktor Yarullin. Thanks to his coaching skill and extensive experience, the essential technical and strength foundations were built. I learned to understand my body, recover correctly, and progress load properly. In essence, my first years were powerlifting-oriented, building a strength base (which I still maintain). At the same time, I gained muscle mass as a side effect of strength development. In that same gym, I gained my first coaching experience, working for one year from 2017 to 2018.

From my very first gym sessions, I was interested in bodybuilding.

Balanced nutrition is an essential component of every sport. In bodybuilding, the athlete is the artist, training is the stimulus, and nutrition is the paint. For a bodybuilder on stage, body fat percentage is what speed is to a sprinter - a foundation of the discipline. At nearly the same level stands the ability to display your strengths. Posing in bodybuilding is the component where I want to become better. A posing routine and musical accompaniment help develop bodybuilding not only as a sport, but as an art form. People want to watch those they aspire to resemble. In my view, attending a bodybuilding event should feel like going to the theater. People should enjoy a performance - a spectacular show.

That is exactly why I stepped on stage on November 24, 2018, at my first bodybuilding competition in Lviv. I began preparing my posing routine one month before the event. Result: bronze medalist in Athletic Physique 175+ cm, which was a major surprise for me and strongly inspired me to continue developing in this direction. Special thanks to Yurii Fedyshyn for the opportunity to join athlete training camps he organized. Yurii introduced me to this sport and to judging criteria and posing.

Two months before the competition, I delivered my first seminar at KULT fitness school: “Fullbody: whole-body training in one session.”

2019 was a breakthrough year for me. I became absolute champion of a tournament in Lviv, champion of Ukraine, and absolute champion in Kharkiv (where I also received my first award for best posing routine). A year later, I again became the tournament’s absolute champion and silver medalist at the Ukrainian Championship, where I received the "Best Posing" free-routine award named after Roman Berezovyi. I sincerely thank Serhii Babchuk and Kostiantyn Mamasakhlisov for their valuable advice and their belief in me.

From the very beginning, I chose the path of natural bodybuilding (since I started strength training in 2013). This is the vision I follow and promote among young people and the broader public. In 2017, I actively began building my Instagram profile and sharing my view of sport and natural bodybuilding. In my opinion, every athlete who chooses natural bodybuilding should have the opportunity to compete among natural athletes. That is exactly why I moved in this direction. I began following the best natural athletes in the world and noticed that they competed in WNBF - the most authoritative federation. I set a goal: one day Ukraine would have its own natural bodybuilding federation. In my posts and videos, I tagged WNBF, and eventually it was noticed. WNBF President Bob Bell wrote to me. After an exceptionally productive conversation, a decision was made to create the first natural bodybuilding federation in Ukraine - the official WNBF Ukraine representation. This is truly a historic event for our country. It is a great honor for me to serve as president of this federation. Since its founding in 2021, my team and I have done everything possible to develop natural bodybuilding and provide a platform for doping control for athletes from around the world.

On October 31, 2021, Lviv hosted the first international natural bodybuilding tournament in Ukraine’s history. It was a true show of athletic aesthetics and beauty. Athletes from Ukraine, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the UAE, Nigeria, Canada, Tunisia, and other countries competed for WNBF Pro status and qualification to the World Championship in Las Vegas. That day can be considered the official birth date of natural bodybuilding in Ukraine. We proved this direction is promising and has major long-term potential.

The next year became a serious challenge for all of Ukraine. The full-scale war launched by Russia against our state on February 24, 2022 changed everything. Millions of Ukrainians faced the brutal realities of war. Sport moved to second place, because national security and defense always come first. It was a time when I had to decide the future of Ukrainian natural bodybuilding: either we pause activity during active war, or we continue to work despite everything. I am an optimist by nature, so we made a decision I will be proud of for life. We began preparing the second international tournament, held on November 5, 2022 in Lviv. That tournament had two times fewer athletes, but it did not demotivate me in any way - it gave me even more drive to develop this direction. By the way, an athlete from Israel came and became absolute champion in Men’s Physique.

On September 30, 2023, we organized the second tournament during wartime, with significantly more athletes registered. Since the war began, we could not rely on foreign athletes due to safety and logistics constraints (flight restrictions). This directly affected the strategy I built for federation development. We decided to organize camps in different Ukrainian cities for education, seminars, and broader involvement of Ukrainian athletes in competitive sport. As a result, our third tournament was much more successful.

In that same year, I made my international WNBF debut. On October 28, 2023, Warsaw hosted the first natural bodybuilding tournament in Poland’s history, where I earned a WNBF Pro card in Bodybuilding. These competitions are special to me: they were my first in WNBF, my first abroad, and my first where I won gold in this federation. It was also the first tournament of the official WNBF Poland representation, led by Mariusz Czernewicz (now my coach). So these competitions are truly special to me. That season, I traveled with my mother, Nataliia Terekhova (I wrote about her achievements later), and for her it was also a first international experience: silver in a very challenging class. Then we headed to Germany, to Wolfratshausen (near Munich), where two tournaments were held in one day: one for amateurs (without a WNBF Pro card) and one for professionals. I already competed among pro athletes and managed to enter TOP-4 (an excellent result for a first attempt). My mother took two gold medals in her categories, finishing her season very successfully. Then came the most important start of my life... We returned to Poland and stayed in Krakow, from where I was to fly overseas. Just two weeks later, on November 19, 2023, I competed at the Natural Bodybuilding World Championship in Seattle, USA, and became Vice World Champion in Bodybuilding. The trip to the United States gave me a new push for growth in every area. That country allowed me to believe in myself in a way I never had before. There, every skill and talent feels like it gets 10x acceleration (at least that is how I felt). For me, America represents that very dream we can imagine and also build here - in Ukraine.

A year later, we kept the same momentum, upgraded to a more modern venue, and held our fourth tournament in Lviv on October 20, 2024. It stood out for broad media reach and a new level of photo and video production, since White Dragon Agency, a creative content team from Spain, joined us for the first time. The number of Ukrainian athletes increased by 50%.

Our fifth tournament became defining - and even destiny-shaping - in many senses. We updated the name: from then on, it became “Neptune’s Way.” Why this name? It began in 2019, when I performed to a melody titled “Neptune,” and in 2020 I had a photoshoot in Lviv’s Rynok Square near the fountain of the same name. I thought long and hard about the title, and my mother, Nataliia Terekhova, suggested adding “Way” to “Neptune.” I am deeply grateful to my mother for her upbringing, life advice, and colossal influence on my development as a person. She is an example of loyalty, devotion to moral principles, and extraordinary thirst for life. Her optimism and positivity always inspire me in the toughest moments. When things are difficult, I know I can receive wise and inspiring advice from her. She is a fantastic person - very kind, always ready to help at any moment. I hope she one day tells her life story in a book - believe me, it would be a bestseller. I would also like to especially mention my brother, Mark Birger, who is successfully developing in Kyokushin karate: he is a Master of Sport and is already mentoring his own students. I am incredibly happy about his success and wish him to keep going in the same spirit! (We are waiting for your performance at the World Championship in Japan.) Overall, we are a sporty family, and a healthy lifestyle is our foundation.

Neptune’s Way is a personal journey through life’s waves toward the peaks of strength and freedom. Every athlete, while preparing for competition, builds a unique path of their own. This is a deep philosophical view of creating the best version of yourself.

I have a life motto that now takes a central place in my vision of personal development and specifically in Neptune’s Way: “IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN DO IT.” These words remind us that through imagination we can achieve anything, if we also act with persistence and discipline. As Albert Einstein said: “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere,” and also, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the whole world, stimulating progress and giving birth to evolution.”

So our fifth tournament took place on October 5, 2025 (symbolically as well) in Lviv. One hundred registered athletes - our biggest achievement to date. On that morning, one of the most massive attacks occurred, and I wanted to cancel the event. But I know what it means to be an athlete preparing for competition: months of exhausting contest prep, daily training, and living a dream (I saw myself in their place). So we made the decision to move forward as planned. Looking back, I understand this is another decision I will be incredibly proud of, just like the one made at the beginning of 2022. The tournament was extraordinary: exclusive sponsor awards - handcrafted crowns from Family Gold Masters for women’s category champions, golden tridents from Kuznia Lviv, and our medals for all athletes decorated with water and ocean symbolism. I also sincerely thank the Mega Mass sports nutrition chain, which has supported natural bodybuilding development since our foundation in 2021. Most of all, I am proud of Ukrainian athletes - you truly deserve the highest honors, because despite every obstacle, you continue to show devotion to this sport, moving with discipline along your own Path and building a legacy that will inspire future generations.

After finishing the tournament, where I performed my freestyle program titled "Neptune," I continued preparing for the competitive season. By that time, it was already the seventh month of daily training, nutrition, and posing routine. I combine all this with my work — personal training, coaching clients online, managing the federation (which includes marketing, management, accounting, law — thanks to my friends Oleksandr Dovbysh and Oleksandr Davydovych for their help and support!), strategic planning, communication with other international WNBF branches and athletes, logistics, judging, organizing meetings and seminars, design (thanks to our designers!), working with sponsors and partners, SMM and social media (thanks to our team!), video production (thanks to videographer Valeria Lobovyk), the YouTube podcast on the WNBF Ukraine channel "Natural Sport" (thanks to the project’s author Anastasia Melnychenko), competition organization (thanks to my friend Nazarii Yatskiv for the incredible work), and many, many other responsibilities. This is what I love and will keep doing because I have the inspiration and vision for developing natural bodybuilding.

Returning to my contest prep, I had 4 weeks left before the first tournament of the season in New York, USA. I traveled with my mother, who competes in the Figure and Fitbody women’s categories - she is the most titled athlete from Ukraine in our federation. Our journey began in Poland, where we set up training camp before the key start in the USA. Our flight was scheduled for October 28, and on that very day we were already overseas. New York welcomed us vividly - a city remembered for life through its diversity and character. Two days before the tournament, we successfully passed polygraph testing and received official approval to compete at Naturalmania. On the morning of November 1, we headed to White Plains, a New York suburb, for the event. After applying tan for the second time (the first layer was done a day before), we finally felt we were truly there and ready to deliver 100%. And that is exactly what happened: my mother won gold in Figure Open and Figure Masters, and I became overall champion in Classic Physique (a new WNBF category focused first of all on aesthetic structure, balanced proportions, and posing). I took first in my height class and then defeated the champion of the other (taller) class (it was very difficult, and I was surprised by this success). That day, I also earned a WNBF Pro card - now in Classic Physique (two years earlier, I became a pro in Bodybuilding).

Our next stop was Sacramento, California, where California Natural Muscle Mayhem took place on November 8. Once again, we delivered at a high level: my mother won gold in Figure Open and Figure Masters. I earned my first career win among WNBF Pro athletes in Classic Physique. So it was a 100% result. Of course, we could not have expected this level of success before the trip, and winning two tournaments gave us the confidence needed ahead of the most prestigious event in world natural bodybuilding.

On November 12, we arrived in the city with no limits - Los Angeles. We spent the next 10 days there, preparing psychologically and mentally for the World Championship: more than 300 athletes from dozens of countries (WNBF has over 65 official representations), two separate competition days for amateurs and professionals, and simply huge scale. On Saturday, November 22, my mother competed - she debuted in a new category for herself, Fit Body, and won bronze. I competed the next day and once again became Vice World Champion - this time in Classic Physique. Full understanding of everything we experienced will come later (I am writing this after two months have already passed, and I still cannot fully believe it). The 2025 season was intense. Next comes preparation for the next season - we need to improve proportions and priority muscle groups. The decisive factor in progress is TIME, and everyone who chooses the path of natural bodybuilding should understand that.

I am confident that natural bodybuilding has a bright future, because its foundation is health, aesthetics, proportion, and a natural look. If we recall sports history, bodybuilding was natural from the very beginning. In my view, we must move forward persistently, ignore skeptics, develop our own vision, and establish our own standards for the bodybuilding ideal.

Ukraine is a country with tremendous potential for growth. We have every opportunity to build a high-quality platform for natural bodybuilding and create the foundation for developing natural athletes. We are confident that in the future this sport will dominate, but to make that happen we must demonstrate our desire and persistent work.

Aesthetic physique, proportion, and the constant pursuit of ideal body development are the factors that will keep driving my progress. A global vision of the final result is the force that improves me and the people around me. Achieving your own global goals creates a profound impact on those who strive to change themselves for the better.

"Bodybuilding is the art of perceiving a harmonious physique. It is reaching your own peak of perfection by forming a comprehensive vision and manifesting it in the material world." (c) David Birger

"Success in any sphere is the ability to sail the ocean of discipline through the waves of motivation toward your vision, sustained by the flame of inspiration." (c) David Birger