Why do YOU weight train?

[casualbb]

Let's share some love

and by love, I mean motivation.

I started weight training because I wanted to look better. I was always the lanky guy, at 5'11" 145 for most of high school. F that. So I wanted to be NOT skinny.

As time has progressed, I always have that aesthetic goal. But it used to control 100% why I went. Now it's like 40%.

The other 60% is a mix of...
-I like the way it feels physically
-I like a challenge
-I like making progress

 

[TheOak84]

i jsut didnt wanna get my ass kicked in HS, so i started in 5th grade, pushups/pullups. i also earned respect from the football players, seeing i was stronger then the whole team and the grade above me

 

[Illuminati]

i started training because i got cut from the freshman basketball team when i went to high school (i had transferred to a new school.) the shit really pissed me off. my cousin was a coach of a college basketball team. so i went to their practices everyday. a lot of the guys on the team were hella cool to me. they kind of took me in under their wing, and got me into the gym. shit, i remember the first time i thought that i had some confidence in the gym, and this guy bet me that i couldnt bench 135. i barely managed to squeeze it out. and felt like hot shit! (man, i've come a long way since then.)
all through HS i lifted to get stronger for sports. i got to college and walked on to a football team. it became a full time job there, and i quit so i could pay some bills.
now, lifting is just what i do. its my life. there is nothing that i like more than getting under a huge amount of weight, and being able to lift it, in whatever lift it is. i love the challenge. i love unracking a heavy ass weight, and feelin its pressure. i love the fact that people look at you when you are doing something that they cant. and then when you accomplish it, they come up to you and say "that was fuckin bad ass. watching you do that inspires me." i love it when i set new PR's, it makes my day. i love being able to break a goal that i have had for a long time, it makes all the training worth while. i love the smell of the musty, sweaty dirty sock scent of the gym. i love smelling my gym cloths when i got to wash them. i love the sounds of plates clanging and banging (that is, when i dont have my MP3 player.) i love (and live) for the pain, and soreness the next day after a killer workout. i love it when i almost puke or pass out after paying my dues to the squat rack. i love it when people tell you that they want to look like you because of your physique. i love the looks i get from the girls. i love turning people on to lifting. i love being able to get up the next morning, after a long night of partying, and lifting hard, knowing that everybody else fights their hangovers by trying to sleep it off. i love every single fuckin thing about it. i lift because it is my life, its just what i do.

 

[BOOEY]

Because it's fun

 

[wnt2bBeast]

well i started round the age of 15..mostly because i wanted to get stronger for hockey..i went to prep school in my sophomore year boy they had some good equipment too..that is where i seemedd to jsut grow..i really didnt have a clue as to what a good routine was..but i benched heavy squatted heavy and did heavy rows..i didnt know what deads were back then lol..junior year i benched 315 and squatted 315 as well..you may not belive but thats fine i weighed in at about 210 as a soph with low bodyfat..hockey is ver aerobic i would sweat off easy 10 lbs during practice..my legs grew a shitload from skating all year round..but then knee surgery put a halt to hockey and my lifting career i would occasionaly hit the gym but i was always afraid of the knee so it wasnt until a few years ago i got back into it after about a 10 year lay off..now i hope i never stop..my motivation these days is strength/size..i like working in the low rep range..squatting atf with a ton of weight and people look at you like your nuts..sometimes poeple think your a show off if you train low reps but i think thats so not true..i got more repsct for someone squatting 135 atf then the dude with 315 doing little knee jerks..what motivates me are the goals i have 505 squat which im a few weeks away and my other goal is to pull 600+ within (current is 510)..im a horrendously week bencher lol but 5x5 is really helping me out i havent tried a max there in awhile..

 

[cwick0]

i started around 15 too and maxed in high school (i think freshman or sophomore year, then tailed off since i retired from football.

anyways...got back training balls out when i was a freshman at college, got WAY to fat, i was 247lbs. After 4 years their, i was down to around 205-210, training 3 days a week. 2.5 years later and training 5 days a week i am back up to 250-255lbs and pretty damn solid.

goals...always been one of the bigger kids, so why not use it to my advantage. Now i train for size/strength/some definition. I dont have any real specific goals other than to keep learning and training hard, maybe try 500 on bench one day. To me, numbers dont mean as much as they did when i was younger, 25 now.

 

[velvett]

How can I put this simply....


Um, mushy is gross.






Seriously, muscles give your body much better overall shape and density and I like the location of my rump and tri are now I would hate to see them drop 6 or so inches.

 

[strangebrew]

I was 6'3 140 lbs and wanted to get bigger. Now, I don't even think about WHY I workout, it's just an obsession that I can't live without.

 

[drbones2]

It has taken over my life...
LOL

My life consists of working, running a business, and working out.

50% vanity, 20% strength, and 30% is constantly setting PRs.

A challenge is fun, why not do something that I love to do and makes me look that much better at the same time?

The only fall back is I think people start to think you are slightly hung up on yourself... They can think that while their stuffing their face with potatoe chips watching reality TV on their couch. I'll be in the gym.

 

[Sub-Zero]

i was hopng it would get me friends and pussy, but so far it hasnt worked

 

[theoak01]

I started honestly to give myself something to do during lunch breaks my grade 9 year of highschool because I had nobody to hang with

throughout high school I started makng friends and it shifted to sports,but I realized the political bullshit in them so I just started lifting to get big

now its to be strong and healthy,still want to get big ,but being in overall good shape is important as I will be a cop within a year

 

[cmdubs]

i was hopng it would get me friends and pussy, but so far it hasnt worked

LOL..hasn't worked for yet either bro

Seriously though, I got into fitness about 5 years ago. I started out running just to lose some weight. I wasn't overweight but my bodyfat was rather high and I didn't have much strength or muscle. After running and dieting solid for a year I realized how skinny I had become. I was basically on the virge of anorexia. Every pound I lost was a victory and the pounds that i still carried was a challenge. Luckily I got into weight lifting, started visiting bodybuilding boards and realized what a toothpick I was. My lowest weight was 145 lbs @ 6'2".

Since then I've put on 40 lbs of muscle and can barely go a week without lifting weights. It's like a drug.

 

[bigdho]

I started at the rip old age of 22. Im now 5 days away from 27. I went from 140 at 6'4 to 275 @ 16% b.f I recently dieted down to 240 @9 % currently Im 250 @10% and am planning my first show in 7 months. I started because my whole life I was skinny and I hated it. I would wear 3 layers of clothes just to make myself look a little bigger.
I love bodybuilding more than anything, I would drink a gallon of gas if it put an inch on my arms LOL

 

[anthrax]

Because I NEED it

Just like any other addiction you start for a particular reason but after a while you simply can't stop

 

[EnderJE]

Originally, I wanted to be a wrestler waay back in high school.

Now, its just part of the habit. I workout. I get injuired because of something stupid. I rest for a year. Repeat.

 

[wootoom]

to get bid and intimidate smaller people

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

I originally started to look physically more attractive to girls and to be bigger and stronger than the other 14 year olds around me. Now, it's much the same only I want to be bigger and stronger than all the 24 year olds around me. Lol, seriously though, I love looking and feeling strong and solid. I actually feel kinda sexy after I lift some heavy ass weight. Kinda like I'm a Ghetto Stud Muffin. I have an eclectic, instinctive, semi-planned bodybuilding routine I use using intuition, feeling, and reps and set ranges that work for me. Like on squats, I naturally have gravitated to sorta pause squats. I go to parallel where the bar gently taps the side rails in the power rack, puase half sec to stop moment than powerfully, smoothly, but not explaosively ascend. Oh ya, I only do singles in squats. I have found I am very high fast twitch in this movement as more than 3 reps and I quickly weaken. I could put 205 on and be busting a gut trying to do 5 reps, and then pop on 315 and do it for a single easier than the 205x5. Weird huh? Also, I like reps of 5 or less on the bench, but I like high reps in teh deadlift. Screw generic rep ranges. You gotta do what your body likes and responds best too. Squatting multiple sets of singles might not do anything for your leg growth, but mine grow like weeds from it. Everyone's different, do your own thang.

 

[cwick0]

I started at the rip old age of 22. Im now 5 days away from 27. I went from 140 at 6'4 to 275 @ 16% b.f I recently dieted down to 240 @9 % currently Im 250 @10% and am planning my first show in 7 months. I started because my whole life I was skinny and I hated it. I would wear 3 layers of clothes just to make myself look a little bigger.
I love bodybuilding more than anything, I would drink a gallon of gas if it put an inch on my arms LOL

I would have to say you did a complete 360. Im absolutely startled, you put on over a 100lbs.

 

[zxe003]

now, lifting is just what i do. its my life. there is nothing that i like more than getting under a huge amount of weight, and being able to lift it, in whatever lift it is. i love the challenge. i love unracking a heavy ass weight, and feelin its pressure. i love the fact that people look at you when you are doing something that they cant. and then when you accomplish it, they come up to you and say "that was fuckin bad ass. watching you do that inspires me." i love it when i set new PR's, it makes my day. i love being able to break a goal that i have had for a long time, it makes all the training worth while. i love the smell of the musty, sweaty dirty sock scent of the gym. i love smelling my gym cloths when i got to wash them. i love the sounds of plates clanging and banging (that is, when i dont have my MP3 player.) i love (and live) for the pain, and soreness the next day after a killer workout. i love it when i almost puke or pass out after paying my dues to the squat rack. i love it when people tell you that they want to look like you because of your physique. i love the looks i get from the girls. i love turning people on to lifting. i love being able to get up the next morning, after a long night of partying, and lifting hard, knowing that everybody else fights their hangovers by trying to sleep it off. i love every single fuckin thing about it. i lift because it is my life, its just what i do.

Amen.


I actually started lifting my Senior year in H.S. because of someone else. A lot of the people I went to H.S. with, I had also gone thru elementary school with. One of my classmates had a younger brother that was 2 grades under us, and was real small and "shrimpy." During my Senior year, this kid was a Sophomore. His whole Freshman year, I did not realize who he was until we ended up in a mixed gym class the beginning of my Senior year. He was 2 years younger than me (16yrs old!), 6'1", about 230lbs. and was hittin 315 on the bench for like 6 reps. I couldn't believe it. After seeing him, I began training hella hard and by graduation I still only weighed in at about 175lbs at 5'11", but I was reppin 225 whereas at the beginning of that year, I was barely reppin 135. Since then, I've been obsessed with gaining strength and size. I've had some long breaks in training (more than once) due to different circumstances, but my love and renewed dedication for the iron game will not allow me to stop again. I dig the challenge of growing stronger, the satisfaction of shaping my body, the knowledge and science of the sport, and the rush of self accomplishment when achieving set goals way too much to ever give it up.

 

[JKurz1]

I started at the rip old age of 22. Im now 5 days away from 27. I went from 140 at 6'4 to 275 @ 16% b.f I recently dieted down to 240 @9 % currently Im 250 @10% and am planning my first show in 7 months. I started because my whole life I was skinny and I hated it. I would wear 3 layers of clothes just to make myself look a little bigger.
I love bodybuilding more than anything, I would drink a gallon of gas if it put an inch on my arms LOL

Are you just eating your ass off with no cardio? How did you put on that much weight bro? Enlighten us.........

 

[wnt2bBeast]

Are you just eating your ass off with no cardio? How did you put on that much weight bro? Enlighten us.........

look at his avi hes in paradise soon i will be too lol

 

[JKurz1]

huh?

 

[wnt2bBeast]

huh?

his location!!!!

 

[cwick0]

look at his avi hes in paradise soon i will be too lol

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?

 

[halfaclue]

I started after my sophmore year in college...I was always in sports but wanted to stand out (look jacked) and get mad pussy...now I have been with my girl for 3 years and I just love it to much to stop. I've always been a golfer and softballer and I had to give up on golf because the bulk f-d up my swing...I figure I can golf when I am 50. I went from 160 when i graduated highschool to 271 febuary 04