What Got You Into Bodybuilding?

[MCWAY]

What was it that caused you to start bodybuilding?

For me, it was gymnastics.  I started gymnastics when I was young and excelled at trampoline.  I became so good I they transferred me to a more advanced gym.  I followed Olympic gymnastics and was always impressed by the build of the gymnasts.  Around this time I saw the movie Rocky on television and my parents gave me an old weight set my grandfather had.  Training arms was my specialty and one of my friends at the time had some incredible peaked biceps which became my target. 

In junior high I was always good at the presidential physical fitness challenge which included how many pushups, sit ups, and pull ups you could do.  That junior high also had a Steve Reeves Universal multi-station machine like the one shown below.  It had a leg press, which is not shown in the picture.  This started my fondness for machine training. 

My Sophomore year of high school I ran cross country, which is a three mile race.  While cross country runners may not have upper body development, their legs are usually great.  Our coach would have us run hills repeatedly the day before a race.  Our team didn't do so well on the race the next day, but we excelled later because of it.  All the hot soccer girls would run cross country too and the male and female teams were combined.  My friend was into Lora baby and I was into Heather a cute blonde.

Dave Palumbo was also a runner before he started bodybuilding and he was known for his legs.  I can still stretch my legs without even thinking about it and my mind muscle connection with my legs comes from running. 

Skip to my senior year in high school and I got a membership to a gym which I went to five days a week after school.  I was probably over training out of ignorance of recovery time.

What's your story?

I didn't always have cable when I was a kid. And there was no bodybuilding on regular TV. So, the programs that had guys with muscular physiques was pro wrestling.

And my high school had that Universal multi-station thing. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen, in terms of exercise equipment, until I went to my first commercial gym.

[Primemuscle]

I didn't always have cable when I was a kid. And there was no bodybuilding on regular TV. So, the programs that had guys with muscular physiques was pro wrestling.

And my high school had that Universal multi-station thing. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen, in terms of exercise equipment, until I went to my first commercial gym.

I was a kid back in the dark ages, almost literally. Not only was there no cable but before I was 8 years old, I don't think I ever watched television. The first TVs were in black and white with tiny screens and if you were lucky, maybe three channels to choose from, all of which didn’t broadcast during the wee hours of the day. Today the choices of what to watch are infinite.

[youandme]

Non-anatomically correct GI Joe action figures, toxic masculinity action movies, and muscle magazines in the grocery store.


Then I noticed all the attention I was getting from all the guys asking me what I bench and disgusted looks from women….so I was hooked at that point, lol.

[Taffin]

I honestly wish this was a career choice. I’d probably already be retired with Taffin arguing about who gets to wear the Golden Thong today

I'm just keeping it warm (and soiled) for you, Brah 

----

As for Palumboism's question:  For me, it was kind of a sequence of events

I was always drawn to the muscle mags in the early '80s, and the Marvel/DC comics with their super-muscular heroes also must have struck some kind of chord - subconsciously, I guess - as I had no intention of training or anything at that time (teens)

But being 6'1" I strained my back one day, and a friend took me to the local YMCA and had me doing good mornings, hyper-extensions, ab-work, general core stuff.  He was doing what he explained to me as Olympic lifts, but that looked like hard work(!)  I stuck at it though, going 2 or 3 times a week.  Then I saw this film - and I got fixated on this physique



 

Told my friend, and after he'd finishing laughing his ass off he put me on a M-W-F push-pull sort of split, and that was it!

[Rambone]

I'm just keeping it warm (and soiled) for you, Brah 

----

As for Palumboism's question:  For me, it was kind of a sequence of events

I was always drawn to the muscle mags in the early '80s, and the Marvel/DC comics with their super-muscular heroes also must have struck some kind of chord - subconsciously, I guess - as I had no intention of training or anything at that time (teens)

But being 6'1" I strained my back one day, and a friend took me to the local YMCA and had me doing good mornings, hyper-extensions, ab-work, general core stuff.  He was doing what he explained to me as Olympic lifts, but that looked like hard work(!)  I stuck at it though, going 2 or 3 times a week.  Then I saw this film - and I got fixated on this physique



 

Told my friend, and after he'd finishing laughing his ass off he put me on a M-W-F push-pull sort of split, and that was it!

lmao!

[Rascal full]

It was probably Van Damme, Arnold, and Sly.

If you were the right age, those action heroes really set the stage for what teens wanted to look like.

I thought you were inspired by Slimer from Ghostbusters?