I actually started when I was 13 - always being picked on and bullied. Was skinny as a twig. Saw a Muscle and Fitness magazine at a corner store with Mike Mentzer on the cover and I was hooked. The movie Pumping Iron helped alot too. I was bodybuilding until about 21-22 years old, got married, had a kid, and I basically let that end my bodybuilding. As you can imagine, I got overweight (though not obese) and out of shape and when I was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis, I decided it was time to fight back with my old trusty (dusty) friend Bodybuilding. So for most of 2005 I tried my hardest to get motivated and to be consistent with the workouts. I would do a couple weeks, then stop, etc. But in early 2006, the Bodybuilding bug really hit me hard again and I got back into the swing of things very, very slowly but surely. July 2006 I had a low back injury that sidelined me for 2 weeks, after 16 weeks of solid, steady training, and it was killing me to have to stop to let this thing heal. Well, I went back to the gym about 1 week to early and blew out a L5 disc. So I was out for another 2 months. I don't have pain, only left foot weakness/numbness that does not interfere with my life. I am finally rolling again with my workouts and taking on the rounded bodybuilder look and I just want to keep going.

I love it because it gives me the sense that I can control my own destiny. I know it is not true, because God is in control of all things, but I like that feeling. It is enabling me to fight off disease and nothing looks better than the physique of a bodybuilder.