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Muscle & Mind Motivation, Inspiration and The Mind. What drives you?

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Old November 18th, 2003, 08:51 PM
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What's YOUR motivation?

I was thinking about this tonight.....

I took my measurements tonight after about 11 months. I'm no Derek Anthony, that's for sure, but... I see changes, and I can measure them, too.

I'm natural, and I'm over 40, and I'm a relative latecomer to the iron game, so I view any progress as good. What makes me very happy is realizing that THIS time, of all the times I've started working out, I'm sticking with it! I'm consistent at the gym, I have a good routine to follow, and I'm even taking a good protein whey supplement. I think about lifting all the time, but I'm not a metalhead. Even the measurements, which are not as "super colossal" as I'd like, make me feel good about my progress, rather than discouraged, which is what I would have felt, even a few years ago.

My question to myself is: What's different this time? WHY am I sticking with it? Maybe it's because I'm sick of being skinny/maybe it's because I've realized that if I'm ever going to "get buff" I need to do it NOW/maybe it's because of this site, and reading about all the other guys out there who have the same concerns, dreams, goals and desires, I feel like I'm not alone. I guess that last one is a big part of it. In everyday life, you almost NEVER run into someone who's interested in bodybuilding, unless it's described as "working out". Here, we've taken the gloves off, and we tell it like it is!

Keep up the inspiration, guys!

Mdlftr
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Old November 19th, 2003, 02:18 PM
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Very interesting question you pose there, and one that I have also been thinking about as of late. And one that, like you, I don't really have an answer to. I don't feel that I'm in the same league as many people here, as I'm just very much a beginner when it comes to bodybuilding, but I have been regularly exercising for fat loss for two years now. In my case, I was a fat kid and just grew up that way (I'm 28 now). Although I was never happy about it, always wanted to be a good looking guy, and had people telling about the health problems being overweight can cause, I just couldn't get into doing anything about it. I had started cardio activities on several occasions, but soon drifted away from them. Finally, about two years, when I hit 275 lbs on the scale, I started to exercise yet again. Only this time, for reasons I really can't explain, I stuck with it. Maybe its the fact that I wasn't going to get any younger and if I didn't start now, when would I. Maybe I just finally had had enough of living fat. Maybe it was this, maybe it was that, I really don't know. All I do know is that something inside my brain finally said let's do it, but why, I don't know. Now when the weight did start coming off to the point that other people started noticing and commenting, now that helped provide fuel to keep doing it. Now, about two years after starting, I'm at 165, meaning I lost 110 pounds. Just this year, when I started seeing a "skinny" me in the mirror, did I decide to start weightlifting. Now I've only been lifting for a few months, and I certainly don't have anything to show off or impress other people with, but when no one's around, I like hitting a bicep pose and seeing something that, while it is still small, is something I'd never seen on me before. When climbing stairs, I like putting my hands on my thighs and feeling the quads pump away. Again, its just something that I couldn't do before, and the fact that I can now do it, thrills me! These personal improvements are what keep me going. Heck, one of the happiest days of my life in recent months was when I finished my arms workout and saw the vein in front of my bicep for the first time. It disappeared when the pump died off, but man, the immense joy I felt in seeing it is just, well, indescribable. I almost can't wait until I build enough muscle for people to start noticing and start asking "have you been working out?" When that starts to happen, then I'm sure there will be no stopping me!

Anyway, I seem to have gotten off track. I recently had a conversation about my weight loss with a friend I only see occasionally. It started out with them complimenting me on my appearence, then asking how I'd lost, then asking how I did it, and then asking how long it took. When I answered that it took about two years, they kinda had that "oh my God" look on their face. When I saw that look, I explained that yes, two years is a long time, and sitting here today looking ahead to two years from now, it seems so far off. But it will be here before we know it, and that two years ago from today, seems almost like yesterday. I told them that if two years ago I had told myself that losing all that weight would take too long, that I'll wait until something quicker comes along, the result would have been that I would have just sat around for those two years, waiting, and instead of being a new person now, I'd still be fat, unhappy with my appearance, and waiting for the quick fat loss miracle.

I think too that it has to do with goals, reasons for starting, time frames, etc. Many people seem to embark on physical improvements, be it fat loss or building muscle, because they want to look good for their school reunion, or because so and so's wedding is coming up, or whatever. I think that only results in pushing yourself to an unreasonably excessive degree, and complete feelings of failure if you don't make it. In my case with the fat loss, I had no timeframe in mind. My goal was simply let's see if I can do this. Even if I lost five pounds one week, and only one pound the next, I was still happy that I was at least continuing to move in the right direction. I am treating my muscle building now the same way. I just want to improve myself. I don't want to be cut and ripped by such and such a date.

And of course, and this may be the biggie, and I think is probably the reason why so many of those exercise products on TV don't work for so many people, is because you are not going to lose fat by only getting your exercise. You are not going to build your muscles by only lifting. You need to truly believe in what you are doing, not merely going through the actions. And you need to actually change your lifestyle to a certain degree. You need to make sure you get the proper rest, eat properly, perhaps take suppliments. Merely walking on the treadmill, but still eating a whole pizza for dinner, is not going accomplish anything, and you'll most likely throw up your arms in disgust and proclaim that this doesn't work.

Well, this post seems to have fallen into the rambling catagory, and perhaps even fell off topic as well, so I'll stop now. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, maybe I fall somewhere in the middle, but at least this forum allowed me to get some of my own thoughts off my chest.
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Old November 22nd, 2003, 05:48 PM
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Great point

We always want to see change happen fast, become frustrated, and quit. I can not count the number of times I've fallen into the pit of wanting to see results super-fast, and burning out. If I had stuck to going to the gym regularly 10 years ago, I could have spent the last 8 years as a muscle-stud. So my advice is go slow, and stick with going to the gym. small improvements will build up over time.
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Old November 22nd, 2003, 08:54 PM
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In January, for some reason the concept "form follows function" came into my mind. I wasn't where I wanted to be physique-wise - and I was going to the gym and slogging through the weights because I wanted the weights to change me into a vital, athletic, energetic person. And it honestly wasn't really happening.

And then I thought, "You know who look like athletes? Athletes!"
And athletes look like athletes because they don't slog through exercises out of a book ("ok that was 12 reps - now I rest" "ok that was 3 sets, not i'll do this next exercise"), they do it out of their heart and joy. Run harder to make the base, jump higher to spike the ball, lunge further to make the backhand, kick higher to fight your opponent! So, I just started going to the gym and doing whatever I felt like as long as I did it out of the joy of being the beneficiary of an amazing human body.

I stretch like when I was a college athlete... at the start of my work out like the whole team is stretching with me and i get a real sense of anticipation because I am tapping into those old memories. I just really love to reach for the sky or reach for my toes or reach over my shoulder or lunge as far as I can. (And as I understand it stretching is actually supposed to be a good muscle building enabler).

And I love to jump on the treadmill and run fast, or go to the basement and karate kick and punch. Love to try to balance on my hands, do a head stand, balance on the balance board.

And I just love the feel of the weights - heavy or light, slow or fast... being aware of my body. It's almost as if I used to put so much attention on the weight ("I will move this weight - It is 60 lbs - I will move it 10 times"). But it's just an inanimate thing - it's not gonna get a bit bigger or smaller whether I lift it 8 times or 50 times.. yet I'd be oblivious to my body and if I said I'd lift the weight 10 times I lifted it 10 times by golly... and probably hunching and holding my breath and twisting my face and giving my body a negative experience that encouraged me unconsciously not to repeat it (e.g., "i think i'll have an excuse not to go to the gym today - i'll definitely go tomorrow" ;-) ).

So, I have definitely been striving for the reverse - the weights get no priority in my relationship with them - and my body gets all the priority - and it feels so good to have my mind move inside a muscle and sense its yearning to do another rep to move beyond its exhaustion and fulfill its nature of exerting power. I finish a rep that I could barely do and I feel my muscle chomping to contract again and I just step out of its way.

Anyway I hope I keep remembering that even though I am feeding it and stressing it to get huge I have a relationship with my body. And like anything I want a healthy relationship with, I need to balance its needs and mine. Which means that it wants to run and jump and stretch and rest and get nourished, in addition to the fact that it actually does aspire to pump up and grow HUGE. :-)

But If I just bulk it up without the rest, I am just taking care of my mental/emotional needs and not its needs. And that will backfire if not today, someday.
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Old November 23rd, 2003, 07:26 AM
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web-based motivation?

Hey,

I too find the members of this group motivating. Chatting with guys on this group and the information they have given me has helped push me toward my goals. It's also helped me "come out" as a bodybuilder (or at least as a proto-bodybuilder).

I've been thinking about creating a new website, well, actually a blog-site, where guys who are determined to grow can share their progress, talk to each other for motivation, track their workouts and statistics and help each other to GROW. I know that I'm a geek, so such thinks interest me. Would it interest anyone else? I know that such sites exist. The difference between this site and others would be:
1) emphasis on record keeping and displaying the information in useful ways. For example, a graphing feature that tracks weight gain or body fat.
2) limited to men who want to grow HUGE
3) not a dating site

of course, it would be a free site.

thoughts on this idea?

Scott
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Old November 23rd, 2003, 07:18 PM
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I think y'all really have hit on the things that lead to true physique improvement.

1) Realize that everybody has to start somewhere. The big guys you saw at the gym didn't suddenly appear.

2) Recognize that progress is more important than results. The biggest trap into which people fall is trying to lift too much too fast. We live in a society that is singularly successful at taking the fun out of the process of doing something by insinuating that if you're not perfect, there's no use trying.

3) Keep in mind that Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither were Mike Francois or Tom Prince (OK, so I have my favorites <g>). Think about it -- 1/3 lb of muscle a week sounds miniscule, but that's 1 1/3 lbs per month, 16 lbs per year, and 80 lbs in five years. Who among us wouldn't give their right arm to gain 80 lbs?

4) Finally, remember that the only person to whom you have to ultimately answer is yourself. Yes, it's hard to go to the gym when you can't lift as much as other guys and/or you don't look as good, but in the general scheme of things, who cares? Instead of envying those who have what you don't, be glad that they have what they do, and work to get to that point. The minute you start cutting other people down or negatively comparing yourself is the one in which you become a selfish bastard -- and I don't think ANY of us want to be that.
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Old November 23rd, 2003, 11:08 PM
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corwin - that blog site sounds like a great idea! I almost started a blog about my own progress, but i stopped after a while just due to forgetfulness. I guess we all need a push now and then to get back on track.
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Old November 23rd, 2003, 11:29 PM
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Motivational site

Corwin, I too have thought of putting together a gay, or male orientated work-out motivating site. I guess I never quite figured out what I wanted to create, or if there would be a need for it. I'd love to conspire on a project like this.
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Old November 24th, 2003, 06:54 AM
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yep, definitely looking for co-conspirators and beta testers for this project. Drop me a private message if you think you can help.

More on the project soon.

Scott
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Old November 25th, 2003, 06:51 PM
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This is the first online community I've ever participated in and I really feel like I've gotten so many things from it. Your idea sounds really great - especially if it can capture same kind of comraderie that this site has.

Have you ever seen www.abcbodybuilding.com I've sampled that site at times (again never registered or contributed) but it definitely seems supportive and has a lot of people reporting progress and what they are doing. I always liked how it seemed to contain a mix of everyone... men, women, young, old... i think it has gay but actually i don't know - maybe it wasn't gay friendly which would be a problem.
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Old November 25th, 2003, 07:55 PM
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domain up -- site real soon now

After talking to flexodus and others, I purchased http://www.musclegrowth.net to host this site. My idea is more akin to livejournal.com than this site (or abcbodybuilding.com), with people maintaining online diaries that others can read and give comments/advice to. Over the next month or so I'm hoping the site will become live and for real.

More soon

Scott
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Old November 26th, 2003, 08:54 AM
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ABC

I have a few problems with www.abcbodybuilding.com:
1. The owner seems overly christian
2. The site is full of annoying Java Script errors.

I'm sure any site Corwin designs will be 1000 X better!
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Old June 20th, 2004, 06:52 AM
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My three big motivational factors: 1- the sheer joy of working out, 2- seeing the results of my efforts show up in the mirror, 3- having others who appreciate muscle make positive comments. This is the best sport there is!
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Old June 20th, 2004, 02:22 PM
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&another thing...

i've mentioned my positive reasons for working out on other threads.but don't forget this one;dreading the pain of having to start over!
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Old June 20th, 2004, 11:38 PM
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So last weekend my husband and I went to Van Couver, BC. My work was busy before we went, so I didn't go to the gym for a couple days before we went to Canada. When we got there we didn't want to waste any time doing things we could do back in the US (Read: find "Coffee houses") so we didn't workout there (the hotel had a workout room that we didn't use, and it had a 225 foot long water slide that I did use, a lot). When we got back home, we were crazy busy with everything that had to be put on hold for 3 days, so we didn't workout then. Finally, yesterday I did a workout for the first time in 10 days. It was hard to get re-motivated, but it was worth it. I feel like I was asleep that whole time. I won't stop again, because it feels like you are in a constant fog when you don't workout.
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