Your First Attempts at Weightlifting

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1

a typical ‘journey’ i guess

  1. As a very skinny teen I wanted to get bigger and my bro and i got, as a gift, one of those hollow-tube barbell/dumbbell sets with plastic weights that altogether couldn’t have weighed more than about 35lbs.

There was a flimsy instruction paper which, as teenagers, quickly got lost and forgotten.

I recall doing floor presses with the dumbbells, a bit of overhead pressing, some curls. That lasted a few months maybe with no great results.

What a waste, even with that little weight set I could have saved up for some 10lb plastic weights and concentrated on squats, rows, military presses etc and put in a good base at a great age for hormones.

  1. Next, at around age 20, i got a bullworker and followed he program slavishly for 6 weeks and actually it really did ‘bring out’ some muscle - on reflection probably just waking them up and getting some water/glyco in them but it surprised me nevertheless.

  2. then i saw and got Arnold’s encyclopedia (the 80’s edition) and grossly overtrained following his beginners program while not eating enough, but gained a tiny bit more anyway. After a few years I had learned more, with plenty of misinformation and dumb supps from the mags in the meantime plus some stupid injury lay offs in my lower back from bad form. Once i’d nailed the program, focussed on bigger lifts and rested more I did better but back then never really got a consistent handle on diet and held myself back because of it.

Anyone remember “mega mass 2000”? Don’t mix it anywhere near a carpet in a rented room!

2

When my mom moved in with my step dad he had a home gym, so i started working out. I was about 10… I benched like noe other… And i mean, i did like 20 sets with the worst technique you could ever imagine… Injured my shoulder and it still hurts if i dont warm up enough.

at 14 i tried deadlift for the first time, i had a pretty strong back so i just added kg and added some more without any instructions on how to do it except what i’d seen online… Basically injured my back which still hurts if i don’t warm up enough :smiley:

Yeah, what can i say… I was 10 and 14… I thought i could do endless sets with bad technique and i regret it like no other :smiley:

3

First few days of football camp before the beginng of freshman year. My form was shit but I had some strength from being a fat guy. After a couple of sets I began to want more and more. The story builds itself from there…

EDIT: Ok just wanted to say that when I was in 2nd grade I would do a couple floor presses with 1 5KG dumbell. I got to using two by forth grade. It was nothing consistant just random on weekends. I loved doing that too.

4

I was one of the slightly fat kids who thought doing tons of reps in the ab crunch machine thing was going to make me thin.

My parents got me a dumbell set for christmas one year, I basically did curls with it and made up some other stupid exercises. The dbs only went up to 20lbs…

I never got near an actual barbell until college when my roommates had a bench in the basement of our house. Benchpress and curls was all we did and we called it “working out”. I pretty much knew something was up but they dragged me into it. In any case it was only for a few months and I never really made any progress.

Finally this past year I decided I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t do a real pushup - so I started doing them a lot, everyday. Then I got an ab roller, and some bands, and just followed the instructions for exercises that came with them. Basically just random shit.

Then I made the leap this past march, joined a gym, got a trainer, and actually decided to learn something about all this stuff.

5

I go back to the Charles Atlas ads in the back of comic books. I also had the plastic covered concrete weights, only I had about 3 sets, and a cheap bench. We would do lots of benching and curls, seated presses. Our big thing was to load the bar, and clean and jerk, seeing who could put up the most. Totally ignorant of the fact, the clean and jerk stuff was actually good stuff.

We also had a couple pair of boxing gloves. We used an empty bedroom in my buddies house as a boxing ring. Every piece of sheetrock in the room was busted due to the rope-a-dope. Getting the shit beat out of you was great fun.

6

My first experience with lifting was in the basement of a YMCA when I was 14. I was taught how to use the machines. I went back maybe twice.

When I was 16, I asked a friend of mine how he got so big (dude was huge, and is one of two people I know who have severely restrained myostatin genes). He handed me the book Body For Life, by the infamous Bill Roberts. I got through six weeks, felt overtrained, didn’t see progress, and gave up.

(there probably was progress, but I didn’t know how to track it, and so was very discouraged).

This (^^^) lead me to MM2K and Mens Health, which I read for about a year, even though I wasn’t training (diet tips I took, mostly). They lead me to Pavel, Staley and Cosgrove. I bought a kettlebell with money saved up from mowing lawns, and would do some swings, presses, jerks, and isometrics a few days a week. With a 55lb kettlebell, there’s really no way to show progress. So that eventually fell by the wayside.

When I got to college, my dorm was literally across the street from the gym. I put some random stuff together from Pavel’s literature and was squatting, deadlifting and doing contact-twists daily for a couple of weeks. My back started spasming, I felt like I was injuring myself, though I was doing ‘everything right’, and I stopped.

A year later, I stumbled onto T-Nation (still not sure how), asked how to deal with the back issue and got Eric Cressey. Bought Magnificent Mobility, used it, and have been lifting happily every since.

I really wish I’d found this website and a power rack when I was still in high school and my parents were paying for my food. But, alas, such is life. I’m happy to have found it at all, and happy to support Biotest with pretty much all my supp purchases.

7

When I was about 14 I started hitting the gym with my buddy. I was scared to death, had no idea what I was doing, and hadn’t yet decided that I truly needed it. That lasted about 2 months and accomplished nothing. I was pudgy/fat for the majority of my middle and high school years.

In my Junior year I decided this was unacceptable and started to slim down from 6’4 240 (fat) to 190 (mostly scrawny). That was mainly due to eating an absurd diet and working 48 hours/week at Safeway while I was taking your generic high school classes.

During my senior year, I attended a weight training class and managed to put on 20 pounds in the first six months or so…eating an equally ridiculous diet. That first 6 months or so absolutely changed my life forever.

I went from being the fat kid trying to get from one class to the next as fast as I could to actually having veins in my forearms and not being completely ashamed. Over the next 4 years or so I have been been trying to learn as much as possible and have been feeding the gym and training addiction feverishly. I still don’t know what I am doing and I am relatively weak but have made it 270 pounds at without too much fat.

The only annoying part is that I have the worst coordination imaginable. I suppose I should have played more sports and spent less time playing computer games and setting up wireless networks. Hah!

-Patrick

8

I was fat and weak, so I bought a bench, used it 3-4 times a week and sucked at life.

Whoop - Still do.

9

rugby coach made me 3 years ago.

havnt looked back since.

10

I got 5 kilo dumbbells quite early on. I lifed them a lot in early teens.

I had access to some bodybuilding literature and nothing else. I did curls,some machine rowing,bench etc.

I remember starting over and over again in my teens,with 100% motivation which lasted for maybe a couple weeks and then I would stop for a far longer time. I never made any gains. I did not know what I was doing.

I have a vague memory of trying to bench a light weight and having to roll it over my gut and hating lifting for years.

I also injured my rotator cuff while overhead pressing a mere 5kg dumbbell and my shoulder has never been the same. I was like 16 (23 now). That’s another incident which made me hate lifting and forget about it for years.

Then I don’t know how I found the motivation only a few years ago,gradually learning how to do it right.

11

I was tired of being fat, so I asked my dad for some workout advice. He started helping me, but I never took it too seriously until football summer weights program when I was just about to be a freshmen (which was a little over a year ago). I first started out with being scared of using more weight. I remember not even being able to bench 170 back in November.

When football season ended, I really started to train (we have mandatory lifting with the team after school). I have gained about 35 pounds, raised my bench and clean to 215, finally got my squat above 315 pounds, can do pull-ups and chin-ups, and can finally jump.

I am happy that I get to lift for the rest of my life.

12

[quote]gswork wrote:

  1. then i saw and got Arnold’s encyclopedia (the 80’s edition) and grossly overtrained following his beginners program while not eating enough, but gained a tiny bit more anyway. [/quote]

I bought that book when I was about 17. I remember reading it from start to finish and taking it to the gym to practice form. It was, at the time, the coolest, book I ever owned. That book made the rounds at my gym with everyone. It even was a platform for breaking the ice with a trainer I had the hots for, that led to a few years of careless sex. Good times…

Somehow, the book got lost when I moved to Montreal. I wish I still had it, just for the memories, not so much for the training.

13

The first time i tried to squat or deadlift or whatever was this year, back in march-april.
I could deadlift 185 and that’s about it.
I feel i’ve come a long way, even in these 3 months (duh).
:stuck_out_tongue:

14

Started in high school at 24 Hour Fatness. The PT prescribed a fairly balanced/complete machine based routine, which yielded acceptable results.

After four or five months I ventured into free weights, replicating the same exercises.

Pretty lucky – that guy set me on the correct path…

15

[quote]dianab wrote:
gswork wrote:

  1. then i saw and got Arnold’s encyclopedia (the 80’s edition) and grossly overtrained following his beginners program while not eating enough, but gained a tiny bit more anyway.

I bought that book when I was about 17. I remember reading it from start to finish and taking it to the gym to practice form. It was, at the time, the coolest, book I ever owned. That book made the rounds at my gym with everyone. It even was a platform for breaking the ice with a trainer I had the hots for, that led to a few years of careless sex. Good times…[/quote]

Sadly the book wasn’t a platform for that for me. It was, however, a platform for doing one leg calf raises on way back then! Quite a thick book! Sturdy too, as it seems none the worse for wear all these years later.

16

(Is this for young lifters too?)

First attempt was exactly 2 years ago, when I just turned 14. Immediately started training with the big guys, learned how to squat, deadlift and bench properly. Went from about 130 pounds to 195 in 2 years…

Am I the only one who hasn’t bought a 5 kg dumbbell set and did endless sets of situps daily?

17

I don’t even remember my first attempt at lifting. My dad gave me a 15 or 20 lb kids barbell set when I was little, like 6 or 7. First real serious attempt was when I was 16, my brother, myself, and a friend spent all summer doing bench presses, shrugs, dips, and pull downs. Trained on and off in college, found NROL about a year ago, got into it again, and found T-Nation.

18

[quote]Sick Rick wrote:
Am I the only one who hasn’t bought a 5 kg dumbbell set and did endless sets of situps daily?[/quote]

Probably not, but it’s worth pointing out that you got handed information that it took many of the rest of us years to find.

Good for you.

[/bitter]

19

Started out by going with a friend. We would watch some people, do some machines, bench press, and curls then leave.

After about 2 months he quit then I started to research on body building sites. Got results, stayed lean, but got no where fast.

Then I went to college and my dedication wasn’t there even when I was working out regularly.

Then I took it much more seriously and put on about 30 pounds in a year. When I hit 195 and with a completely filthy bulk I decided to get my body fat percentage back down.

Next stop is clean bulking once I’m down to about 10%.