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History Lesson on CSEagles1694.
How it all started.
I've always had an interest in weights. I picked up my first dumbbell when I was 8 years old. I was obsessed with basketball at this point in my life and thought that if I worked out my arms, I could shoot the ball farther. So I would pick up a 5 lb. dumbbell, do some concentration curls, and go out to shoot the ball and see how far it went haha.
I started to get a little more serious about it in 6th grade. I started using the 8 lb. dumbbells in my basement and did floor presses all the time. At this point, I was all about the chest, arms, abs. Did this on and off until I was in 7th grade, when I got my first real set of dumbbells from Target. I got strong enough to outgrow them, so I found some more weights in my garage.
In the summer between 6th and 7th grade, I was visiting my family in Texas for a week or so. My uncle was always a huge guy, about 6'1" and 250 lbs. back in his prime. He never competed or anything, but he was just doing it because he liked it. He's pretty much the reason there's weight rooms on Air Force bases, now. He was a colonel in the USAF for 26 years, and that's when he got the biggest.
Anyways, he took me to his old ratty gym in Snyder Texas to workout with him. I was 12 at the time, so we stuck the basics. We did bench press, squats, biceps, triceps, and some shoulders. I was sore for almost a week afterwords haha. It was awesome and I loved it. He always preached to me about the years where I would grow the strongest: right now. And he was right.
Back to the dumbbells. When I outgrew the dumbbells, I found more weights laying around in my garage. I got up to 35 lbs. a piece, doing benches, curls, squats, lunges, all that good stuff. I would workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for about 3 hours at a time in my room and just go nuts. I actually got pretty good gains off of that.
By the time football started my 8th grade year, I was a bit chubby 140 lbs. I hit my growth spurt, so that combined with a shit-ton of conditioning from football got me down to a shredded 125 lbs. I was lean as hell. I must have been at around 6-7% bodyfat.
Then, for my 14th birthday, my mom got me a gym membership at Cardinal Fitness. I remember how excited I was. A did a basic template that my uncle had laid out for me and made some good gains. I started out benching 95 lbs. for a few reps, squatting 135 for a couple, but never deadlifted. Eventually, after 8 months of hardass work, I got up to 145 lbs., benched 170 for a 1RM and squatted 265 for 3. I was pretty strong.
After my freshman year of football, I followed 5/3/1 for almost 10 months and got insanely strong off of that. My bench took off from 165 to 235, my squat went to a half-squat of 350, and my deadlift was 350 as well. Mind you, my form sucked and nobody taught me how to lift the right way, but nonetheless, I was strong. I was 165 lbs. that year.
Then in October of my sophomore year of football, I fractured my L4-L5 vertebra. I was out for about 3 months and got back in the weightroom in December/January. I followed Joe DeFranco's Westside for Skinny Bastards Part III, and made some even better gains off of that. I ended the program at 185 lbs. with a 265 bench, a 385 squat, and 425 deadlift.
I broke my leg in October of 2011 in a football game, so that put me out of commission again until December. I came back and followed a strict Westside template for about a month and a half. Then, one weekend while I was sick, I made a trip out to Calumet City, where I found Quads. I got a tour from the owner, and he asked me, "Do you know who Ed Coan is?" I told him, "Haha, yes, he's my idol." He told me, "Why don't you come in next Saturday morning at 8 to meet him. He'll let you train with him, too."
At this point, I was fucking ecstatic. I couldn't contain myself. I got home and told my dad and was giddy like a schoolgirl for an entire week. I came into Quads bright and early and met Ed. It was awesome. We talked a bit and he asked me if I could make it on Mondays and Wednesdays. That was the sign that I was in. And I guess, the rest is history. I'm still with Eddy and am stronger than ever.
CS
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