What Sparked Your Passion in Bodybuilding?

I was pretty tall for my age at 13. So my mom sent me to this gym to have them help me walk straight (I wasn’t walking really straight cuz I was tall and didn’t need to walk straight I guess).

At the gym there was this big guy and I was impressed by his physique. Then I saw posters of Rich Gaspari and Lee Haney and I was hooked for life.
Peace.

Alright, I’m only 18, but I think I’m in agreement with the superhero guys. That was definitly where the ideas first came into my head, second is probably all the arnold movies, or anymovie where you see some little guy hit a huge muscular guy and he doesn’t even flinch. I really wanted to be that guy. I eventually got into anime stuff for a time before getting into high school.

I’m definitly also in the “I use to be a fat kid” group. I weighed 225 as an entering freshman. I could only bench 95 pounds about 10 times too. I was strong compared to the other freshman (if you neglect weight lifted over body weight) but nothing compared to the seniors. I only saw two ever do 300 and I decided I wanted to be like that. I even got into a short fight with one of these guys pushing up 300 and that was a bigmistake as a freshman (but i don’t regret it, I like to pick on people bigger then me, if i get my ass beat its only more drive to get bigger).

So after 2 years I dropped down to about 180 pounds again, a nubmer i hadn’t seen in 4 years and was benching my weight for about 4 reps.
Fast forward the next 2 and a half years and we get to my present weight of 250lbs, benching 330 for about 1 rep max. I know I’m nowhere near finished, but I definitly contribute alot of my last year’s progress to this site.

I definitly got alot of drive out of competition, but I’ve been pretty disappointed in college so far. No one hear is a mass monster, or even able to put up that much more than me. Some of these guys have 4 years on me and I can still kick their ass. Hell I see kids who are between 18-22 and only putting up 95 lbs. It’s painful to watch but I just keep to myself and try to find people who are willing to push to near breaking and try new training methods.

Be honest, your all doing it for pussy.

From 18 to 22 I played in a Rughby team where I became fast friends with the other youngest guy in team. He happened to live two houses down from and was friends with a local powerlifting and judo champion, to supplement our rugby training we started training in this powerlifters garage gym. It was old school squats had to be to a 6" high paint tin or you got kicked out.
I’ve moved on since those days, I am now 30 and live abroad, but thats where I got my infusion of weight lifting passion.

Everytime I am in the gym I always feel the nostaligia of the good old days when I was lifting weights with my best buddies in that old gym.

Strangely I have few fast friends in my life, only four, but they all have one thing in common we were all training parters at one time or the other, strange huh?

Another big influence was Pumping Iron, although I do not think watching a similar documentary about today’s pro’s would have inspired me such, probably the opposite things have changed!

[quote]TRAJJ wrote:
my little boy started to discover Spiderman, Batman, the X Men etc. One day he asked me why I didn’t look like those super heroes…
Talk about motivation…;)[/quote]
Whoa! No pressure there, eh! (lol!)

I looked in the mirror, seriously.

Being told my whole life that I was skinny did it for me.

Everyone I knew, all the time.

And I knew it was true. I had little confidence.

But getting stronger really turned that around. And the discipline I’ve learnt has enhanced my life in every way.

I wasn’t going to post this as I thought I would just be repeating everyone else, but for me I’d have to say Arnie.

I was always big from a young age and had no problem with it. Never shyed away from it and if anything, wanted to grow even more! So armed with all the classic Arnie films and Pumping Iron I was set to go. From the weights I was bought for Xmas as a kid, to those in the rugby club and now in my home from home (the gym) I train and train and train… And I love it!

Good topic!!

When I was 6 years old I saw this guy transform from Bruce Banner and thats all it took to get the bug into me, no CGI BS on that guy thats all muscle!!! From there I was hooked on the Hulk and comic books.

Then when I turned 14, my brother figured it was a good time to get me started on my journey.

its not fun being 112lbs at 5 9 when all your friends are naturally 200lb and 6foot.
and i’m the only person i know who lifts (none of my friends need to), bit of a solo mission.

[quote]Hagar wrote:
Be honest, your all doing it for pussy. [/quote]

LOL. Oh yeah, and that too. :slight_smile:

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
Hagar wrote:
Be honest, your all doing it for pussy.

LOL. Oh yeah, and that too. :)[/quote]

Isn’t that what the teen BBers at BB.com do it for?

[quote]detazathoth wrote:
Sentoguy wrote:
Hagar wrote:
Be honest, your all doing it for pussy.

LOL. Oh yeah, and that too. :slight_smile:

Isn’t that what the teen BBers at BB.com do it for?[/quote]

The pussy is just the paycheck… :wink:

Well just turning 17, I can say that what got me started lifting was either being called skinny by girls, and one time my friend asked if I wanted to lift, and I went with him, and was hooked ever since then! I love it!

i have a small penis and im over-compensating

[quote]shizen wrote:
I looked in the mirror, seriously.[/quote]

That’s all it took for me also.

Well my passion came from anger. I needed something to do to occupy myself before I went crazy. lol I wanted to let out my inner beast, if you will. I was always skinny but could beat up almost anybody. But for a person that didn’t know me, I looked like the average kid, even though I am tall.

But now that I’m big, I get a lot more respect and I can avoid a lot more fights than back then because I sometimes intimidate people. Also having absolutely nothing to do helps too. lol And who can forget the ever loving pussy rate skyrocketing because of my built body.

[quote]HotCarl28 wrote:
i have a small penis and im over-compensating[/quote]

+1

[quote]goodknight713 wrote:
shizen wrote:
I looked in the mirror, seriously.

That’s all it took for me also.[/quote]

Same for me. I was 20, and really unhappy with my flabby body with no muscle on it. Started lifting and eating better, and started seeing my body change.

I started lifting for judo and karate in the early 80’s. The first Conan movie got my attention. Lifted off and on for years, not really making much progress. It wasn’t until 1998 when I got online and found Testosterone.net that I really started learning. Between T-Nation, Elite Fitness Systems, Dan John, Milo I managed to get a clue. Being strong and looking good is what it is all about.
Fred