Hi all, I thought it would be fun to think about the examples that we have inspired in others. I was influenced by my father, who used to compete in Indian bodybuilding shows (this was back in the 60s). I remember one day, I was lifting in our home gym and doing some posing in front of the mirror in my brother’s room (he was at his Karate classes).
He comes in and sees me, asks me to leave. The next morning, I’m working out in the basement, and he comes in saying, “what’re we working out?”.
That was his first day with weights
So, who have you inspired? I’m sure we’ve got some great stories here.
The only thing I can think of is, a few years ago, I was working out at my gym when I saw a really skinny kid (115 at 5’10-ish) walk in, he starts unloading a bench that someone left 2 plates a side on; the thing flips and flies through the air.
The gym I go to is quite friendly, so me and a few people go to see if he is alright, then we all start cleaning up the weights. Afterwards the kid asks me how I got so big (ie. 205 at around 20% at the time), I just gave him the basic advice rehashed all the time about eating, training with intensity, etc.
Go off to university, return home a year later, the kid in now about 155 or so pounds, pretty much the same level of bodyfat. Apparently he was looking up to me training back then and using me as a role model without me knowing.
I pretty much pointed him to my old trainer (a pretty solid powerlifter) for his next role model. (Side note: Given his mentality, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is around 180 or so now)
This is a good topic. My nephew is currently in Iraq and the first time he came home on leave, we trained together in my gym. I’m fairly sure his intent was mostly to just hang out, but eventually he became very serious about it as time went on. We corrected some bad habits he had from high school days, and his progress was nothing short of phenominal (granted there was plenty of room for noob gains, but still quite impressive). Now, he has the same passion for training and competing as me and had his first PL meet along with some of the guys in his battalion, over in Iraq. I see in retrospect that he saw my desire to excel in powerlifting and that inspired him to get onboard. Kinda cool.
I inspired my fat friend (220lbs 20+%BF). I inspired him to get a gym membership and showed him that it could be fun to workout. Last time I seen him he was 198lbs and was really full about all his noob gains which were still impressive for him.
You guys have some good stories. More likely the bigger you are the more you can inspire someone.
I’m not a big guy or a formidable lifter, but I know that I’ve definitely inspired some of my team mates to start lifting once they saw how much it improved my game.
Only problem is, now those girls won’t stop bitching about how slow and out of shape the other ones are. Lol! Double edge sword.
This summer I went away to work at a resort hotel with staff gym and accomadations. There were maybe 2 of us that worked out hard, so some of the people I worked with asked me for advice. Only one came with me consistently by the end and took what I said to heart. I left in August, he was about 160 pounds, skinny fat, and slowly figuring out how to squat and bench.
Hung out with him a couple weeks ago. He thanked me and filled me in on his progress. He’s now 190 pounds, out benches me and has almost caught my squat.
He put on 40 pounds, upped his bench by over 100lbs and his squat by 200! All in 8 months. I was shocked.
This one time I was in a bad mood and I walked by some 14 year old kid with a cigarette behind his ear trying to look cool. Without even saying a word I took the cigarette, threw it on the ground in front of me and stepped on it.
I never saw him again, but I like to think I inspired him to quit smoking.
I never really thought about the extent, but the last few years, I’ve gotten several really heart felt letters from former students. Definitely a cool feeling, makes me thing I’m doing something worthwhile day in and day out with my life.
[quote]AttackOfTheChris wrote:
I inspire girls to touch my penis. [/quote]
Well played sir.
At the U of A, I have started a powerlifting group. Out of the 6 guys in it now, I was the only one who consistently trained before. They are making great progress, as one of them just recently hit 395lbs on squat and narrowly missed 405lbs at a bw of 180lbs at 5ft 6in.
EDIT - I forgot he joined T Nation, the guy who did that is TexanBadAss
