^^^nice sassy, but one thing that really bothers me is iam a reg nurse ok and i cant do grammer for the life of me, do you think we need a thread on how to do grammer properly, starring yours truely, UNCLEM. all kidding aside, you have a wide variety of knowledge, and you have been training like me over 30 yrs, what was your most exciting moment competing on stage, were you a pro fitness model or female bber? you look so young but when you said you training since the 1981, i said shes got to be around my age, now i dont care about how old you are but iam interested in your most joyess moment that happen to you in your career as a bber wat stands out for you as your best bbing happening? ill wait for your answer.
I started my life as a student of physics & astronomy and had 1 semester registered as PhD in Astrophysics. Then the Challenger shuttle blew up and sort of killed any opportunity of a reasonable career in that direction. I switched to software and have worked in software/ communications / internet technology since the late 80s. The whole weightlifting thing was something I found on my own in this old weight room we had at our local YMCA. There was no one else in there to learn from and I just did it on my own. I hired my first trainer in 1984 when Nautilus / "fitness centers" started getting big. And just continued from there.
I think it took a long time to filter out the Nautilus and the Jane Fonda stuff... I was never exposed to things like a real powerlifter until after 2000. But it was the "private" time, the ability to go into the gym and challenge myself in simple ways every day and the physical outlet that it gave me from sitting on my ass or the stresses of a computer job. It was never about "I wanna get big" or "I wanna lose weight" - it was always about how it made me feel and the structure and framework it gave my daily life.
This became even more important to me after the internet bust when I had to start moving around a lot to get a stable job. I've bounced 4 different states and 7 or 8 different jobs since 2003 and its very hard to restart your life over and over with no one around to start it with. The gym was always the first place I would find in my new location - it was familiar, it was a place I could go every day and get a structure started to my life again. And then meet people who "got it", get into the local competitions as a place to start a focus while getting settled into the new job.
I guess this is how fundamental this lifestyle is to me and who I am. My family doesn't get it and generally hates that I compete, but I know for a fact that if I gave this up I would start resenting the people who made me give it up. So I won't give it up. Its there when I need it, and if I need time off, its there when I get back.
I think the most important thing I get from it is the stress outlet and sense of daily accomplishment, and the physical exercise and all that is a great secondary result that helps to keep me young.
Forgot to add - in terms of competitive BB - I think making it thru my first show was my best and worst experience - biggest mindfuck of my life and most stressful experience I've ever gone thru. But I learned SO MUCH about myself and how I handle my behavior under extreme stress. I also gained a huge amount of personal empowerment in learning how to control my weight and that I could do it. I never had any issue w/ putting on muscle or not - it was never a personal goal and mostly it was just cool that I had some muscle to put on. It was more about finding that I could push more weight or learned better form - it was the "doing" of the lifting that was more important than anything else. But the ability get my weight to drop was life changing. I'd always carried the extra 10-15 lbs growing up. I had a bunch of tall, skinny, big-boobed friends and I was just the "big girl" - I never saw myself as overweight - but just never lean. So I wasn't allowed to feel sexy or comfortable in my own skin. I finally got myself a boob job when I was 35 and stopped feeling like I had to apologize for having no female shape. I just had big shoulders and a big ass - I was just big . Now I"m BIG and I love it because I control what "BIG" I am. I'll never be small but I can be 6% lean if I want. Personally I can't stand weak-shouldered people - this includes men & women - its not a reflection of those people but just something I don't find attractive (LOL I don't say it out loud - its just a personal preference

)
I"m not professional anything in this industry - its a hobby but its such a personal passion and outlet that it wouldn't matter if there was an "industry" or not. What I do like about "the industry" is that it gives a fun outlet for what I do - its such a personal, private and very selfish sport, its kinda nice to have some fun events to go to where you can go and be like Hollywood, dress like a freak, be a freak and embrace it w/ all the other "IT" people in this odd little subculture. I don't need attention all the time - in fact I like that I don't get attention most fo the time, but its sort of self-satisfying to get to dress up and get some props when al the work comes together for a show or a shoot or whatever. Its a bit retarded that we hide for 8 months out of the year when we're "off season" or not quite dialed in yet, and then go blast it out in a couple weeks or months when we're "dialed in". But it is what it is. In my private life I'm just a computer jockey and I have no big events anyway. My two favorite times of year are summer competitions and the Olympia.