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» 🏋️ Why did you start lifting? What keeps you going?
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post 1660864153 05-06-2022, 08:58 PM
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#1
  1. Samraiwise
  2. 🥋 A Karate Kid age 65 🔥
  1. Samraiwise
  2. 🥋 A Karate Kid age 65 🔥
  3. Join Date: Mar 2007
  4. Location: Japan
  5. Posts: 24,376
  6. Rep Power: 1308174

🏋️ Why did you start lifting? What keeps you going?

Do you keep doing it because you want to

or do you have to?

How long have you been lifting?

Tell me your story, anything.
🌺 Lauren Brooks Kelly (snailsrus) - Jul 25, 1991 – Jan 29, 2022
Thread: RIP Snails : https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=181070293&page=100

⭐ Samurai Break: 140kg(308lb) Failed Bench Press Recovery Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8eIkpZ29u0
⭐ Over 35 Journals > Samurai, Without Ever Having Felt Sorry For Itself:
https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=4832373&page=200
📌 Please Call me Kaz, a 65-year-old 🥋 Karate Kid in Tokyo.
post 1660864703 05-06-2022, 09:10 PM
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#2
  1. TheFitLord
  2. From Fat to Fit!
  1. TheFitLord
  2. From Fat to Fit!
  3. Join Date: Feb 2018
  4. Posts: 8,193
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When I was 20 I was mistaken for female so many times, guys would try to kiss me and I would fight them. I wanted to lift so it would be obvious I’m a guy. I have gynecomasteia and I was on probation and my P.O. Wouldn’t let me lift weights.

Now that I’m older I lift to look more masculine.
Amateur Comic Book Artist. Tools: iPad Pro (12.9 inches, 256 Gigabytes, 4th Generation) Apple Pencil
post 1660864833 05-06-2022, 09:15 PM
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#3
  1. elterrible987
  2. Banned
  1. elterrible987
  2. Banned
  3. Join Date: Jan 2010
  4. Posts: 51,859
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entered the underground street fighting circuit when i was 12. saw the older vets pumping iron and they showed me the ropes
post 1660864863 05-06-2022, 09:17 PM
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#4
  1. elterrible987
  2. Banned
  1. elterrible987
  2. Banned
  3. Join Date: Jan 2010
  4. Posts: 51,859
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Originally Posted By TheFitLord
When I was 20 I was mistaken for female so many times, guys would try to kiss me and I would fight them. I wanted to lift so it would be obvious I’m a guy. I have gynecomasteia and I was on probation and my P.O. Wouldn’t let me lift weights.

Now that I’m older I lift to look more masculine.
idk what that means, how can your parole officer tell you not to lift weights, you just check in with them now and then and do a drug test. they not going to follow you 24/7 to stake you out at the gym
post 1660864973 05-06-2022, 09:19 PM
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#5
  1. MajorTendonitis
  1. MajorTendonitis
  2. Join Date: Jan 2016
  3. Location: East Kootenays BC
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My girlfriends husband sucker punched me new year's eve and broke my nose . I started lifting soon afterwards thinking that it may help in an altercation
Back with my Fam
post 1660864983 05-06-2022, 09:19 PM
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#6
  1. AWSbruh
  2. Registered User
  1. AWSbruh
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Started lifting for football and basketball sophomore year of high school
post 1660864993 05-06-2022, 09:19 PM
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#7
  1. lebowski951
  2. Registered User
  1. lebowski951
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I'd always get into fights with my step dad, Frank. I've been training hard to kick his ass for years and now that it's nearly beatdown time he's in bad shape and now i gotta pay his medical bills so he can recover so I can finally kick his ass!
post 1660865003 05-06-2022, 09:19 PM
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#8
  1. artm
  2. bratski
  1. artm
  2. bratski
  3. Join Date: Apr 2008
  4. Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
  5. Age: 36
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When you got a face like me you have to lift pol
♂Nice Ass Crew♀

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
I rape back (if you ask me to :P)
post 1660865073 05-06-2022, 09:20 PM
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#9
  1. MajorTendonitis
  1. MajorTendonitis
  2. Join Date: Jan 2016
  3. Location: East Kootenays BC
  4. Age: 65
  5. Height: 5'8"
  6. Weight: 241 lbs
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Originally Posted By TheFitLord
When I was 20 I was mistaken for female so many times, guys would try to kiss me and I would fight them. I wanted to lift so it would be obvious I’m a guy. I have gynecomasteia and I was on probation and my P.O. Wouldn’t let me lift weights.

Now that I’m older I lift to look more masculine.
Please tell me your trolling lol
Back with my Fam
post 1660865123 05-06-2022, 09:22 PM
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#10
  1. 0rders
  2. Starting weight: 118lbs
  1. 0rders
  2. Starting weight: 118lbs
  3. Join Date: Sep 2012
  4. Location: Norway
  5. Posts: 3,582
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Started to lift due to stepdad kicking me and my moms ass dead srs. Eventually beat him up, kept going because it makes my life 10x better. I made a thread about it on the misc years back
"You think this is a f**king game?"
post 1660865173 05-06-2022, 09:23 PM
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#11
  1. Duckliver
  2. Offal
  1. Duckliver
  2. Offal
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  4. Location: Washington, United States
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I was a drunk out of shape skinny fat in my mid twenties.

I didn’t get much out of my first year lifting but I stuck to it cuz LA fitness got me signed up for a year of personal trainer. I went through like 6 trainers pretty quick (they didn’t seem to stick around) but then my boyo Garrett got me on stuff like push/pull or proper splits and got me squatting two plates (that was a big deal for me)

When I sobered up the gym helped replace alcohol and I was on a mission to become “a sidewalk crackin motherfukker”. I made really sick gainz that year, did starting strength cuz well yeah, I did starting strength and put on 15lbs while losing gut fat and looking trimmer. Could squat 3 plates and pull 4 never got my bench higher than 235 tho.

Ended up herniating a disc cuz who woulda thunk you shouldn’t pull your max every two weeks…

Anyways my buddy runs an athletic performance program for off season / foreign pro athletes, college athletes etc…. I did programs with him for a bit cuz they were fun and I realized at that point I wouldn’t become a sidewalk cracking motherfukker without gear, so might as well become an athlete.

And now I just do as many sports as I can. Mostly BJJ and skiing but soccer, baseball, basketball whatever. Just put 100% of myself into it and hustle my ass off, it’s fun being athletic and in shape and running circles around kids younger but more out of shape, a lot of times I can make up for lack of skill in something with cardio endurance and grit.

So it’s all been a progression of some kind, spend a lot of my time focused on helping my boys now. I always wanted to be a pro athlete as a kid but training, nutrition advice etc.. was never there for me. I don’t push anything on my boys but they like playing sports and it’s fun to get out there and help them with it.
post 1660867473 05-06-2022, 10:29 PM
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#12
  1. Samraiwise
  2. 🥋 A Karate Kid age 65 🔥
  1. Samraiwise
  2. 🥋 A Karate Kid age 65 🔥
  3. Join Date: Mar 2007
  4. Location: Japan
  5. Posts: 24,376
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It's interesting, there are many who thought lifting weights help your fighting ability.

I started my Karate training at 13 or so, and I thought weight training might help my speed.

Strength matter only when you hit the target and for that to happen you need speed...that's why I started lifting.

Not barbells because I was Jr High and couldn't afford any equipment except for small dumbbells and an old-school expander my mom bought for me.

Only later in my early 20s, I started to collect serious equipment.

🌺 Lauren Brooks Kelly (snailsrus) - Jul 25, 1991 – Jan 29, 2022
Thread: RIP Snails : https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=181070293&page=100

⭐ Samurai Break: 140kg(308lb) Failed Bench Press Recovery Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8eIkpZ29u0
⭐ Over 35 Journals > Samurai, Without Ever Having Felt Sorry For Itself:
https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=4832373&page=200
📌 Please Call me Kaz, a 65-year-old 🥋 Karate Kid in Tokyo.
post 1660867963 05-06-2022, 10:48 PM
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#13
  1. Bigworm365
  2. Registered User
  1. Bigworm365
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Started lifting when a sophomore in high school. I was 6' 115 lbs. Later in highschool I grew to 6'2" 130 lbs. had a serious problem looking back. Didn't have a lot of food to eat growing up. was basically malnourished. Stayed lifting off and on with buddies just to stay in shape. Rode a lot of bicycles and skateboarded so always stayed active. Worked as a carpenter for almost two decades continued to eat like **** most my life. Only got serious about eating right and got up to 174lbs. I then got on tinder and smashed like 30 women in two months. Stayed wit the lifting and but Never had the eating down right. trying to focus on nutrition now that I have an office job and a microwave at work now.
post 1660868013 05-06-2022, 10:51 PM
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#14
  1. lllEZRAlll
  2. לֵב
  1. lllEZRAlll
  2. לֵב
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Because no God is a weak God
Wraith
post 1660868133 05-06-2022, 10:57 PM
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#15
  1. Bigworm365
  2. Registered User
  1. Bigworm365
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I was always skinny and frail most my life but tall at 6'2". I worked construction most all my life but was always strong. Started lifting in high school but never stayed with it. Would go for a year or so with friends then stop for months and months. Trained hard for motocross racing but never ate worth a ****. Was in and out of poverty most my life until a couple years ago. Like starvation type poverty. Being poor plus working as a construction worker/laborer made any gains impossible. I also struggled with binge drinking and other vices for a decade. I recently got a job that is not so physical so I will be eating better hopefully to make gym progress. I built a small home gym in my basement as well...
post 1660868383 05-06-2022, 11:12 PM
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#16
  1. 4ea
  1. 4ea
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  3. Age: 43
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Originally Posted By Samraiwise
Do you keep doing it because you want to

or do you have to?

How long have you been lifting?

Tell me your story, anything.
i started lifting in 7th grade, at the time it seemed like a good thing to do. as the years went by it became increasingly more of a priority and eventually became a lifestyle. even in my early 20s i would turn down going out drinking with my friends because i wanted to stay home and lift. its something i continue to do because i have to, the thought of being fat and out of shape is simply unacceptable.
Merica

<I.L.H.|C.O.E.>

RIP YGST
post 1660868693 05-06-2022, 11:26 PM
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#17
  1. SicilianPower
  2. Registered Anti-Hero
  1. SicilianPower
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I started doing calisthenics and some dumbbell exercises when I was almost 16. I had seen Cape Fear with Robert De Niro and that was one of the bigger inspirations for me to grow my hair long and start working out. As well as seeing The Dark Night Rises with Tom Hardy as Bane.

The reason I still do it is because it keeps me somewhat disciplined and committed to something. Increases my ability to deter and fight off potential threats. People generally show you more respect when you have some muscle. There are many reasons.
*MMA Crew
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post 1660868843 05-06-2022, 11:34 PM
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#18
  1. volleys
  2. hit me up on myspace
  1. volleys
  2. hit me up on myspace
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I started lifting because it was fun to do with my room mates. I stuck with it because it helps my mental health
post 1660868953 05-06-2022, 11:39 PM
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#19
  1. KAPAT
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  1. KAPAT
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zyzz. rip.
post 1660868993 05-06-2022, 11:40 PM
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#20
  1. EiFit91
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  1. EiFit91
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Started at 16 with a buddy. Buddy was a hardgainer, I wasn't, so he quit very early. I kept lifting until 17 when I got a GF (target achieved?) and went on a full on dreamer bulk for many years.

Ballooned all the way up to about 240 lbs at my highest.

Picked up lifting again 7 years ago this summer. During Covid I finally got very serious about it, cut down all the way to 175, slowly bulked to 195 and made the best gains I've made since the newbie phase. Am now cutting again as gains are super slow at this point and I might as well get lean.

I lift mostly because I really enjoy it. I find that lifting is one of the few things that provide sanity in this crazy nihilistic world that we inhabit. The many health benefits are a great bonus.

I also hope that when my son gets older he'll want to join me lifting lol
post 1660869003 05-06-2022, 11:42 PM
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#21
  1. iloveus
  2. snailsrus
  1. iloveus
  2. snailsrus
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post 1660869193 05-06-2022, 11:47 PM
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#22
  1. iloveus
  2. snailsrus
  1. iloveus
  2. snailsrus
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Originally Posted By lllEZRAlll
Because no God is a weak God
“The least of the muscular Christians has hold of the old chivalrous and Christian belief, that a man’s body is given him to be trained and brought into subjection, and then used for the protection of the weak, the advancement of all righteous causes, and the subduing of the earth which God has given to the children of men.” –Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford (1861)


“Perhaps…the system of the New Testament does ‘strike a deadly blow at the development of the body for its own sake,’ but it imperatively demands it for the character’s sake; and boldly teaches that without it, it is not possible to reach the strongest manhood.” –Rev. James Isaac Vance, Royal Manhood (1899)



“since every part of our nature is the sacred gift of God, he who neglects his body, who calumniates his body, who misuses it, who allows it to grow up puny, frail, sickly, misshapen, homely, commits a sin against the Giver of the body. Ordinarily, therefore, disease is a sin. Round shoulders and narrow chests are states of criminality. The dyspepsia is heresy. The headache is infidelity. It is as truly a man’s moral duty to have a good digestion, and sweet breath, and strong arms, and stalwart legs, and an erect bearing, as it is to read his Bible, or say his prayers, or love his neighbor as himself.



All Attainable Health Is A Duty. All Avoidable Sickness Is A Sin.


“Jesus warrants no sensuous rhapsodies about what is called downy couches, spread by angel hands, but rather a spirited muscular piety, a splendid kind of stand-on-your-feet trust.” –Jenkin L. Jones, “The Manliness of Christ” (1903)


“If we read the Bible aright, we read a book which teaches us to go forth and do the work of the Lord; to do the work of the Lord in the world as we find it; to try to make things better in this world, even if only a little better, because we have lived in it. That kind of work can be done only by the man who is neither a weakling nor a coward; by the man who in the fullest sense of the word is a true Christian…We plead for a closer and wider and deeper study of the Bible, so that our people may be in fact as well as in theory ‘doers of the word and not hearers only.’” –Theodore Roosevelt
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post 1660869293 05-06-2022, 11:55 PM
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#23
  1. Silencespeaks
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  1. Silencespeaks
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Post deleted by user
post 1660870423 05-07-2022, 01:10 AM
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#24
  1. firjam
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  1. firjam
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I was an ironman triathlete until i got hit by a car. I was in a coma for 3 months, and drip fed. I went down to 90lbs. When i recovered and saw the video that the hospital had made of me I vowed i would never look like that again.

Have a look.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvGM7k-8cpY&t=3s

So i will be in the gym as long as i possibly can.
post 1660870473 05-07-2022, 01:14 AM
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#25
  1. resoog
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  1. resoog
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they have televisions on the treadmills these days (srs) it keeps me distracted yea while i'm a hot mess

Spoiler!
(ʘᴗʘ✿)
post 1660870843 05-07-2022, 01:41 AM
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#26
  1. XiangYu
  2. u wot m8
  1. XiangYu
  2. u wot m8
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because this:

post 1660875523 05-07-2022, 06:44 AM
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#27
  1. Samraiwise
  2. 🥋 A Karate Kid age 65 🔥
  1. Samraiwise
  2. 🥋 A Karate Kid age 65 🔥
  3. Join Date: Mar 2007
  4. Location: Japan
  5. Posts: 24,376
  6. Rep Power: 1308174
Glad to know that so many of you are still lifting.

🌺 Lauren Brooks Kelly (snailsrus) - Jul 25, 1991 – Jan 29, 2022
Thread: RIP Snails : https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=181070293&page=100

⭐ Samurai Break: 140kg(308lb) Failed Bench Press Recovery Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8eIkpZ29u0
⭐ Over 35 Journals > Samurai, Without Ever Having Felt Sorry For Itself:
https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showthread.php?t=4832373&page=200
📌 Please Call me Kaz, a 65-year-old 🥋 Karate Kid in Tokyo.
post 1660876603 05-07-2022, 07:29 AM
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#28
  1. ItsJamesthefin
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  1. ItsJamesthefin
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I started because I was 6ft 135 lbs in high-school and hated people saying chit about how skinny I was all the time. So thankfully my buddies on the football team had me workout with them after school and I got hooked. I started with a bro split and eventually found 3x5 and the rest is history. I've been lifting for 15 years and honestly feel that I could have made better progress but it is what it is.

The change in my physique, the pump, getting older and feeling better in general keeps me going.
post 1660877263 05-07-2022, 07:48 AM
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#29
  1. Shortfuze
  2. "Your one f*ck fantasy"
  1. Shortfuze
  2. "Your one f*ck fantasy"
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Start (in my teens): women

Continuing: stay healthy and fit for family (don't want to be a burden)
*Simplicity is the key to life*

Thanks ZBlacktt for the mod rep!
Thanks ForumSentinel for the admin rep!
Thanks Gxp23 for the mod rep!
Thanks 400LB Gorilla for the mod rep!
Thanks CountryMike for admin rep!
Thanks Nics1246 for mod rep!

I got married on August 24, 2013!!
ლ(╹◡╹ლ)
post 1660877303 05-07-2022, 07:51 AM
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#30
  1. jreacher
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  1. jreacher
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I officially "started" in highschool, mostly to impress girls and to feel alpha. I realized then that I had good genetics for it but in hindsight I had poor programming.

I lifted off and on with no solid programming until about 2008 or 2009 when I found Stronglifts which I did for a few months before I found Starting Strength and switched to that. At this time, my goal was about 33% getting strong as possible, 33% looking good, and 33% being healthy enough to keep up with my kids for as long as I can (carry them on my shoulders, play hard, and live to see grandchildren).

My goals now are mostly about longevity and keeping my body healthy and young (for myself and my family), which also means I look better even though that's not a primary goal (or so I tell myself). I do mostly pullup and chinup and pushup variations since I herniated discs on Starting Strength. I'll do some light leg stuff, but mostly walking, bike riding, tennis, etc. for legs.

As Tom Petty said: If you never slow down, you never grow old.
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