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Post by BigMikeReed on Nov 16, 2009 15:54:26 GMT -5
This subject is pretty wide open but I thought about this today and how this all started for me- my interest in this crazy sport. One of the earliest memories I have is seeing a muscle mag in the library that featured Jessie Gautreax, Mr America 1981. While he was not a massive monster, the guy had symmetry and lines unlike many others of the day.
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Post by mrbeefy on Nov 16, 2009 21:20:53 GMT -5
Well....Bernie and I actually started off in the martial arts (40 years ago! I have a 6th degree black belt and Bernie has a 3rd degree black belt)...WE got married...had kids...travelled the world while I was in the military...then I blew out my knee...and the Army said.."bye-bye". Long story short..we sat around for 10 years getting very...ahem..."portly". Now...this is why Bernie is my hero. She was diagnosed with Lupus at the age of 28...then about 6 years ago..decided to have gastric bypass surgery, dropping 110 pounds in 9 months. We decided the best way to support her is to clean up our diets and get back in the gym. Someone told me to try a bodybuilding contest...I did, and I was hooked, competing in 5 shows, always coming in the top 5 (The Nationals is where I met Tim, and got here!) Bernie wanted to do something too, but did not like figure or bodybuilding due to her bypass scars...so she hooked up with Greg Page (World Class Gold Medal Powerlifter). I trained with them too, and set my first World Records in Powerlifitng. After a few injuries, I continue my journey back to bodybuilding (The Beast IS coming back!)..and as you all know...Bernie has won her last three Nationals and is NOW invited to compete in the the Arnold Classic 2010! We live together, we love together, we lift together..... and even though "I'm the Princess"  ....  Life could not be any better.... ;D Our lives together in the gym...... bodybuilder and powerlifter...Beauty and the Beast!  That's our memories of bodybuilding . . . and the journey is NO WHERE near over! |
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Post by RUBICON19 on Nov 16, 2009 21:59:18 GMT -5
Squating in the highschool gym because all the benches were taken. Paid off!  |
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Post by BigMikeReed on Nov 17, 2009 0:52:10 GMT -5
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Post by youngblood on Nov 17, 2009 12:17:38 GMT -5
I can't say for sure.
My dad rehabbing his shoulder from an injury, and doing curls, laterals and presses maybe?
Seeing what I remember as Arnold and Ferrigno on tv working out, but I have no idea what show/movie that was. Not PI, but I can't seem to find anything that I see in my head, on film.
Maybe lifting a Barbell with 100+lbs loaded on it as a 12yr old thinking I was hot stuff?
Or in freshman year when my friends happened to they were showing off and asked me to compare biceps with them and they all freaked out when I hit my arm shot- still never got the actual reason why the reaction was what it was.
Also, it could have been getting owned by a barbell with about 135lbs Freshman year, since in the aforementioned memory I thought I could do it, not realizing there was 4yrs between when I had last lifted. I crashed and burned. Didn't touch another weight for another 5-6yrs, and then it's never stopped and I went headlong into working out.
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Post by masterschamp on Nov 17, 2009 12:36:46 GMT -5
Always lifting in the gym from high school through college because of football. After that I always trained in a gym..... Ran into John DeFendis in 1988, and he asked me if I would like to enter a BB contest, saying my natural structure was ideal for the sport....I had no idea what he was talking about....my reply was " You mean those shows where you stand in your underwear on a stage?" He trained me for 5 months for that show....I won the Overall and was hooked! I was trained by, and trained with John, over the next 15 years, and even though he has since moved out of state I still count him among my very best of friends. Till this day I have never seen anyone train like him! Brutal doesn't even come close to describing it..it's why I train the way I do.
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Post by GerryT on Nov 17, 2009 12:52:14 GMT -5
Never actually met John, but saw him on stage and he was an outstanding competitor. In shape and a terrific poser. I have gotten to correspond with him, and he is an amazng, still intense and inspirational individual. Just a super guy.
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Post by mrky03 on Nov 25, 2009 18:57:24 GMT -5
There was an article on Arnold in an issue of Sports Illustrated back in the early 70's. It was in our school library I was probably about 12 yrs old. I remember just sitting there mesmerized by it for the entire period. That pretty much hooked me. Here is a link to that article ironage.us/articles/SI.html I have fond memories training in my home gym that was actually a metal shed that my father built for me because he was afraid I was going to break the floor down in the house! I put in many workouts there in freezing cold in the winter or in super hot and humid in the summer. Homemade squat racks, rickety bench from Sears and concrete filled weights didn't matter I just had a passion for this stuff! |
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Post by fit on Nov 26, 2009 11:52:40 GMT -5
Hmmm... watching the 72 Olympics from a weightlifting standpoint...
But my first experience lifting was a weight-training unit in 7th grade gym
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