Why do we workout thread?

TheUnlikelyToad

TheUnlikelyToad

Well-known member
Could someone direct me to tha why do we workout thread, if in fact, there is one...

If not, let's start one cuz all this kids, marriage, relationship stuff with my girl has had me soul searching a little lately.

It might get to tha poinnt here soon where Brian will have to pull my head out my ass.:blink:
 
I workout for mainly enjoyment and stress relief. If nothing else, exercising is an hour or two for myself.
 
to look good, becuase everyone knows....look good= feel good.
You cant deny that it improves the quality of life, beyond what words can describe.

Being an ego killer sounds nice

Also, long term health.....i want to be a stud when im old :), i dont want to accept the fact that im going to have to age like a fine bottle of wine and let old age get the best of me.

and it makes life more interesting....always striving for something keeps you occupied

theres too many reasons really.
 
I am addicted. Can't stop. Want to stop. Can't. Voices say if I stop I will die.
 
No doubt it's an addiction... I love it, yet I hate it.

It seriously pisses me off that I count meals and protein/carbs in my head sometimes, like I can't even have a lay off. It's either grow or cut. Black and White... there HAS to be progression of some sort. If I wouldn't/couldn't workout for an extended period of time, I don't know how I'd cope. How would I eat? Too much and you'd be a fat ass, too little and you'd lose size... I'd be miserable.

I want to be a pioneer... Jeff King is to Strongman, what Josh Blue is to Comedy.

I want to blow tha doors off Bodybuilding, and bring those that helped, on one hell of a ride. :)


Sorry, it's late and obviously I'm just rambling... late night lifts tend to do these things. I just fear getting married and having kids will require me to loose this intensity. I hear it all tha time. :frustrate
 
TheUnlikelyToad said:
Could someone direct me to tha why do we workout thread, if in fact, there is one...

If not, let's start one cuz all this kids, marriage, relationship stuff with my girl has had me soul searching a little lately.

It might get to tha poinnt here soon where Brian will have to pull my head out my ass.:blink:
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Looks like you just started it.

For me, it's to stave off death. I woke up one day and realized that I was no longer the varsity athlete that I had been in my youth....and never will be again, but I sure as hell don't have to be a fat old blob suffering from preventable illnesses.
 
yeahright said:
Looks like you just started it.

For me, it's to stave off death. I woke up one day and realized that I was no longer the varsity athlete that I had been in my youth....and never will be again, but I sure as hell don't have to be a fat old blob suffering from preventable illnesses.
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That's a great point and what seems to be a no-brainer ...but, why do so many choose to go on cycle then? Sure you take all tha necessary precautions while on and post but who knows what half these 'designer' chemicals do for long term health. ...Does it really matter?

I'm pretty darn healthy in my eyes and yet you hear of guys falling over due to a heart attack for no 'apparent' reason or get cancer. Does health really guarantee anything?
 
TheUnlikelyToad said:
That's a great point and what seems to be a no-brainer ...but, why do so many choose to go on cycle then? Sure you take all tha necessary precautions while on and post but who knows what half these 'designer' chemicals do for long term health. ...Does it really matter?

I'm pretty darn healthy in my eyes and yet you hear of guys falling over due to a heart attack for no 'apparent' reason or get cancer. Does health really guarantee anything?
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We're all dying. It's just a matter of how and when. People make choices based upon the priorities in their lives. I did things as a youth that I would never do now. I do things now that I wouldn't have considered when I was younger. If I'm fortunate enough to live a long and happy life, then I'm confident that I will go through many other phases in my life.

There are no guarantees. You control what you can control, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
 
to get hyoooge! i actually started lifting as a good stress reliever, now it's kinda like my medication, if I dont take it, I can become angry and irritable very easy. I really enjoy it now and has a plethora of good side effects like good health, positive self image reinforcement, etc...
 
because there is no limit to how far you can go. I want to achieve a look that other people admire so I can seay that I worked my ass off. And the feeling of adding more weight (and completing the reps/whatever) to any lift is one of the best feelings (not the best but one of :lol: )
 
I began to work out because I was sick of being a 300 pound fat a**. Now I do it because I love it, and am addicted. It just makes me feel good to know that I bust my a** day in and day out for myself, because no one around me really understands why I do this. It just motivates me more, to prove to the people around me that I CAN change and improve my lifestyle through hard work.
 
If I wasn't working out I'd be strangling kittens and shooting at people on the highway. And that's when I'm getting laid regularly too. To be strong is a goal as well, to not be one of those metrosexual waifs who couldn't defend himself or his loved ones against an aggressor. There's a kind of rebellion involved for me too, reinforcement of a stereotype that if you're a man you're supposed to be strong.

Whoever posted that essay by Rollins, Iron, well that hit it right on the head. You learn from pushing yourself, you gain sanity from the structure, you direct negative emotions to acheive something positive. I know the looks thing is what it's about for a lot of people, and I can sort of understand that as it's a part of it for me too, even though I look like **** I'd look worse if I didn't workout. But if you took the positive effect on looks away I'd still do it, so it's the other parts of it that attract me to working out. That and I'd rather stay out of jail.
 
Beelzebub said:
because i got too big for ballet
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Hard to do Swan Lake when you displace all the water in the lake. This I know from personal experience. Now, a good set of ***** tits and a set of horns and you'd be a great opera singer.
 
I'am addicted first and foremost - watching all my friends who drink/smoke and party regularly and over the years without working out makes me love it even more. It's also unique (deidcated bodybuilding/powerlifting not working out - the fat girls/guys who never make any progress workout)- besides this board I can't find too many people in my gym that eat/live bodybuilding/powerlifting and I like being unique. Seeing conan at 5 years old and also having he-man as a toy - I always wanted to be look like those guys and at 14 I figured out that was possible - I'am still a chasing that dream - I dont' want to grow up. I can't imagine not living this life.
 
Jordan, You already know me and my reasons, but I will share this with the group. I must say, that as I am recovering from my hernia surgery the last 30 plus days, not lifting, it is even more evident to me.

My primary goal with training is physical health and longevity. But it is also an outlet for or replacement for my addictive and semi-obsessive behavior. I am a recovering alcoholic addict who has had 53 months sobriety (end of this month). I have used all of the areas of a bodybuilding lifestyle as an outlet for my addictive and obsessive tendencies. Everything from diet, training, and everything in between revolves around the disciplines of bodybuilding.

All of my food consumptions and timing revolve around training and my goals from and for training. I also use the setting of goals and the disciplines required to achieve them as a catalyst to believe in myself and my ability to achieve goals ouside of bodybuilding. Everything from discipline, perserverence, planning, scheduling, commitment etc, etc that are paramount to a successful bodybuilding goal are transferred to some areas of my personal life outside of bodybuilding. I make sure to always be training for a goal of some slight degree or another. With that comes detailed logs and diet and so on. Not having those leaves me without a sense of pupose in my day. This at times can carry over into other areas of my life.

As of recent, I have self induced a period of no training, at all, to allow my hernia to heal very very completely. I have had it (henia) for several to many years and intend to never get one or re-aggrevate this one again. As a result of not training many areas of my life are falling to pieces little by little. My eating schedule is off because I no longer have my routine of pre/post shakes and meals that revolve around my training. I no longer have my waking and training discipline as well. This means my sleep routine is out of order as well. Most discouraging is the lack of sense of 'well being' that comes with the endorphines and other feel good hormones that come from a solid work out. The recomposition of my body is also a negative as well. I have not gained 'weight' but a negative recomposition is taking place. Less muscle volume from glycogen storage and more retention around my waist line.

Being very aware of my mental/psychological make-up, my substance abuse recovery and being an endo make bodybuilding the perfect vehicle for me to make positive movement through many areas in my life. I have looked at my obsessivenes in the area of bodybuilding and I seriously considered that too much of a good thing could indeed be a bad thing. I did taper off a bit and loosen up on training and diet from time to time. With it came the absence of the movement in a forward direction (achieving goals) that I cherish from this sport. It was more like just going through the motions. Today, having not trained for over a month and not practiced all the disciplines that come with it I feel like crap menatlly and physically. I will trade the potential downsides of the obsessiveness that may be inherent to the sport over the downsides of not being actively practicing it.

What bodybuilding did for me and why I train:


Those are not recent pictures of course. I am quite a bit bigger, a lot balder, quite a bit older and currently not as lean. But am still sober, a much healthier (mentally and physically) father to that little girl as well as my 16 and 18 year old son and daughter.

Anyway, I needed to see those to remind me that I can do anything when I pactice the bodybuilding discipline as a lifestyle.
 

Indeed, those are impressive. :)

I'd be VERY happy myself with those accomplishments. One of my goals are to outshine my dad as his current age... so far tha future's looking bright.:cool:

Bottom line is, I'm afraid of change. It's very hard for me just to roll with things. Too many experiences as child being caught with my pants down, literally. I could never just pick-up and leave or change a situation at moments notice. But as far as thinking along tha lines of getting married... I still have these inclinations of bodybuilding for acceptance of girls. If I get married surely that'll be gone. I also hear phrases like "I also did not give much of a crap about body comp because as I got older, and I have 2 kids, I like to do stuff with them a lot like take my oldest for ice cream and other junk food, I also love good beer with dinner all too often.", which I can sympathize because when I have kids, I'll want to be tha best too... but I get tired easily. Some days it takes everything I have to muster my workouts plus everyday life let alone be Superman for a child. I totally admire those who do it and actually do it well (seemingly very few) instead it's looking more and more like you got to choose one life or tha other... over half my family is divorced as well. My girlfriend says she understands, but does she really? Will she actually put up with all my BS when she's forced to live and deal with me 24/7?

... These are much of tha thought processes that have been initiating my downward spiral as of late and as far as my girlfriend is concerned, I'm at tha point where I have to "**** or get off the pot". :gas:
 
TheUnlikelyToad said:
Indeed, those are impressive. :)

I'd be VERY happy myself with those accomplishments. One of my goals are to outshine my dad as his current age... so far tha future's looking bright.:cool:
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My son Jordon and I had a very short but very good visit this summer. He is as big as I am with a lot more babby fat. He tells me all about how he has 'his game' and 'his wardrobe' going on but 'if he had my body he'd have it all'. He made me laugh so hard, but yet made me proud to be an example that he wants to reflect. I hope he outsgrows me and that I can be part of his success in doing so.
Bottom line is, I'm afraid of change. It's very hard for me just to roll with things. Too many experiences as child being caught with my pants down, literally. I could never just pick-up and leave or change a situation at moments notice.
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You know that we all have some sort of affliction that has us handicapped in areas of our lives. I am 41 and still am tormented by the psychological damage that my father inflicted on me with his own alcoholic abusive parenting. I struggle a great deal with this at times. If not in the waking hours...in my sleep. He still has control in some areas of my mind and psychie and it take all I have from time to time to feel in control of myself.
But as far as thinking along tha lines of getting married... I still have these inclinations of bodybuilding for acceptance of girls. If I get married surely that'll be gone.
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I got news for you. It doesn't just stop. I know you have a physical situation that is a bit more apparent at first impressions, so I cannot compare apples to oranges here. But I still try to improve my physique for vanity reasons. I am a male with an ego just like everyone else. I can be pretty insecure about my image from time to time. The fact that my wife 'loves me for who I am and not how I look' does not help matters of body image and ego gratification.
I also hear phrases like "I also did not give much of a crap about body comp because as I got older, and I have 2 kids, I like to do stuff with them a lot like take my oldest for ice cream and other junk food, I also love good beer with dinner all too often.", which I can sympathize because when I have kids, I'll want to be tha best too... but I get tired easily. Some days it takes everything I have to muster my workouts plus everyday life let alone be Superman for a child. I totally admire those who do it and actually do it well (seemingly very few) instead it's looking more and more like you got to choose one life or tha other... over half my family is divorced as well.
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The ice cream and beer thing is BS in my book. I can take my child for ice cream and not induldge and have just as good a time for both of us. If you are training and your diet is right an ice cream and a beer is not going to make or break you. Unless of course you aspire to compete. How many times have you told me to search for balance? Being the 'best you can' does not mean you have to be superman. Your kids will see, in time, that you have done the best you can, with whatever afflictions you have, and admire you for your effort and commitment. I have overcome many negative consequences in regard to my addict/alcoholic behavior. I had the unfortunate experience of having to pay some of those in front of my kids. They have come to admire me for my character, integrity and ability to overcome. I have 'earned' their respect and 'set an example' of how to overcome...whatever it is. You already do that too.
My girlfriend says she understands, but does she really? Will she actually put up with all my BS when she's forced to live and deal with me 24/7?
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Everything changes when it's a 24/7 and you are completely transparent. My wife has to 'deal with me' too. What I believe has changed the dynamic is that I can 'deal with me' a lot better and this minimizes the casualties. I express myself and my feelings and experiences and she nods her head and gets as sympathetic as she can about issues. It comforts me until I realize that she is clueless about the matter. She did what she could...I try not to blame her that she cannot 'get it' like I want her to. I get it, you get it...but we are connected in that by our experience with it. Would you want someone like you and me for a mate? ;)

... These are much of tha thought processes that have been initiating my downward spiral as of late and as far as my girlfriend is concerned, I'm at tha point where I have to "**** or get off the pot". :gas:
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You are not alone in the spiral. I just went through a Invalid Link Removed that I believe I am just getting through to the other side of. I have had to draw deeply on some serious coping skills and reach out and ask for help. I was 'this far' from a '24pack binge' into oblivion many many times.

"If it does not make me stronger, it will kill me"

Love you Jordan.
 
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