It was 8:00 am and it was time for the first winter gym class. "Ok guys, you can lift weights or play basketball today." I thought to myself what I should do lift weights, or play basketball? Well I don't really like basketball too much so maybe I should lift weights today. Visions of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dave Draper danced through my head as I thought I could be as buff as them. I walked into the High School weight room to see everyone doing their exercises. I have never been to a gym or have even really seen people work out. I knew the exercise everyone knows THE BENCH PRESS; I saw it and I could feel it calling my name. I went over and there was 175 pounds on it. Hmmmm... that doesn't seem like a lot I can probably do it. The truth was I couldn't even pick it up off the rack. So I decided to take off the 25 pound plates on each side to make it 125. I took the weight off the one side and the other side fell to the ground because the weight was uneven. It fell with aloud BANG!

At this point every person in the gym stopped doing their exercises and was staring at me. I could feel their eyes burning on me. I was so embarrassed my face was as red as a tomato. I tried to play it off and act cool and started laughing but no one started laughing with me. I decide I would not do the bench press today. A kid came over and helped me pick up the weight.

I decided to watch and see what someone else was doing. They were pushing up weight with their legs I looked on the wall above the machine and there was a sign that said Vertical leg press. The kid on there was in my biology class and was not very muscular. He was doing 180 on the leg press. If he can do it I can do it I said to myself. I sat under the block and released the handle. The weight came down slowly on to my legs. At first I thought this is not so bad. I did not really know how far down I should lower the weight before I push it up so I figured I should just go as low as it can. I lowered the weight until my knees touched my chest, BIG MISTAKE I could not budge the weight. I was stuck; my knees ached terribly. I would have asked for help but I was too embarrassed about what happened before. I stayed there for 5 minutes. Those 5 minutes seemed like eternity. I hoped no one would see me stuck thereon the machine, but I hope someone would come and end the pain.

Eventually two seniors found me and couldn't hold back their laughter. I almost started crying. They pulled the weight off of me and told everyone in the gym how weak I was. A kid came up to me and said, "You probably can't even bench the bar." I said yeah, that's easy. He said, "Fine, prove it." At that second the whistle blew to end gym class and I thought thank god it's over. I looked at the bar sitting there on the bench and I knew I had to prove to myself that I could bench the bar. When all the guys left to go get changed I ran over to the bar and was going to prove to myself that I could bench it, I picked it up off the rack and did 3 reps. Wow that was not so bad.

Then, the worst thing imaginable happened, I could do no more than my 4th rep. that's right 4 reps with the bar and I could not lift it anymore. It was pathetic I thought to myself. That second all the guys walked back into the weight room. It turns out the coach blew the whistle to get someone's attention. Gym was not over. They saw me sitting their stuck with the bar on my chest gasping for air. They were rolling with laughter! Even my friends thought it was funny how weak I was. After 3 minutes of laughter they finally pulled the weight off of me. As I was running out of the gym a kid yelled to me "Hey Russell, watch this."

I looked over and the kid was curling the bar with one hand. I ran out of the gym and into the bathroom and just cried about how cruel people were and how weak I was. Then I told myself I would never lift weights again because I would be too embarrassed. I went home that day and looked in the mirror and saw how skinny I really was. I decide I would workout in my own home and get big and go back to the gym and show all them that I can lift a lot and can get big. My dad had a rusty old bench and a 90-pound weight set outside. I also found a book on weightlifting and I started a program. I would lift twice a week every body part. As you know this is not a good split and I did not make gains on it. I kept persevering though.

My hairdresser told my mom about a diet that she tried it was called Body for Life and it was a diet that incorporated weight-training techniques with a carb and protein diet. I read the book from cover to cover and found that nutrition plays a very big role in weight training. I used the nutritional part of this program with the old routine I was using. Still no gains. I used the routine in body for life, which was a 3 day split. Training upper body twice and lower body once. I did not make any gains on this routine either.

I practically gave up until I stumbled upon Teenbodybuilding.com. It was like a sign from the heavens. I started reading articles and sucking up all bodybuilding information I could. I learned that you have to eat big to gain muscle. The body for life program was for cutting up. I also learned you have to lift until concentric failure to make sure your muscles grow. You should also lift each body part one day a week. It all stemmed from here. I promised myself I would wait one full year before I go back into the weight room and show them all how much I have changed.

Train hard and Train smart,
Russell

Snowboarder6578@aol.com

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