As the year comes to close I feel compelled to look where I have been. Lately from a physical fitness point of view I can’t help but to be proud of what I have accomplished. Ok, I’m neither Jack Lalane or Jay Cutler but all things considering my body is doing well. So I thought that in this post I would share a little more about myself.
When I was a kid (elementary school and on) I was “that kid”. By that I mean the kid that was tiny. I was the smallest in the class. Anytime we lined up I was always first no matter what grade. (At least in High School) we were not lining up anymore. Growing up I wasn’t just the short kid, I was the short skinny unhealthy looking kid. I was the kid that should have gotten beaten up but luckily I was so small that the mean kids would beat up the next smallest kid.
One of the things that I always had going for me was that I was athletic. I excelled in little league baseball. I was small, short and skinny but I pitched and won games and I was an all-star first baseman. I was a pretty good hitter. I had zero homers but I had plenty of singles. My role as a leadoff batter was lucrative for the team. When I got into Junior high I was always asked to be on the wrestling team. Not because I could wrestle but because I was small. The coaches just wanted me on the team so the school could compete in all weight classes. I had no interest in being their token small kid.
My other passion growing up was music. Aside from my small stature & excelling at sports I was also excelling as a guitar player. I graduated High School in 1982 and back then kids had to choose their identity. You were either a Jock or a rocker. I chose Rock N Roll which automatically (within the social structure of the kids and teachers) excluded me from playing sports. Coaches didn’t want the long haired rockers around they assumed we were all trouble. Years later MTV broke down those barriers with the MTV rock and jock classic specials. After those aired then you could rock and play sports but before then there was a harsh line in the sand.
I grew to a whopping five foot 6 inches in High School and my weight topped off at 117. As my wife says when she met me in 1983 my chest was concave. My arms had potential but they didn’t have any definition. Shoulders? I guess that’s what they were. My legs were thin and looking back I’m not sure I can come up for a name for my calves.
As years went on I managed to weigh 122 pounds. I rocked hard across the country and loved sports. Rock N Roll is hard work, there’s a lot of lifting to be done. Then one day about eleven years ago I woke up one morning and could not move. My back totally gave out on me. I could not even tie my shoes.
I went to multiple Chiropractors and Doctors and nobody had a cure nor were they very helpful. Everything just hurt. By the way I was now tilting the scales at 127 pounds. Then the revelation came while I was trying to help my Aunt pull up her carpet. I realized that my back was weak. My back muscles were weak and although the Doctors could not tell me this I figured it out. I might be small with a concave chest but I’m not dumb. So I joined a gym. And over the next few years my back started to get better, I got stronger and looked better too. Hey, no more concave chest. I was serious about working out but I wasn’t crazy serious. I can’t complain my weight was about 135 pounds. I felt huge but most important my back (it took time was doing much better. Then about two years my gym closed down and I had to switch gyms. I learned quickly that the new equipment in the new gym made me gain (over time) more muscle. I now topped off at about 137 pounds. I could dumbbell bench press using 60 pound weights; EZ bar curl using sixty pound weights and Leg press about 400 pounds. But then something hit me. It was about a year and a half ago I said that I wanted to re-invent myself. I wanted to get bigger and stronger and I started to study diet, (legal) supplements and bodybuilding. I incorporated that with tenacity and a new vision. I went from eating a minimal amount of food to taking in seven meals a day and today at the age of 45 I am the biggest, fastest and strongest version of myself. When I started at the gym my Biceps were 10 inches flexed. At the beginning of 2009 my biceps were 14.25 inches flexed and at the end of 2010 my biceps are 15.5 inches flexed. I also have shoulders to speak of, a chest that’s far from concave and legs that reached their goal of pressing 1,058 pounds. It doesn’t seem like much but I now weigh 153 pounds.
I certainly don’t think that I’m great or should be put on a pedestal for my accomplishments. There are many people out there that have dome more than I have. But these are my accomplishments and I’m grateful. My mindset is that of a bodybuilder and I plan to continue to grow. To an extent I have defied my genetics and at the age of 45 I’m certainly defying the stereotype of a typical 45 year old male.
I can’t stop now nor will I. I plan on putting a new set of goals together. Over the Christmas holiday I was thinking about the things I need to do to increase the peaks in my biceps, get a little more out of my triceps and push my shoulders out a little more. As I thought about it a big smile came over my face. With my body type life is a bulking phase. Once again I plan on going to Olympia this year. As a fan, I’m certainly not competing but I know that I will walk the event bigger and stronger than I did in 2010.
New goals, new visions bring on 2011!
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