Gaston Bonenfant

Male

Fallbrook, California, United States

Mar, 2004

I had always wanted to start lifting with my dad and he bought me a membership for my thirteenth birthday.

I get to see good results and its a fun healthy activity.

By seeing how far I have come and picture myself with better abs and arms etc. And these speaches by animal- BIG IS BIG from a distance. But look up close and you'll see big me. Large and imposing, it 's been here for as long as I can remember. Walk up close and you'll see each weathered brick, the tenacious mortar holding 'em together. But what you wont's see is the steel, wood and concrete. All told, these indicidual parts, the building blocks, make the whole. To me, this sport is like this building. At a distance, you can easily make out my physique, the large shadow it casts, Yeah, you might see the bricks, but you won't see how I placed each with painstaking labor, one at a time. Nor will you see the years of hard effort that has been etched into my soul-the countless meals, reps and sacrifices. You won't see it, but it's all there... I have lived it. I have suffered through it. All you see here is the sum total of those efforts, standing the test of time. HISTORY IS a bitch. It is merciless, weeding out the wannabe pretenders from the true contenders. It crushes the weak, leaves 'em behind. It sotps for no man. But that don't mean you can't push back. Who are the defiant? When it's time to spill blood and guts, they come with buckets in hand. When the chips are own, they rise to the occasion. When a balls out session calls, they're always the first in line-and when they get right back in to ask for more... More punishment means more reward. Standing tall, they are warriors. They are mythmakers. A breed apart, we are not made, we are born. Born for this, born to shine in the darkness. So take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself this-are you a leader? Or will you be forever resigned to follow? When history is made, will you be tho one making it, unracking the iron and usettleing the dust? Or will you sit on your ass, reading about itl ong after the fact? There is no room for second. No place for the imitator. Now space for the poser. History will be made...For the one. INDOMITABLE-There are men who, when they see a mountain, the desire to climb it. The mountain is in their blood, As long as they are away, their legs remain restless, their desire unconquerable. When they go to meet it, they leave everthing back. They keep the baggage of society begind and carry only that which they need. Instead of the convenience and comfort that dulls, they'll sharpen their wits and rely on their instints. I am like these men and I count myself among them. I too have somthing in my blood... It is iron. When I'm in this place, choice vanishes. I need to feel the steel in my hands... I want to lift it, destroy and shatter it. Like them, I only have what I need and nothing else-my will, this fortitude, these rough and callused hands. What more would I require? Nothing to weigh me down, borothers. In our journeys, we must stay lean and trim the fat... Take the essential and leave the excess. Unburdened. Though the air in here may be dank and thick, though the lights may be dim, whe I hit my stride, all I'll see is the sky.

Biceps.

Max Bench- 225 x 10 Max Deadlift- 315 x 10 Years dealing with a ruptured achilles- 2 _____________________________________