Not too sure what category to put this in, but I figured it was time to tell my story. Right now, I am 20 years old, active Navy and haven’t even finished my schooling yet. As of this morning i weighed 178, but without a gut full of food I probably am 174. Back track to being 15, same exact height i am now and i weighed in at 121 pounds. Shit diet, consisting of no breakfast and french fries and chocolate milk for lunch.
At this point of time, most lifters now that I’ve met start getting bigger from football or wresting. But i didn’t play sports, i preferred to fuck around on my bike and play video games. 2 years later i had a spark of an interest of working out, my dad installed the “perfect pullup” bar in our kitchen and i was getting pretty good at them. i was at 141 pounds still, not much to show for it. I had one 40 pound sand dumbbell from my pap and i got damn good at hammer curls too haha.
But at this point of time my buddy, who played football and at 6’1" weighed a couple pounds more than me decided to hit the gym at our local YMCA. Both skinny guys, i went out and bought creatine and mass gainer and i thought we were going to get hugeeeeee. We lifted quite often and i put on 30 pounds. Probably mostly water weight. I didn’t squat, but when i “did” it consisted of 225 pounds and dropping the bar 4 inches. I was scared to bench, deadlift, and squatting was terrifying.
I will never forget this one girl in high school, she told me it was funny how my upper body was so big and my lower body was so small and it crushed me. i knew it was time for a change so did my research and found strong lifts 5x5. i’ll never forget the first time i went ass to grass with 115 for 5 sets of 5. i was sore 5 days after and could barely walk. but i stuck with it and squatted and squatted and squatted. i ate so much and drank so much milk i got up to 183 pounds after high school and working at a concrete laborer for 3 months.
i wasn’t in good shape though, i didn’t even want to have sex with my gf(ex now) who was the girl of my dreams. i was in pain a lot as well from improper form. Then something changed, my ex dumped me. I was so heartbroken, i figured it was because of how i looked so i dropped around 15 pounds in 3 weeks. Now at this time i’m 19 and just started college to be a nutritionist. this is when i found the all mighty wendlers 5/3/1. i knew it was gold once i read his main 5/3/1 post, his no bullshit attitude got me hooked.
I was eating healthy and looked better than i ever have so my goal was strength. at 170 with only 3 months i hit estimated training maxes of 270 squat, 240 bench, 375 deadlift, and 128 military. But i fucked up my hip real bad where it stung to even get up out of bed, i believe it was from improper stretching ( none) and i skipped my deload week 3 times… I was lazy and still new to getting stronger. So i dropped college and lifting, joined the navy. I spent 6 months jogging, hiking, and kayaking and enjoying the small things.
i went to the gym maybe twice and picked up smoking daily. also i broke my nose and pain pills helped me not want to eat or sleep and i lost all my gains. i went from 170 pounds down to 151… man it sucked. but then i shipped out to great lakes for basic, it wasn’t too bad and i got into the best running shape of my life. once i graduated and hit A school ( this was about 3-4 months ago) i began to hit the gym again.
At first i felt relatively strong, i noticed a large damper on a ton of lifts but it didn’t take long for muscle memory to kick in. I didn’t follow a program or anything, just squatted as much as i could and i always loved friday 4 a.m. pt haha. Now I’m done with A school and I’m going to be here for awhile. I’m finishing my first heavy week of wendlers 5/3/1 triumvirate and i feel great. this week i squatted 240 7 times, benched 185 7 times, deadlifted 270 9 times and military pressed 105 7 times.
Everyday either before or after i will get a good stretch in and foam roll and it helps a shit ton. I’m still working on form, always room for improvement. Why i think this belongs in beginners section is because i just truly began devoting myself on becoming a stronger version of myself. As long as i eat like a madman, sleep when i can, and lift without my ego and intelligently. I know there will be improvements on the way. I had so many excuses for missing lifting or why i wasn’t improving, just need to prioritize why truly matters. Right now i’m going to get strong as hell and i know i’ll look good in the process. Good luck guys
