So if you know me, You will also probably know that I am (not to brag) in pretty great shape. Heck, I literally got complimented by some of own college professors. And I'm a state level powerlifter

But believe it or not, I wasn't always this in fit. In fact, i was considerably worse.

In my earlier days, I was pretty chubby. Not to much, but enough to get bullied by most kids. Then I developed a love for playing football

Football was (and still partially is) a great passion of mine. I used to play everyday religiously with like many groups of friends. And of course, I slimmed down alot

In my 8th and 9th grade, I had a pretty decent slim body. I looked decent, I was atletic and I felt great. I never once thought about my physique or looks in a negative manner.

Then came lockdown, and well that was a truly insane experience. Now you might be thinking, "Oh so the free time in lockdown is when you started working out." NO!!

I was a couch potato. I barely moved all day and spent like 16h hrs on discord daily. I ate junk all day and I became very fat and lazy. I was the fattest I had ever been.

This didn't bother me at that time, mainly because of the lack of live social interaction with anyone. So I was content being highly unlike myself.

It's when I came back to school in 2022 when I truly realized how I let myself go. Everyone had either a glowup or got significantly taller. And me, well I had a massive glowdown and was very vertically challenged.

At first, I just blamed it on genetics and luck. But then it just felt miserable to even go out everyday and talk to my friends. I couldn't even play football properly as I became too fat. I hated myself so much.

Thats when I started researching about bodybuilding. I never liked bodybuilding before this but I wanted to look good by any means possible. So after an intensive research about exercises, nutrition, cutting, bulking etc, I decided to go to my apartment gym one random day and simply test the knowledge I had acquired.

If I'm being honest, I thought I would quit after the first day. I was never the kind to do something like this and I thought "Well might as well see what all the hype is about" and man, it changed me. I loved it so much. I was like, "Huh why did I put this off for so long its really fun" and I regularly since then.

I was new to this and what does every newbie lifter want? That's right, abs. They are seen as the golden indicator of fitness and appeal. And of course, I was caught up in this and wanted that abs beach body so bad. And what I did for this is a testament to my sheer committment and genuine stupidity all in one.

So for weight loss what you need is a calorie deficit. Calorie deficit is when you eat below your maintainance calories. So I know that's what I needed to do. Most people track their food, but I did not have time to do all that, I had to grind for NEET too for god's sake.

I did probably one of the most aggressive cuts anyone has EVER done. I played football at school, lifted weights for 2 hours and did all this with one meal a day plus some snacks to hit my protein goal. Yeah I was mentally insane, I know. I would never advise anyone to do what I did, it's nearly impossible to maintain, borderline suicidal and has chances to do way more harm than good to your body.

Now however, I did manage to pull it off. In some months I got abs, and I got a decentish body. I looked like a cut football player. And I became very light, I went from 70 kgs to 50 kgs at my lowest. Everything improved. My mood and my athletic ability. I went from not being able to even jog to one of the fastest in my grade.

Of course, I couldn't handle this much of a deficit for long time and essentially had to up my meals but by then I was content with my physique. School became much more easier to handle.

Then came college. Again me being the footyhead that I was decided to just continue with that. That went on for a while. But then it all changed soon.

So my college had a powerlifting team and they holding tryouts for newcomers to the team. Powerlifting is basically a sport where you have squats, bench press and deadlifts involved and they check your total weight lifted through that. And at that time, I didn't know that. Hell, I hadn't even used a barbell in my life upto that point. But well I have half a brain so I tried anyways just for the fun of it. And shockingly I was stronger than most of the people there even though I was at a much lesser body weight.

I got into the team and everything about my fitness goals changed from then. Instead of just being lean, I wanted to be strong aswell. I wanted to build muscle and fill out my frame and thats what I did. I trained with an emphasis on compound lifts, ate alot, did some general cardio and priortized my sleep alot. I got stronger and looked even better. I was still lean but I put on so much muscle, it was euphoric.

Since I was weighed less and was strong, I had a pretty good strength to weight ratio. I participated in a lower body weight catergory and did really well. I won medals in district and state and participated in various catergories like 59 kg sub-junior, 59 kg junior and even 59 kg masters. Our college team even won the overall championships several times.

I had a great coach who gave me some tremendous advice and I made amazing friends who supported me so much. It was truly one of the best experiences in my life and I am blessed for being part of the team.

Now that I'm a day scholar though, I don't think I will be able to continue powerlifting. But the lessons I learnt was surely valuable.

Coming back to training in my apartment gym after training in my college gym is that I became exponentially stronger to the point every weight in my apartment gym is basically warm up weight now. I cannot progress anymore.

I've been trying to think of solutions for this and the best thing I can probably do is calisthenics. It alligns with my goals of becoming stronger and staying lean at the same time. But well, fitness is a continuous learning journey after all so lets see.

I will end this massive worth of personal content by just listing out my personal prs for each lift as I don't know when and if I will ever be returning to powerlifting

Weight: 57.5 kg

Squat: 120 kg, Bench Press: 75 kg, Deadlift: 165 kg