My dad introduced me to lifting weights in my early teens. I strength trained for football throughout my Jr. High and High School years to get stronger, but it wasn't until I went on to College before I was working out to better my physique. In 2005, I was in the best shape of my life. Being in such great shape built a desire within me to try out for Spring football the following semester. That Fall, while playing flag football, I tore my knee up in a playoff game. I didn't know it at the time but it turned out that I tore my ACL and damaged some of the cartilage in my knee. It wasn't until a year later before I could do the surgery. After the physical therapy, I struggled with getting back to 100% and being able to get back to exercising on a consistent basis. Not going to the gym consistently eventually led me to not going at all and within a few years my weight got up to 250 pounds but for the most part I had been a consistent 230 pounds and badly out of shape. It wasn't until September 2011 before I committed myself to get back into the gym, but it wasn't easy. I still struggled with my knee. When I started back I couldn't do any jogging because of the pain, but I stuck with going to the gym and worked on building my leg strength and supplemented daily with Glucosamine. Within a few months I could go through a full leg workout and jog for 15 minutes afterwards with no pain! It was something I had not experienced in about 6 years! But it was only the first hurdle in my pursuit to getting fit and staying fit for life.