This is the first true story by our new columnist "Iceman". His weekly column "The Iceman Diaries" will feature real stories that you will want to read more and more of.
I was sitting on the Central Line train going in to the City of London. Almost empty carriage. There was a grandmother in the middle and sexy girl at the end. She was seriously staring at me (not the grandmother, thank god). She must have been in her early twenties. She couldn't take her eyes off me. Me! Not less than a year before, no girl like her would have even noticed me, let alone stare at me!
The Geek
Not very tall, extremely skinny and not blessed with the best vision, hence the thick glasses; that was most of my teenage life. I never dated and I never kissed a girl. I would have been the Dictionary Geek apart from the fact that I wasn't even good at studying.
When I was 20, a new family moved into our neighbourhood. They had a son, Phil. He was obsessed with martial arts and body building. We started hanging out and he took me (sort of dragged me) to my first gym – if you could call it that.
I wouldn't say I was hooked. I went with him a few times but I was just too weak to keep up with him and it put both him and I off going to the gym together. I couldn't spot him and the weights I was doing weren't even a decent warm-up for him.
The change
I can't remember exactly what happened. I just recall buying a set of weights and a bench from Argos and starting to train. I didn't do anything extraordinary but just got a programme out of Musclemag International and stuck to it. Every night, I would train a body part.
Not much changed. I was a typical “hard gainer” (as described in my bible, “Brawn”). Then I started eating more. A lot more. I would cook a big bowl of chicken and pasta at night and eat it 7 times during the next day. I also started supplementing with protein powders.
The God
Maybe the “God” is too much but in comparison, I would say yes I became a “God” in my own head. I went from a horrible, skinny, bad postured , 10 stone 20 year old to a 14 stone, muscular guy with long hair and arms that were the envy of everyone. I kid you not, my arms became my trademark. (I will be sharing with you in future articles how I got these amazing arms.)
I went out with tons of girls just based on the size of my arms – oh, and the fact that I used to have them hanging out of my sleeveless shirts and t-shirts, even in winter! Sounds sad now, but from where I had come from, this was heaven.
So we come back to the Central Line train. Deep down I was still the skinny, hunched up teenager. Fortunately for me, my exterior was long-haired guy, big arms, big back, straight posture, no fat and I had swapped my glasses for contacts. I looked good and though I had looked good for a while, I didn't really believe it.
Sometimes you need re-assurance from the outside to really believe something. Well, here it was in the shape of this beautiful girl, giving me her full approval without saying a word. I had arrived. I had gone from Geek to God.
That was over 2 decades ago. Unfortunately for me, I went back to being a Geek. In my column the "The Iceman Diaries" you will find out how I build the "God" body, how I maintained it and how I lost it.
My exclusive column for LA Muscle will explore all aspects of re-inventing yourself. I will give you lots of personal stories of triumph and defeat and you will learn about what works for building a good body – what really works.
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