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A Plastic Weight Set For A Troubled Youth
By: Dan Church
The small span of time from when I was 14 to 15 years old would prove to be the toughest period of my life. I was going through life like a worm that had been partially amputated, sliding my way around the world with no direction. In the span of this year my town’s gym teacher murdered my neighbors (and committed suicide himself), 2 friends of mine decided to take the plunge into suicide, my grandmother, uncle, and aunt all died, and then to top it off my parents got divorced. My adolescence had taken abrupt fall into hell. I was constantly losing ground in my life.
Growing up in Alaska I was accustomed to suffering, being at mercy with the wills of nature and feeling the pains of living in an isolated island community. But nothing prepared me for the suffering I would face that year. After my parents divorced I found myself in an even smaller town in Montana staying with my mom. I was alone and a stranger in a community which was hostile to me. I needed something to occupy my time, so I decided to start lifting weights. I saved up my money, and started how so many other young lifters did; with a plastic weight set. I immersed myself into lifting the plastic weights every chance I got until it became second nature to me. I would sometimes workout for 4 or more hours and have no idea where the time had gone. Lifting became my anti-depressant and way of dealing with pain and strife. The ghosts of my past looked onward at me as I pushed each weight up, increasing my repetitions with each workout. I continued to lift weights and found my release in them as I stuck with it everyday for the next 5 years. I ended up building a strong Herculean body from all my mental demons and suffering. The more my workouts progressed, the more my life improved. I stopped drinking, I found myself in less violent situations, and I studied hard in school. I didn’t need any distractions from my weight lifting obsession. Luckily for me it payed off and I graduated 2nd in my class and with a physique that no other 18 year old in my state possessed.
In the current climate of America kids are unusually soft and feminine expecting everything to be given to them. They do not understand work ethic, dedication, or suffering in the least. But the ones that do suffer are the poor, neglected, and demoralized. And to these kids I offer this salvation: a hard life will build you a hard body, and it is very hard to beat a young man’s spirit who has already been through hell. Instead of giving kids prescriptions I often ponder if giving them a gym membership will help them out more in the long run. I believe that many of the youth of this nation are only one workout away from completely changing their life. Sometimes all it takes is some gold ol’ fashioned suffering to build a body that no one can take away from you.
Why I Love It:
I love working out because it teaches so many valuable lessons about life. We learn about patience, setting & accomplish goals, and even personal sacrifice to an extent. I like the feeling that I am constantly building something that is uniquely mine; a body all to my own.
*The views and story represented here are entirely of my own and representitive of no one else of any agency, group, or affiliation.
How I Stay Motivated:
I think of what I can accomplish in this sport in the future, and how can I use my talents to benefit myself and my family.
BB Accomplishments:
*I took 4th place in the 2007 NPC Junior California in the collegiate division.( It was my first show, messed up the contest prep, but learned alot)
* 334-0 in the ALaskan Grizzly Bear Fighting Circuit (333 KOS). Im the "south paw" killa
Forum Signature:
I knew a lady that smoked cat-nip
She had rotten black toe-nails,
Thorazine eyes,
Lived on a houseboat with a tlinget man.
She stayed up for nights at a time
Smoking cat nip out of an aluminum foil pipe
Uttering out of her wrinkled paper lips:
"It takes you awhile but it gets you there"
Started dieting April 2 doing a ketogenic diet. I recovered well from my broken clavicle and put on some more muscle this winter. Currently tightening everything up and taking it more serious than ever.
Hey Dan. Life's going great. Doing the usual: School, work, gym and travel. Thanks for the advice about getting a job as a correctional officer, I might take it because being a S/O is starting to get tiresome and I need to try something new. You have yahoo messenger? Let's keep in touch sometimes.
Greetings. I remember you from along time ago. I've seen the recent pics of yourself, and I'm glad that you have continued with bodybuilding and gained excellent amount of muscle mass.
Roshard Davis.
I can't get over how big you are at last, you'd be ashamed of seen how skinny i was in the past!
I was 17 and weighed only 160 lbs.
I am going on 23 and weigh 235!
Hey man I noticed that u do the keytone diet as well. Have any helpful tips or tricks u have for the diet. Or any reccimemded supps. Your looking good man
You are articulate as well as having that all-American can-do ethic AND lots of attention-getting muscles. With young guys like you, the USA holds to its core values.
Best, Jim
