How did I fall in love with fitness and weight lifting?

In my early years i was a very skinny kid, skinny and often falling sick. My health was often really that bad I had so many allergies and my body was a host to many ailments. Quite weak to be honest.

I mean it was so bad my parents were not sure if i could live long past my childhood. To me however this was as normal as life could get. Being healthy and feeling healthy and strong was something i was never familiar with then.

Early motivation and support.

Though i was often nicknamed a “sickling”, i still saw myself as a pretty strong kid, and i can confidently attribute this to the strong support system i always had around me (Family). My family was and will always be my 1st and greatest role models. My dad being the strongest icon i always find myself chasing the benchmarks he set both physically and mentally. A strong black man in his prime, an epitome of strength and a great physique in my young eyes then and always. My dear late mother, an embodiment of strength, beauty and brilliance. My sister and brother, well they just got the better genetics from both parents and left me to get what was left in the (gene) pool. That was until i discovered bodybuilding.

My 1st step forward- I joined a gym

So with all the strong people i had to grow up emulating, i was never going to fall too far from the tree, or trees. So i did the first thing that anyone would tell you to do if you wanted to be fit, I joined a gym. Now i didn’t do the smart thing which would have been to get a personal trainer while i was at it. To me back then joining a gym was enough. I had zeal no doubt, a little naive, a little misinformed but zealous nonetheless. I was determined to look as big and buff as my brother was and to be strong and well stractured as my dad was. It’s often the people we grow up around that shape us a great deal.

None of the gym-junkies that i saw in the private gym i had joined influenced me in any way. They were big no doubt but i was already full on visual motivation. What drove me then were the physiques and physical attributes of my dad and brother.

But it’s important to note my body type was very much that of an ectomorph and neither one of these two gentlemen thought to share the secret importance of dieting. – I was all hard work, but i guess that was the lesson when i look back now.

Finally in the swing of it (I surrounded my self with like minded people)

Eventually it hit me, i was doing something wrong, after a two years of non consistent training i had gained zero muscle. Fortunately it was soon after i started working i noticed some colleagues at my then job that were regular gym goers and these guys had amazing results to show. So i got smart and made these dudes my friends, a friendship that has grown stronger till this very day. I started learning the importance of understanding my body type and the workout associated with it. not forgetting a very important key component (Dieting). Now most people understand dieting differently and i’m not hear to dismiss any of that. However for growth’s sake let us agree that “dieting is planned consumption of specific amounts of food and food groups to achieve a desired body goal“.

Food is the paint to my canvas, and the weights are the brush.

In my spare time then and now when i’m not in the gym, i take to youtube where i watch workout videos of great bodybuilders from back in the day like Arnold Schwarzenegger and many other notable body builders.

Image source: schwarzenegger.com/

He travels the fastest who travels alone.

Though with the many friends in the fitness industry that i have now, i still prefer to workout alone, honestly. My fitness journey was then and still is today something that was and will always be personal. Don’t get me wrong though, i still enjoy sharing my progress and some good workout tips,or working out with a friend. But when i’m in the gym its just always me vs me. I feel like an artist trying carve the perfect physique that i can get for myself. It became to me something rather intimate. I understand my body better and no one can bring out that envisioned physique i have in my head better than i myself.

So my take…

All of this will be a lie if i do not mention that 1 of the most important reasons i started going to the was to look good. Looking good isn’t just self importance, it’s self respect.

So to those of you reading this and you are into fitness, You probably have a few things that drew you into the fitness world and keeps you in it. Whatever those reasons may be or the people, be sure to keep that very close to your heart always as a reminder, as a reason why. That is what keeps you going even on the hardest of days.

What drew me to fitness and weightlifting was simply the raw desire to make of myself the Gerald I knew could become. And that’s the Gerald version that I am today.

And dismiss that age old excuse that you do not have time, or you can never do it simply because your genetics are not of a certain kind you always have time and hard work beats genetics.

Are you into fitness? I’d love to hear why you fell in love with fitness as well. Feel free to drop me an email or comment below. 🙂