I started bodybuilding when I was in the 9th grade...I was the fat kid. I got tired of being bullied and discovered that I loved picking up the weights. It became addicting. I also found that I quickly put on mass...always have, lucky me.
I stopped working out when I was 19 for whatever stupid reason...then I got married at 21 and in the next 8 years I put on over 150lbs. I was laying on the couch eating like it was an Olympic Sport! I also started falling apart quickly. My doctor told me that he was going to reccomend me for stomach stapling. My heel was coming apart, I had Gastral Esophageal Reflux Disease, Heart Irregularities, and the list goes on and on and on...
Anyway, I started training in the martial arts again when I was 29 and lost about 70lbs in about 18 months. 2005 I started working out again with the weights, and 2006, March to be exact, I finally stumbled onto a split that works wonders for me. I've been hitting it hard, and for the 1st time in my life I've been doing squats and deadlifts. Yes, I made the popular excuses...and they suck! You who don't do these lifts have no idea what you're missing!
Since March of 2006, I've lost another 55 lbs of fat and gained about 30 of muscle!
Anyway, some things I've learned along the way:
-Youth is wasted on the young. You young guys don't know how good you have it...get your size now, while your hormones are RAGING! When you hit your late twenties, you just won't have it anymore and it will be much harder to start then.
-Supplements have come a long way since the late 80's. I used to think Weider's Dynamic Muscle Builder was the BOMB! Man, I'd kill to go back with some Nitrix and Cellmass, and some of the great tasting protein they have now...that old stuff was like choking down packing peanuts.
-Never Settle
-Plateaus are MENTAL! You can break them!
-You can always do better than you think you can.