Well, it looked as if my life had reached a point where I felt that I no longer enjoyed living. That sounds rather morose, and anyone who knows me will probably be surprised as I always used to be so happy. From the age of 23 to 30 I pretty much woke up every morning in a really good mood and spent the day humming to myself and skipping.
Then things went downhill unfortunately. I am not about to get into what went wrong, as this Blog is not about that. But I can tell you that I lost pretty much everything I owned and ended up financially ruined, stressed, depressed and 2 stone lighter than I should have been. I was also most unfit.
This year I have slowly been pulling myself out of the mire that I had been caught in and started to piece my life back together. I am now at the point in my life where I have made certain decisions about where my life is going and I thought that while I am transforming my life from where it was (which was pretty much at the bottom - no self respect, no money, unfit and unhealthy both physically and mentally) it may be useful if I keep a Blog so that if other people want to do the same thing as me they will be able to see what it involves and what they can look forward to.
So, this is it. Hopefully, over the coming weeks and months I am going to let you know exactly what I will be doing to make my life a better place to be. I am going to start with a summary of where I am at the moment, the decisions I have made and why, so you will understand what happens from here on in.
I mean, lets face it, bodybuilders are just men with rather small penises who are trying to compensate for being bullied at school. They are rude and do nothing but kiss their own muscles, scoff at others trying to get fit, and manfully wrestle with each other in the showers after (as long as you don’t take it up you it isn’t ‘gay’, its just horseplay, ok?).
Well, that was what I thought anyway. Had I ever spoken to the bodybuilders in the gym? No, of course not - didn’t need to, right?
Well it seems I need to give a very large apology to the bodybuilding community as a whole, because what I have found are kind, honest, dedicated people who are prepared to give up their time and experience to help people like me.
As I mentioned I have been preparing to return to the gym for the first time in about five years recently. Of course, I knew exactly what to do and needed no advice, but thought I would look anyway.
Thank God that I did and that there are so many helpful people out there.
Steroids
Originally I considering using anabolic steroids to build myself up quickly. You can quite easily get hold of them these days as long as you know what you’re doing and there are no end of forums giving advice on what you shoudl take and how often. However, after taking the time to read a bit I came to the conclusion that I was just being lazt and would just end up damaging myself or worse, just developing a swollen, bloaty face and looking an idiot. So my original idea of ‘using steroids to kick start my training’ went straight out the window.
I visitied the muscletalk forum (see link on left) and read Cashman and Toxictoffees guides which I found infinitely helpful . They made me realise that I wasn’t just about to start at the gym - I needed to fundamentally alter the whole way in which I live my life. Weight training, when done correctly, seems not to be just about looking big but also ‘putting your house in order’ and promoting good habits; by which I mean having the right attitude mentally. A healthy body and mind run together. I can now see that by embracing the advice on muscletalk I am not only pumping weights but I am quitting the junk food diet, I am junking the Friday and Saturday night binge drinking and I am not only looking at myself with new respect but other people too.
Toxictoffee talks about saving up and buying his sofa once he had sorted his out. His point is ‘don’t bother with supplements of negligable effectiveness until you have sorted out the important things’. But it also said something else to me - he saved to buy the sofa. No ‘take it now and pay next year’ deal and no credit card. This seems to tie in with the whole bodybuiilding paradigm as it requires a well ordered mind, dedication and patience. I haven’t saved up for anything in years but I have sworn from here on in if I want anything (that Red and White ‘98 Yamaha R1 I dream of for instance) I will save for it.
I turned 36 last week and I am now champing at the bit to get to, and beyond, the level of fitness I had 5 years ago. My head is still spinning trying to keep up with all the information about diet and training but I have now got some idea of what I want to do.
My goals are to get rid of the gut and to put on muscle bulk. Specifically targeting (in order of importance) thighs, chest, buttocks, arms as these need the most work. I have quite nice calves but have always suffered from small thigh muscles and glutes. My chest is quite weak too.
I suppose the only other thing that may be relevant is that in my job I have to leave for work at 7am each day mon-fri and get home anywhere between 4.30pm and 7pm. I will need to find good times to fit my 3 gym session in each week and my 2 CV days. My next post will discuss some general ideas and facts about fitness and diet that I have learned.