My Dad initially didn’t lift or do anything when he got out of the Army but did some occasional yard work. He definitely had that Dad strength and bent a 6 foot wrecking bar while moving a rock out of our front yard. (he also gave himself a hernia doing so). I tried bending one of these things myself using a pipe for extra leverage and couldn’t put any bend in it at all.
He used to say that working out was a waste of energy you could be using to do real work and make money doing it. He thought people were wasting their time if they worked out to build muscle but did nothing but look at themselves in the mirror. Then one day when I was in the 6th grade we had to climb the rope in gym and I couldn’t make it to the top.
I told him how embarrassed I was and he basically told me I could fix that with pull ups and push ups. He built a pull up bar for me in the cellar and told me to do as many pull ups and push ups as I could every day and when I could do 10 pull ups and 50 push ups he would buy me a 110 lb weight set. I did what he said every day. At one point I was doing my push ups waiting for the bus at the end of school.
My homeroom teacher had been a Marine and saw what I was doing at the end of the day and would actually get on my case if he didn’t see me doing them. It took a long time (as I was pretty weak) but after several months I asked him to witness my 10 pull ups and 50 push ups. That day he brought me to Sears and bought a 110 lb Challenger Barbell/Dumbbell set and bench.
I worked out religiously and eventually he got into it himself. He was strictly an upper body guy - curls, benches and pull ups, and he grew like crazy. (Unfortunately those genes skipped a generation) One day I actually caught him looking at himself in the mirror. He drank like a fish and smoked for years but he liked the weights. Even started riding his bicycle to work. Kind of came full circle on the training thing. Still will try to get to the gym if he has the energy - 83 years old.
My dad lifted.
We had a full cable machine with high and low handles in the basement. I think he liberated it from one of his job sites.
He hit the heavy bag and speed bag, jumped rope, and would do stair laps up and down our bedroom stairs while we were sleeping at 4 AM - he did not give a shit if we woke up.
He pretty much forced my older brother to start lifting at a pretty early age. It was a good fit, my bro was a total badass in high school - benched 300+, big arms, good fighter with a feared knockout punch. He did a teen bodybuilding show at one point.
I wasn’t pushed much into the lifting, probably because I was the super skinny brother who peed in his singlet before one of his matches.
My dad also drank shakes made with milk, honey, and raw eggs. He was a big Stallone/Rocky fan.
I got a cramp in my side one time when my dad took us on a run around the block. He left me behind and told me to find my way home. I was like five years old. But it made me realize that I could find my way back home from two blocks away.
When I finally found my sport (volleyball), he was a huge supporter. We built a russian leaper together, and that summer my vertical increased by about a foot. It kinda helped that I also hit my growth spurt that summer, but my dad was real proud that his contraption was a big part of my new success.
We also had a squat rack in the basement that my dad built from some heavy-duty metal that must have fallen off one of the trucks near a job site.
[quote]Serge A. Storms wrote:
My dad lifted.
We had a full cable machine with high and low handles in the basement. I think he liberated it from one of his job sites.
He hit the heavy bag and speed bag, jumped rope, and would do stair laps up and down our bedroom stairs while we were sleeping at 4 AM - he did not give a shit if we woke up.
He pretty much forced my older brother to start lifting at a pretty early age. It was a good fit, my bro was a total badass in high school - benched 300+, big arms, good fighter with a feared knockout punch. He did a teen bodybuilding show at one point.
I wasn’t pushed much into the lifting, probably because I was the super skinny brother who peed in his singlet before one of his matches.
My dad also drank shakes made with milk, honey, and raw eggs. He was a big Stallone/Rocky fan.
I got a cramp in my side one time when my dad took us on a run around the block. He left me behind and told me to find my way home. I was like five years old. But it made me realize that I could find my way back home from two blocks away.
When I finally found my sport (volleyball), he was a huge supporter. We built a russian leaper together, and that summer my vertical increased by about a foot. It kinda helped that I also hit my growth spurt that summer, but my dad was real proud that his contraption was a big part of my new success.
We also had a squat rack in the basement that my dad built from some heavy-duty metal that must have fallen off one of the trucks near a job site.
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your dad left you to find your way home when you were five? I bet your mom would have freaked out haha