In 1985 I was a 15 year old gym rat. Although I had been boxing since I was nine years old the hardcore bodybuilding gym was a brand new world to me. Dynamic fitness, that was the gym I belonged to all those years ago back in my home town of Edison NJ. around the same time Local boy Rich Gaspari was the number two bodybuilder in the world just behind Lee Haney, he was also a frequent visitor at our gym. So the story goes here I am rowing away probably looking like a fish out of water when next thing I know this monstrous world champion body builder took a few minutes out of his own training to offer me instruction and some positive feedback. a blip in the day & life of that man but those few moments left a lasting impression on me.
I have trained in both boxing gyms & fitness gyms all throughout this country as well as Africa and I have always kept the mind frame of offering help & instruction. THE OTHER DAY I offered my help to a chubby kid in his early twenty's, he laughed at me and told me if he wanted advice he would ask the big guy in the squat rack! I smiled and understood his thinking, as wrong as I think it is. What does a small ripped man with 7% body fat at almost 40 & still boxing & sparring, pushing weight harder, heavier and with more intensity than ever.....what would I know?
I wondered on the ride home what if I had turned away from the hundreds of athletes, gym rats, doctors, nutritionists, fighters, trainers & body builders that I have been privledged to train with, learn from and listen too. What if I had the attitude bigger is better and I don't need anybody? The answer was easy, I would be a ALMOST 40 year old fat guy! So when you think you know, take a minute to listen, we never can stop learning about our fitness, nutrition and supplementing and if you do know, how about a little humility... maybe just maybe a lasting impression could be made. Live fit, be fit!!!
Rich