I really had a lot of anxiety as a youth. Lucky for me I was inspired by strongman and bodybuilding greats like Arnold, Franco, and Frank Zane; as well as, wrestlers Hulk Hogan and Randy "Macho Man" Savage. But the biggest thing for me was seeing first hand the the physical and psychological effects of what training can do when my Uncle Joe would pay us a visit after training. He seemed so massive, strong, and just so excited and fired up. I put 2 and 2 together at the age of 13 and wanted to get in shape and not have the anxiety. I got a concrete set of weights and got obsessed to the point of over training for a while. Trained with a friend in his basement some time before getting my nerve to join a local gym. That's when things started to click. The gym owner put me on a good routine, I got some good books on bodybuilding, added some supplements, ate better and made awesome progress. I was addicted; I caught the lifting bug.

The pump of course. Not to mention being strong, more confident, less anxious, and did I mention the pump? Training keeps me youthful and let's me be me.