When I was about 14 my dad started training me, I was at first looking to just get an edge in hockey. I started out in my dad's garage working out with his home gym it had just about all someone who's just starting would need, bench, squat rack, high and low cables. When i enter my Junior year in high school I took a weight training course now I was lifting much more consistent and had a variety of new pieces of equipment to use mainly the dumbbells. The class focused mainly on powerlift and journal entries. For a year I just trained to get my bench, squat, deadlift, and powerclean as heavy as possible. At the end of the year I was looking for a gym to lift at, I wasn't about to loss a year's worth of work. A buddy of mine convinced me to started going with him to defined fitness. I slowly became more interested in bodybuilding over just powerlifting. I was reading M&F and Arnold's bible. I hit a plateau that last about 6 months I was stuck at 170 and couldn't get any stronger. I finally realized that protein shakes weren't enough. I had my first diet make over starting with an actual breakfast :) what a nub right?! well I broke the plateau a week later after high school though like a dumby I got side-tracked by girls, school, parties, girls, sporting events, and did I meantion girls lol. After freshmen year I was living on my own not training or eating right. I weight I stunning 150 skin and bones. During the summer I moved home and ate everything. One day at work a lady at work who had no room to talk called me fat I weighted about 180 now. Even though I had no respect for her opinion it did get me thinking what other people thought. I went home looked in the mirror and realized I wanted to get fit again, but this time not for sports or girls for myself. I started lift at my parents gym it had a little weight room that had what I needed to get back into it. For the first couple of weeks I was imbarressed to lift around people the weight I was doing was nothing like I used too. The strength started coming back ever so slowly :) When fall semester sophomore year started I moved in with a guy from work who'd been working out for almost a decade I looked up to him his arms were bigger than my quads at the time. I started working out at the gym with him and going to the grocery store and grabbing whatever he did. For the first semester I was into getting my upper body big I lifted like a mad man for chest,back,arms,shoulders, but I skipped legs every week. Over the christmas break I realized I wanted to do a competition sometime soon so I started hitting the legs hard I finally got the right work out routine and diet for me. So I guess this is really only the start :)

Clears my head, you can put yourself in your own world and focus on you... after all your there to improve you.