Driving a desk does not improve your health
It took 17 years of me driving a desk to realize that my passion didn't lie within the promotion of the products and services that my former employer offered. I thoroughly enjoyed my interactions with my employees and our customers but over time I felt that something was missing. The tipping point, quite literally, was sheer tonage. Or, more accurately, discovering that I was exactly one pound shy of the 300 lb mark. Once upon a time, I was a strong, vital, young adult who played many recreational sports and competed at state level in powerlifting. While I was lucky that the passage of time had only resulted in the accumulation of many, many pounds of bodyfat, I knew from my previous fitness background that at the age of 41, I was on the way to joint problems, cardiovascular disease, and type II diabetes.
Even though I had once been considered physically active and fit, years of attending to my career had combined with years of neglecting my health. I think it's easy to do, if you look around, not many of us have the vitality we did when we were 25. Fortunately for me, the 300 pound mark was enough of a wake-up call that I made a committment to regain my health. Drawing on my previous experience as a Personal Trainer and powerlifting competitor, I made a desperation grab back into the memory bank and tried to recall behaviour patterns that were almost 20 years old. I became my own Personal Trainer and forced myself to break longstanding habits of inactivity. I started going to the gym again even though I did not like it at first!
From the gym, I met new friends and associates that had similiar interests and goals. I joined a strongman team, Team Barbarian, and even competed in a novice level strongman contest. I was starting to have fun again and I started to realize how much my inactivity had stunted my vitality. Vitality is empowering. It breeds confidence, committment, and decision. It promotes wellness and the ability to resist sickness. Plain and simple, it makes you look and feel better.
Hokey as it sounds, I felt re-born, like a phoenix. To be continued...
Awesome...I am in the same boat as you. 36 years old, over 300 pounds, sedentary, and unemployed. I found the Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift. I had no previous experience with these lifts. My claim to fame was I am a former Marine so pretty physically fit...once. I lifted for vanity in the nineties for the trophy muscles. It helped me bed girls but that is about it. Long story short I found a gym in my area dedicated to strength athletes and ran by Championship/World Record holding Powerlifters (USAPL) I immediately joined. I have made progress in 3 months all my lifts have improved and I am competing in my first meet in March. I have lost a good amount of body fat and inches around my belly. I still have a ways to go, but I am still new to it only been training for about a year and a half. Your story inspired me...we are walking real similar paths.
ReplyDeletekeep me in the loop with your training. How's the preparations for the meet in March coming?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! It's never too late, actually, I've found my training to be much more focused now that I seemed to have outgrown those "younger years" goals of trophy muscles and girl hunting.