Who got you into working out, and how did it change your life? I’m sure it’s left only a positive impact.

Today is not your normal blog post… 

Sorry…

I jacked my own blog so you have to listen to my speech…

Today I’m only here to chime in and remind you of who inspired you to workout, why you workout, countless benefits of working out and just maybe how it will change your life forever.

Personally working out has shaped my whole life. It’s made me who I am today, shaped my friends, given me the ability to change lives and now is even one of my businesses ventures; the wonderful fitness blog we call gymjunkies.

First let’s talk about just WHO got you to workout your very first time…

Who inspired you to workout? 

I still remember it like yesterday, 16 years old, skinny as a rail, not too popular, no cute girlfriend, and pretty much beat up every day since elementary school…

Did I mention I was 5’4 110? 

Yea ok you get it, life wasn’t great for me growing up and I needed to change the downward spiral. Luckily one day after school my buddy Mike tapped me on the shoulder and was like “hey yo T, you should come to the gym with me after school”.

“Yea ok I’m down…”

That’s the first time I met Dave the trainer, and went to the “gym” which was actually his garage filled with dumbbells and some machines. After a couple weeks of working out I was addicted.

Wow, what a great feeling…

First thing I noticed was getting stronger, I noticed more mental clarity, and pretty soon well I didn’t have that bad of a body either. Looking back just now 14 years later, I needed tell Dave just how much he inspired me. Well that’s exactly what I did…

Well that’s exactly what I did…

I encourage you to do the same…

Hell maybe it’s GymJunkies that inspired you to workout, if not text or phone that friend/trainer and let them know how much you appreciated it.

Why Do You Workout? 

Ask yourself that question…

You’re trying to lose weight or learn how to build muscle like I was. Or maybe you’re here just trying to improve your fitness journey, to learn what the best creatine is, or figure out the best tasting protein powder.

Whatever the reason I can tell you working out will only lead to positive benefits in your life…

Be an Inspiration

You’re workout hustle, transformation, motivation whatever you want to call it will rub off on other individuals. Pretty soon people will look to you to help then with their workout journey.

How do I know this?

When I was 19 year’s old (3 year’s after I met Dave) I was weightlifting just about every day in college. Some would say I was in pretty good shape at this point. I was using most a split routine, which is good for Muscle hypertrophy.

I also enjoyed running, boxing and just about anything active.

I returned home that summer just like every college student would. I went over to one of my best friends from high school’s house to hang out with him.

“Holy shit T, you’re huge” … How did you get in such great shape?

Unfortunately, my best friend was dealing with massive weight gain. He was 265 pounds, had a high sodium diet and on top of it was dealing with a bad breakup.

Ryan was a great guy, remember the whole sob story earlier, well he was a cool kid in high school, but always extremely nice to me (I’ll never forget that).

That summer we spent every day working out together…

By the time I had to head back to college, Ryan looked pretty damn good. He stuck with it and is a changed person to this day.

Check out his transformation:

Ryan remains one of my best friends to this day…

Working Out Will Help Your Leadership Ability

Working out only furthers your leadership ability with others, whether it’s the gym or the workspace. People gravitate towards you naturally if you’re in good shape and you respect your body. You stand for something…

How do I know this?

Thought you would never ask…

When I returned back to college I was so inspired by changing my friend’s life, I got my training certificate through NASM. Joined a local MMA gym called undisputed near my college. Pretty soon I was one of the top trainers in the gym.

Not to mention I really took a liking for boxing & kickboxing.

Pretty soon I had helped several people in the gym achieve weight loss, and increase muscle mass. Not to mention by the end of college I was teaching kickboxing class, my classes were always full, mostly girls I’ll add.

In some sort of fashion, I was a leader in the gym 

Besides being a leader, boxing every day & working out in the gym taught me how to be mentally tough.

Working Out Leads To Mental Toughness

There are millions of studies on how exercise can make you smarter it can also help with tons of disorders including attention deficit disorder, anxiety, and depression. Maybe you don’t suffer from any mental condition, but I can tell you working out will make you mentally stronger.

How do I know this? Wow didn’t think you would ask…

After college I had an unlucky turn of events with a real-estate investment, the 2008 market crash didn’t really help either. It left me flat broke with really nowhere to turn.

It was so bad I had sold my car (my last asset), lived in my office, which was a commercial building, ate only canned tuna, and I would walk to La Fitness to shower since my office didn’t have one. I didn’t know where to turn…

Except I turned right back to my passion… Working-out… The Gym

I worked as a personal trainer initially, but instead of doing it for fun I needed the money this time. During this time my friend Ryan (The transformation from earlier) came to me and say “hey man we should write a fitness eBook”.

I was down for anything that would help me build my life back…

While I was living in my office I was working from 9-5 as a trainer, after a long day of work I would sit down in front of my computer and write our eBook until I fell asleep on my keyboard. The next day I would rinse and repeat.

Really the only thing that kept me sane during this time was running (a new passion I came to enjoy)

Soon my hard work would pay off and things would turn around…

Working Out Will Lead to Higher Output & More Productivity 

It’s not speculation but in fact, real data that proves people that workout are more effective in the workspace. Not to mention livestrong.com says it will lead to alertness and more energy as well at work.

How do I know this? Do we really have to go there?

While producing/writing our eBook I was working diligently trying to move up the ranks in the gym. Towards the end of my gym “career”, I had moved up from personal trainer to personal training director. I turned one of the lowest grossing gyms into the highest grossing gyms in the county. I also was recognized for the highest personal training sales in the United States, something they called “king of the hill”.

The gym work life came to an end fairly quickly…

Eventually, our eBook had taken off, thanks to something I was introduced to called Internet marketing that helped propel it. In fact not only did it help propel it but helped shape my other companies later in life.

I studied Internet marketing obsessively, sold more eBooks online and began to learn more and more.  

Working out will lead to Success

Still need a reason to hit the gym? Guess what working out will lead you to, more money in the workspace and untimely make you more successful. In fact, it’s even featured in business.time.com.

What’s that? How do I know that?

Remember my friend Mike the one that first asked me to go the gym? Well guess what he happened to be an Internet marketer as well and offered for me to move to Vegas with him. It was to work for one of the top Internet marketers in the world, guess what he wanted to learn?

He wanted to learn how to workout.

Well gee that was a no brainer for me, I moved to Vegas a heartbeat. I also started my digital marketing company that now services over 20 companies across the United States. Oh yea I also inherited this fitness blog called gymjunkies.com; obviously, I took an immediate liking to it because my whole life consisted of being a gymjunkie.

Fast forward to now…

Gymjunkies.com is now a powerhouse in the fitness industry; every week that goes by we gain another 4,000 followers on Facebook. We have roughly about 4,500 unique visitors a day and growing fast. Were honored to have some great writers, honored to be working with some great companies and, honored to be recently mentioned in Forbes.

Facebook estimates when we put out an article we reach over 100,000 people.

Conclusion

All this started because one day I asked myself should I workout today?

You can imagine when someone asks me why do you work out?

I just stare them dead in the eye and say, “it changed my life”.

-Terry Asher