SHAPE UP. THEN WHAT?

Shape up.

I’ve told myself that more than once.

I’ve also looked at others and said the same thing.

To myself. Most of the time.

Charles Atlas promised we’d never get sand kicked in our face.

Since I grew up with beaches to the north, south, and west, there was plenty of sand to kick.

One way to not get sand kicked in my face by strangers? Stay home and read comic books.

Besides, I had an older brother if I needed a challenge.

I met Charles Atlas in the back of my comic books as a youngster.

Probably weighed 97 lbs at the time. I was maybe ten years old.

Charles Atlas had an appeal to a skinny kid who didn’t know the difference between natural growth and training.

I didn’t grow up in a ‘work-out’ family. We didn’t lift in the garage, barely lifted at school.

There wasn’t a culture of bigger, faster, stronger; no lifting crew harping on others to show up.

As a kid I figured playing sports would do the trick.

Learn some baseball and I’d pop muscles I never knew I had, that Charles Atlas never knew about.

Play football and get all gnarly and vicious like the heroes of the day.

 

From Charles Atlas To Dave Draper

This is the guy who stepped out of the comic book shadow.

Big strong guy taking over the world of body building.

You know how you remember some things and forget others.

I remember Dave Draper because he was the body buidling poster boy  for muscle before Arnold showed up.

If you were going to shape up, this was the shape.

Instead of sport-specific shape, turn workouts into a sport?

Nope, but the idea has always intrigued me.

Would getting stonger help the shape up campaign.

No. The strongest guy I ever met in person in the Portland State gym was a power lifter who looked soft but could dead lift the whole place.

I got in shape to wrestle and play football.

After that I got in shape to run 5K, 10K, 15K, half marathon, full marathon, and Hood to Coast.

I joined a gym to make a run at the 300 Club where you have to bench press 300 lbs for entry.

Instead of the 300 Club, I made the 280 Club.

 

Now at age sixty-nine, I’m still thinking about it.

I ought to shape up for . . . for what?

If I got in shape I could . . . do what?

These are questions you ask yourself?

If you do, I hope you find an answer here.

 

Take A Rest

Why do people quit doing what they like doing?

 

Did they quit fitness training, quit writing about their ‘journey?’ Or just take a seat and rock it out?

Things change, but that doesn’t mean start over, or quit. Starting over is better than quitting.

About now, the astute reader asks for proof that a writer knows what they’re talking about. I hear the challenge, and here’s my proof:

I went in for a check up with a doctor and came away with neck cancer, of all things. At the time I was a gym focused health nut seeking personal records, PR’s, in most everything I lifted.

From failure to injury to re-hab, I gladly entered the cycle of pain and recovery. I’d been at it for years, then saw the doctor.

From one thing to the next, I got the cancer cure with radiation and chemo, which also robbed all of my gains.

I was not in the ‘300 Club’ but did make the ‘280 X 2 Club.’ I was also in the ‘225 X 10 Club.’

I left the gym for a lockdown lifestyle before lockdown was popular. By the time I came back I was a shell, and knew it. So did the gym crew.

So weak that I could flex my arm and still squeeze it to the bone, my fitness goal was to make a big comeback and show the sort of grit and grind that fitness bloggers embrace.

 

I shaped up to endure cancer treatment, to stay with the program where quitting seemed like the best idea.

But quitting the cancer killing program meant a bad outcome for everyone, especially me.

I would have been another statistic for 2017 cancer deaths and everyone would have moved on by now.

Has it been a seven year stretch worth living for?

I’m here to say it’s been the most rewarding seven years of my life, which is saying plenty.

General history over the past seven years, and going back in seven year chunks to 2017, 2010, 2003, 1996, 1989, and more, shows it’s worth living for.

If you’re thinking, ‘Yeah buddy, you got divorced and remarried and you’ve got to say something nice for the new wife.’

Nope, same wife, same kids, but new grandkids.

If I could get away with Facebook flash I’d post wonderful updates on the excitement of being a Granddad, a father in-law, a husband, and father.

How often do you get to carry those titles and have them attached to the same outstanding crew?

I’m not saying my kids make life worth living, but they are the cherry on top, the sprinkles, the chocolate dip on an already delicious looking ice cream cone.

 

Be A Good Example

From reading comics alone in my room and finding Charles Atlas, to seeing ads for Dave Draper, to wondering who this Arnold guy was, the future was uncertain and far away.

What I learned back then was being disrespectful had consequences, and if I muscled up I’d be spooning out those consequences one at time.

Shape up to show you still know the difference between in-shape and out-of-shape.

Every fat person you’ve ever met was once slimmer before you met them, so you can save your ‘what happened to you’ questions.

Even if you knew someone before they loaded up, save the question. You already know the answer: they got fat doing what you’ve done, eating and drinking too much, working out too little.

Next question?

You may not change your shape, but by your example of consistent workouts as a Granddad you set a tone.

I live in an exercise house with a wife who exercises and kids who’ve taken their workout culture with them to their new homes.

Do I use working out as an excuse to get out of things?

Wife: We need to go shopping.

Me: Sure, right after I’m done working out.

Wife: When will that be?

Me: When I’m dead.

Wife: What?

Me: After this set.

 

If You Like Drinking Beer, You Need Consistent Workouts

In seven years I’ve gone from 199 lbs to 240 + lbs.

I got to 199 with the help of chemo and radiation for my neck.

Today’s weight, and the coming cut, has been, and will be, a result of conditioning.

My goal is to move in a few holes of a belt I’ve moved out on.

I want to look in the mirror and see those stretched out ovals before getting a new belt.

What will I do with a new belt?

Put it through the loops of the new pants I grew out of.

If it all works according to plan you’ll spot me next summer wearing a leopard print speedo like Charles Atlas.

Looking forward to seeing everyone. I won’t be kicking sand.