I wasn't athletic as a kid, and I was self-conscious about my body, but then in eighth grade I won a school contest, and the prize was a bunch of personal training sessions.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was a bookish kid, not really athletic.
I was a personal trainer for about a decade. I competed in powerlifting, and I did a bodybuilding competition. I was heavily entrenched in the personal training world.
I got involved in athletics during physical education lessons at school.
I wasn't a jock in school, and by the 10th grade, when I was in boarding school I was carrying water buckets for the girls' hockey team. I was the kid with long hair and glasses and acne trying to learn how to play guitar and piano in the music center. I was not an athlete past the age of 13 or 14 when they start throwing the ball really fast.
In high school and college, I was an athlete.
When I was in first grade, the kids called me 'fatso.' It hurt, but the way I overcame it was to outrun every kid in the class. So I developed a thick skin, and athletics became my way of performing and being accepted.
I was not athletically inclined. I was very quiet, introverted, non-confrontational. My three older brothers were athletes - basketball, football - but I was kind of a momma's boy. Then one day, my brother Roger encouraged me to go to the boxing gym with him. I tried the gloves on, and it just felt so natural.
I didn't feel that I really fit in anywhere. So when I was young I always had to prove myself through my sporting ability.
I was always athletic and I could do a lot of things.
I was an athlete when I was growing up.