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I'd always played sports but was skinny as a rail. I weighed 140 when I was 17 and was 5'10. Now I'm 20 and about 6'0 and around 192 with about 8% body fat. No one recognizes me who hasn't seen me in a while. I owe Sly a great deal of the credit for my drive to overcome some bad habits and depression. I try to apply that will to every aspect of life cause "the world meets nobody halfway". "If you want something you gotta take it".
The Finnish Stallion (Finland)-It all started about a year ago. Finnish television (MTV3) broadcasted all
the Rocky films during the fall and winter. I had already seen all the Rocky films but it was many many years ago. When I watched Rocky I now as much older, something happened. Because of my school was going pretty bad and I didn't have much friends, I felt much like Rocky. In this film I didn't much
notice Sly's physique, most likely because he wasn't YET in a great shape. | Although I started doing some push-ups, abs (a lot of sit-ups!) and I also trained with my dumbbell every night before going to sleep. The Rocky films II-III passed and I continued my "regimen" to winter and during this time I started my diet to lose some weight. But then, Rocky IV came. That's where Sly is in great shape (especially his abs: look when he's just stepped in the ring to fight Ivan Drago and Duke takes his robe...off! So I decided that someday I'm going to look like Sly in that film. But at this point I didn't yet work out in a gym, but in home. From the fall to the spring! But of course now in the winter a lot more harder than in the fall. This "home-training" continued to last June, when my friend offered to make me a training program. Same he had been doing almost a year already. I said yes and in the summer I practically lived in the gym. So Rocky Balboa/Sylvester Stallone really has changed my life!! And here's my training regimen: MONDAY :back (+abs) TUESDAY :chest (+abs) WEDNESDAY :biceps (+abs) THURSDAY :extenders (+abs) FRIDAY :shoulders (+abs) As you can see I don't train legs yet. I'm going to start it in the winter. I train abs every (work)day 200-300 reps and for example on Monday I might do sit-ups and then on Tuesday leg raises. And on the next week other way around. About my diet regimen: it has only one but important rule: you can eat almost everything you want (normal food, no BicMacs) as long as you eat it before 6 P.M. After that: NO EATING! And of course avoid greasy foods!
Chris M (Winnipeg, MB.)-Well I guess as a kid I was always very active, I played baseball, hockey, basketball, football, I swam every summer, hours
on end, biked alot, played outside alot, anything and everything I could do I did! I guess that kept me in shape all those years as a kid, although I did gain quite a bit of wieght when
I was about 14....but I lost it pretty quick when I was being made fun of quite a bit, and I suppose all the teasing really effected me alot more than it might someone else?! So not only did
I lose the wieght I started working out, on the bike, and started lifting wieghts when I was about 16. I guess not having a girlfriend and the motivation to look good inspired me to workout alot
and very hard, even as at 16 years old. When I saw the Rocky's and Rambo's and when I saw the Demolition Man in the theater and saw how awesome Sly's physique was I wanted so much to look like that one day!
I think being in great shape, looking and feeling great is the best experience you can have. After a great workout I feel on top of the world, no matter how tired I am. It makes me feel alot more confident as
well. | So let's go back to when I was 16, I was just working out on the bike, and just started lifting wieghts a little bit, and I guess when I turned 17 I really got into working out, and watching the Rocky's really pushed me to be better.  I must acknowledge VanDamme and Arnold as being inspirational as well, but the true determination, heart and soul of Stallone training in those Rocky movies brightens my eyes and my spirits up every time I watch them!
Every time I watch a Rocky movie I want to workout, I want to run a marathon, they are so great!My parents had bought a universal gym about 4 years ago when I turned 18 and I couldn't be happier. My room was in the basement and so was the gym, the wieghts the bike, the Rocky music, the skipping rope. Everything I needed was down there! I started my routine stretching, than skipping for about 10-15 minutes. From there I would lift wieghts for about 45 minutes, than either ride the bike or go for a 2 mile jog. I did this every day, but took about 2 days off during the week. In the winters I would still go jogging, and I love jogging in the winters, actually my parents live out in the country so when I would go jogging, it felt so much like Rocky IV, when Sly goes out to jog in the morning. I would even run in deep snow sometimes. I never felt more alive those years between 18-21. Well when I turned 21 I had to move out into the city, I knew my workouts would suffer a little, because I no longer had the universal gym or the bike, and I couldn't skip rope anymore. So I would sometimes go home to workout but I did buy myself a punching bag, more free weights, and there were alot of times in the first 6 months where I just lost my inspiration but after a very long slump I decided I'm not going to get in shape just lazing around, I have to just go for it! So I joined a gym and I went quite a bit in the beginning, but found out I just am not a gym person, I don't like waiting and working out in front of people. Because when I workout I like to go all out, and I yell and grunt alot, sometimes I even push my self to the point I just collapse, and it's embarrasing doing that at the gym, so I wasn't getting the workouts I felt I could be doing at the gym. I've always had the mindset of no pain no gain! So now I mostly workout at home, I go jogging a couple times a week, and lift wieghts about 4-5 days a week, and try to do my abs everyday, and I can still do stretching and pushups and I still do have the punching bag with me as you can see in one of the pictures. I'm probably going to be moving back home in the spring so I'll even beable to workout harder with more equipment, and go jogging more, just like I used to. Everytime I don't feel inspired I usually pop in a Stallone movie to get motivation, usually a Rocky or Rambo. To me this website has been a true joy.  I wish there was a site like this when I first started working out, it would have even been more inspiration! Usually if I don't workout in about 2-3 days I feel pretty crappy and I always like to do a couple sets of situps
and pushups before I go out just to feel more confident. But I am still very self conscious and am always striving to improve my physique.About my diet program, well the last 4 years I've been eating very healthy and it's built up my metabolism and kept me thin for the most part, but if I do overeat and don't workout I will and can get very chubby! It probably would take longer than it used to. But I don't want to find out. I hate the feeling when I feel like I've gained wieght (fat not muscle). My diet mostly consists of eggwhites, oatmeal, or lowfat cereal with skim milk in the morning, along with a fruit and a glass of orange juice. I always eat breakfast, even if I'm not that hungry because it set me for the day, than I usually only eat small stuff the rest of the day. I'll have a fruit and maybe a couple of oatmeal or fig cookies in the mid morning and for lunch I will have a can of tuna or pasta with drink of water or ice tea. I rarely drink pop or alcohol, and I don't smoke, never have and never will! By mid afternoon I'll have another fruit or something. Than for supper I have chicken, rice, pasta, eggwhites, or whatever. I'll have stuff like pizza every so often and a sub at subway or something. I rarely eat at fastfood restaurants, I haven't eaten at McDonalds in over two years! I'm pretty picky what I eat and if I have a cinnamon bun or something fatty I feel guilty, especially when I eat it in front of people, that's why I try and avoid it. I will usually have a small snack like a fruit, cookies or cereal at night about at 8-9pm. On Sundays I have to eat late at night because I work until 2 am and you build up and appetite doing a physical job. Well that's about it for my regimen, below is a day by day log of my routine over the week. Working out is like a drug to me and if I can't do it for a while I get upset, there are times when I will take a week off or something when I've overtrained for a while to give me rest and so I don't get bored of it. I hope that my workout routine has inspired you to train harder and live healthier, the way that Stallone has inspired me! I usually do 3-4 sets of 12-13 reps for each muscle, and about 40-50 reps for abs. Monday: Biceps, neck, forearms, abs Tuesday: Legs, Triceps, Shoulders, Chest, abs. Wednesday: Same as Monday Thursday: Day off. Friday: Same as Tuesday Saturday: Same as Monday Sunday: Day off. Cycle repeats, I will take different days off during the week, depending on how I feel, I usually workout in the morning around 10 am or so, about 1-2 hours after breakfast. If not I will workout at night around 9pm. In the past 6 months or so I have gotten into vitamins alot, on average I probably take about 8-10 a day. They consist of: MegaMen Multi Vitamin, Glucosamine Sulfate, Vitamin E, Vitamin C with Rose Hips, Beta Carotene, Odourless Garlic, Vitamin B-Complex, Enchinchea Root, Triple Ginseng, and Coenzyme Q-10. I have begun to take Creatine over the last week or so, I'm going to finish a bottle and see how it goes. I also recommend you learn about particular vitamins before you take them, because some have certain amounts you should be taking, as well as when you should take them. Right now I am 5'10" tall and wiegh about 168 pounds. My goal is to add about 12 more pounds of muscle, so that I wieght about 180 pounds. I'll keep you all posted and add new pictures as I get them.
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