Years ago when I curiously picked up a copy of Muscle And Fitness at my local grocery store (this was before the net) I would never have imagined that I’d still be bodybuilding decades later.

Through all the fits and starts (and injuries), something inside me stayed true to bodybuilding.

I can still remember walking or riding my bike up to that grocery store and eagerly scanning the magazine rack to see if they had the new copy of Muscle And Fitness.

Later when I started to read Muscle Mag International I was like the proverbial kid-in-a-candy store because I actually had two (yes two!) magazines to look for every month.

I am sure the store managers got sick of seeing this skinny kid coming into the store the same time every month and buy nothing but one or two magazines (if they were in) and alright I’ll be honest—my favorite chocolate bar.

Honestly all I wanted were those magazines and my candy bar and nothing else.

Then I would rush home as fast as I could and devour each and every page in both magazines and, of course, try out all of the new routines.

I knew nothing about bodybuilding, supplements, proper eating and the like, and that was O.K.

What I knew was that I wanted muscles like the bodybuilders in the magazines had and that was that.

So that was my beginning in the sport.

Of course, we all got/get started differently, for some it is an older brother that we looked up to and want to be like, yet for others it was a trip to the movies where they first laid eyes on an action hero with muscles.

How we got hooked on bodybuilding does not matter, the simple fact is this, we are more than hooked on bodybuilding and all it encompasses, somewhere, somehow bodybuilding—the iron and steel, the clang of the plates, the strain and sweat of getting just that one last rep, became part of us.

To those who do not know the joy of all those early wake up calls, just so we can test ourselves—to push past previous limits before the sun peeks itself out to start another day—that is O.K.—Because we know, and that is enough.