How Woodstock '99 put me on the path to fitness

If there's one thing most people know about me, it's my quest for bigger heavage, i.e. male cleavage/pecs/pectoral muscles. It could possibly be called an obsession, but I think of it as more of a vendetta. It's a vendetta against my genetics which gave me a sternum that protrudes as opposed to the sternums most guys which are more concave and therefore my chest didn't look good. Revolting even.

I have always had an issue with those protruding bones in my chest. Growing up a super skinny teen I already felt awkward with my body, and having my bones sticking out I felt even more uncomfortable with that particular portion of my body. I'd see pictures of myself on the beach shirtless standing next to friends and all I could see was those dreaded bones sticking out of my chest.

It wasn't until after I got pictures back from my trip to Woodstock '99 that my vendetta really began. The Woodstock '99 festival happened over the course of three excruciatingly hot days in July. We baked ourselves in the brutally hot sun on an abandoned airfield in Rome, New York (because the town of Woodstock would not host the festival that bears its name again). So of course, since it was so hot, the only thing I wore all three days was my shorts and shoes. The pictures came back from the fotomat (ah, the days of film photography!) and I saw one particular photo that horrified me: ME, SHIRTLESS and grotesquely skinny standing next to my friend who had pecs like pillows. His were big and square and bulbous. Mine were flat, sunken and shriveled. I was appalled that I had walked around the festival that way. Why hadn't anyone told me I looked so sickly thin?!

I guess shouldn't have been surprised. My life didn't really epitomize health. I didn't workout, I smoked cigarettes and drank, my daily food intake would consist of a Philadelphia soft pretzel and coffee for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and a bowl of ramen noodles for dinner. There was nothing about me that said "fitness savvy."

There was only one thing to do: I got a gym membership the very next day. Then, in order to help remind me of why I was going to workout, I posted a shirtless photo of me from Woodstock '99 on my refrigerator and wrote "the reason I workout" above myself. It was the end of July when I got my gym membership and I figured I would have the muscles of a fitness model by that Halloween. 

Fourteen years later I am still chasing after my goal.

But though my quest for better heavage started out as a rather naive and single-minded goal, it has evolved over the course of those fourteen years. Firstly being the reasons I workout. Yes I still want big muscles but now I understand the importance and benefits around WHY working out is important. I have stopped smoking and drinking, I now eat more nutritional food in one day than I would eat in an entire week and my exercise routines are based around fixing and improving my previous injuries (dislocated right shoulder, herniated discs in my neck AND my lower back) while pursuing my goal of bigger pecs. 

Secondly, I realized that in order to make a change you have to work for it. Changing your body's physique is not an easy one, but it is possible. You just have to really want it and go after it day after day. I always tell myself that if I pursued other things with the voracity with which I pursue bigger pecs that I could rule the world.

Much to my initial dismay, I learned that fitness levels and goals are not quick fixes. You can't drastically change your body in just a week or a month or even a year (unless you're a celebrity getting paid to do that). It is a lifelong process that involves commitment and dedication and perservence.

And because of that constant, daily perseverance I try to surround myself with like-minded people so we can encourage and support each other in our own personal quests towards our own individual goals. I may come off seeming slightly obsessed by posting shirtless pictures of guys as gymspiration, or seem a bit obnoxious by checking into my gym every time I workout, or seem silly reminding people every day I am working out my heavage. But I like doing that. It's fun. It helps remind me about my goals and it's a very small way of encouraging others to continue following theirs.

So whether it be trying to fit into your favorite pair of jeans again or being able to play with your children in the park without collapsing or being comfortable walking around shirtless at a 3-day festival, it's important to have something that drives you to be physically fit, to have your own gymspiration. And obviously my gymspiration may not be suitable for you and vice versa, but at least having one is a good reminder to keep on trying.

Follow me on Twitter: @stefanmreczko