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ANARCHY
01-17-16, 4:38 am
Growing up I was very overweight. I can remember very vividly how almost everyday in school kids would make fun of me because of my weight, and after school how kids would chase me on their bikes and whoop my ass for the way i looked. I came home with cuts and bruises but I hid them from my folks. I felt that they had already had enough to worry about in life to worry about their kid getting beat up because of his weight.

The teasing and the emotional destruction carried on into high school, I was a 220lb freshman. I decided to join the football team because I thought it would help me loose weight which it did. The funny thing about it was you would think that I would find some sort of stress relieve and therapy on the football field, but in reality I found my peace in the gym. Everyday after practice i stayed just a few more extra hours to work out, and it was there where i was at home. The cold iron pressing up against my palms, the echoes of my grunts running through empty space, That old rust smell that we gym rats love so much. I was instantly hooked. Feeling the blood rush into my arms after curls and seeing myself in the mirror during these workouts made me feel like a fucking super hero, and not like the fat ass that I was. So as the years progressed I kept coming back to the gym to relive this self righteous experience within myself. Today I am 20 years old and 202lbs lean, and it is all because i needed to find an emotional outlet.

Why did you all start lifting?

C.Coronato
01-18-16, 10:11 am
My pops brought me when I was young. not really any other reason than he was going, so my brother and I went with him. I got bit by the iron bug and never stopped.

G Diesel
01-18-16, 10:19 am
Started with the idea in mind of getting stronger, faster, being able to jump higher (and look better in my jersey) for basketball as a teenager.

First weight training was a set of concrete-filled plastic weights in my bedroom. Almost immediately, the idea of being able to improve myself by lifting and eating, resonated so profoundly with me. The following Summer my Mom bought me a membership to the Brigantine Fitness Center.

That was all it took. I never looked back.

Peace, G

Bean
01-18-16, 11:30 am
To live...was ashamed of what I had become after my football career ended. Woke up and decided to do something about it. Motivated day in and day out to get better and keep pushing myself so I can be the best me and live.

EthanBrooks
02-08-16, 8:48 pm
8th grade I was 220lbs. I used food as an emotional outlet. I was tired of barley being able to run 100 meters, I was tired of being the fat kid, I was tired of having bitch tits. I lost 85lbs in one year through just diet. Around Christmas 2014 I was 135lbs, Then I came across Animal's YouTube videos. I'm now in 10th grade 14 months into training 190lbs.

GunRock
02-09-16, 1:26 am
I was always skinny and short. I thought I could live with that until one day my girlfriend at the time, talked me into going to the gym and there she had to not only pull 135 off of me but then she proceeded to bench it for a double.

I was 19, now I'm 42 and I wish I'd started sooner.

deanna7272
02-09-16, 7:18 am
Being a girl, the "gym" didn't come into thought until I started dating my first serious boyfriend. He was the biggest/strongest kid in our class, a football player, and may not have known much nutritionally, but was STRONG... I was always stronger than my girlfriends, I was "bigger" than the other girls, and I didn't understand the correlation until I started with weights... I wish I could say that it "clicked" then, but over the years, I let "other" boyfriends get in my head, telling me that girls should not lift 200#, and that it wasn't normal. So, I quit..

Over the years, I found my way back... At 19, I wanted to compete and at that time there was only FBB, that I knew of... I was on my way and then, another "boy" got in my head... ((See how powerful you all can be to a girl's psyche??)) I knew what made me happy, but was easily influenced by people's unfair/uneducated opinions...

Over the following 15+ years, I was in and out of the gym. Usually battling weight gain, or with the hopes of weight loss, and when I reached my goal, I thought I could take the reigns and do it myself.

Fast forward, I ended up with back to back back surgeries and a weight gain, I was miserable... I finally began to realize the need to lift, to strengthen my body, not just lose weight... That's when I found the love of the iron again... After 18 years and a 60# weightloss, II stepped on stage for the first tine as a figure competitor.

I have battled the weight loss issues in my head, still trying to realize the correlation, but it's forever a struggle for me. I want to be strong, but I want to look as good as I can doing it, while trying to find a balance. My body can't seem to keep up with my head and heart, but I have definitely learned that walking away from the iron gets me nowhere... It will forever be a part of my life...

In short, I've gone from chubby to strong, finding body acceptance then back to body shame. From weight loss to surgery recovery, physical strength to mental strength, and I'm here... for good...

Ethan Dew
02-09-16, 4:58 pm
From the first time I got under a barbell, I had always been fascinated with being strong. I wanted to be the biggest, the strongest. When I was a sophomore in college, I found powerlifting, and that's all she wrote..

deanna7272
02-09-16, 6:46 pm
Isn't it funny how, once you start you're hooked???

GunRock
02-09-16, 7:30 pm
Isn't it funny how, once you start you're hooked???

I've seen people quit but once you actually start seeing results and believing that it could happen for you, I think it's a wrap.

deanna7272
02-09-16, 11:16 pm
I've seen people quit but once you actually start seeing results and believing that it could happen for you, I think it's a wrap.

I've been there, but it's ALWAYS been in my heart... I got my first bench/weights in 6th grade... That love has always been there, my head just had to catch up....lol

Bean
02-10-16, 10:43 am
I've been there, but it's ALWAYS been in my heart... I got my first bench/weights in 6th grade... That love has always been there, my head just had to catch up....lol

I was forced to lift because of football. Workouts always got in the way of hanging with friends. It wasn't until I decided to do it for myself that I truly found the love in lifting. Not to mention how I feel when I miss a workout. Went to Vegas for a small vacay and missed two days of lifting....felt like a bag of assholes.