Started in 7th grade when my dad bought me my first bench press set up and some weights (still use its ancient atheltic tape wrapped bars sometimes). I lifted to stay competitive with my best friend who was naturally built like an animal just like his dad. Once he told me how his pops said, “People shouldn’t lift weights cause it’s not real/natural strength, some guys were meant to be big and strong and some weren’t” I remember thinking, “that’s fucking great for a family that naturally looks like Arnold” Anyways, 11 yrs. later and now I lift so my body can take the beating of the sports I enjoy: mountain biking, snowboarding, surfing, etc. but basically so I can jump into any athletic situation on or off-road and kick ass. There is also a meditative aspect to pushing weight and the carthitic (sic) feeling of pain, like walking on hot coals. Something about shutting your mind off, getting in touch with your inner animal. Also I’d be the biggest phony on this site if I said getting chicks didn’t have anything to do with it. Health is good too.
I love fighting and have always been pretty good at it. Always been fast and agile but never that strong, thought i better work on my weakness so I can knock people out easier and be more resilient to injury.
I can remember lifting heavy stuff with my next door neighbor Dave as far back as 10-12 years old, just cause it felt good and was really fun. Stones, concrete blocks, logs, tires, whatever we happened to stumble across. We’d always try to outdo each other.
In high school I mostly did gymnastics and ran cross country, didn’t lift much at all. But I could climb a 25’ rope hand-over-hand with my legs held in a pike. In the army and in college I seemed to end up in the weight room off and on, I think it was a subconsious, instinctive thing.
When I was 30 I was fat and out of shape, so I bought a Soloflex and got strong enough that I could hit the gym without embarrasing myself too bad. Started lifting and playing raquetball almost daily. But then I started smoking again and kind of fell off the wagon, and then I got really fat.
Five years ago I stopped smoking for good and got really, really fat, and three years ago I took a new job in a new town. I spent 2 weeks living in a friend’s basement while I looked for a place, he had a bench and bar down there and I started playing with that. Now I have a pretty decent rack with cables set up in my garage, with almost 1000#s of plate, two bars and a bunch of dumbell handles.