I was at the merge of getting fat! haha.
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Especially women! We have lovely ladies here thank goodness, but the average woman my age don’t have their bodies as a priority. Especially health, it’s one fad diet after another. No accountability or dedication. “Strong” women are hard to find. But T nation is full of inspirational, caring and hard working women who have all helped me. Even if it’s reading one post and the girl bails…there’s something there to learn from.
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Agreed 100%. These forums are an absolute sanctuary.
One of my girl friends told me that she wants to get “toned” for the summer, which is a fine goal. Then she told me that eating more than the RDA of protein is really bad for you, so she was only going to eat 30g of protein each day… I understand low fat and low carb but low protein? come on
Yesterday I ate a lb of brisket. It took a couple meals but ahh…my muscles were smiling 
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Oh, I bet she doesn’t drink whole milk either…that will be a battle I will have to fight for it forever
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She’s a lemon water detox kind of gal. Different strokes for different folks. I’ll drink as much milk as I can for the rest of my life #TeamMilk
Haha, you poor thing. I’ve got chocolate and 2 gallons of whole milk in fridge. It’s 1.88 a gallon. I’m backing off of eggs cuz of salmonella outbreak. Have plenty of meat in freezer in garage freezer and some inside in fridge. I used to eat raw almonds but aren’t regulated by fda so they still could have shit fertilizer on them…kinda made me gag when I read about that awhile back.
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I thought it would get me laid easier. I also played sport at the time and it had noticable carry over - I basically liked having a physical advantage so I kept doing it.
Now I do it as an excuse to get away from my house lol
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whatever works. I’ve got my own room so if not in mood to interact 
I like watching little kids turn and hide behind mummy when they bump into me.
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Are you sure that’s a result of going to the gym? 
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I really wish it’s not. Then I won’t have to waste my time going to the fucking gym!
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This is a great question. The answer?
I don’t know.
I just wanted to not be a fat ass so I did keto and got to 225. I wanted to lift some weights just to tone up, but from the beginning I wanted to not be a weakling pussy. So I set a goal 315 bench before 50yrs old. That soon transformed into a 3,4,5. I’m 43. I want to go beyond 315. Bench and see if I can get a 405…
I want to DL 600…
Fuck squats my hammys hate me but 5 plates would be cool…
OHP my body weight…
BB row 315…
Do weighted pull-up…and dips on the dip bars.
I want a sub 13% bodyfat.
What drives me? I don’t know. I must be iron crazy.
I know this everyone I talked to about lifting told me to not lift heavy I was too old. Don’t push so hard your too old…
Fuck them im too old when I say I’m too old.
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I actually struggle with this. I agree, that people that truly don’t care for being in shape, have their own priorities, and that’s fine… but also… why?
Hell yeah man, nobody achieved anything impressive by being careful… except maybe a perfect credit score. Those are good goals dude, actually similar to mine and I’m 25, so you’re not doing to bad man!
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My grandfather and dad were both insanely strong (riverboat captains and farmers).
My dad has had coffee cups just explode in his hands while talking, at least twice.
My grandfather never raised his voice at Grandma, but she was nagging him one day and got under his skin. He just walked out into the garage and calmly shut the door like he always did… except he had crushed the brass door nob on his way out. Had to replace it.
I wanted to be stronger than them… just cause. Also wrestling. Being stronger definitely helps.
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Ha, there are some pretty sweet stories, and pretty legitimate reasons for folks starting.
Mine is less cool since fitness is supposed to be all about, “It’s you versus you!” And all that feel good stuff. But I did it because I saw that the older and better athletes had muscle, and I figured out that if I wanted their spot, I needed to have more. It then turned into a direct, “I will be better than the guy next to me.” As I moved up it was just the next guy up mentality for me, if I want this spot I’d better be prepared to outwork this guy, ok got this spot, who’s next?
And now? I still want that, when I walk into the gym I still want to outwork the guy next to me, sure I like to feel strong, and I like to look good, but ultimately? I want to look better and be stronger than the someone that’s in the rack next to me.
This. Blame it on Arnold movies, the WWF, He Man, Rambo, or whatever you want, but the memory goes so far back that I can’t pin it on one thing specifically.
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I started off because of sports. I played basketball, baseball, and ran track in high school. I thought that if I trained hard enough I could go pro in any of those three, but nope. I had no idea what I was doing in the gym and ended up hurting my knee.
What keeps me going now is enjoying the fact that I can do things others can’t and that I have alot more energy than my peers. I never want to feel old or be unable to move around on my own so I take care of my body the best I can. I don’t really have any desire to get bigger or get smaller, for me its more of maintaining my athleticism and youth.
This might be a weird answer, but I don’t think anything really drove me to lift. I just started going with friends/co-workers years ago and it’s just a part of life. Now, generally, I just lift as a means to hopefully live a longer healthier life.
Seeing my kids grow to be adults with lives/families of their own is what drives me now.
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So my entire life through highschool I was ALWAYS the smallest guy in the room. Graduated in 2006 weighing a massive 95lbs (massive I know lol) and was just the butt of every joke and constantly picked on. A year after highschool I was just tired of being overlooked by girls because not only was I small but I was shy. It’s hard to have confidence when your always made fun of. So at 19 I started slow with basic push ups and sit ups and then gradually worked myself up to weights. I’m 30 years old and haven’t stopped since. I haven’t missed a workout in almost 10 years. I’m not a huge guy now but at a lean 170 reaching only 5ft 8in I must say that I can lift with people much much bigger then me.
My last training partner was around 240 and I either stayed right with him or outlifted him and tbh it felt great. Now seeing those people that messed with me all out of shape because they chose to be in their prime at the wrong time is eye opening. And not to mention it’s a good feeling to have women look at you and smile knowing that it’s for good reason and not bad ones. The raised eyebrow usually gives them away haha. Life’s too short to not be the best version of yourself that you can be. But it’s also long enough so that you have plenty of time to become exactly who you want to be. Train hard. Eat right. Get results.
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