How I Became a Bodybuilder

Hello there, let me tell you about how I became a bodybuilder. Like most medical students I had little time or interest in going to a gym on a regular basis. I did want to lose some weight but the thought of exercise left me uninspired. Then I discovered aerobics and how you could burn body fat by raising your heart-rate to a level in the 70-80% range of your maximum cardiac output. I started to do the "StairMaster" machine at a local gym and with headphones on a 20-30 minute session at an aerobic heart-rate was no problem at all; in fact I ended up doing aerobic training almost every day for several months. I did lose 10lbs or so of weight that was mostly body-fat and I was down to 145lbs.

One day while on the stairmaster, I noticed all the dumbells, barbells and free-weights that were in another area of the gym and I asked one of the staff what that was all about. He told me that there were two ways to go: either a lean slim compact body or a body with curves and rounded muscles. The second way, he said, was accomplished by weight-training while still keeping body fat down with aerobic exercise after the weight-training session. This, of course required spending more time at the gym but I was very curious about what effect weight-lifting would have on my now flat but lean body. In fact someone in the locker room looked at me and told me that I looked like a teenager.

So with help from the staff trainers I began to exercise with weight 3-4 times a week. What I didn't realize was that I had great genetics for muscle-building and it soon was quite obvious that my shoulders and chest were getting rounder and larger. I started to learn to isolate my muscle groups and started reading everything about bodybuilding that I could lay my hands on. After several months I was hooked and couldn't wait to get to the gym and try out new and different exercises. The trainers told me to give up the aerobic exercise and I would build muscle more easily. I changed my diet to a high-protein/low fat/moderate carbohydrate one and began eating 4-5 smaller meals during the day. The results were amazing and real; my self-esteem started to grow and in the first year of bodybuilding I gained 10lbs of muscle. Now I was definitely hooked.

During the next 4 years my training became more intense as I developed different exercises that helped me to isolate a particular muscle and feel the contraction as I worked out with weight. I spent one entire summer learning how to isolate and train my back which was lagging behind my chest according to one of the senior trainers at the gym. I switched to a more hard-core bodybuilding gym and added 10 lbs of muscle every year for the next 3-4 years at which time I weighed 185 lbs with a body fat of only 7%. I had reached my genetic potential and I plateaued at that weight watching my diet and downing loads of amino acid tablets for extra protein.

I was getting ready to compete as compliments and stares came my way. I felt like a transformed person and I actually have much greater self-esteem and self-confidence now that I have become a successful bodybuilder.