In today’s post I talk about getting started with fitness: how I first started to become interested in fitness leading to what is now a ridiculous passion, helping people like you improve yourself through fitness.
Exercise, sport and fitness… whatever you want to call it, they all reflect similar values which bring, funnily enough, like-minded people together.
Like most young people, I loved sport
Football and tennis (cricket here and there, bit boring though, isn’t it?!) were the two which shaped my childhood in terms of physical activity. The values which these share such as motivation and persistence were soon enough transferred over to what is now my passion.
Fitness and training.
Getting Started with Fitness
It all started off in my garage. Picking up a dumbbell for the first time and thinking how the hell do I use this. Of course, like all lads my age, I only knew about bicep curls and crunches… come on lads, you completely relate to this one! It is heard of that your elder siblings can influence what you’re interested in at a young age and this certainly was the case for me. I guess you could say that they’re your role model to be honest. My brother had been going for some time with his friends and it’s funny to think that on holiday in year 9 I said, “I don’t want to workout yet, I’m too young it will stunt my growth”… what a fool I was.
So yeah, that was the situation for a few months. I started another football season and my performance wasn’t quite what it should have been. It’s an understatement to say that I don’t put my pressure on myself. So I began to think. What could I do to improve my performance? What is it that’s my biggest flaw on the pitch? At the time I wasn’t the tallest so I thought that to counteract this, increasing my body strength and size will benefit my performance.
So what did I do?
We already had a dumbbell and barbell set in the garage because my brother had been going to the gym for a few months already. It was fine though, it was all we needed and at the end of the day I was completely new to it all. I just wanted to train! So we both went in there on a hot summers’ day and got to work. Learning the basic exercises. Later I realised that those basic exercises were so-called compound exercises! Laughing at how bad my technique was. Forgetting to count how many reps I had done. Like a kid with a new toy not having a clue what I was doing. Clueless! (See what I did there) I was in my element. Like seriously. Just the experience of overcoming a resistance and getting better at it each and every time I trained. What could be better?
I developed a training split
Well, when I say me, I mean my brother did it for me. Chest, shoulders and triceps on a Monday, legs on a Wednesday (had to rest these up before football on a Sunday) followed by back and biceps on a Friday. Lifting heavier weights by the week, looking better, feeling happier and developing confidence that I never had before. My sporting performance improved as a result, playing a part in what was a very successful football team and likewise for tennis. Happy bloody days.
Fast forward four years and this is now my passion. Improving your life and inspiring you through fitness and exercise in whatever way possible.
Getting started with fitness can be hard, but I started in a garage. How will you start today?
