How Did You Begin Bodybuilding?

[Tim Wescott]

Dust off the old memory bank and tell us how you got started in the sport of bodybuilding !!

Not many of us just woke up one day and decided to start working out.

Something possessed us to start pumping iron. Maybe it was 'Punping Iron', Arnold's first movie.

Something had a major impact on us, so major it changed our lifestyle.

How did you begin bodybuilding?

Why did you begin bodybuilding?

How old were you?

Did you wish you could have started earlier?

Who has been the most influential in your bodybuilding career?

Thanks!!

[Intensity]

I remember approx 9 years ago, i was 18 y/o and decided that i would do what i must to look like those guys on the cover of Calvin Klein underwear box or actors like Jean-Claude Van Dam (should i mention that today, both Calvin Klein guys or Van Dam are not big enough and muscular enough for my taste ). Anyway, I knew that those guys were not borned like that… they had to build their physique… so with efforts, i could do the same… no doubt! So instead of doing only bench press and dumbel curl like the majority of my friends, i read about bodybuilding, questioned trainers about it, i also tryed to learn about nutrition… and alway kept my focus on the quality of execution and intensity of the training rather that just pushing heavy weight… hehe… i remember that i was the only one believing in this skinny trainer (he was a runner… but knew a lot about bodybuilding, but just doesnt practicing it)… the other guys in the gym prefered to ONLY listen to BIG guys…

Years after i started to read more about competitive bodybuilding… guys like Priest, Jackson, Mike "O'hearn" were influence for me! So i intensify my effort on learning training technics, diets and bodybuilding contest preps. 4 years ago i was entering my first contest… all by myself: No coach, no nutritionist, no trainer, no choreographer, no nothing… i was very proud of myself!

If i had to start all over again… i wouldnt change a thing, i did my best and always tryed to fallow the path of "knowlegde" and always let my ego outside the gym… even if at time, it was tempting to do like almost everyone else and just go to the gym to prouve you can bench pressed more than the other guy...

Mo

[Tim Wescott]

Great story Mo.........thanks,and good sound advice in your post as far as training correctly,and forgetting the ego.

I copied this from my intoduction thread and added to it...............I`ll probably add a bit more too.

I became interested in lifting around 1969 or so,possibly 1968.I tinkered around at home in my cellar and built a pretty respectable little gym.I weighed all of 98 pounds when I started.

After some time working out and not really knowing what I was doing I joined the local YMCA in 1972.I then met some powerlifters and began competing in powerlifting contests.

I also competed in odd-lift contests at the YMCA as well as at Mountain Park Amusement Center in contests that were put on by the late Ed Jubinville.I`m also in a audience scene in the movie Pumping Iron which was filmed in part at the park.

During the latter parts of the 70`s and 80`s my training was sporadic to say the least. I did however manage to place 4th. in my local show in Springfield Mass. where I am from.I became a 7 day a week drinker,and a drug user and stopped training completely ,except for short comeback attempts for a total of 7 years....................11 years all together that I did not train and just abused my body.

I drank for 33 years and it steadily escalated until it ruled my life completely.After so many horrific experiences and attempts to quit living like this I started training again in earnest in 1993,moved to Florida and began competing in bodybuilding once again.Since then I have won a total of 50 trophies and placed twice in the Master`s Nationals.

One of my ridiculous goals as a kid was to enter the Mr.America contest by the time I was 26.

Needless to say I never quite made it but I have two trophies from the NPC Over-40 version,and two more from the NABBA _USA version.............. so I guess it`s a case of better late than never!!

Lots of very influential people who I trained with and friends and family members who encouraged me when I was down...........can`t thank them enough for not giving up on me,when I had given up on myself.

I owe them all more than I can ever repay!

[Intensity]

Wow…

I knew about your story… but reading it again reminds me what is behind Tim Wescott myth (I'm very serious) so congrats on what you achieved on stage… but even more for what you achieved outside the stage, you won (and still win every day since then…i know it's never over) your battle agains alcool and believe me, i know what this battle can be…

Here is a link to another thread like this one… it gives very interesting infos on how it began for some older WOTW members:
timwescott.proboards18.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1101405052&page=1

[masterschamp]

I had been competing in athletics as long as I can remember, but football was my passion..........because of it , I was able to go to college and get a terrific education, while at the same time still playing the game I grew up loving. After my college career was over I found myself still working out regularly... I had always lifted throughout high school and college as part of the football programs, and even had joined a gym at the age of 17 to work out in addition to what the school offered. I also was "taken in" by a group of hard core powerlifters, who kinda took me under their wing and showed me the ropes. This type of lifting was something I really enjoyed and the benefits extended onto the football field as well. At that stage, the LAST thing I was thinking about was launching a bodybuilding career. As the years passed I found myself moving to Florida in 1986, still working out, but by myself in my garage, still basically doing power movements only. I just decided one day to join a gym down here 3 years later and as luck would have it, the gym I chose had Mr. USA, John DeFendis, as the head of their training staff. After about a month of training there, John came up to me and asked if I ever considered bodybuilding? My reply was' "You mean where you stand on stage in your underwear?" He continued on to tell me that in his opinion I was "set up" genetically do well in the sport, and asked that I just train for one show with him for the next 6 months and after that do whatever I want. After hearing John tell me about the intensity of the training and the chance to compete with MYSELF as well as against others, I thought "why not?" Well, I ended up winning my class AND the overall at that show, and I was HOOKED! Bodybuilding has truly replaced football as my athletic passion now,( ALTHOUGH YOU'D HAVE TO LOOK REAL FAR TO FIND AS BIG A PITT PANTHER AND PITTSBURGH STEELER FAN) and it's something I will do competitively till they drag me off the stage!!

[Tim Wescott]

Great post Keith..........thanks!!

To have actually trained with Defendis is insane!

Does he really do that "Intensity or Insanity" stuff.

What was the contest you won?

[masterschamp]

Yes, Tim, he really did/does train that "insanely"..........40 sets per BP, 50+ set leg workouts with every type giant set, superset and drop set. All of this with HEAVY weights and minimal rest time between sets. That's basically been my m.o. until very recently, but to tell you the truth, working with Eric now, I still do alot in terms of volume, 20-30 sets a BP. the major difference is that right now I'm hitting everything once per week instead of once every 5 days, and I'm not double splitting. But as I get closer to my contest date,( Sept. 9), I am going to up the frequency and go back to double splitting. That first contest I won was The Palm Coast BB Championships.....I don't think that is even held anymore!!

[Tim Wescott]

Thanks Keith............check out the articles section........pinned at the top of the page are Defendis` articles..............great and inspiring balls to the wall stuff!!

I did the Palm Coast in 1996...........took second as a lightweight.

Jamie Ibone won it,and I met Pete Francher there..........nice guy,thought I was a middleweight........I would have been,if I had quads!!

[youngblood]

I remember one summer I started lifting the weights my dad had laying around. He had a shoulder surgery, and used them to rehab the area. He stopped when one weekend he couldn't use them while out of town and the muscles tightened up drastically. So they were laying around, and I started using them here and there. I only knew bicep movements, so I had great biceps- which to this day I give credit for my biceps being so easy to grow while my triceps are stubborn. But I digress.
I stopped training that summer, if you could call an exclusive biceps routine "training." Went all through high school with nothing, and about 2 years out of high school all my friends decided to get a gym membership so they could get girls. At that point I had the attitude "I'll be the last guy of the group in there." A couple of weeks being alone at home, I asked if they could get me a guest pass. After a free month of working out, I signed up (a big investment for me at the time). I've never once stopped working out since. That was nine years ago last month. To this day, all my friends have stopped going, or if they do lift, it's not nearly as serious as I was then, or now.
I just got hooked on "the pump!" It's my alone time, time away from the world. A place to get away from it all. It's, my personal haven where nobody can interupt me, where I put aside the outside world and all of it's troubles. I love the gym....<sob>

[carl]

Ron Kosloff's article on the passing of Vince Gironda made me want to start building a better physique, but not to become a bodybuilder. Lately, though, I've been giving serious thought to doing some shows, but I am a long way off.