Gym & Misc What Got You Into Health & Fitness?

[WakeUpPies]

For me it was sucking in footy matches during high school because I was so weak. Started going to the gym in year 10. Footy got a lot more fun once I could actually out muscle / shrug off people during seniors.

Nowadays I stay fit because I like not having to worry about any physical limitations stopping me from doing what I want or need. My job is "physically demanding" but I don't feel it. I can fill in at the last minute for my mate's basketball team without physical fitness being the reason I suck

What about you guys?

 

[M Malice]

very simple reason, ever since i was a kid i have always loved competitive sport and you need to be reasonably healthy/fit to compete- soccer, Squash, 5-10km fun runs, and futsal are my absolute favorites.

since i have become older (i am 56), i just want to live longer as well. commonsense tells you if you eat healthy and move you will in all likely hood live longer.

 

[ThePezDispenser]

The Bishes!!!

 

[PoopingHindi]

middle age and the realisation that i wasnt indestructible

 

[PoppedCorn]

Midlife crisis
as soon as I stopped smoking cigs it all seemed to go on from there.

 

[Jcpdragonx]

Got too sick and had no choice. Blessing in disguise.

 

[Andre]

middle age and the realisation that i wasnt indestructible

Similar here. Lost a younger brother in the mid-30's (not physical health related) and then had a disc in the back go not long before 40.

The latter was the straw that broke my back. Realised you don't know when you'll go and not everything can be stopped / pushed back, but I want to make 90 at least (both maternal grandparents did) and want to be still moving and looking well for most / all of that. Having visible abs in my 40's is a bonus for summers I'll take though

 

[WakeUpPies]

very simple reason, ever since i was a kid i have always loved competitive sport and you need to be reasonably healthy/fit to compete- soccer, Squash, 5-10km fun runs, and futsal are my absolute favorites.

since i have become older (i am 56), i just want to live longer as well. commonsense tells you if you eat healthy and move you will in all likely hood live longer.

Are you still doing competitive sport?

The Bishes!!!

How did that go? And yes pictures are absolutely necessary.

middle age and the realisation that i wasnt indestructible

Midlife crisis
as soon as I stopped smoking cigs it all seemed to go on from there.

Got too sick and had no choice. Blessing in disguise.

Blessing in disguise like Jcpdragonx said. Hope you are better now Jcpdragonx.

Similar here. Lost a younger brother in the mid-30's (not physical health related) and then had a disc in the back go not long before 40.

The latter was the straw that broke my back. Realised you don't know when you'll go and not everything can be stopped / pushed back, but I want to make 90 at least (both maternal grandparents did) and want to be still moving and looking well for most / all of that. Having visible abs in my 40's is a bonus for summers I'll take though

Well you seem to have the genetics for it so you got this. The question is though - will you have visible abs at 90?

 

[Andre]

Well you seem to have the genetics for it so you got this. The question is though - will you have visible abs at 90?

I'll bump in 47 years if BigFooty is still around and tell you.

 

[M Malice]

Are you still doing competitive sport?

yep, play futsal, 2 games a week on the same night mixed and mens. it gets very competitive, in the mens team i play with my son and his mates so i'm the oldest by around 25 years. we actually have our mixed grand final tomorrow night, going for a 3peat.

i also 3-4 times a week do a cardio type exercise program called "insanity". moderate LCHF diet as well.

 

[saj_21]

For me, I've been playing footy since I was 5. In mid teens to 21 I was footy mad barely missed a training session and basically my own preseason started 2 weeks after our last game. But from 21 onwards I enjoyed the night life, single life and poor diet.

I got to 25 out of shape and newly single. Decided to get back into the gym, lose weight and get fit for footy. But after a few months and seeing some improvements I quickly became obsessed with gym, diet etc.

I took half of the 2015 season off and competed in my first body building shows. Now back to playing footy but still enjoying the gym.

 

[LanceRomance]

Girlfriend broke up with me during year 12 back in 01.

pretty much went to the gym on and off since then.

 

[evo]

Midlife crisis
as soon as I stopped smoking cigs it all seemed to go on from there.

Exactly the same for me.

 

[PoppedCorn]

Went hard at first wanting to do this and that and get this and eat that and going to put this much muscle and lose this much fat etc etc
Then went hang on....slow down, do a bit of reading first let's try and understand stuff and realize it's 20 years since you were really fit.

 

[showdownhero]

Had always been a very active kid but after I got to uni and had work placements across the country I barely did any exercise between 19 and 24, I wasn't obese or anything but certainly very much out of shape.

Girl friend of 4.5 year broke up with me in October 2008 and a mate I worked with started dragging me to the gym, that was really my first trip down the aesthetic rabbit hole. It started with an interest purely in the physical side of things where i would run, bike and push weights until I was blue in the face with no idea why I could never develop the physique that I wanted. Don't get me wrong there were a couple of periods I experimented with some clumsy dieting and lost some weight but the thought of having to eat a proper bodybuilding 6 meals a day in order to successfully lose weight made me never get too scientific about it.

Then in January 2013 I came across the work of Martin Berkhan who told me that 6 meals a day was garbage and I could easily lose weight with just 2, this sounded like something that was right up my alley so this is when I started paying attention to nutrition.

I'm always tinkering around with my exercise and nutrition regime's because I really enjoy using my body like a little science experiment. However I certainly go through peaks and troughs of exercise and nutritional adherence I definitely feel like I know what makes my body tick.

Whilst I love my current LCHF approach to losing weight my next experiment is going to be a hypertrophy diet with some insulin spiking post workout meals to drive an anabolic response.

 

[raskolnikov]

In 2008 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes which began my search for a healthier lifestyle. I never thought I was particularly unhealthy. I was reasonably active and mostly ate well, or so I thought. I was injecting insulin four times a day until 2013 when through this board I discovered LCHF. I am technically probably a mixture of LCHF and paleo, or at least paleo with some dairy and coffee. I now don't need insulin and my blood sugar is normal. When I went to the doctor a few months ago he said, "Your records show you are type 2 but your tests don't show it". I also got into Crossfit about a year ago which I love. I am in my 40s and in the best shape of my life, though I don't have visible abs like Andre.

 

[Wojcinski]

I got an office job and put on 15kg in about a year, that was about 6 years ago and I weighed 100kg. Funnily enough, I now weigh 109kg, but the BF % is much lower!

 

[Shupe]

I was sorta going with a uni mate about 5 years ago, probably just a few times a week. It wasn't really a focus for me, no change to diet or whatever and I'd only go with him. I had a pretty long term girlfriend at the time. About 12 months later, we called it quits. I started going to the gym with my mate a bit more often. Then I started having goals, like I wanna lift THAT weight. Then I started going by myself and before I knew it, I'm at the gym every day.

It started out as purely aesthetic, just wanted to get bigger and look better for the ladies. I was a very skinny guy. Once I got a bit bigger, another mate got me into gridiron. So that got me training for a bit more strength, but I'd be lying if I said my goal isn't always to look good.

 

[vonn]

Back in 2012/13, exercise saved my ass from going on medication for depression. In a world where a lot of s**t is unfair - exercise does not cheat you. You get out exactly what you put in, no bullshit. I like that.