What's Your Motivation?

Training Bodybuilding
21

I was 12 or 13, about 5’3" and 240 pounds. Getting bored of martial arts and having my man boobs fall out of the Gi. I took a break and went with a red headed Air Force kid and another sloppy fat Embassy kid to the weight rooms on base. Air Force kid lifted weights with fingerless nomex flight gloves, yay for dorks.

I did that for a couple of weeks, using machines, and noticed I’d dropped about 2 pounds a week when I wasn’t really trying. Started having cravings for meat instead of oreos. After a couple of months, the other kids stopped, I’d dropped close to 60 pounds, and I just kept going. Learned what it felt like to trap myself under 135 pounds on the flat bench in an empty weight room then, too. I think what was key was the subconcious discipline I had waiting to come out: my form was always very strict, which helped me out later.

I was also never one of the squat rack curl people. Having enlisted guys that were truly gruff, tough, and not full of any shit to “learn” from helped, too.

Didn’t have any neck or real beef then, or for a while. It took a bunch of pushups through ROTC, teaming up with a two future SF’ers to work out, and the eight week vacation planned by the green machine to kick off that set of changes.

Now it’s just normal, and I feel funny if I don’t.

22

I was fat little kid and i got made fun of quite a bit. The older i got the more i grew into it but i was still a bit chubby. After 8th grade i realized that getting laid was something that would be enjoyable so i hit the gym. I grew out of that but i kept lifting and have been doing so for 6 years now.

23

A few pretty amazing stories on here.

Mine’s not as good, but here goes. I’m in grad school (still) and I just got tired of reading all day, every day. Sitting with a book in hand for 60, 70, 80 hours a week gets old. I was looking for something physical to do that would be a relief from all the work. I was also pretty out of shape from all the sitting and reading, and all the junk food because I didn’t have, or wouldn’t make, the time to eat right. I had lifted in high school, and it just seemed a good choice.

Now my motivation is still that break from my work. But it’s also the progress I make on the core lifts that keeps me going now, along with the fat loss. And already being the “most ripped” (to quote a friend) guy in a department of a few hundred people helps; no great feat when it’s academics, but still. And besides, I have to get up and teach in front of a roomful of sorority girls every day, so I have to look pretty good!

24

My story’s insanely dull. I was the proverbial cut weakling who has a metabolism faster then the average ferrari. Basically I was so weak and puny I just had to do…something. One year along, I’ve gained a decent amount of weight (20lbs sound ok?) and am starting to try and eat enough. I feel greater then ever

25

I started when I was 18. I was pretty small at 5’6" and about 150 lbs. The main reason for me to get into weight lifting was because I wanted to kick more ass. I seemed to get myself in situations a small guy couldnt get himself out of. By the time I was 20 I had a big growth spurt at was 6’ and around 190. Didnt keep it up at the gym and got more into work and play. When I turned 29 I decided to start back up just because I felt like crap, not fat but no muscle. Went hard for 2 years and hurt my back which took nearly 2 years to recover. I have been back hard core for about 6 months now and am in the best shape of my life. Just weighed in at 239 on a 6’ frame. My motivation is having energy to do whatever I want to do. I sleep less eat more and have way more fun at 33 years old than I have ever been able to in the past. Now this is life!

26

I have to say that lifting weights really did change my life (really). I was the shyest kid on the planet, without a whole lot of confidence. I started working out my sophomore year of high school (1990) and started gaining some muscle. My confidence improved greatly and I had more respect than I ever did before from the other people in school. When I graduated from high school I was pretty big (no symmetry) Big Arms and shoulders, small everything else.

I joined the Army and unfortunately there were no weight rooms that I had access to through Basic and AIT. So basically I went 6 months without weights. I did a million pushups and sit-ups though. I stopped working out, but stayed slim and relatively muscular.

I started and stopped a few times a couple years after that. (2004) I was originally re-inspired because I was going on a cruise and I wanted to look decent. Now I have been working out hard for the past two years straight and I am born again. I went from 190 to 220 pounds.

Right now I’m in the process of cutting down to 205 - 210 pounds. I am really hoping to get that six pack with lots of mass and definition when I’m done.

27

[quote]AG1 wrote:
Mine is a story I don’t tell many but here goes. Most of my adult female life I was plagued with pain and problems. I could not count on my body to be there for me when I needed it. This made being consistent with sports or weight training difficult. So I maintained my body through food as opposed to exercise. Like most young women this only works for so long…

In my late twenties I started to lift weights. A few months into the process, just as I was seeing progress I had my first major surgery to ‘alleviate’ my problem. Eight hours of surgery and a bowel resection later I was on my way to feeling better. Six months later my symptoms returned. I struggled with them for another 6 months. Almost a year to the date of the first surgery I had a complete hystectomy and another bowel resection. Six weeks post op, after about 5-6 days of increasingly intense pain I had an adhesion removed from my small intestine. INSTANT pain relief!!

So, after three sudden weight loss episodes in 14 months you can imagine how ‘skinny fat’ I was. I lost approx. 12 lbs with each surgery. On a 5’3" small frame that is more than you think. Early menopause brings on health concerns of its own such as bone density loss etc…

In October of '04 I made a commitment to my health. I needed to do weight bearing exercise (doctors orders) and I was tired of looking and feeling ‘average’. I also needed to be able to keep up with my two young boys. So, I started weight training, got hooked and haven’t looked back since. The benefits have enhanced every aspect of my life.

Pre-training I had even consulted a plastic surgeon about my lower abs. Scars in the shape of an anchor had given me a less than desirable shape. I was told I would need to have them surgically repaired. I declined. Although they will never be perfect due to scar tissue, I am proud that I am making them as good as they can be on my own. The sense of accomplishment weight training has given me is indescribable.

Great thread Chris!! Out of my ‘comfort zone’. But maybe thats good?![/quote]

Wow. Great story, and now you make guys drool everytime they see you!

28

Mine is not all that great. When I got back from my honey moon and asked my wife why she was taking pictures of that fat guy. It hit me like a mack truck.

29

I dont know if this will classify as my motivation but maybe like the reasons(maybe the same thing haha i dont know). Anyway, I firsted started lifting for sports and to look good. But then as i got more into it and learned more things(still A LOT to learn) my motivation\reason changed. Now I do it more to be healthier and i guess still to look good haha. But another thing I like is reading diffrent books or articles, hell even reading peoples experiences on here. I just like hearing about what other people have done and been successful with and trying it my self. I think that no program works for everybody, maybe even no diet or supplement but you have to try diffrent things to find out if they work well for you.

30

Delusions of grandeur keep me motivated.

For years I trained as a bodybuilder and always said that I would win the Mr Britain. I never did and realised that without massive quantities of steriods it was highly unlikely.

This, and other personal factors, demotivated me, so I quit bodybuilding and have become a oly weightlifter. I now keep telling people that I’ve got 6 years until the London Olympic games. Whilst that might sound a bit ridiculous I feel that to keep fully motivated I have to aim for the top. If I aim for the olympics and make the British championships it’ll still be pretty cool and I’ll be more than happy.

Maybe if I find that OL isn’t my forte I’ll try and become the best squatter in the country!

If I fail at that then I’ll probably be able to go back to BBing and try to become the best Masters competitor in the country.

Like I said, delusions of grandeur, and constantly striving to be the best I can be (cliche).

Wheels

31

[quote]steelwheels wrote:
Delusions of grandeur keep me motivated.

For years I trained as a bodybuilder and always said that I would win the Mr Britain. I never did and realised that without massive quantities of steriods it was highly unlikely.

This, and other personal factors, demotivated me, so I quit bodybuilding and have become a oly weightlifter. I now keep telling people that I’ve got 6 years until the London Olympic games. Whilst that might sound a bit ridiculous I feel that to keep fully motivated I have to aim for the top. If I aim for the olympics and make the British championships it’ll still be pretty cool and I’ll be more than happy.

Maybe if I find that OL isn’t my forte I’ll try and become the best squatter in the country!

If I fail at that then I’ll probably be able to go back to BBing and try to become the best Masters competitor in the country.

Like I said, delusions of grandeur, and constantly striving to be the best I can be (cliche).

Wheels[/quote]

Hey guys,
I am a high school freshman, 5’6-7", 145 pounds, and a fifteen-year old, study in a boarding school in California - I live in New Jersey by the way. I visit T-Nation everyday because I want to learn more about my body, take care of my body, live a long life, and improve my sports performance. I play basketball, and I am going to run track next season for the first time(in five days).

I am an ambitious person. I want to have a 42-inch vertical jump, and make the US Olympic Track or Olympic Weight-lifting team like Steelwheels. In my senior year, I hope for my team to win the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Championships. Through the vast amount of knowledge available in this community, I will be given sports scholarships and get a good education.

I am here because I believe this community is a wonderful, open-minded community, and it has the knowledge I need for attaining success!

32

Here’s my mostly boring story.

I started lifting after being in the Army for while. The Army fitness training is, well, leaving a lot to be desired. I was really weak, chubby, and lazy when I joined, weighing about 155 when I joined, and at the end of basic training, weighed well in excess of 200 lbs. Not much of that was muscle.

I got heavier and heavier while I was in, often failing the PT test for push-up, though I could smoke the sit-ups and the run. I started lifting bodybuilder style while I was in Kosovo because I was on an insanely small base-camp that had a crap-ass weight tent. I saw some other guys going in with their Nitro-tech, gloves, Flex mags, etc and thought it would help alleviate the boredom.

I didn’t see much in the way of results, 'cause I was following the “Ronnie Coleman biceps blaster split” “Gunter Schlierkamp’s pec pulverizer plan”. I eventually got demotivated and blew it all off… until I started back up in Germany. I went on the net one night and ordered some bullshit from a supplement site, and they had a print edition of T-Mag on there for a couple of bucks.

Impulsively I added it to my cart and checked out with my bullshit supps. Two weeks later, they show up, I open the box and put away my supps, and took the magazine to the shitter with me and read some articles and laughed my ass off at TC.

Obviously, I was intrigued by the articles that talked about the theories of certatin training methods, the Poliquin article on increasing arm size in one day (which was fucking brutal, I don’t suggest doing that unless you get off on pain), the claim to be the most hardcore BB site on earth, etc. I went to the site, and loved what I saw.

Back then you couldn’t even register as a user, you just read the articles and emailed TC, which he would post later. That was how I found out about kettlebells, Matt Furey, Pavel, Dave Tate, and the rest. Many of the things I found on T-Nation got put to use in the gym, which got me ejected, yelled at, threatened, etc by the so-called “tough guys” that like to populate military gyms.

I went from a 230 lb out of shape chubby barely-passing-the-PT-test dude, to a really enthusiastic weightlifter, to a powerlifter in about a year. I now practice the WSB style, own a SOYG A package with a kettlebell, and nearly max out my PT test, and feel better than ever. It all started here with the old T-Mag that evolved into the T-Nation. The other readers really help with clarification and experience.

If I can ever get a website going I’m posting a damn link right to this site.

33

Around the time I got into middle school I stopped being active and became a frail nerd instead of just a regular nerd. I hated gym class. One time my freshman year of highschool someone joked on how out of shape I was.

He said it in front of the rest of my friends and they laughed at me. He challenged me to run a little bit. After running I must’ve spent 10 minutes wanting to puke. Later that week I looked in the mirror and saw my skinny, weak body.

I was 14, how could I have a baby’s stomach on such a frail body? I got so upset by this I had to do something about it. A little while after that I’d do some pushups and run every night. Not long after I added situps and pullups to my routine.

A year or so later I looked at myself in the mirror for a while and noticed a change in my body. I was bigger than I was before and the results were showing (well, a 120 pound skinny fat geek to a 135 pound not skinny fat geek).

But my god, I had abs and I didn’t have anything resembling those for years. I noticed my bicep bulging out more (my god, I can only image how small my arms must’ve been back then). I had lats flairing out. It was fantastic to see that change, the exact opposite of seeing my weak self in the mirror.

Senior year of highschool I had to take a weight training class. I told my dad I wasn’t going to do much in the class because big muscles would hinder me and were useless. He said I was wrong but I didn’t believe him then. Actually, he’d been trying to get me into the iron for a while and I’d always give that excuse.

First day of class, my buddy showed me his bench and curl routine and I got hooked. Working out was fun again. I lost my previous notions about being “muscle bound” and soon dropped most of the bodyweight stuff and the death runs.

I went on exrx.net and pieced together a routine while trying to learn more about what to do. Exrx wasn’t enough. Chance would have it that I saw a link to an article on T-Nation about Hindu Squats. I saw this article a while before when a guy on another board talked about bodyweight workouts. When I looked at it again I decided to look at the other articles.

There was one about squatting. I remember I was scared shitless of squatting the first time I tried it since I heard about it’s reputation as a knee wrecker and back crusher. Never the less I fell in love and realized why people really downplayed the squat. Not long after I learned about deadlifting during christmas break. I built it to an almost mythical status in my mind as I waited those 2 weeks to go back to the school gym.

The first day I got back I deadlifted 185. To me, it was an incredible feat . No one else in that class was doing anything like it. They were just doing curls.

I was so in love that I got a 300lb weightset. It was hard just to haul the damn weight inside. I took out a light cover on my dad’s car with the barbell… My old man loaded 135 on the bar and clean and pressed it 8 times. A 135 clean was a lot to me.

A couple of weeks before I saw Ivan Drago did power cleans in a Rocky IV montage and that made me want to do them too. The guys in the school gym couldn’t teach them worth a shit so they were no help. There was stuff online about the powerclean that I read. I practiced it every day until I got it.

3 days a week I would lift at school and go home. After resting a few hours I’d go to my barbell and lift some more. I just kept getting stronger. I owe the guy who insulted me my thanks. Without that challenge, without seeing my friends laugh at me almost puking, without that reality check I wouldn’t be here right now.

The little bit of humiliation I suffered gave me so much more than a red face.

34

My motivations are looking good, feeling good, pulling girls, and it gives my life all round more focus and clarity. The changes I have made because of bodybuilding have had positive impacts on other areas of my life, for example, giving me the determination to be more focussed academically. But maybe thats because I just have more confidence now.

Anyhow I started because I was a skinny shit, I was 5ft 7, 113lbs, 12% at 14. When I discovered some exercises “WOW” on the internet. I’d do about 500 calf raises off the side of the fireplace, and curls with a fuckin tiny hippo ornament thing that probably weighs about 1kilo. Anyhow, how things have changed; a year and a half later I am 175lbs 5ft 8 and 9% bodyfat.

P.S Don’t worry thats not my workout anymore.

35

My three sons who are 11, 9 and 7. I was a natural athlete all through high school, absolutely hated working out. Then out of high school I always was working out just here and there, not real serious.

Right now I’ve been serious powerlifting for about a year and a half. I competed last summer and totalled 1080. Then last November competed and totalled 1218. I just totalled 1317 last weekend. I’m in love with this and can see that my total will never be enough. Just like golf, I missed a putt here, blew that drive there. I missed my third squat of 280 by half an inch, there’s another 15 pounds to my total, that third bench went up faster than the other two, who know what I could’ve done.

I really enjoy reading the stories and tips, really enjoy looking at the pictures!!!

CHALK UP, GO BIG!

36

…bad typing, I meant a squat of 480 in that last one. Plus I wanted to add my three sons think I am the strongest man in the universe. Plus they love working out with me.

37

[quote]jtquick wrote:
What’s my motivation? Discovery. I still am amazed to look down at my hands and legs and expect to see fat pudgy stumps. I uncover more about myslef with every bead of sweat I shed. I am in charge of the person in the mirror. I create him how I see fit. That’s what keeps me going.

JT[/quote]

Congratulations JT. You are proof that anyone out there can get a handle on their lives. Great work, man.

38

I am seeing a lot of stories about overcoming health related issues or accidents. I like the fact that the people here were faced with challenges, and decided to take positive action.

It’s motivating to see what other have had to overcome. I give a lot of credit to people who conquer their demons.

39

What got me into lifting? I was digging thru a photo album one day, and found a pic of me without a shirt. At first I didn’t recognize myself, because my head was turned away from the camera, but then I saw my tat, and was horrified it was me. My brother always called me twig boy, and then I realized why. At 5’11" and 125 pounds, I really was a twig. That night, I fixed the biggest dinner ever (up to that point anyways) and hit the weights. Been doing that ever since, and now I’m close to 180.

I keep that picture in the corner of my bathroom mirror so I have to look at it every day. Never again will I be that guy.

40

First, let me just say that this is an awesome thread. I haven’t seen any bullshit arguments, not to mention the fact that every post is a long good one.

When I was 14 years old, I was poking around in the basement and found my dad’s old weight set behind the furnace. With the ‘FreeSpirit’ bench and blue concrete Weider weights was a blue booklet by Weider publications – it must have come with the weights. The pages were all yellow and worn. I started reading through it, and this book was basically my complete introduction to lifting weights. Everything from what a rep and set was explained to me, and I started doing the routines in the book, although there were no pictures to show me the correct form for the exercises. I followed the routine for months through its three phases and made huge gains for a 14 year old. Eventually, I moved on to the internet to find out about working out, and pretty soon I was one of the ‘built’ guys in junior high (although my build was nothing special, nobody had muscles at that age). I worked out for years doing all sorts of isolation bodybuilding routines, and eventually kind of fell away from lifting regularly in university. By this point, my body had also grown taller than I was when I was 14, and I became rather skinny compared to my younger ‘built’ days.

After a year of not working out regularly due to the schedule of a first year university engineering program, I got fed up with myself and decided that it was time to get back in shape. Again, I did a lot of bodybuilding isolation crap, but I did manage to add some weight due to a bit better diet.

After a while, I started doing CrossFit, but quickly found that it wasn’t really in line with my goals of becoming bigger and stronger. Then, on the CrossFit forums, I saw more than a few references to T-Nation articles, and decided to check it out. Since them, I have been hooked on true strength training, and have gained ten pounds in a little over a month of doing real lifts.

Throughout my youth, I always struggled with my body image, and always considered myself to be too skinny, even when my friends thought I was really built. This led to some really low self-esteem and a feeling of futility caused me to lose motivation to work out in some cases. After a while, I just learned to accept myself, and even realize that most people wish they could be skinny as they get older. After I let all my body issues go and just started to enjoy working out, my gains started coming and have been coming ever since. Now, I’m at a healthy body weight (6’ and 185 lbs) with a good muscle foundation for future strength gains. While my lift numbers suck now, I live for the challenge of increasing them and increasing my size. Never has my confidence been higher and I have never felt more physically fit – especially thanks to CrossFit and T-Nation, the two sites that led me to leave bodybuilding workouts behind.

Hopefully that helps inspire some unconfident skinny kid out there…