Biggest Motivation

[BendtheBar]

What was your biggest motivation? Was it a sport, athlete, comic book hero, etc that first motivated you to train hard and dive into fitness with a passion?

[kitarpyar]

I would count a bunch of WWE wrestlers (WWF back then - Lex Luger, British Bulldog, Macho man, Ultimate Warrior and Road warriors come to mind immediately) and action movies (van Damme, Stallone and Arnold) amongst my early inspiration.

But, it all started even before that when I watched Hercules (Steve Reeves). Possibly, that's why Reeves is still my favorite bodybuilder.

[BendtheBar]

My biggest motivation to get involved with fitness came from my interest in baseball. I would spend my days playing "strikeout", which was a game with two guys (3 if we could find an outfielder), a brick wall and a tennis ball.

We would draw a strike zone on the wall with chalk. A single was a grounder past the pitcher. A double was a fly ball over the pitcher's head into the outfield. A triple was a one bouncer to the fence.

Out leagues were so elaborate that we kept records. We would play next to an old age home, and the elderly gentlemen would come out and watch us.

[Abaddon]

Getting off drugs.

[Off Road]

Rehabbing a severe back injury. Squats cure back injuries

[bamazav]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

What was your biggest motivation? Was it a sport, athlete, comic book hero, etc that first motivated you to train hard and dive into fitness with a passion?

Fear of failure is the greatest motivator. Rocky is a close second.

[bruteforce]

Being given 3 years to live by my doctor.

I was massively over-weight, diabetic, cholesterol out of control, kidney function impaired, and liver enzymes hinted at damage there too. 1 year later, I was able to drop all medication after losing 145 pounds. At the beginning of that year, I began doing body weight exercises, starting out with push-ups on my knees because I was too weak to do real ones. I progressed to doing real ones, and unweighted squats and some curls and over head pressing with some dumbbells that were laying around.

After 6 months of that, I was much healthier than I had been in years, since high school sports really. I joined a local gym and got started on a circuit training program put together by a trainer there. The guy knew his stuff, and even though I don't always agree with his programs, he taught them well and genuinely cared about his clients. Then one day I ran across a good forum, saw some of BtB's workouts and tried my first deadlift. Nothing has been heavy enough since.

Fast forward to now. My waist is within an inch of where it was when I weighed 215, and I'm around 250 these days. My blood work is stellar. I'm getting stronger. My mind is sharper then ever before. This is what continues to motivate me. To be stronger, smarter, tougher. To be the best. Its a long way from barely being able to make it up the stairs to my office.

[Disciple X]

Cool story brute...

[Abaddon]

Seconded.

[Hazzard]

Yeah, great story there man, very inspiring.

Mine was probably rugby players - seeing these behemoths of men smash each other up in a weekly basis inspired me to get bigger and stronger for the sport I loved. At uni I decided to call it a day and focus on powerlifting and now my maximal strength is probably higher than a lot of players! If only I could focus on losing some weight to look more like them!