I’ve been lifting for about 4 years now. I started at 14 and never looked back. I my family and friends have all watched as I morphed from a 135 lb kid to a 185 lb, more muscular kid. I can’t grow facial hair yet, so I still have that jacked high schooler look.
Like most people, I made quite a few mistakes over the course of my fitness journey. It’s really just par for the course, especially when you start at such a young age. I’m just glad I got all of the stupidity(that I know of) out of me at 18 rather than 25 or 30.
I could have made all of the gains I made in the last 4 years in 1.5-2 if I had known what I was doing from the start. I’d like to share with you today why I started working out in the first place, how I made it a habit and how I started making long-term real gains.
If this article sounds like your cup of tea, strap in as I share my personal fitness journey with you! (It’s gonna be a long one)
Why I Started Lifting
If it wasn’t apparent by the picture, I started lifting because I was an absolute rail. I had pool noodle arms, chicken legs, and a bird chest.
Girls weighed more than me, and it just wasn’t a good look. I was also a basketball player at the time, which you could probably tell by the jersey and the basketball in my hand.
I was 6 ft tall and played on an absolute gutter of a team, so I was never in jeopardy of losing my spot.
Still, basketball is a contact sport, and I was playing small forward, one of the more physical positions, so I could only benefit from putting on a bit of mass.
And last, of all, I wanted to get some box man. I just wanted to get some low-grade BC thot pussy, bro. And I thought the gym would help me get it(it did).
So yeah, my whole fitness motive was to get pussy, fill out my t-shirts and become an absolute tank of a basketball player, pretty standard stuff. It was the Christmas of 2018, grade 9. My dad had gotten me a pair of adjustable dumbbells and an adjustable weight bench.
Upon opening it he gave me some wise words,
Basketball is cool, but eventually, you’re going to wanna put some muscle on that skinny frame of yours. Trust me, you have my genetics, so you’ll stay skinny unless you lift and eat. I got you these adjustable dumbbells to help you get your foot in the door, but eventually, you’ll have to buy a gym membership so you can start lifting heavy and make some real gains.
So I asked him to show me some exercises. Like the true bro that my dad was, he only taught me upper-body movements. He didn’t know any lower-body dumbbell exercises because, well, he rarely, if ever, trained his legs.
My dad said that the only people that trained lower body were the hardcore lifters and professional athletes. And that if you just want to look good, it’s unnecessary. His words were straight from Dom Mazzetti’s swoley bible itself. He was speaking the gospel of the bros.
Fortunately for me, I knew I would have to train my legs in some capacity if I ever wanted to dunk a basketball, so I told him I would just look up some leg exercises online.
9th Grade 2018-19 (Humble Beginnings)
I had what you call the ectomorph physique. I was tall, lanky, and boney as all hell. I had the perfect body type for basketball, but weight lifting, well, that’s an entirely different story. I was weak, and I mean really weak. I was dumbbell pressing 15 lb dumbbells and doing 25 lb one-arm dumbbell rows.
When I first started out, I didn’t have a schedule or regime. I just worked out whenever I “felt like it,” which worked out fairly well in the beginning because I “felt like” working out quite often. This only working out when I felt like it approach would lead to a very inconsistent training frequency.
There were weeks where I would only work out around 2 times, and some, where I would work out around 6. I also didn’t realize that cardio and resistance training were totally separate entities, so I would often combine them as I also had a treadmill in my basement as well.
My actual training sessions were very low intensity, low volume, and poorly executed. My diet was non-existent, and my sleep schedule was all over the place. The result was no gains. Well, more like very little gains. I may have added, at most, 2-5 lbs of muscle during this time.
The importance of diet and sleep were foreign concepts to me. I did train legs, but it was only very rarely, as I always emphasized the upper body whenever possible.
Although I didn’t make any tangible progress this year, the intangible stuff like habit, grit, and passion were ingrained into me, making this one of, if not the most important, year in my lifting journey. I knew I wanted to be big and jacked; now I just had to figure out how to get there.
10th Grade 2019-20 (The Start Of Something Great)
My 10th-grade year was an exciting time. I was finally starting to get somewhere with fitness, and it was also a breakout year for me basketball-wise, as I averaged 17 ppg on pretty good shooting splits. Although I did become a much better basketball player in my grade 11 and 12 years, statistically, I never surpassed 2019-2020.
It was also the beginning of C19 as well. The year started out good, as, during the summer, I decided to take the gym more seriously and put basketball on the back burner(this was a sign of things to come). I got a job as a dishwasher and used my first ever pay cheque to buy a gym membership.
It was the best and most important purchase I have ever made. Also, I finally started taking diet and nutrition seriously and restricted myself to eating primarily clean foods.
This came back to bite me in the ass as although I was eating much healthier, I was constantly under-eating and fluctuating between a caloric deficit and maintenance. I had no idea what bulking was and thought just eating tons of protein was the answer.
My caloric needs at this time had to be anywhere from 3700-4200 calories per day, as my TDEE was through the roof. I was playing basketball 11.5 hours per week, lifting weights 7.5 hours per week, and was also a high school student who was constantly on their feet.
I found it almost impossible to gain and keep weight on. I still made gains, though, as I was still in my beginner phase.
I was following an actual workout split this time around as well. For my first 3 months in the gym, I was on a 4-day-a-week upper-lower split, which was a smart choice for my current needs. Like any good bro, I found the split on bodybuilding.com, and it helped me gain my first 10 lbs of muscle.
Around November of that year, I unfortentually followed the advice of common fitness influencer trash and switched over to a 3-day on, one-day off PPL split.
I wasn’t stupid enough(yet) to fully commit to a 6-day-a-week PPL split, but the 3-day on, one-day off approach was still far from optimal, especially for the amount of fatigue I would accumulate outside of the gym through basketball.
My diet was also unoptimal as hell, but I was still making and seeing strength and size gains, as small as they were. It was definitely an improvement from the previous year, but it was far from what I’d become. I was also very lean at the time, so when I was shirtless with a good pump I looked pretty good in photos, which definitely helped me stay consistent and motivated.
Everything was going well until the C19 hit.
Covid (Slight Detour)
So Covid killed a lot of everything I had going that year. My basketball season got cut prematurely, the gyms shut down, and it put much of my progress on hold.
Like most gym goers, I had to rely on crappy home workouts: push-ups, pull-ups, and some dumbbell movements. The thing was that during this time, I got pretty athletic. I implemented dumbbell split squats, lunges, pistol squats, and hill sprints into my routine, which improved my vertical by a decent amount.
I won’t attribute all of this to the new leg routine, as some of it was due to better recovery and puberty, but all I knew was that I would be able to start taking my game above the rim pretty soon. I didn’t lose any gains, as I didn’t have much, to begin with, and maintained my 5-12 lbs of muscle pretty easily through just weighted push-ups, pull-ups, and dumbbell split squats.
I didn’t make many, if any, improvements to my physique other than getting leaner and losing fat. By the end of summer, I was dunking on 9’9 rims and had some nice skinny boy abs.
I was 145 lbs, lean as all hell, and looked good in photos from the front, but as soon as you put a shirt on me or I stepped out of the good lighting, I disappeared.
My lifting numbers were piss poor, but I didn’t care at the time because I trained for “aesthetics.” You don’t know how painful it was to type that sentence.
I was able to successfully maintain the little gains I did make and improved my speed and explosiveness. I made the best of my crappy situation and prepared for my grade 11 year.
11th Grade 2020-21 (Novice Purgatory)
The year started off not ideally, to say the least. Me and my family had moved, and this new place, well, all of the gyms, were closed, even deep into 2021.
This meant I would need to build my first-ever home gym. I did fairly decent. I got a bench, a used bar, and some concrete plates.
I also had the adjustable dumbbells that my dad had gotten me all of those years back, and a pair of 25 lb hex dumbbells.
I made do with what I had and managed to add another 10 lbs to my physique, going from 145 lbs in June 2020 to 155 lbs by February 2022.
I had gained a total of 20 lbs, but at the height of 6ft, 155 lbs is still severely underweight. In February, I hit my first wall as I entered the hell known as novice purgatory.
Novice purgatory is a phrase coined by the YouTuber Revival Fitness. It is essentially the stage you enter after you gain your first complimentary 5-15 lbs of muscle. You can avoid Novice purgatory entirely if you are eating, and training properly, or if you have good genetics. I, however, did not have this knowledge at the time and just thought I was a quote, on quote, hard gainer, while in reality, I wasn’t eating enough, nor was I training properly.
I was still hung up on my aesthetics brah, Zyzz phase.
For the basketball side of things, due to our entire season being cancelled, the only thing you could do is train. And train I did. I got faster, more explosive, and started consistently dunking on 10ft rims that year. My skills, specifically my ball handling and shooting, were much more polished, and I was just a much-improved player overall.
The new-found athleticism was nice, but it came at a cost—specifically my knees. For whatever reason, my knees could not keep up.
The faster, stronger, and more athletic I got, the worst the pain in my knees became. It got to the point where I would commonly have to take mandatory 2-4 day breaks from running, jumping, and anything else that would put tension on my knees.
This would also affect my leg days as well. In my first 2 years of lifting, I always had a bad habit of either intentionally or unintentionally half-assing my leg days. This was probably due to too much fatigue and a lack of recovery. My workout split this year was also god-awful, as I opted for a 6-day-a-week PPL split while playing tons of basketball.
This was easily one of the dumbest fitness-related decisions I have ever made, as it was one of the biggest reasons I didn’t see much progress in grade 11. The other reason for my lack of gains was my diet.
I just couldn’t put food down. I had a crappy appetite and an extremely high TDEE, making it extremely hard for me to bulk. An extremely high volume, high-frequency training split, plus basketball training, plus a calorically deficient diet, is a recipe for mediocre, slow gains.
This resulted in me being stuck at 155 lbs for an egregious amount of time. Fortunately, I smarted up in grade 12 and got the ball rolling again.
12th Grade 2021-22 (Finally Getting Somewhere)
Alright, so grade 12 was a weird year. I moved all around BC due to our rental being burnt down. I lived in like 5 different cities and went to 2 different high schools. It was a wild end to 2021.
During this time, I had a surprising amount of access to equipment. I only had to go like a week without the gym, which was pretty crazy considering I was homeless. All of the spots we lived in had gyms nearby, so I was able to keep a pretty consistent workout schedule throughout this time(I was able to work out 5 days a week while I was homeless, what’s your excuse).
My diet was ass, which was excusable considering me and my family’s circumstances. I was really, and I mean really, lean at this time due to not being able to eat much food.
Eventually, we got a temporary place at the start of the school year. I started my grade 12 year living out of a hotel, and I actually didn’t mind it, mainly because the ESS was kind enough to get us 2 rooms so I didn’t feel too smothered.
A couple of months go by, and my interest in basketball starts to wane as I just found the gym far more enjoyable and rewarding. I had thoughts of quitting basketball and just going all in on my passion for the gym, but I decided to try and stick it out, and finish my senior season.
Eventually, we ended up moving again. It was back to where I had lived in grade 11, which meant little to no access to gym equipment, but since I wouldn’t be living out of a hotel anymore and actually had a home again, I would have access to way more food.
I got back right, and I mean right at the start of ball season. I actually ended up playing in a basketball tournament during my 2nd week back.
It did not go well for me as I was coming off a 2-week layoff from basketball due to the move, and I was also very on the fence about whether or not I even wanted to continue playing, as my passion for basketball was slowly diminishing, and my passion for the gym was only growing.
I decided to play in the tournament, which was not the smartest decision as my skills were very rusty, and my cardio was god-awful.
The coach was disappointed in me as I did not perform as advertised(I had a lot of hype surrounding my return) and cut my playing time drastically. After the tournament, I was ready to quit.
But come Monday, I was at practice and only kept playing because, well, my school worked their asses off getting my eligibility reinstated, and I felt like I owed it to them to at least finish the season, regardless of how I performed.
I was deemed ineligible because I had apparently been playing for another team before I had moved, even though I was just practicing with them. Yeah, I know, pretty stupid, but that’s high school sports politics for you.
In terms of the gym, my love for it was at an all-time high. It was the only good thing in my life at the time. I hated school and the town I was living in and didn’t hang out with my friends outside of school. Mainly because they were a bunch of alcoholic stoners, which, well, hanging around those types of people is not optimal for myofibrillar hypertrophy.
They were honestly the last types of people I needed in my life at the time.
One of the cool things about Covid flaring down was the fact that the high school began to let kids use the weight room again. However, that got shut down once winter break began. I asked the school if we could work something out and if I could pay for a key or something.
They weren’t having any of it and shut my idea down, which meant I would have to fend for myself. I had to go back to bare-bones weighted callisthenics, and high-rep dumbbell work for 3 weeks. Yes, I said 3 weeks, Christmas break got extended by 1 week due to Covid flaring up again.
I managed to come up with an alright routine. Again it was 6 days a week PPL, but since I only had access to weighted callisthenics, light dumbbells, and some resistance bands, high volume was the smartest approach I could’ve taken.
At this time, I started watching the YouTuber Revival Fitness as well. His videos changed my whole perspective on fitness, specifically the video “5 signs you’re in novice purgatory“. That video gave me the reality check I so badly needed.
It came at the best possible time as well. Winter break, grade 12, I’m taking a bunch of easy classes, I’ve already finished all my term 2 assignments, basketball season has been suspended, and I have nothing but time. I went on this deep fitness research rabbit hole. I learned about bulking, proper weight training, and the importance of strength when training for hypertrophy.
And after all of that, I was still doing 6 day a week PPL(I know I’m an idiot), but I was eating 4000 cals a day now, and just that one change was enough to save me from Jeff Cavaliere’s lifting hell. By the end of winter break, I had gained 9 lbs going from 155 lbs to 164 lbs in just 3 and a half weeks.
Now 164 lbs at the height of 6ft is still very, very small, but this was the first time in my life that I had ever passed the 160 lb threshold. This quick 9 lb gain showed me that yes, it is possible for me to gain weight, I just have to be eating in a caloric surplus.
I was also starting to gain strength on my lifts too. My workout split was still ass. It was an extremely high volume, high frequency 5 day a week, upper-lower PPL program. I was also playing basketball again, although our practice time was limited.
I rode this wave of progress until I hit 175 lbs in February. These newfound gains also turned me into an athletic freak on the court. I was running faster, jumping higher, and just felt like a totally different player, which I was, as I just gained 20 lbs in the span of 2 months.
How Ego, Newbie Gains, And Covid Prematurely Ended My Senior Basketball Season
My coaches couldn’t tell me anything. I was dunking with ease, almost getting put-back dunks off of missed layups, locking up every player on our team in practice, and I just thought I was that guy.
Adding 20 lbs in 3 months, as an emotional, angry, arrogant 17-year-old, does something to your head man.
So in our first game back after the Covid lay-off, I came to play. One of the freshmen players had actually brought some pre to the game.
As a former C4 user, I couldn’t resist and put 2 scoops into my water bottle.
Not even 10 minutes pass, and I’m out in the pregame layup line dunking like prime D Rose, cracked out on 2 scoops of C4.
Before this game, I hadn’t taken any form of pre-workout since June 2021, so it hit quick and hard. Warm-ups end, and the game begins. I’m coming off of the bench due to a lack of commitment to the team(skipping practice to go lift) and attitude problems.
I finally get subbed in near the end of the 1rst and start clamping up their point guard. We ran a full-court press, then swung into a 1-3-1 zone as soon as the other team passed half-court. I was great in the full-court press and matching up with my man 1 on 1.
I caused the other team to turn the ball over and got a few steals. I ended the quarter by getting a buzzer-beating floater over 2 defenders. I was pumped; I felt like 2009 Bron. I was untouchable. The coaches thought otherwise.
(Couldn’t find a 2009 Lebron GIF so I had to settle for 2018)
The coaches thought I was playing way too emotional and told me to calm down. They said I was messing up defensive rotations and not playing proper help side(they were right). I wasn’t having any of it, as I was an overconfident 17-year-old gym bro cracked out on 300 mg of caffeine.
The second quarter starts, and the coaches keep me in the game, hoping I implement their adjustments. I don’t listen and continue to play full tilt, aggressive as hell, and play no help side whatsoever.
I was too focused on stopping my man from even sniffing the ball and thought everyone else should be doing the same. My thought process at the time was, why do I need to play help side? It’s your job to stay in front of your man. Obviously, this is a bad mentality to have while playing a TEAM sport, but I didn’t care. I was in this for me, not for them.
I played basketball for 3 reasons, to stroke my ego, get laid and score buckets. My coaches had enough of my arrogant attitude and benched me. This wasn’t a 1-4 minute time out either. I got benched for the rest of the second quarter and didn’t step back out onto the court until 8 minutes into the third quarter.
Now, as a bodybuilder, you know pre-workout doesn’t last that long. By the time you’re done with your main lift and accessories, it should be starting to wear off. Once the pre is totally out of your system, usually around the time you’re eating your post-workout meal, you’re zapped.
You go into flight mode and just want to recover. Now, as a basketball player, you know how crucial momentum is in this sport. I got off the bench late into the 1rst and got some steals and buckets. 2:30s into the second quarter, I get benched, which I’m totally fine with as I thought the coaches were giving me a quick breather.
By half-time, I haven’t even sniffed the court, so I’m pumping myself up to be ready in the third. 8 minutes go by I finally get in. By this time, the pre is starting to wear off, and my muscles are cold from being on the bench for 16 minutes. I’ve already mentally checked out of the game as we’re up by 20, so when my name finally gets called, I just want to ride out this game and go home.
I was pissed off at the coaches for cucking my playing time and decided to only play at half speed. After about 4 minutes of jogging around the court and doing some cardio coach is pissed and decides to take me out of the game.
I get benched again. The head coach starts giving me this speech about effort and attitude, and I just hit him with a “yeah alright” and ignored him for the rest of the game.
I had every reason to quit at this point. After the game, the coaches were disappointed in the team’s performance. I couldn’t care less. We were supposed to blow out this team by 40, yet they found a way to keep it competitive until the third.
I mean, we did blow them out by 25, but the coaches didn’t care. They demanded that we have a 4:00 practice on a Friday. Keep in mind this game ended at 3:00. It’s like, bro, we just played a whole ass game, and you want us to practice after. Screw that.
This coach had a bit of an ego, it was his way or the highway, so I decided to take the highway and didn’t even bother showing up for the 4:00 practice.
I didn’t want anything to do with him or the team and needed the whole weekend to cool off. By Sunday, I had calmed down and decided to give basketball 1 more shot. However, it was already the beginning of the end, as this girl I was seeing at the time decided to bless me with a 1 week break from school by giving me covid.
It started out as me going to practice feeling a little under the weather on Monday, all the way to me puking and crapping my guts out in the locker room at Wednesday night scrimmages.
I knew that if that Covid test was positive, not only could I not participate in zones, but I had most likely given covid to the rest of the team as well. Well, I popped hot, and not 3 days later, get a bunch of snaps from my teammates, all containing positive covid tests.
It was hilarious. The best part was I gave it to the coaches as well.
Guess he shouldn’t have benched me. Eventually, I recovered enough to go to school and play basketball. The virus absolutely sapped my strength and stamina, leaving me feeling pretty weak for the next week and a bit.
Basketball was the last thing on my mind as I had actually lost around 10 lbs from Covid. Going from 175 lbs to 165 lbs. My main focus was regaining my size and strength. However, basketball was becoming a huge hindrance to that goal which left me with one decision.
This decision came at a terrible time(for the team) as they were heading to JNAT, the Junior All-Native Tournament. Unlike our school team, I would’ve actually gotten some big minutes because some of our best players were ineligible to play in this tournament due to them being white.
Well, I decided to enter early retirement and quit basketball a week before the tournament, just to spite my coach for being such a dick to me and cutting my playing time. It started off with me skipping a Tuesday practice, then skipping a Thursday practice, and then I just sent my coach the text that I wasn’t going to play and that I quit.
This news put my coach into panic mode. I had the whole team begging and pleading with me to play.
This was karmic justice at its finest. My coach decided to dick me on playing time, and as soon as I quit, he’s pleading and begging me to stay.
I loved it. I loved knowing that I had ruined his plan, and screwed up his chance at a tournament win. When my team eventually did leave for the tournament, they heavily underperformed, due to a lack of depth.
It was pure gold man. While they were out losing, I was fully recovered, enjoying my spring break, making some killer gains. I had put together a pretty nice home gym by this point, as I had a bench, adjustable dumbbells, and a barbell with a good amount of plates.
I was just getting bigger and stronger, enjoying my novice gains while my coach was on suicide watch. When the team returned, they said the coach was pissed that I didn’t come, constantly saying we need Jayden; where’s Jayden.
I loved it. It made me only feel more sure that I had made the right decision.
Full Time Powerbuilder
By the time they had come back from the tournament, spring break had just ended, and I was enjoying my life as a power-building high school student.
I actually had time to hang out with friends, party, and chase girls now.
I didn’t have to constantly be in the gym, training 15-plus hours a week while trying to balance school, weight lifting and basketball.
I had smartened up as I only trained 4 days a week on an upper-lower split. I did primarily basic, bread-and-butter compound exercises, and the word basketball, school sports, or all cardio, in general, wasn’t in my vocabulary anymore.
I was now a bro. However, I wasn’t totally out of the fire, as my diet did a complete 180 as I went from not eating enough to eating a little too much.
Post Graduation 2022- Present (Dirty Bulks, Mini Cuts, And Gains)
In the span of a year, I went from, “I can’t gain weight, I’m an ectomorph” to “holy crap, I have to cut.” Yeah, I may have bulked a little too hard, like 5000 calories per day hard. I know that’s a ridiculous number, but hear me out.
While playing basketball, I had to eat around 5000 cals to properly gain weight. The 5000 cals per day made sense as my TDEE was insane. My mistake was keeping the same bulking calories after I had quit basketball.
Why did I make this mistake? I was a 17-year-old meathead who almost flunked out of high school. Intelligent decisions weren’t really my forte. All I knew was that I needed to lose some fat, fast! Which resulted in my first cutting phase.
I opted for a mini cut as I had nowhere near enough muscle and strength to justify a full cutting phase.
A mini-cut was supposed to be an extremely quick, aggressive fat-loss phase. This meant that I would be going from 5000 cals per day all the way down to 2500. It was a shock to the system, to say the least. I thought cutting would be extremely easy, as I had a naturally small appetite(or so I thought).
Well, it was easy for the first few days until the hunger cravings kicked in.
I eventually learned that I do not have a big, nor do I have a small appetite. I just have a normal, regular appetite, which means I find bulking and cutting both equally as hard. Which sucked for me because it was only the first week, and I had 2 more to go.
I also implemented some cardio as well, which, god, I was so out of shape. A 20-minute run had me gasping for air. Keep in mind a year ago, I would purposely make myself run 20 suicides as a punishment for missing too many free throws during my basketball workouts.
I went from having the cardio of Colby Covington to Conor Mcgregor in the span of the year, which concerned me a little bit. Not too much, though, as I have never been good at long-distance running.
Through pure fatphobia, body dysmorphia, and a 2000 cal diet, I had cut down to a healthier, more aesthetic body composition.
I was also moving again. So I had to take my annual break from the gym.
I was moving back to my hometown as a starved, depleted late novice lifter. Once I started eating at maintenance again and refed, I looked pretty good.
I felt lighter and healthier, which inclined me to take a slower, more gradual approach to bulking so that I wouldn’t have to experience spilling over again.
I started with a 3250-calorie bulk. Every time I plateaued, I would add 250 calories.
Which leads to now.
Present Day (Conclusion)
I moved back to my hometown. Set up a nice home gym in my grandparent’s basement and bulked back up to the high 180s. I’m not out of the novice phase yet; I still have a long way to go before I can call myself an intermediate. I have a 325 lb deadlift, 175 lb bench, and 210 lb squat(weak AF). Back in 2019, if you had told me I would be 186 lbs, deadlifting 300 plus pounds, I would’ve been pretty pumped.
Now it’s like, I’m only deadlifting 325 lbs, man I’ve got to get that number up; that’s kind’ve weak. It’s really just shown how much I’ve grown and what I now know is possible. I’ve gained 50 lbs over my entire lifting journey. Keep in mind not all of that was muscle, quite a bit of it was probably from puberty, but it’s 50 lbs nonetheless.
I could’ve, and should have, done many things differently, but I’m pretty happy with where I’m at. I’m 18 and a little over halfway through my novice phase. I will be attempting a 180lb bench, a 225lb squat, and a 335 lb deadlift in a couple weeks’ time, which will get me that much closer to my intermediate numbers goal.
I can’t wait to update this or just make a part 2 in the future, as my fitness journey is nowhere near over. I hope you found my story insightful and entertaining, and with that, I’m out peace!
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