Outside of my career aspirations as a software engineer, one of my most defining personality traits is my passion for fitness. I enjoy fitness for the same reason I enjoy programming: it offers tremendous opportunities for self-improvement. I find the process of slowly getting bigger and stronger over time to be extremely rewarding. Life is all about becoming a better person over time. Finding something you care about and improving day-by-day is a great way to stay motivated and happy. This principle can certainly be applied through fitness.
I would recommend starting and documenting a fitness journey to just about anyone, especially if you need a boost in self-confidence like I did when I started.
Note: Fitness encompasses many things. But when I talk about fitness in this blog, I’m primarily referring to the two fitness activities that I do the most: weight lifting (which is fun) and tracking my calories (which is less fun but just as important!)
Like most people, I was insecure about my body before I started hitting the gym. Many gym rats—even the most jacked, obviously doped-up ones—start lifting weights out of insecurity. People have an unhealthy habit of comparing themselves to others, causing people to see themselves as being too skinny or too fat. In my case, I was always the skinny kid growing up. I was weaker than almost everyone around me, and comparing myself to others definitely took a toll on my mental health.
When I was a kid, I would compare myself to others in many ways, not just physically. I didn’t like how timid and shy I was. I wasn’t satisfied with how few friends I had compared to everyone else. By the time I was 18, I managed to isolate myself to the point of depression. I knew something had to change, but I wasn’t even confident enough in myself to try anything new. It took until college for me to start hitting the gym, and that’s when everything in my life changed.
The Passion: My First Character Arc (2020 | Age: 18)
If I had to compare my fitness journey to an anime, then this would by my first character arc. This is when I developed a passion for fitness that would transform my life, and start shaping me into the man I am today.
College offered an opportunity for me to reset my life. My life was a mess coming in, so I decided I would change it by doing the exact opposite of what I did in high school, talking to people, trying new things, etc. When I found out that Christopher Newport University (CNU) had a free gym for students, I decided to give it a try. I was fortunate enough to meet some friends in my few first weeks who were also relatively new to the gym, but interested in working out. We encouraged each other to go together as much as possible. I’m very lucky I had that source of motivation.
A few months in, I was already seeing some great results. The newbie gains transformed my body. I went from looking like a twig to a Crossfit athlete. I was getting compliments from others on my growth, and my confidence began to rise. As my physique changed, so did my mentality and outlook on life. Suddenly life was great. The growth motivated me to keep going.
I developed such a strong passion for lifting that eventually, I stopped caring about physical growth and just lifted for the sake of it. After my newbie gains peaked out within a year, I continued to slave away at the gym for hours every day despite seeing little results. I simply loved being in the gym, the place that gave me confidence and discipline, the place that completely changed my outlook on life. For a while, I didn’t even care that my growth had plateaued.
I don’t completely regret how I spent this intermediate, low-growth period of my fitness journey. It was useful to get a feel for all the exercises the gym had to offer and master my technique. I loved working out with friends and building camaraderie at the gym. Overall, I really enjoyed what I was doing. Eventually though, I started to wonder why I wasn’t growing despite progressively overloading and getting stronger. I had developed a fairly strong sleeper build, but I wanted to get bigger.
After watching some fitness YouTubers, I realized I wasn’t seeing growth because I wasn’t in a calorie surplus. Pretty much everyone I watched had different ways of presenting the same message: if you want to see continual growth, you need to be in a caloric surplus, preferably a lean bulk of 200-300 calories above maintenance. If you want to shred fat, you need to be in a caloric deficit, or a cut of about 200-300 calories below maintenance.
About 1.5 years into my fitness journey, I decided to give bulking a try. At first, I mostly hated it. I found tracking my calories to be a tedious process that took the fun out of fitness. Also, the first time I tried bulking, I didn’t know what I was doing and made several key mistakes:
- My caloric surplus was too large. When I started for the first time, I was eating 3300 calories per day at 5’7”, 150 lbs. This caused me to put on fat too quickly, which was unmotivating.
- My food choice was poor. I didn’t know what I was doing at the time, so I was trying to bulk almost exclusively on chicken breast, rice, vegetables, and other ‘clean’ foods. Because of lack of knowledge, I wasn’t utilizing liquid calories and unsaturated fats, meaning all my meals were massive and it was hard for me to get them down.
- My meal plan was too repetitive. I started to dread cooking and eating. I also chose recipes that took to long to make for someone trying to eat so much food.
As a result, I bulked very sporadically for over a year. The growth during this time was also fairly minuscule.
Predictably, I became unsatisfied with my growth again. At some point in my third year of lifting, I decided to give bulking another try and take it more seriously. I started watching even more fitness YouTubers who really inspired me. I watched a lot of Jeff Nippard, Noel Deyzel, Joe Fazer, Sean Nalewanyj, Eugene Teo, Tom Beckles, and Lee Lem. All of these guys managed to convince me that bulking wasn’t that hard if you approach it the right way.
Like any long-term goal, fitness goals need to be sustainable. They need to adapt to your lifestyle rather than take control. Making smart food and exercise choices go a long way towards making fitness more sustainable. With this in mind, I decided to give bulking another try, this time for good
The Realization: My Second Character Arc (2023 | Age: 21)
The point of fitness is to complement your life, not control it.
At some point after my 21st birthday, I developed an obsession with approaching fitness efficiently. I wrote workout plans that targeted my muscles evenly and at a manageable volume. I trained at a high intensity, always 0–2 reps shy of failure. I started logging all my calories and utilized calorie-dense foods (high in unsaturated fats) and liquid calories.
At the same time as I approached fitness efficiently, I also made sure to adapt it to the needs of my life. I wasn’t working out for hours on end every day. I wasn’t afraid to take two rest days in a row if life got busy. I would go on long runs to clear my mind, even if long runs aren’t considered “optimal” for bulking. My meals consisted of a mix of prepared and fresh meals, just whatever I was in the mood for. I wasn’t afraid to go to restaurants and have some cheat meals.
For me, all of these shortcuts were efficient, because they kept fitness sustainable for me. I’ve been able to bulk much longer than I have previously. By adapting bulking and working out to my lifestyle, I’ve been happier with my fitness journey than arguably ever before, and I’m seeing better results.
I still have a long way to go before I get to the end physique I desire. I try to stay confident in what I’ve already accomplished with my body, but I know I have room to grow. One day, I want to get into competitive bodybuilding and get on a stage. I’m certain I’ll accomplish this one day. For now, I’m just enjoying the process and getting those gains.
I’ll continue to update this blog as my fitness journey progresses.
Last updated: 9/1/2023