I had a free membership to a tiny gym located in my community's Rec Center in Northern Chicago through a job I did during the summers between semesters at college. A friend of mine who had recommended me for the job said to me one day, "hey man, I'm thinking of heading to the gym later. We have the free membership; why not, right? Want to go with me?". I'm pretty sure he just wanted someone he knew to go with so he wouldn't be uncomfortable, but I figured I might as well take advantage of the opportunity. I was a dual-sport athlete throughout high school (football and lacrosse) and had a scholarship to play lacrosse in college, so weight training wasn't exactly new to me. Well, I barely weighed over 170 pounds soaking wet and didn't have much as far as powerful strength, but after 3 months of going to the gym 3-4 days a week throughout that initial summer I gained 30lbs (both muscle and fat) and A LOT of strength. This caught the eyes of my college coaches and fellow teammates, as well as the opposite gender. The strength training DRASTICALLY helped improve my lacrosse game (being able to push people around and not get pushed off a ground ball), and this launched me into a starting position. All of this boosted my confidence to a level I never thought I could have, and I started to put the pieces together. I didn't really know what I was doing as far as routines or anything, but I had a decent working knowledge of exercises. After a few years of fine-tuning, meeting the right people down at college, taking courses while at college, and endless hours reading and learning everything that I could about exercise, nutrition, wellness, and overall health, I started to learn how to sculpt my body. Six years later: I have the body I have always dreamed of and I am relied upon by my family, friends, and acquaintances (as well as random people) as a source of help for most of their health/wellness needs and questions.

I use bodybuilding/working out for a lot of different reasons: I use it as a stress reliever, a reason to get out of the house, etc. The main reason, though, is because I enjoy being there. Even if I'm there for 3 or 4 hours (rarely, but it happens), I simply enjoy being around the weights and the people in the gym who are there to better their livelihood. It's nice to surround yourself with people who are trying to make themselves feel better.