This thread needs a bump. We need to hear people’s stories. The real ones. Not the stories you tell the people at work so they will go away. The down and dirty. Let’s hear them.
I was very skinny and weak, weaker than the girls.
After I lost an arm wresting match to a chick a few years ago in front of a bunch of my friends I really lost it.
For a few years I dabbled in weightlifting but was never consistent or knowledgeable.
About 1/2 a year ago I started reading up on this site and got motivated to persevere and get stronger.
I’m happy with my progress so far and in a few years I’m sure I’ll have achieved my long term goals.
Being: 300 bench, 450 squat, 550 deadlift.
And from that point I can only continue to climb higher.
Thanks for the kick in the ass T-Nation.
Down and dirty? alright comon guys, I’ll say I started so:
A. I could hook up with a hot girl
B: I could beat some ass if need be
Nowdays I still lift for the same reasons but in addition, I like the satisfaction of owning numbers and being healthy. I figured if lifting weights and getting big would bring me some hot poon its worth doing. Its a lot funner than dancing lessons or buying really expensive clothes and shelling out lots of money. instead you just let them fell on the muscles.
I guess I just really like the snatch. Going from the weakest guy in the crew to the strongest is a plus too.
I had a bad break up, got in a car accident, quit my job, and had major medical scares with both parents. I put on about 40lbs in a little over a year and just felt terrible daily.
My brother does powerlifting and he just started hounding me to go lift and so I started.
I’m glad I started. Not just for the physical aspect but I feel like it got me on the right path of just getting things done mentally, emotionally, and goal-wise.
Good thread fella
For me its the feeling it gives me inside knowing I am fit, strong and muscular. Its hard to explain but all I know is I love the iron and always will. I just want to be different I guess.
Mine is easy, maybe not real inspiring but mine is my Dad. Plain and simple
I want to smite evil!
Cliche: Was fed up of being 6ft tall and weighing 10 stone soaking wet. Having no shoulders, feeling weak. I remember ringing a girl I had briefly met and jokingly asked if she remembered me. ‘Yeah you had a cute face, nice shirt… pretty skinny tho…’ ARROW TO BRAIN.
I had no shape at all. Then i noticed at the guys with the best girls were usually not built like me. I was never going to get a girl come up to me and grab my pecs and go ‘ooh! check YOU out Mr!’ and giggle to her girlfriends at the bar… (as i have experienced since i started working out)
And then i got seriously fed up of a gf i had making swooning gestures over bigger guys on TV. Even though when she wasnt i thought she was.
I started working out (i call it TRAINING now!) about 3 years ago and 18 months of that was just pissing about, but made some mediocre progress. Then (cliche alert!) I found this website and dropped the lateral raises for military press, the leg curls for squats and began deadlifting. Im now over 2 stone heavier and get the compliments I always missed. Especially from the ladies 
This has done wonders for my confidence in general. I am now of the opinion that if I didnt have the gym to head to 3 or 4 times a week i would… probaly go insane. I am seriously addicted. It gives me focus and it gives me something I cant really explain, but I cant do without.
I was 190lbs skinny fat, I did the wrong thing and did nothing but cardio and diet and dropped all the way to 140lbs. Started lifting for size because I wanted to be more of a “man” and less of a “boy”. I felt like I was extremely weak and pathetic, which I was. Now I do it because I LOVE it! I want to be as strong and as big as possible without drugs. That’s all the motivation I need, I honestly enjoy the pain of hitting the iron hard and I love to watch my body change. I have been at it for probably 3 years so far, could be alot farther along if I wasnt scared of losing my abz for so long. That and I broke my collar bone last yet. I would still go to the gym in my sling and I would do some leg presses, leg extension, leg curls…whatever I could to try to keep the good hormones going in my body to reduce losing the gains I had made.
Bottom line is I want to be huge and strong as fuck.
Want to be strong,and big. Competition strong. Mostly strong,meaning the size has to be quality size.
I want to be really good in one thing,and I want the people who looked down on me to be intimidated.
Looking back on my life there are a few things that put here where I am today.
1.) Sr. in highschool: 6’-1" & 150lbs
2.) Shy kid that got treated like crap
3.) Moving in with a massive roommate in college. You know who you are.
4.) Seeing results after one year of training. 150lbs to 180lbs, 150lb bench to 225lb bench.
This site didn’t get me into it; but it has really allowed me to learn an unbelievable amount.
My bro used to lift for football, and when he was a freshman (I was in 8th grade) he was in damn good shape. 165, he squatted 360 and could rep out chins with a plate on him. I saw that, and at first it didn’t affect me, then he got me to do some preacher curls (I started out with 25 lbs.) and I got truly addicted to lifting. For almost 4 years, I’ve lifted religiously, for varying reasons. For sports, to be big, for strength, for girls and for myself. I feel like I owe everyone here a huge thank you for letting me read these stories, they really have helped me out during a time of a lot of stress and depression.
I was extremely skinny and addicted to drugs. I was shy, and discontent with life. Lifting changed all that. It made me a better person: disciplined, intelligent, and personable.
Now that I have been lifting awhile and around the atmosphere I think that the very stories in this thread keep me lifting. All I hear are stories of triumph and prevail. I love the atmosphere and people that lift.
Weight training really turned my self confidence around during high school. I owe a lot to the iron.