Girlfriend films as fitness coach reveals the hand disability he hid for 17 years

Well this is pretty emotional.

Powerlifter and fitness coach Chris Ruden was born with complications with his left arm – as a baby, doctors had to remove parts of his left hand, which left him with two fingers and little functionality.

As such, his left hand looks different to everyone else's.

And as he grew up, he hid that from everyone.

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"From sixth grade to eight grade I kept my hand in my pocket all day long," he said.

"I played sports with my hand in my pocket.

"I was known as that kid who had his hand in his pocket all the time."

When his hand wasn't in his pocket, he was wearing a glove which he used to help him play the drums.

He adapted to being able to use his arm in the gym with hooks and strapping, but always kept his glove on.

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For 17 years, he kept his hand hidden.

He didn't even let his girlfriend, who he'd been dating for three years, see it.

But when he was being fitted with a prosthetic hand, he decided to change things.

"I making steps to get comfortable with myself," he said.

So he had his girlfriend Vyanca film him taking his glove off and shared it on his Instagram account,  @chrisruden, in late November.

Now, a few weeks later, the emotional reveal is going viral after his girlfriend posted it to Reddit.

Within seven hours the clip attracted nearly 20,000 upvotes and whole lot of love.

"Great job. It was one hell of a mental barrier to overcome," Redditor Myrdraall said.

"This is what a role model looks like," jokelson said.