Question? Why did everyone on this forum choose lifting/ bodybuilding rather than saying boxing or basketball

PGM

PGM

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I will give you my reason. I was 12 years old going into grade 7 and we had just came back from Germany, my dad was in the military, there was never any much fighting on the bases in Germany. We moved to Ottawa, Uplands base and I think I got the shit kicked out of me 3 times in 2 weeks. It wasn't until I stood up to the biggest guy in the school in the third week and we ended up about even that the beatings stopped. At that point I was bound not to get beat up again. There were no martial arts on the base so I asked for a barbell/dumbbell set and bench for Xmas and decided to get big to intimidate and ward off the bullies... I started eating and lifting a lot and I did get a much bigger, not to many peers picked on me then.

  • I went into track and field more in grade 11 and 12 putting shot and throwing the discus did pretty well... Went to 2 canada summer games.
  • University was rugby cause it was nice and rough and you got to go to the pub get drunk with the team and sing drinking songs
  • After university it was Taekwondo for 15 years as I always thought it would be so cool to easily kick someone in the head if you wanted to. Taking TKD gave me the confidence to talk my way out of silly situations that may have escalate into violence
  • Re-careered and went back to school to get my Comp Sc. degree and I saw a guy easily bench 3 and a half plates a side for reps at the gym... I said ... I want to be able to do that
That is when I got into Powerlifting and Bodybuilding( just a bit of bodybuilding). i got addicted to trying to increase my strength on everything I did at the gym... Now I am just trying to maintain my strength and stay healthy. Have enjoyed the journey a lot.
 
I have been doing MMA since I was 6 years old I have competed in a couple of competitions in 2014-16 fought in hardknocks once back in 2017 I got my 11th concussion I was told not to fight/spar anymore thats when I got into bodybuilding might as well just get big now ahahaha
 
Punisher95 said:
I have been doing MMA since I was 6 years old I have competed in a couple of competitions in 2014-16 fought in hardknocks once back in 2017 I got my 11th concussion I was told not to fight/spar anymore thats when I got into bodybuilding might as well just get big now ahahaha
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I totally agree with your decision. Injuries make us go in different directions. Wait till age starts hitting you lol
 
I didn't. Boxing since 6. A little bit of Martial Arts since then. Before COVID, I would guest teach for friends and introduce them to Kali, Wing Chun, Shuai Jiao and, in return, get my butt kicked by old Okinawan Stylists. Weight training is supplementary.
 
Ended up getting in quite a few scraps when I was younger. Seemed like everyone wanted to fight the small guy (me)..lol. easy target I guess and they knew I wouldn't walk away. Should of got into martial arts but instead I kept drinking and lifting weights. By the time I figured I was big enough to fight. Nobody wanted to anymore..lol
 
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Bagua said:
I didn't. Boxing since 6. A little bit of Martial Arts since then. Before COVID, I would guest teach for friends and introduce them to Kali, Wing Chun, Shuai Jiao and, in return, get my butt kicked by old Okinawan Stylists. Weight training is supplementary.
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Me too...boxed in junior high, Chinese kempo in high school. Was too skinny so lifted, found test suspension and focused on lifting. By end of university was big but not athletic anymore...found jiu jitsu and have been dedicated for the last 26 years. I have two loves so why choose... I have learned how to have your cake and eat it too


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Oldguyjiujitsu said:
Me too...boxed in junior high, Chinese kempo in high school. Was too skinny so lifted, found test suspension and focused on lifting. By end of university was big but not athletic anymore...found jiu jitsu and have been dedicated for the last 26 years. I have two loves so why choose... I have learned how to have your cake and eat it too


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JuJu you are just old. Cake yumm.
 
Family full of naturally large men, all much larger than me. I mean I was twelve but I noticed that large guys like that don't need to fight much (debatable I know). Getting big and strong seemed an important part of the puzzle to survive in the rough neighbourhood . BTW the neighbourhood probably wasn't any rougher than any other small town but, you know.

Basketball- too short with negative height to talent ratio.
Boxing - found out I don't like getting punched in the head much at all.
Male Gigolo - Way to many misunderstandings about what was ok or not and often I somehow ended up paying these broads. Actually everytime now that I think back holy fuck I just realized what a failure that was, those ladies were working girls this sucks logging off now
 
gondar1 said:
Family full of naturally large men, all much larger than me. I mean I was twelve but I noticed that large guys like that don't need to fight much (debatable I know). Getting big and strong seemed an important part of the puzzle to survive in the rough neighbourhood . BTW the neighbourhood probably wasn't any rougher than any other small town but, you know.

Basketball- too short with negative height to talent ratio.
Boxing - found out I don't like getting punched in the head much at all.
Male Gigolo - Way to many misunderstandings about what was ok or not and often I somehow ended up paying these broads. Actually everytime now that I think back holy fuck I just realized what a failure that was, those ladies were working girls this sucks logging off now
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Classic Gondar post!
 
Bagua said:
JuJu you are just old. Cake yumm.
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This body is Old As F#*k from all the wear and tear. Full bodybuilding workouts and martial arts don’t mix. If you fully tear down the muscle snd then train sports 9 times out of ten you injure something from over use.

Lower volume higher frequency is the key so you can lift and still have productive martial arts training sessions.

Only took me 20 odd years to figure that out.

@Bagua put down the cake....


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Played hockey when I was young, then football, rugby, soccer, and baseball in high school. Originally started to lift in high school to get stronger for sports.

Once I stopped playing competitive hockey and rugby after university seemed like lifting weights remained a good idea.

One of my best friends growing up got pretty serious about bodybuilding and I just kind of came along for the ride as well.
 
The Old Guy said:
Played hockey when I was young, then football, rugby, soccer, and baseball in high school. Originally started to lift in high school to get stronger for sports.

Once I stopped playing competitive hockey and rugby after university seemed like lifting weights remained a good idea.

One of my best friends growing up got pretty serious about bodybuilding and I just kind of came along for the ride as well.
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Oh also got interested in PL during high school and did one meet in North Bay and also tried a strongman competition.

Competed in two BB shows. One on a dare with no prep, no tan, no diet. 🤦‍♂️ Buddy gave me a $100. Another time prepared but wasn’t my thing as I like hamburgers way too much.
 
Was never a bodybuilder in the traditional sense. Like @The Old Guy and @Bagua , it was a means to stay healthy, jack a baseball out of the park, ground and pound someone, keep the engine in good working order for hockey. Now it's an activity that supports my obsession with framing houses and building stuff, carrying my groceries into the house and doing shit my wife asks me to do...yup.
 
gondar1 said:
Basketball- too short with negative height to talent ratio.
Boxing - found out I don't like getting punched in the head much at all.
Male Gigolo - Way to many misunderstandings about what was ok or not and often I somehow ended up paying these broads. Actually everytime now that I think back holy fuck
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That is why you are smarter than me....took me way too many years, several concussions, busted ear drum, and too many broke noses to figure that out.
 
I was never really good at sports .. being vertically challenged lol. I did track on highschool and thats when i picked up my first dumbell .Quickly realized that hey im good at this and the rest is history.
 
When I was in high school. I played football and rowed. Weights were just part of the training. I was actually pretty strong it turned out and I was prompted by many to pursue it. When I was rowing for the Henley I got a chance to practice with the then Canadian Men's Olympic rowing Team(1976). I learned more and got a chance to try out for the Ticats. I did poorly I was badly outmatched by the experience of the American Players trying out. I did however spend more time in the weight room than anywhere.

It just became the thing I did. Lift, train work raise a family go fishing. In my 30's I joined a power lifting team and had a lot of fun. I moved to BC in mid 40's just kept training.

A few years back had an accident. Left me badly gibbled. I had my care giver stick up photo's of Terry Fox, Bobby Clark and Silken Lauman up where I could see them when I woke up. Started back to the gym. Just the bike at first.

Reinjured myself several times trying to go beyond my greatly diminished capacity. More surgery, lots of bad news.

Still going.
 
I was always a really skinny kid and I was in awe at anyone bigger than me, which was basically everyone. I got into it for that but it was beyond an uphill battle due to genetics. On and off in my 20's with some success but then threw it all away when I focused more on motorbikes and I my weight dropped down as being light was better on a bike. Also getting tattooed every weekend didn't help.

Got back into it in my 30's as I had a void to fill and having kids hopefully smartened me up. My metabolism also changed so putting on weight was easier, but a dad-bod was on its way so I needed a sport that was productive, good for my health, fun, something I could do at home, rain or shine, and that could be low impact due to the now numerous underlying injuries I racked up crashing motorbikes.

At this same time I also had my Test checked due to symptoms, and it was low. Dr would not prescribe TRT and I have had some expirience with gear in the past so all signs pointed to this path. And after a few months of training natural to get my bearings I got some Test in me and never looked back.

A bonus is that now I look proportional when I'm riding my Harley.
 
Been working out on and off, mostly on, natural for decades. Since junior high, albeit not very well. No big athletic background like some above me, wow! Martial arts 26 years, Olympic training. Yikes. That's hardcore and impressive. Crazy how many different roads can lead to similar places.

I think truly it all started with like Arnold. (Cliche maybe but totally true) Seeing him in Terminator. Commando, Raw Deal. That and also my dad having old 1970's bodybuilding magazines around, again with Arnold on them. Weider ads at back of Archie comics. I think it started simply with: those guys look like big strong dudes that people seem to like. (Women in the magazine pictures.) I wasn't particularly athletic or popular at the time. My dad was also a fairly big "solid" looking guy, and I've always looked up to him. Literally and figuratively, hahaha ;) He's like 6'2" and I'm 5'9"

As the years went on it just became what I did as it was my only real physical sport/activity. Sometimes I liked the comments, you're getting bigger, you got great arms, etc... Sometimes the focus was more, can I do another xxx at 180? Can I do more? Can I weigh over 200lbs? Etc... Personal challenges.

As I creep up in age it seems to be about looking good and feeling good. Not always in that order. Personal challenges. More experience now and AAS just entering my world, it's all about planning diet, checking my bloods, getting legit products, and making plans to see what I can push. Experimenting to reach new goals. Health is in the picture now more than ever, even with looking at AAS, I think that is a very good thing.

I had to think about my answer before replying, thinking: hmmm.... why do I still do this? The time, the effort, the food prep, the supplements, etc... I think mostly it's to set personal goals. It's to see what I can plan and where it goes. With the outcomes all being geared towards looking and feeling better. While staying healthy. I think I've always liked that it's indivudual (other than spotters time to time) I don't like relying on other people. I like setting my timelines. Fast or slow. I train with my gf now, and she is the best partner one could have. She is so dedicated! She pushes so hard! She has great form and it's really helped keep my form in check. We met at the gym, long ago haha :)

So, I guess it's to be productive, to feel good, look good, set goals. (And in my particular case a productive date time with the woman) Prob kinda the norm for most? I'd think?
 
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