Ray’s BodyBlog

I literally stumbled across BodyBuilding.com just a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, I’d seen their t-shirts and logo at some shows I’ve attended in the past, but I really didn’t know about the website until a young friend from my gym told me he wanted to compete next year. To record his progress he set up a BodySpace profile and posted some progress photos.

When I signed on, I made a profile and posted a photo just so I could comment on his great work and encourage him as he begins his contest preparation. WOW, was I surprised by what started happening. Not only was I able to comment on Greg’s progress, I started seeing all these great inspiring profiles from people in all walks of life – real people of all ages with lives outside the gym. I also started getting compliments myself – not something I ever expected.

Don’t get me wrong – I love to hang with younger guys and get my ego stroked as much as the next person, but hey, I’m 58! I didn’t even start lifting till I was 45; I don’t feel comfortable when I go places where the majority of the people there are half my age. I don’t go around shirtless or flexing, and I usually walk pretty far behind the rest of the pack, just trying to keep up. Receiving recognition for my achievement was not my motivation for posting photos. Well, at least not at first.

What I found was, yeah – there are people my age out there that still lift, and there are people out there who never thought someone my age could do it. I guess some people think there is a time when you have to stop; however, I haven’t figured out what that time is, yet, and hope I never do. So, in short, I’ve sort of been both humbled and blown away by all the positive, encouraging comments I’ve revieved. I’ve also been able to give compliments and encouragement to others who by simply saying ‘Thank You’ have helped my day.

Comments from anyone are great, but a comment from your peers is excellent motivation to get you ass in the gym to make a little more progress. It builds confidence, it creates support and encouragement, it fosters acceptance, and it gives us an outlet to discuss our goals, techniques, fears, deficiencies, and needs.

I have long known that not everyone shares our drive to build muscle. And if you don’t have that drive, you often don’t understand it in others, and cannot give support to one who wants to build a better body. The average person does not perceive bodybuilding as living healthy; they perceive it as an abnormal, egotistical ego boost. So the support we give each other on BodyBuilding.com actually fills a void some of us have in our personal lives.

For all of this, the support, the encouragement, the compliments, the friendship, the acceptance, and the motivation, I want to say THANK YOU! I want to say it to all of you, but I’d also like to say it to the people who set up this site and allow all of us to use it, FREE! Where else can you get a deal like this? Not many places today.

How do we say THANK YOU? I’m not sure – I hope this blog entry is one way, perhaps buying supplements through the site is another – if you have other suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

This place is awesome! Such a wealth of like-minded individuals who all share a fairly common goal – building a better body! It’s kind of like helping the world be a prettier place – one body at a time (LOL)!

Again, this is just my perspective, but if you got this far, thanks for reading! -Ray

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.