In July I went and got myself a membership to Xsport fitness.
In retrospect this is one of the best decisions I've ever made for myself EVER.
Now I should state now when I started I decided this was a lifestyle change. Not something I was gonna try and quit. I was going to change how I lived my life.
I promised myself 1 year straight of giving 110%.
This was simply to not make the task feel so daunting but also to make myself a promise I felt I could and had to keep.
I'll be honest doing this intimated the HELL out of me.
I was skinny nerd and had always been skinny nerd.
Never in my life did I expect to be the kind of guy who lifts weights yet here I was signing up for a gym and researching beginner routines.
My first visits were the scariest. Of course I had relatively little clue as to what I was doing despite my extensive research and reading
Like anyone who is doing something new where they don't feel they belonged I was very self conscious and assumed everyone was looking at me, judging.
I persisted regardless of these anxieties and eventually the gym became like a second home to me. . Slowly but steadily I figured everything out.
I developed tunnel vision that started as soon as I walked through that door.
Straight to the locker room to change. And as soon as I was changed my headphones were in, my gloves were on, and I entered the fucking zone.
Very clearly and exclusively focused on myself and my own goals. Everyone and everything around me was now nothing more than a backdrop.
This would last for awhile and is what really got me through this difficult period.
Being able to focus on my own thing and block out what I perceived to be judgements of others really helped me excel.
Over the first few months I really ironed out my form and got my base numbers going and quickly rising.
That was mostly the physical side of things though.
What I truly ultimately gained was something quite different and once again quite unexpected.
Lifting has become almost like a spiritual experience for me.
There is no simpler struggle to be had. Life's problems are complex and can be all different kinds of difficult.
Lifting is the most simple and basic form of problem or struggle. There is simply you, where the weight is, and where you need to make it go. You will be put in your place if you try to bite off more than you can chew. If working as hard as you should you will regularly be brought to your limits and fail. This is one place where failure is the GOAL. Going as hard as you can until you simply CAN'T anymore. Its helped me not only to find my personal limits but taught me how to push through and persevere once I actually get there.
What I also enjoy about it is it is a natural system.
You can't lie, you can't cheat, you can't bend the rules. If you slack or miss days it shows. If you stay disciplined and work hard you get rewarded.
Simple as that.
Throughout this time I tightened up my diet gradually but overall quite drastically.
The amount I drank was cut to the lowest it had been probably since I started drinking in high school. My diet slowly became more similar to that of a bodybuilder than your average person. Lots and lots of lean protein, complex carbs, and good fats. (I'll get into specifics on that in a later entry)
I also really started hitting the supplementation. Protein shakes, multivitamins, and fish oil are where I started.
This eventually progressed into more complex and additional supplementation to address specific individual needs.
All of these things progressed naturally as one would expect.
I learned from reading, through my own trial and error, and from the experiences of others.
One lesson I learned was that too much fruit can make you FAT.
Surprising isn't it?
I definitely didn't see that one coming but once I pinpointed the problem all I did was decrease my massive fruit intake and the fat faded away again.
After getting all these ducks in a row I started seeing great gains regularly.
As of this day 2/11/2012 I have gained 22.5 lbs of mostly all muscle from the time I started in July 2011. This is barely over 7 months of time and the difference I've seen is rather amazing.
Every single number has gone up on every lift. I'm talking about both reps and weight.
Some of my numbers have even doubled. For example when I first started I was doing 20 lb dumbbells for hammer curls, now I use 40s.
Some exercises I couldn't even do when starting I can now do in great number.
Dips and pull ups are great examples of this, when first starting I used the weight assist for these while today I just ordered a weight belt to ADD weight since my body weight has become too easy for these exercises.
But enough talk, here are a couple recent pics to see my progress.
My arms have gotten pretty damn large for my body size.
FINALLY starting developing a chest after months of work at it.
Thats it for now, I'll continue with part three very soon which will be a wrap up of my recent blood tests, the motivation I've gotten from those around me, and what the future holds.
