Why hello there! It’s been a while since I wrote anything. I took a break from creating any content to focus on some other things, but I have the itch again so I’m going to scratch it.
I’ve been working on three Ebook training manuals off and on for over a year or so now and I’m back to working on them again. One will be based on my program The Good Human, another will be focused on building muscle and strength like I do in The Strong Human, and the other I am calling the Athletic Human which will be all about becoming more athletic.
Here is the first draft of the intro explaining what first got me interested in lifting weights. Enjoy!
My Fitness Origin Story
When I was in elementary school, I used to get teased for how short I was. It pissed me off to the point where I became the bully in the upper elementary and got in several fights leading to a couple of suspensions.
Eventually puberty hit for me and I grew to be taller or at least normal size (I’m 5’9 now) compared to my peers. But I was scrawny. Like the naturally skinny abs, no body fat type of scrawny.
I can’t remember going into the weight room except for in gym class, boy was that a joke, until my junior year of high school. I had been a good athlete up until that point. Basketball, football, baseball, track & cross country, I excelled in them all due to my speed and IQ. But physically I always struggled when I came up against someone bigger, stronger, and more athletic than me.
One Friday night in 2009, I was watching the new 30 for 30 on Len Bias (highly recommend). They talked at length about how his strength separated him from his opponents. I became fascinated with training for performance when watching that film. I literally cranked out upwards of 200 pushups and sit up while watching it.
I texted my high school basketball coach and told him I was ready to take my game to another level and asked him to make me a workout program because I was clueless. The next morning, I met him down at the gym to do my first real lift. He had handwritten it on a yellow piece of legal paper. Most of it from what I could remember was 3 sets of 10 of the classic upper body lifts. Dumbbell bench press, one arm rows, lat pulldowns, some pushups. No legs that I can remember, no plyos, no rest periods, no tempos. But I did it and I continued to follow it.
In 2009, I had a Razr flip phone. The only social media I had was MySpace at the time and I didn’t realize YouTube was a thing. But I kept showing up and just doing what I knew. I barely remember the lifts, but I know I aimed for twice per week and ended up going from about 140 pounds when I started to 155 by my senior year.
That 15 pounds made me feel like I could take more contact in football and absorb it in basketball to finish and1 opportunities. I couldn’t tell you what I was benching, maybe 155? I don’t think I even put a bar on my back to squat nor did I deadlift.
But damn was I consistent.
I was fortunate enough to go on to play college basketball. Where I again realized I was too small despite my high IQ and lateral quickness. My coach had a hard time playing me because of this. A torn hip labrum ended my season and effectively ended my playing career at the collegiate level. But something was born out of that injury and that was my burning desire to coach and help other people reach their potential.
Want to hear the rest? Or would you be interested in a training Ebook? If so let me know so I can stay motivated to finishing these.
Make it a great day & talk soon (hopefully).