I was introduced to lifting in 2005, during my second year in the Army. Throughout that second year, during deployment, I lived in the gym when not working a mission. One of my best friends and brother in the Army, taught me everything that would become the foundation of my weight training knowledge and regimen. It was the extraordinary gateway to an extraordinary journey. I would not be the same person I am today if it were not for learning to lift-- and loving to lift. I will never stop lifting. I dare you to do it.

I love being strong. I love being agile and physically able to do anything. I also love the ripple effects of lifting, i.e. the mental and emotional benefits (clarity, stability, sanity.) Also, mankind; we are no different from other species in that we are/were not meant to 'sit', to be sedentary, to get fat, to develop diabetes, etc. Ages ago, we-- all of us, except perhaps the elders within a herd or community, ran, hunted, climbed, swam. Sit, we did not. To lift, to work every muscle, to strengthen, to run, is to return to that ancient aspect of our species' physical existence. Every single human alive should be fit. Our ability to survive in this world without expending much energy is a paradox of nature. Someday, I believe, for this our race will pay an extreme price...and only the fittest will survive. Lift and live.