What prompted you to first start going to the gym?

So, for those of you who may have been lazy in the past – what was the tipping point that made you start going to the gym?

For me, it was quite a few years ago when I was still in high school (Grade 13).

At the time, I did not enjoy Gym class because it had too much focus on competitive sports and was graded more on ‘comparison to others’ other than ‘personal effort’. So I pretty much quit Gym class after grade 9 once it was no longer mandatory.

I spent quite a chunk of my high school years pretty addicted to MMORPGs. Ultima Online / EverQuest, before the days of World of Warcraft :)

Over the course of high school, I grained quite a bit of weight, tipped the scales at nearly 300 pounds and had a 40-42" waist.

My High School had 3 floors to it. One day, I was walking up to get to a chemistry class on the 3rd floor of my school – and by time I got to the top of the stairs I was pretty winded and nearly gasping for breath.

I thought to myself “This really sucks”, and joined the YMCA that afternoon.

In no time, I quickly dropped quite a few pounds down to ~230. At this time, I hardly made any changes to my diet – but did lots of cardio (pushing hard/fast) and weights.

Some of my other overweight friends that were trying diets/etc and miserable because of it were rather jealous that I lost so much weight with making minimal changes to my diet :)

Since then (this was over 6 years ago) I’ve gone on and off to the gym. Usually I get into the cycle of going strong for 6-8 months, then quitting for a year, feeling like crap and going back to it.

One thing I think I’ve now realized what my ‘quitting’ points were was

- I’d only ever do the same machines every time I went
- I’d see results up until X point, hit a roof both mentally and physically, and quit going.

This time around I’m going to be making a point of switching up my routine once every few weeks to try and avoid that. I always feel 10x better when I work out regularly and kick myself in the ass once I quit the routine.

Although, I think part of the reason why I do keep going back – was that first time in high school and seeing the changes in my body that could happen very quickly with not nearly as much effort as I thought it would take.

Getting in shape – even when I was at my worst is doable, and knowing its possible because I’ve done it myself before keeps that encouragement to get back at it once i’ve let things slide.

Inability to walk for 10 minutes without piercing pain in my legs and feet was a pretty convincing argument here. During my holidays, I was in pain by the time I had walked down to the beach. The photos weren’t exactly flattering either.

My gym has a service to create personalized workouts every 6-8 weeks. If I get bored, I can just ask one of the trainers to show me a different exercise for those muscles.

The gym that I just joined also has a free consultation once every 3 or 4 months. Sadly, the first one was mostly a sales pitch to try and get me to get into their Personal Trainer program.

Maybe next time it will have a bit more ‘come up with a workout’.

Although, this site seems to have a few great resources for setting up workout programs. Going to finish my own that I set up this week, then try doing one of the other ones I found on here starting next week.

My Current “Motivator” though is general mobility – even though I wasn’t very over weight – I was having allot of back pain. I love hiking/going for walks – but even as little as a 2h walk on flat ground would cause me a great deal of pain in my back.

Also, I had very recently gained some weight – not much, but enough that my favorite pants were on the verge of becoming too snug for comfort, and I was starting to complain about feeling out of shape / clothes not fitting / etc.

Then, I tried to remember my own personal motto: Don’t complain about things you have the power to change.

I hate hearing people complain about their weight all the time when they are doing nothing about it – and I was turning into one of them.

So – back at it I go :)

@shypht wtg, sounds like you’ve had quite a journey. I think your own story can be a “Motivator” to others!

As for me, it was an annual physical 5 months ago where I learned that in addition to the high blood pressure I already knew about, I also had high cholesterol and very high triglycerides. Mind you, I’m wasn’t really overweight, but was extremely sedentary and I have genetics at work. I’m only 36, and the numbers scared me right into the gym.

My numbers are much better now, thanks in part to medication, but I think exercise and changes to my diet had a huge impact as well. I work out at least 3x a week now, usually 4-5x, and I go because I want to, not because I feel like I have to.

I re-started my diet and workout June 28th Its time to be the hot 26 year old I am :-) I am cumming up on my 9th anniversary and would like to fit into my dress…Almost there :-)

Nothing too exciting for me. I grew up playing sports. When I was 8-12 years old I played every “major” sport in the U.S. I slowly narrowed my focus until by the time I was 15 I was only playing football. My sophomore year in high school, I started hitting the weight pile to try and get stronger.

I continued to play football in college and worked out regularly (plyometrics and weights) during the off-season, and of course the 25+ hours of practices per week during the season.

After college, I enlisted in the military and did PT almost every day for 4 years. When I got out of the military, I stopped working out altogether. After a lifetime of doing it, I was pretty much fed up. I never did it for its own sake. I did it to support some other endeavor.

So, after a couple of years of being a slacker and gaining a bunch of weight, I decided to find another reason to need to work out, and took up bike racing. I joined a gym and did spin classes 3-5 times per week all winter long, bought a bike when Spring rolled around, and raced for three years. During that time I primarily used the gym for Pilates, some weight training, and off-season cross training (mostly treadmill running, weights, and spin classes). I eventually quit racing and got fat again.

After a couple of years of being lazy, I took up hockey (about three years ago). Turns out you can be fat and still play hockey pretty easily. But this year I turned 40 and decided I didn’t need to be 40 and fat, so I started back in the gym, dropped (all told) 49 pounds (doh), and have been hovering at my current weight for the past six weeks.

What I need to do this time around, is not let myself be a slacker for a few years and maintain a healthy lifestyle without going crazy on something. I am one of those people that once I get focused on something, I go hardcore at it until I burn out.