Remember the first time that you saw a bodybuilding competition or an Arnold flick as a kid? It was incredible! Those huge bulging biceps, triceps and pecs?! You think to yourself one day you will be built similarly.
Starting Young Being the 8 year old kid that you are, you run to your father's set of dumbells and bench and have at it.
You try so hard, and with intensity, to be strong and powerful, but it just doesn't happen.
You don't let yourself get discouraged yet though.
You come back the next day, and the next, and still no strength.
You feel like a complete failure and you go and tell your mom why.
You explain yourself in your child's voice that you want to be a man, a big, strong one like the one on the movies.
As you start to cry, your mother hugs you and says, "Son, you are only a child, your body isn't mature enough to handle lifting weights, but one day when you are old enough, you can to do whatever you dream.
" As she tells you this, you notice the weakness in your undeveloped muscles from the exercise and then really feel bad, but now, you have heard those words, "One Day..
..
You Can!" Keeping Your Dream You keep this burning desire to build muscles and think about it every time you see an action movie or a bodybuilding competition.
You have always wanted to be the athletic type, so you played baseball as you grew up.
You were not skinny and had a low self-esteem.
Everybody at school made fun of you at school because you were fat.
You had arm-wrestling competitions at recess on occasion, but you always lost.
Then the weekend came and you saw Conan the Barbarian and was stunned all over again.
You are now 10 and have grown taller but according to mom, you are still not old enough to lift weights.
You already have many hardships in your life, with parents fighting, little money for clothes or food, and brother's and cousins picking on you, you feel as if you will always be a waste.
Changing Life / Changing Friends You manage to make a few friends who don't care that you are fat.
These friends have you over to their house for the night and you watch "Pee Wee Herman" something or other, but you both laugh and build a friendship.
Your self-esteem rises a little and you really get into baseball that summer and eat a little less.
The next thing that you know is that you go from being a 135lbs.
4th grader to being a 98lbs.
5th grader.
You begin to make more friends and are invited to join the All-Star Team! You are so excited that you don't even notice having to wake up at 6:00 am to make it to the 6:30 ball practice every morning all summer.
Shocking Everyone You have so much fun.
Then you go back to school and everybody is shocked that you lost so much weight.
You meet even more friends, some that you shouldn't have.
You are now "The Man" and hang out and get a girlfriend.
You come into some people that have problems and you help them.
You are around people with problems so much, that you get into trouble yourself, and you become rebellious and get kicked off of the school bus for the rest of the year.
You are now in the 8th grade and decide to grow your hair out.
You also begin to do bench press and bicep curls.
You work out extremely hard and hope that you will build even the slightest inkling of muscle.
You listen to heavy metal music and get really mad that you are not built and because you have a pathetic physique.
Being Rebellious You decide to dye your hair dark-orange and meet some friends that distract you from your weight training.
You start to ride bikes and learn many tricks and get into some more trouble.
You break your bike and decide that you are becoming a loser, so you decide to cut your hair and make some new friends.
You are trying to decide what to do with all of your spare time, so you lifts weights some more.
You notice some development in your arms and chest, but nothing drastic, maybe if you only knew when, how much, and what to eat.
One day in gym class, your P.
E.
teacher who is also an assistant coach for the high school football team asks you if you have ever thought about playing football.
You say, "Naw, that is not for me, I like to play the video games, but I just always push the buttons, I don't know anything about it.
" He tells you that that does not matter and that you will learn.
You are impressed because he thought you were good enough to play so you give in and decide to play.
Summer comes around and it is time to start football practice, you still don't know anything.
The coaches easily realize that you don't know what you are doing, but they like your aggression and intensity.
Summertime You have the hardest summer in your life because of football practice.
You learn football that season.
The team trains hard with weights in the winter and you excel.
The next summer comes and goes, then the season starts and you play a lot of varsity ball.
You even start the last couple of games in the Regional Tournament as a Sophomore! You make some awesome plays and a couple of sacks at Middle Linebacker and it is awesome.
The season once again comes to an end and you lift weights and join the power lifting team.
Spring football practice comes around and you get a concussion.
Your mommy forces you to quit, and you are devastated.
Just when things were going great and it looked as if you would get a full ride to college, you had to walk out and leave the sport entirely.
You recover from your concussion and watch a lot of t.
v.
An old Arnold movie comes on, and you watch it.
You once again feel that burning feeling and know that you will become a bodybuilder! You get cleared to lift weights and go at it.
You talk to all of the big guys at the gym and work out with them.
They tell you everything, how to eat, how to lift, how long to sleep, what exercises to do together and how often and everything.
You become hooked.
Every time you increase the weight, get sore the next morning, and see yourself improving right before your own eyes, you become more and more motivated.
It becomes an obsession and a way of life.
You have to have the excitement of lifting weights, and the stress and anger that you let out makes you a nicer person outside of the gym.
Inspiration You now are inspired to do everything right in your life and become a well-rounded human being.
You continue to grow and learn how to make your body do what you want it to.
You enter some competitions and become hooked.
What an exciting way to live!! This may not be the way that it happened for you, but this is how I was driven to become a bodybuilder.