Getting healthy and fit is a journey. The motivation to start that journey can strike at any time, and for me it started a month before a worldwide pandemic. 

I wanted to improve myself, I just didn’t know-how. I realized I was skinny and I couldn’t bother gaining some weight. So I looked on Google and I instantly realized working out was for me. 

I was always fast and an overachiever when it came to running. I figured lifting weights was going to be a breeze. However, I lacked motivation and knowledge, I had no idea what to do as a workout or how to start. So I went back on the web and learned basic stuff on how to gain muscle. 

My first month was extremely hard. I was still in school and couldn’t seem to fit in time for exercise. The muscles I wanted the most were abs. So for my first month, I started training my abs every day. I had found if I cut my gaming time in half I could exercise for 1 hour to 2 hours and it wouldn’t affect my life schedule. 

I had found time for exercise, so now I figured I had no excuse not to do it. I started off my ab training with crunches, sit-ups, Russian twists, etc. Of course, I realized it was going to take time to build muscle, but I was consistently doing ab training for a whole month and barely saw any progress. That’s when I learned abs were genetic and they were based on body fat percentage. In order for me to actually have showing abs, I would have to follow a diet that was fit to reach my goal. 

My previous diet was unhealthy. I ate chips, fast food, candy, and everything that negatively affected my goal. I didn’t want to be too harsh, so I slowly cut the unhealthy foods little by little. I would now try to eat clean and maintain a balanced diet. Soon after this drastic change, I would look in the mirror week after week and I could see apparent abs. 

In month 3, I had reached my ideal image of how I wanted my abs to look. There was one issue though, my abs were so developed compared to the rest of my body that I was unsatisfied. I looked in the mirror and saw what muscle groups needed to be developed. So I went on YouTube and typed, “shoulder exercises”, “ chest workouts”, “leg workouts”, and “back workouts” I knew if I was going to go through with working out I might as well do it right. 

During this time, COVID-19 had forced everyone to go into lockdown. I then struggled with my workouts as there were no gyms open. I explained to my family how I wanted to workout but gyms were closed and they were very supportive of my goal and without my knowing bought me a little set of dumbbells and a weighted vest. The weights were not crazy heavy, there were a couple of 20s, some 30s, and some 40s, the weighted vest was 30lbs. 

With this equipment, I knew I had to make something of it. From month 3-6 I trained like a dog. Monday was chest, it consisted of weighted push-ups, mostly variations of push-ups like diamond push-ups, wide grip pushups, etc. Tuesday was abs, I didn’t do a lot of exercises for abs because they were based on body fat percentage but I did enough to keep the muscle group tight. Exercises include v-ups, sit-ups, planks, heel touches, etc. Wednesday was arms, for example, biceps, triceps, and shoulders. I was limited to what I could do to train these muscles but exercises included curls, skull crushers, fly traps, and lateral raises. For each of these exercises, I did them to exhaustion for 3 sets. I didn’t really train legs as I would always end every session with cardio which consisted of 2 miles a day, with one break day on Sunday.

Soon after the 6th month, I was lacking motivation and so I went back on YouTube as a fix or something to help my process. I turned to protein, creatine, and pre-workout. These supplements all generally allowed me to build muscle at a fast pace, as they all have their little perks. The combination of these workouts and supplements got me the body I have today.  I started sharing my progress with close friends and their responses were insane. “ Wow, you’re a whole different person”. Soon after I expanded my progress to more than just friends and to my entire social media platform. “ Hey, what’s your workout plan?”  I started getting so many questions, and I was baffled that I could actually give advice and inspire people to change their lives.

Pushing myself to workout made me get girls’ attention, it gave me confidence in my body. Working out was my way out to be myself and let my inner demons out onto the floor. There is a fire that is fed every time I accomplish a PR (personal record). I love the pain that comes with the workouts, the benefits were a lot for me as I internally feel like I was born to be a warrior. However, the working out is much deeper than getting the girls and the attention. I have a dream that requires my body to endure extreme time under tension and this training is perfect for me. I plan to use the working out perks to my career and expand beyond a simple workout. 

I enjoy every aspect of fitness and plan to make this a lifestyle. It changed my life for the better. If you’re thinking of doing the same thing, just do it.