Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is James but all my buddies call me Jimmy & I’m from Jersey. I’ve always played sports - football (my favorite), basketball, baseball, swimming, soccer, track, and wrestling. I lifted occasionally through high school but nothing serious. After my freshman year of college I started to get into it a little more.

I was always the smallest kid on the field. I used to eat anything and everything in sight and could never put on a pound. I wrestled at the 112 lb weight class my freshman year of high school! Going into my sophomore year of college i recall weighing in at 135 lbs. I packed on some ”bad” weight, I guess you would call it, my freshman year of college. I started lifting during the second semester with little knowledge of working out. I started using a protein supplement and used to watch the exercises the bigger guys were doing. I started to see changes in my physique very quickly. Soon it became addicting and you could find me in the gym 4-5 times a week. I began to feel more confident about myself and had more energy as a whole.

I remember some of my friends coming up to me saying, “Hey Jim, you workin out or what kid?!” I’m not gunna lie, it made me feel good seeing that other people noticed some of the work I was putting in.  At this point I didn’t really have a set routine in terms of a lifting schedule and exercises. I would just go to the gym and just experiment trying different machines and equipment. At first, I felt like an idiot because I didn’t know how to work some of the equipment and wasn’t really sure how much weight I could do, so it was a little embarrassing to say the least.

After freshman year was over, I moved back home for the summer and didn’t have a gym membership. I also didn’t have much money to get one so instead I borrowed some equipment from my cousin. He gave me an old bench which was adjustable (incline, flat, decline), a bunch of plates, a pair of dumbbells and some other random stuff like an ez bar and other old equipment he never used. I worked out of my garage where it would get scorching hot during those summer days. I tried to convince my mom to let me move the equipment into the basement and turn my brother’s room (he moved out) into a weight room…..she was not having it. I used that old equipment every winter break and summer until I graduated college. It wasn’t worth it to get a membership somewhere when I was just going back to school anyway. The toughest was during the winter months. I used to wear hoodies with layers underneath and winter gloves (the barbell would be cold as ice!!!) It was a little ridiculous but I did what i had to do and toughed it out. If I could, I would workout outdoors all the time during the summer - you get a really good burn when it’s warmer out.

I didn’t get realllly serious about weight lifting until I graduated college and came home. Freshman year I weighed in at 135 and when I graduated I weighed 150. I’m proud to say that I put on 15lbs and no it wasn’t the freshman 15….. it was 15lbs of SOLID muscle by the end of my college career. When I got home in December (I graduated early) I decided enough is enough. The old equipment wasn’t doing it for me anymore and it was time to get serious. I joined a gym nearby and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Currently I go to the gym 5 times a week and have a very healthy diet. It’s sooo much easier to eat right when your at home - thanks mom.