Like bboy said, there are numerous and assorted threads on this topic.
And unlike Hawkmooms post, this is unabridged, was posted in 2009.
When I was 16, my Dad tried to interest
me weight lifting, bought me a set those #110 Sears home weight jobs;
in retrospect, more for himself, than for me. But non the less, I was not
interested, nor could he get me interested.
It was not until I was 18, had graduated from high school weighing 132 lbs
soaking wet, that I became interested in weight training and even then it was
sort of forced upon me; my weight training being a prerequisite for me
getting my black belt in Karate.
My Sensei was a bodybuilder who actually knew something about body-
building (rare at the time, could tell you stories about him that you would
not believe) so I was very fortunate to have had a great teacher to start
out with. I trained with him whenever I could. Soon I purchased the basic
exercise equipment; a York 310 lb(?) Olympic set, some adjustable
dumbells, and something called a Safe-T-Gym, which allowed me to do
squats, benches, press, dips, chin-ups, pushdowns, etc . . . It was a
monstrous contraption that my parents were not to happy to have sitting
in plain view in their backyard (moral of the story . . . parents, be careful
what you ask for) under the patio awning, where I trained religiously every
other day, rain or shine, at any and all hours, until they got sick and tired or
all the grunting and groaning and asked me to find another home for all my
weights.
I moved them temporally to the local football coaches house (he had the
best calves I have seen on any human being walking the face of this earth).
That turned out to be short lived for many of the same reasons and I soon
had to move everything again. Through all this I made pretty good progress
according to some people but I was never quite satisfied, only weighed a
whopping 147 1/2 lbs, but was able to bench, squat, and deadlift over twice
my bodyweight.
This final move to a friends garage in the town where we were both working,
was where I made some of my best best progress, eventually weighing 168 lbs.
I don't recall for how long we worked out there, maybe six months or so, but
we grew like effin weeds. This experience did not last as long as I would have
liked it to. My workout partner was going through a divorce at the time and
my little gym, once again to be disbanded, only this time sold to a gym that
I subsequently joined for a few years before repurchasing all the same equipment
once again and installing it into yet another friends garage, where it was resided
for many many years, used religiously three times a week.
For years I had grand illusions about myself; I drank the Kool-Aid you could
say. Took all the supplements (not AAS, I would have abused them), read
all the magazines, went to all the contests, traveled all over the world,
associated with as many bodybuilders that would tolerate me, tried every
imaginable workout routine and some that had not even been invented yet.
Could go on and on but don't want to bore everybody.
A lot of water under the bridge since them. But that was pretty much the start
of things. And it's been down hill ever since.
