- Joined
- Jan 29, 2012
- Messages
- 240
For those of ya'll (us) who have competed at least once, but no longer do, why did you quit?
My friend and fellow competitor at the time had a promising career ahead of him. After just coming off a 2nd place win overall at the teen nationals, he came in to the gym about a week later. He worked out for a few days and then one day he just walked in, looked around and said "I'm through". And he was done competing just like that.
That was slightly before we went into Iraq so with that heating up he went Airborne and got deployed and then fought in/around Fallujah. He came back a completely different guy.
My story wasn't as dramatic. I only ever wanted to compete once, just for the experience. But my problem also came in after the competition. Since I wasn't training for the goal anymore, I felt a bit lost. We get big to compete, but when we don't compete why do we get big? Where does it end and what's the end goal? Honestly, every year or so I'd try to go back to the gym and I'd lift for a few weeks, maybe even a month. I'd start getting big again and I'd think, "What are you doing man?" And I'd drop off again.
It's been around 6 years since I last trained. But this time something is different. Now I've been at it since March. I'm doing a little cycle but not going overboard. I don't have many sides. I won't compete again but I'm glad I at least feel good about training again. The long break I took, and this struggle to regain control of myself, has been good. It's as fun as it all was when you first start seeing gains in the gym.
I am pleased to see that this new "classic" bodybuilding is coming into popularity. I spoke to a guy at my gym about it. Apparently there are now set weight:height max ratios? I think that's exactly what the sport needs. I'm tired of seeing folks die young, and prior to that looking obviously very unhealthy in size and very poor in aesthetics.
I guess to sum up, I quit because to be the best in the sport (at that time) was to be something I didn't want to be, it seemed to represent too much of an extreme. Maybe if this classic bodybuilding makes a comeback, more folks will reengage in the sport, compete for years instead of dropping dead young. If so I think that will be a great thing.
My friend and fellow competitor at the time had a promising career ahead of him. After just coming off a 2nd place win overall at the teen nationals, he came in to the gym about a week later. He worked out for a few days and then one day he just walked in, looked around and said "I'm through". And he was done competing just like that.
That was slightly before we went into Iraq so with that heating up he went Airborne and got deployed and then fought in/around Fallujah. He came back a completely different guy.
My story wasn't as dramatic. I only ever wanted to compete once, just for the experience. But my problem also came in after the competition. Since I wasn't training for the goal anymore, I felt a bit lost. We get big to compete, but when we don't compete why do we get big? Where does it end and what's the end goal? Honestly, every year or so I'd try to go back to the gym and I'd lift for a few weeks, maybe even a month. I'd start getting big again and I'd think, "What are you doing man?" And I'd drop off again.
It's been around 6 years since I last trained. But this time something is different. Now I've been at it since March. I'm doing a little cycle but not going overboard. I don't have many sides. I won't compete again but I'm glad I at least feel good about training again. The long break I took, and this struggle to regain control of myself, has been good. It's as fun as it all was when you first start seeing gains in the gym.
I am pleased to see that this new "classic" bodybuilding is coming into popularity. I spoke to a guy at my gym about it. Apparently there are now set weight:height max ratios? I think that's exactly what the sport needs. I'm tired of seeing folks die young, and prior to that looking obviously very unhealthy in size and very poor in aesthetics.
I guess to sum up, I quit because to be the best in the sport (at that time) was to be something I didn't want to be, it seemed to represent too much of an extreme. Maybe if this classic bodybuilding makes a comeback, more folks will reengage in the sport, compete for years instead of dropping dead young. If so I think that will be a great thing.