"When I graduated from high school, I weighed a puny 162lbs soaking wet - at about 15% body fat! After 2 years of college, I weighed in at a scrawny 175 lbs soaking wet at 14% body fat..." I knew I could do better than that.
I talked with the "big guys" in the gym... Anything To Satisfy My Voracious Hunger For Muscle Building Knowledge! I continued to play football through high school and college and I mistakenly assumed that the strength and conditioning coaches would be able to put me on a weight training program that would help me pack on muscle mass and lower my body fat levels.
What I Discovered Shocked Me... After nearly 6 years of working my butt off in the gym and following what ever program my football coaches had put together for me, it hit me like a ton of bricks .
I realized at that point that I did not have all of the answers, and unfortunately neither did my dad.
"When It Was All Said And Done, I' d Gained 20lbs of Solid Muscle Mass And Lowered My Body Fat From 18% To 7%!" I Was Pretty Excited At The Time, But I Knew I Could Stand To Add More Muscle To My Frame.
I was frustrated, confused and really pissed off. I had bought into the system, done what I had to do and still didn't feel that I was living up to my full potential.
I cut out alcohol, laid off of junk food and made sure to get a full 8 hours of sleep each night. And made it a habit to perform 20 minutes of cardio 3 days a week. I achieved some pretty decent results - still nothing too amazing, but finally some long awaited progress! Here Are My Before And After Shots...
I Decided To Take Things Into My Own Hands… I scrapped the football training programs (at least during the off season) and started to implement what I'd learned about building muscle over the years.
In order to keep myself accountable and motivated, I signed up for the EAS Body For Life Challenge. I put my head down and went to work. I didn't try anything too fancy during the 12 weeks, I just stuck with basic compound exercises and a solid high carbohydrate muscle building diet.
So I did what I had to do...I hit the books hard! I devoured textbooks, magazines, bodybuilding newsletters - anything I could get my hands on.
I realized that not only had I not gained a lot of muscle mass, but my strength levels hadn't improved too much either.