Most of my life I have been on the heavier side. Playing sport, primarily football in high school, kept my shape from getting too large. Then came college. Packed on the freshmen 15 real quick. I blame that on my love for beers. Sophmore 20. Junior 30. I was up to 240lbs before the end of my first semester of senior year. 5'11'' 240lbs is not too pretty... especially considering that weight was due to my high bf%. I started to workout to get my weight under control, mostly aerobic in nature. Not too much weight training.
I was not focused on building muscle or shaping my body but rather just getting my weight under control. This was a challenge for me as I would, after a month or two, fall off the workout routine and gain the weight back. Years of yo-yo weight gain, weight loss started to impact me. I began to become more self-conscience about myself. As I began getting my career started and thinking about my future I realized how important my physical health was. This drove me to challenge myself. To try things others called 'hard work.' The fact some of my close friends were pushing weights and making me feel inferior in stature was another factor that helped drive me into the world of more serious weight-training.
The first workout program I started and completed was P90X. This program introduced me to the idea of intense interval based workouts. Of course just doing the program was not enough for me. I wanted to know why these exercises worked so well and what exactly they were working. How can I design my own program? How can I gain knowledge in this area of physical exercise to improve my own ability to transform? Thus my interest in exercise science began.
Bodybuilding.com became a site I often visited to read articles and go over the forum. Absorbing as much knowledge I could in the fields of nutrition, lifting programs, and general weight training theories. As one thing leads to another, and my commitment to hitting the gym increased, I decided I wanted to get enough knowledge and expertise in the field to become a certified personal trainer. Today I am an ISSA Elite Trainer having earned my PT, fitness nutrition and exercise therapy certifications. Fitness truly has become not only my hobby but my passion.