I always struggle with the first post of a new blog. I feel like I should be addressing an audience, yet whatever I write feels forced and fake because I know there is nobody reading this. So I'll just skip all that "welcome" garbage and get to it.
I created this blog in order to better chronicle my fitness journey. I am not elite athlete. I'm a 31 year old father of two. I'm 6'4 and currently 187lbs. One day, two years ago, I decided I was fed up with being weak and overly wish-washy in my training. So I decided to make that big lifestyle change, eliminate all excuses, and start busting ass. Now I didn't just start working out two years ago. I have played sports my entire life, and have always been interested in fitness and the capabilities of the human body. I played through high school and college. Well, I guess you can disregard the latter. I only played one season due to my stupid lifestyle (partying), and it was NAIA. I worked out on and off all throughout my teenage years and into my 20s. I never knew what I was doing, though. I would just mimic some of the crap my horrible high school basketball coach taught us. I don't think I ever made much progress in any area. I was tall, skinny, and zero definition around my core due to a) not having any muscle there and b) a decent layer of fat covered it. I was clearly the epitome of sex appeal and athletic performance.
Around the age of 25 or so I became engorged in the world of fitness magazines. Now that I'm older and, uh, wiser I know that those magazines are garbage. I'll cover that in another post. So as many due when they first begin "training" I started lifting like a bodybuilder. Monday was chest, Tuesday was legs, etc. I sure did get big. I hit 215 at my largest, but that was largely due to all the crap I was ingesting at the time. Again, I'll write about that some other time. Even though I was stronger than before, my strength didn't translate well to the real world as my training was highly one dimensional. I was also cheating myself in a lot of areas by not doing everything I should have been doing.
That same misguided style of training continued until I was 29 when I decided enough was enough. I had just come off of a long break from the gym (3 or 4 months) and was getting back into going 5x a week. I was also partying very hard during my twenties so as I got older the less I was able to handle hangovers. That too played a part in me making the lifestyle change. I signed up at a gym in my building, and started going every day at lunch. I also started absorbing myself in fitness material and trying to find some good strength forums. You know, not forums of the bro variety. Like bodybuilding.com, etc. I wouldn't say I was training correctly, per se, but I was making a concerted effort to apply theories and figure out what works best for me. I figured there would be a lot of trial and error ahead of me, but not as much as I have experienced. Needless to say my philosophies have changed many times over the last few years.
Fast forward to today. I'm healthier than ever and in better shape than ever. Unfortunately, or fortunately, being in "better shape" is not my goal. I want to see what this body is truly capable of. I would always watch people on the internet doing crazy fetes of strength and then the "I wonder if I can do that?" question would always pop up in the back of my head. For most of my life I wrote that notion off as ridiculous. I mean, I was tall and gangly (for my standards). Now? Well, now it's time to start answering that question. I'll never be a powerlifter or a strongman, but I'm determined to get the most out of this body. Haven't you always wondered what you're truly capable of?
Just a disclaimer: my opinions are my own, although they may reflect many others out there. I don't claim to know everything, and I guarantee I'll be wrong on more than one occasion. This blog is about my journey, and that journey will continue to be a learning process. Something I post next month could conceivably contradict something I post this month. My theories and outlook on fitness are ever growing and evolving.
In this blog I'll share articles that interest me, give opinions on various topics, post videos (many will be my own), and constantly verbally high five the Dallas Mavericks for winning the NBA championship. I love you, Dirk.
pd
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