I come from a family of cousins that all played football since Jr. High School. I have five older male cousins that started football before me and when they started working out and lifting weights, I joined them. We've always had a typical bench and barbell with the weights that were always in decimals, but my Father bought a REAL weight set when I wanted to lift for my 8th grade football year.
On came raising the bar for High School football. Started training during the summer for the oncoming year and was the strongest (but one of the shortest) freshmen coming into the program. It got me thinking that I could really be good at lifting. But it was all about strength, not physique and being cut.
I grew up watching Strongman Competitions, being subscribed to MuscleMag and Muscular Developement, and watching bodybuilding competitions. Started reading up and kept renewing my subscriptions and following what I read in the magazines.
In my high school College English class (AP) I rewrote a paper the night before it was due and I got 98% on it. I was supporting bodybuilding as an art.
As soon as I got to college my working out took a screeching halt and I started to train for boxing to get cut and a leaner physique. I didn't like the way I felt after not lifting the maximum weight I was able to do, so I kept working to get bigger and bigger.
As of right now I decided to clean up my life and not drink alcohol and smoke as much as I did. I decided to clean up for personal reasons and I took a run and just couldn't make it as far as I used to.