Growing up I was always involved in athletics. But at 14 I was so self conscious about my weight and the abs I did not have. I began to run..ALOT. I hated it but I started losing some weight and began to thin out. At 15, I became fascinated with bodybuilding and started messing around in the gym. After all I played football, quarterback and middle line backer, and needed to put some weight on. I started lifting, like any new teenager lifting it mainly consisted of curls and tricep extensions. At 16-17 years old, I suffered a football related injury and received two herniated discs as a result. The dream of a college football career was over. As one door closes, another opens. I started training lightly to increase core strength etc. to help stabilize my back. Along with that I started to play golf, and currently play for NCAA Div. III at Neumann University. Not to long after I started lifting, it became the only thing I wanted to do and pursue. I began to just eat, train, and sleep. A couple years later, and a whole lot wiser, I am in it to win it and there is nothing stopping me from succeeding in my goals and aspirations.
The pump, the gut wrenching pain in my stomach, the sweat, the blood, the leg and back workouts that have you throwing up, the veins and vascularity, the joy in transforming your body, the feeling of never being satisfied, the connection with others, the results, the positive gains one can make in and outside of the gym just from putting their mental and physical body through hell day in and day out.