When I was in high school and university I was a high performance track athlete. After retiring from track in my early 20's due to injuries and other circumstances I proceeded to do pretty much nothing for the next almost 20 years.
I spent the last better part of the last 10 years as a recording artist--making music and travelling around the world on tour. About 5 years ago I severely hurt my back on-tour... lifting a bag into the overhead compartment on a flight from Cairo to Amsterdam if you can believe it! It was so bad for about 4 years that I was almost resigned to the fact that I might live out the rest of my life partly crippled from the injury. Miraculously, last spring, my back started to improve. I took that as a second lease on life and decided to do something about my physical condition--for the first time in my life I considered bodybuilding.