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View Full Version : BELIEVE's journey: the gym saved my life



BELIEVE
01-31-10, 9:37 pm
This is the first of hopefully many posts on this great forum so allow me to introduce myself and tell you where I come from. This might be a long post but it will be 100% bullshit-free.

I'm a 27 y-o student from Montreal, Canada and the last 3 years of my life have been simply sad and pathetic. I used to be a happy, social person with a steady job and decent success with the ladies. Unfortunately for me, everything changed 3 years ago when I lost my job and began playing world of warcraft... it just went downhill from there. I guess you could say I have an addicting personality so I got hooked on WoW and that was pretty much all I did in my free times and weekends. I would also smoke weed daily, drink considerable amounts of alcohol every week (probably 20 to 30 beers), and eat shitty food. I was single, depressed, out of shape, and playing world of warcraft high as fuck while drinking beers was all I cared about. I barely saw my friends during those last 3 years and got laid twice. My life was going absolutely nowhere.

I "woke up" 2 months ago on my 27th birthday. Nobody besides my parents called me to wish me a happy birthday, which is normal considering I had been pretty much ignoring them for so long. Then I started to wonder how the hell I let myself become so pathetic. I needed to make some major changes in my life ASAP.

The next day, I cancelled my world of warcraft subscription and threw the following things in the garbage: game discs, bong, weed. I then headed to my local gym to get a membership and trained for the first time in years. That evening, I called some of my friends to apologize and thankfully they were glad to have my back in the land of the living.


That day was 2 months ago. Since then, I've been going to the gym 5-6 times a week, mainly focusing on fat loss and cardio. I drastically changed my eating habits. I haven't smoked weed or played wow since I began training and I went from 20-30 beers a week to probably 2 or 3. My life has been much, MUCH better lately. I basically traded all my addictions for a single, positive one; the gym.


So that was my introduction, now let's get down to business. I'm currently 5'11 188 pounds. I believe I've lost enough body fat and want to focus on weight training from now on. I'm still a noob with muscle and weight training, which is the reason why I joined this forum. I have a lot to learn. I will tell you this though: I am greatly dedicated and very, VERY motivated about this. I want to get in the best shape of my life and start packing on muscles. I'm still in the process of finding out the most appropriate training program for someone like me who has a lot of free time and who hates days off, but I'm getting there. Ok I'm tired of typing, so this will be all for tonight. I will post more later. I will also post new pictures at the beginning of every month, so here's 2 pics for february (I've lost 20 pounds in the past 2 months)

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9808/31janv.jpg
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/9311/31janv2.jpg



Thanks for reading!

-BELIEVE

BeastTom
01-31-10, 9:56 pm
Tons of knowledge on this forum Use the large amounts of free time you said you had by just studying it. Before my training, i would get the nutrition down first. Throw out all the junk shit in your fridge and make a change. shoot to 5- 7 meals a day. Remember, whole food > suppliments. If i was you i would order me up a can of animal pak and some whey, and a ton of food. Drink about a gallon of water a day.

As for training, sticking to the basic compound movements is the way to go for sure. Such as Bench, dead lift, and squats, Shoulder presses, bent over rows, pull ups. Keep good form and shoot for 8-12 reps.

When your first starting out you will grow fast. Be CONSISTANT! good luck! I will follow along for the ride.

MrMuscles22
01-31-10, 10:12 pm
Inspiring story bro! Welcome aboard! There are TONS of people on here with the knowledge you will need for continued success! Way to take control of your life and get it back!

sodapop
01-31-10, 11:10 pm
This will be a great journey to follow. Good to see someone turning over a new leaf. From the pictures, you look to be in pretty good shape. You're definitely ready to pack on some mass.

As a couple others said, the most important thing in this game is DIET. If you're not eating enough, you're wasting your time. Aim for at LEAST 5 meals a day, preferably 6, or even 7. I wouldn't worry too much about supplements at this point. You could get away with a multivitamin and some whey protein.

I would suggest a full body routine such as Rippetoe's Starting Strength or Bill Starr's 5x5. Look 'em up, read around. Good luck, bro.

Birdman
02-01-10, 12:22 am
glad to see ur on track bro..i to had some darker days back in high school with drugs and in my opinion, lifting was the greatest "rehab" for getting my life on track and setting my priorities straight. Im in for this man good luck