How I Became a Bodybuilder

Hello there, let me tell you about how I became ashoulders and chest were getting rounder and larger. I
bodybuilder. Like most medical students I had little timestarted to learn to isolate my muscle groups and
or interest in going to a gym on a regular basis. I didstarted reading everything about bodybuilding that I
want to lose some weight but the thought of exercisecould lay my hands on. After several months I was
left me uninspired. Then I discovered aerobics and howhooked and couldn't wait to get to the gym and try out
you could burn body fat by raising your heart-rate to anew and different exercises. The trainers told me to
level in the 70-80% range of your maximum cardiacgive up the aerobic exercise and I would build muscle
output. I started to do the "StairMaster" machine at amore easily. I changed my diet to a high-protein/low fat
local gym and with headphones on a 20-30 minutemoderate carbohydrate one and began eating 4-5
session at an aerobic heart-rate was no problem at all;smaller meals during the day. The results were
in fact I ended up doing aerobic training almost everyamazing and real; my self-esteem started to grow and
day for several months. I did lose 10lbs or so of weightin the first year of bodybuilding I gained 10lbs of muscle.
that was mostly body-fat and I was down to 145lbs.Now I was definitely hooked.
One day while on the stairmaster, I noticed all theDuring the next 4 years my training became more
dumbells, barbells and free-weights that were inintense as I developed different exercises that helped
another area of the gym and I asked one of the staffme to isolate a particular muscle and feel the
what that was all about. He told me that there werecontraction as I worked out with weight. I spent one
two ways to go: either a lean slim compact body or aentire summer learning how to isolate and train my
body with curves and rounded muscles. The secondback which was lagging behind my chest according to
way, he said, was accomplished by weight-trainingone of the senior trainers at the gym. I switched to a
while still keeping body fat down with aerobic exercisemore hard-core bodybuilding gym and added 10 lbs of
after the weight-training session. This, of coursemuscle every year for the next 3-4 years at which
required spending more time at the gym but I wastime I weighed 185 lbs with a body fat of only 7%. I
very curious about what effect weight-lifting wouldhad reached my genetic potential and I plateaued at
have on my now flat but lean body. In fact someone inthat weight watching my diet and downing loads of
the locker room looked at me and told me that Iamino acid tablets for extra protein.
looked like a teenager.I was getting ready to compete as compliments and
So with help from the staff trainers I began tostares came my way. I felt like a transformed person
exercise with weight 3-4 times a week. What I didn'tand I actually have much greater self-esteem and
realize was that I had great genetics forself-confidence now that I have become a successful
muscle-building and it soon was quite obvious that mybodybuilder.