Beginnings
Going to the gym was a pretty tough habit to get down for the longest time. Beginning in high school, my dad was a huge part in getting me to start going to the gym. Even though we had no set routine or really anything he would always attempt to drag my lazy ass off my computer and head to the local Planet Fitness in my hometown.
At the time, I hated it! I was addicted to gaming and being a lazy bum all day outside of school work. My dad had a pretty smart strategy though to convince me to go more. While it sounds counterintuitive, he would get me fast food at the end of every workout, most of the time Taco Bell. It sounds pretty pathetic, but it was enough incentive at the time to get me to go. Most of my workouts were focused towards running on a treadmill (dad is a runner) and on occassion some machine work. From there, I fell in love with long distance running and it became my main form of exercise throughout the majority of high school and into college.
How running changed my life
Picking up running was a life changer for me. During early high school I was diagnosed with liver issues from eating incredibly unhealthy and being sedentary 99% of the time. I was miserable, depressed and felt like shit constantly.
This all changed when I started to just...run. Running always had this amazing feeling of being able to escape my problems temporarily and always made me feel great afterwards. At the start I was running a miserable 1 mile and getting winded almost immediately. I'm not sure what pushed me to go further, but just doing it constantly I was able to see a lot of improvements particularly in my mile times and total distance.
In college, I ran my first 5k, 10k, and an unofficial half marathon. I really used this time to push my mileage to the limit and I was really surprised how far I was able to push myself.
Transition to lifting
While running was fun, it was starting to get a bit stale and my runs were at a point of stalling. One of the biggest factors I felt like was limiting me was my lack of any strength training. So when the winter hit, I started going back to my local Planet Fitness yet again and started following a basic full body routine.
At the time I was following a basic hypertrophy program I found online and was able to squeeze out some good newbie gains. However things came to a screeching halt pretty quick on all of my lifts. Every session was pretty much stagnant with the weights I was lifting and progressive overload became impossible. With my habitual terrible sleep schedule and poor diet, it was no surprise I was stalling pretty early on.
After graduation, I was back at home and returned to a normal sleeping schedule and diet. I continued to follow my programs but was still running into issues of stalling. At this point, I was pretty much at a loss of what could be causing this. After doing some more research online, I decided to go back to the basics and look into beginner level strength training programs instead of hypertrophy based programs. At this point, I moved again and was now in an area with more "real" gyms accessible.
Around August 2024, I committed myself to following a beginner strength training program and learn the essential barbell lifts (Bench Press, Squat, Deadlift, and Overhead Press). It took me quite a bit of time to get comfortable with the movements and especially getting used to the stability required for the lifts. I spent a solid amount of time in my first few sessions just working with the barbell, recording videos, and getting feedback before transitioning to heavier weights.
Since then I've worked pretty slowly up to my cureent numbers of a 145 lb bench, 115 lb overhead press, 185 lbs squat, and 265 lb deadlift. While I'm not really satisfied with my current numbers, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I was able to stick to going to the gym regularly and working on improving my lifts. I still have a very long way to go to get out of the novice lifting numbers and still find some gaps in my form, but I think that's the beauty of strength training. Learning never ends and you don't really know your limit until you actually push yourself hard enough to figure out.
Learnings / Ranting
Moving to free weights and looking into strength training programs have taught me a pretty valuable lessons. For total beginners, it's incredibly easy to major in the minors and fall into analysis paralysis in picking exercise selections. In reality, you really don't need to think this hard about it. Find a tried and tested beginner program (Starting Strength, Greyskull LP, GZCLP, 5/3/1, etc...) and just stick to it. You don't even need to do 8 trillion different accessories. As a baseline for a beginner - your goal should just literally be showing up to the gym. Once you got that down, doing at least two of your compounds movements is honestly enough. There's been too many times to count where I just have off days and lack of motivation, but as long as I get a bench / squat / press / or deadlift in, I'm honestly satisfied. It sounds like a low standard, but I'm a true believer in making habits as simple as possible and adding complexity when you trust yourself enough. I truly felt that I was trapped under the "more volume, the more gains" mindset when I feel like I've seen results from just focusing and giving it all on your compound movements.
Additionally, I think I learned mindset plays such an incredible aspect to lifting. Overtime I shifted my mindset to something incredibly simple: lift more weight each time (if you can) and do it for general health. I also just started to find lifting and inflicting pain on myself...fun. I'm not sure what clicked, but worry less about physique and lowering expectations has been a game changer for me. While I was stalling on my lifts and killing myself with incredible volume on hypertrophy programs, my motivation progressively kept dropping which made going to the gym a chore. It should not be a chore, but rather something to look forward to and a habit like brushing your teeth. If at any point it becomes a chore, you need to sit down and re-evaluate what is causing this. Most of the times I felt like this were when my self doubt took over and when I got bored of exercises. Do whatever takes to keep it simple and enjoyable should really be the goal for anyone looking to go to the gym.
Conclusions and Goals for 2025
Onto 2025, I'm hoping to reach some realistic goals of obtaining a bodyweight bench press, 225 lb squat, and a 315 lb deadlift. I still have a looooooong way to go. My mobility is still lacking, my core strength sucks, my bench is pretty pathetically low, and I have a pretty negative habit of wasting time over-analyzing my lifts. I also know linear progression won't last forever, so I'm hoping even if I hit a wall in 2025 that I at least keep this habit up. Overall, picking up lifting again and transitioning to free weights has been an incredibly fun hobby to have in 2024 and has been a great help to my mental health. I'm really looking forward to see what my numbers end up being at this time in 2025.