Before joining the gym I was 55 kg. I am 68.5 kg today. This is a story about how going to the gym helped me gain weight and be more disciplined. As a software developer, I never thought I’d be going to the gym regularly.
I just graduated college and joined my first company. My daily routine was to write code, eat and sleep. My friends kept nagging me to join the gym everyday. I was not particularly interested, I thought you go to the gym to lose weight and build muscle and abs.
I was not happy with my weight. I wanted to do something about it. One of my friend suggested me to join the gym. He even took upon himself to train me. I had nothing to lose apart from the gym membership. I joined the gym.
1st Day
The first day I set foot inside the large room, it was a completely different atmosphere. It was intense. Loud music, people working out, running on treadmills, shouting and screaming to complete that last rep. I was pumped.
Photo by Victor Freitas on Unsplash
Workouts are divided into a group of sets. A set is a consecutive number of repetitions. A repetition is a complete motion of exercise. So, you can say you did 2 sets of 10 reps on the chest press. Tweaking these numbers make a workout easy or difficult.
I was below average in terms of strength and weight. I started with the lightest dumbbells and weights.
1st Week
Usually, you would focus on one body part per day. I had to do a combination of exercises that involved all the body parts everyday. This is to make the body get accustomed to wear and tear of muscles. The real pain came when I was out of gym at home relaxing. My body was now reacting to this unusual activity that it did not see coming. Eventually, I got in the habit of the pain. I started to focus on a single body part per day.
Waking up early
I am a lazy person. I wake up at 10 am everyday. This had to change when I joined the gym. Because now I had to accommodate another activity with no extra time to spare. Now, I wake up at 7 am to go to the gym. This was the most difficult part I had to adopt. It consumes most of my willpower.
Diet
Diet is an important part of gaining muscle. I used to have 2 good meals per day with a light breakfast. I had to change my eating habits drastically.
Photo by I started eating 8 eggs, boiled chicken and lots of bananas throughout the day. Making it a habit was difficult as I almost tripled my food intake. I also added Protein shake to my diet as they were easy source of protein and carbs.
Pushing your limits
Limits of the human body is set up by the mind. Pushing it is all about making up your mind. At the gym, everyone is trying to push their limits.
I had to do it too. Whatever goal I set, I tried to break it. Many times my mind would give up before my body actually gave up. But, when I actually did, it felt great. It meant I was improving.
Competition also helps. I happened to break the longest running distance on treadmill in a set time just because my friend challenged me.
Results
I think I am less lazy now. I put 2 hours of my day to good use. There were noticeable differences in how I looked. There were more muscles on my arms and legs for the first time. And most of all, I gained more than 10 kg of weight.
A big thanks to my friend Ammar, for motivating me and helping me, without whom I would not be able to achieve whatever I did.
