What and when was your initial trigger?

[bigNsmall]

I was a skin and bones ectomorph! I was 13, looking through the magazine rack at a Walgreens. I saw a copy of Muscle and Fitness...couldn't believe people could look like that...I was hooked!

Yeah I remember first being ahh inspired by Muscle and Fitness physiques rst as well.

 

[bigNsmall]

For me it was to get my black belt in Karate. Weight lifting was a prerequisite.
My Sensei, Don Buck was a former olympic lifter and bodybuilder, so I had a
great ‘coach’ to start with. Our weight training sessions (full body, 3X per week)
were brutal by any standards, but produced very good results. Then there was
also judo so we learned you how to get your opponent to the ground, followed
by handball for hand - eye coordination. I weighed 132lbs in 1972 when I
started training, and the rest, as they say, is history; could easily write a book
on where that led . . .

My Sensei, Don Buck is below.

That guy looks like a BADASS! :headbang:

 

[bigpapa]

i was about 10. my dad started giving me protein shakes and small little exercises to do. not much. at 12 it picked up alot because i started playing football. but my dad basically put me in the gym.....and then he created a monster haha. he owns a bunch of state power lifting records so it was easy for him to just throw me in.

 

[asteelz]

I was 14, previously a competitive swimmer, wanted to get big. had an older cousin who got me into the gym, told me to eat buffalo burger and brown rice , and never looked back

 

[fatboybbw]

Started lifting when I was 28, I was going through a tough divorce
and my lawyer asked if I worked out. I said no. He told me that I
should to help burn off some of that rage I had. I've been lifting
ever since. Wish I would have started earlier

 

[alfresco]

slightly off topic

That guy looks like a BADASS! :headbang:

He was the real deal. And that was when they weren’t handing out black belts
like they do pro cards today I am proud to have been associated with him.

Could tell you hours of stories about him. Truly one-of-a-kind. He was featured
in Black Belt Magazine (still around?) years ago and another mag or two later.
Will try and dig them up if anybody is interested.

I really miss him, RIP. FYI . . . his style was Kyokushin, full contact. Don was the
first Caucasian that the founder, Sensei Masutatsu Oyama, gave a black belt to.

 

[method2madness]

13 years old, 4'7 inches and 90lbs. Basically short and small. Height doesn't run in either side of my family so that was never going to be an option. I decided that if I was never going to be tall I was going to wide and muscular. My parents bought me a set of weights and Bill Pearl's book "Getting Stronger" for my Bar Mitzvah and the rest is history. Been training for 27 years and I've never had any regrets about it!

 

[D-NUTZ]

I was fat as fuck.

Don't think I really need to explain more.

 

[lesserevil665]

Was one of the "wierd" long haired stoned kids sophmore year of highschool. We had a mandatory weight training class and I somehow became buddies with a bigass kid who was a lineman - we did bench, bench and more bench with some curls in between, I wound up with a 250 bench which kids thought was alot then-the meatheads and by default cheerleaders were nice to me.

Pretty sure it was the first time I felt pretty good about myself.Wound up with a girlfriend(not a cheerleader and not for my bench) had the confidence to go out on a limb and do theater stuff in front of people. I was still weird and stoned(still both sometimes) but was friends with folks in all the "cliques" rather than trying to make myself an outcast because I assumed thats where I belonged.

I'm 38 now, and I know I love training, but I actually never thought about how that one little boost of confidence changed my life for the better till I started responding to this. Thanks for a decent thread - theres rarely one that isnt something I've read 50 times.

 

[RamboStallone]

DBZ, wrestling, Arnold, and Stallone got me into lifting. Started in 8th grade first time touching a barbell. We used to train push-ups and such on the garage like we were DBZ characters or wrestlers, etc. Freshman in high school I started messing with the weights much more. Then I played football for a couple years and the rest was just me idolizing jay cutler mainly and a number of other big names.

 

[No1]

What and when was your initial trigger to lifting weights/training - meaning when you first started lifting weights and why?

Football was my trigger and it was when I entered middle school at 12/13 yrs old. After lifting weights most of the summer of 1989/1990 with my uncle my parents knew I would go further in the sport with better conditioning and strength.

The fall of 1990 they purchased me a used adjustable bench, squat rack, 2 barbells, 3 sets of dumbbells and an EZ curl bar.

Fast forward: Played semi-pro football for 16 years from 21-36. Competed 8 times in BB shows during that same time.

Making a comeback for the big 40 later this year perhaps a show or two. Would love to give it another go at football, but time will tell.

Arnold never did it for me really.. unlike almost everyone in the sport or anyone from this sport...

but I have always liked WWF think it was called and their technique in wrestling.. mind you I was the kind of kid who fucked off from all the class and my classmates who went to do some silly shitty walks in the park for no reason.. I went to the new swimming pool in town

 

[method2madness]

Arnold never did it for me really.. unlike almost everyone in the sport or anyone from this sport...

but I have always liked WWF think it was called and their technique in wrestling.. mind you I was the kind of kid who fucked off from all the class and my classmates who went to do some silly shitty walks in the park for no reason.. I went to the new swimming pool in town

Arnold never did it for me either. Mike Katz, Bill Pearl, and a few others from that era.

 

[MightyJohn]

I was very small graduated HS and joined the Corps 5'5 125lbs...grew 3 more inches, added 15lbs in bootcamp...another 1-2inches 70-75 since...competed once, played pro roller hockey 2 seasons and managed healthclubs the past 13yrs so it stuck

 

[thethinker48]

In 7th grade they lined all of the 6-8th graders together by height/size, I was the smallest kid out of 380 kids, including the girls

Shit like that sticks with you for life unfortunately. I could be squatting 300-400 lbs for reps, and still see that little kid staring back from the mirror.

 

[concreter]

1st yr of high school and 1st time seeing a real Gym.
1st set I knew I was a natural. I grew 6" and 60 lbs that yr.
Just Like the first time I made A Fist, I knew I was A Badass...lol

 

[doug1]

Good posts! I started at 14 and pretty much for all the same reasons that have been listed. The movie Conan really inspired me.

 

[Xj29x]

10th grade took weight training and wanted to bench 135. Finally did and at the end of that semester I gained 30lbs. Realized my love for getting stronger and the changes working out did for my body

 

[No1]

so everyone got inspired for appearance reasons?

later on it was the case for me but initially I was hooked on by the fitness/technique of them wrestlers WWF type not any other type of wrestling.. mind you I was watching them after 2am every sunday waiting for the juicy porn at 3am must have been 12 yrs old if not younger

 

[RamboStallone]

Well yea the image starts it, then when you start training you realize what a great feeling it is.

 

[ericraven2003]

Started playing around at home with weights at 12 or 13, then at 14 started at recreation center. At 15 started at local gym after I could drive.
Trigger. Was getting picked on so started lifting, watching what I ate(i was chubby at 13), and taking martial arts.
It worked. Side benefit was girls. lol