Real Life Stories

Dear dailymuscle.com Readers,

This giveaway is exactly what the name suggests - A GIVE-AWAY!
No tough slogan writing or questions to answer. There’s no catch.

Thanks to the awesome folks at Fitness First Malaysia, you have a chance to grab one of the 10 x 2-week Passport double passes (for 2 persons). With the pass, you will be able to visit all Fitness First Health Clubs in Malaysia within that two week period for an unlimited number of times, and each pass is valued at RM400, so that’s RM4,000 in total!

So how do you win?
Oh, this is just too easy.

To submit your entry and to stand a chance to win a double pass, simply leave a comment below (less than 100 words) telling me what your experience with a Healthy Lifestyle has been.

Whether you saw results, achieved your goals, gotten rid of illness, improved your stamina, ran a marathon, improved your quality of life, experienced Personal Training - or even found a life partner - I want to hear your story!

All I’m looking for is YOUR story on how a healthy lifestyle, or exercising has impacted your quality of life.

Exercising improved your sleep? Tell me your story.
Exercising took away your dependancy on blood pressure medication? Tell me your story.
Exercising helped you shed the unecessary bodyweight, and you’re now living life to the fullest? Tell me your story.
Got a testimonial to share? Tell me your story.
Impressed a hot friend with your ‘new’ physique? Tell me your story!
You found some money while jogging in the morning? Tell me your story too!

Also, a Healthy lifestyle is not limited to exercising in the gym, but also healthier eating, cooking, games/activities everyday, etc. I’m sure you get the picture. Or even if you’ve never exercised before, and have yet to experience the health benefits of exercise - then tell me how you THINK exercise can help you! You’ll stand a chance to win too! Exercise is fun.

Your entry can range from a single sentence, to an entire paragraph - it doesn’t matter.

So that’s all you’ve got to do to be in the running. There will be 10 winners - and I will be drawing lots to determine the winner.

My reasoning for asking this of you
Every person has a dream, a story deep inside their hearts - and God put that dream there not for our sole benefit - but for everyone else as well. So whether you believe it or not, your story/belief/dream has the awesome ability to influence, encourage, and impact someone’s life. That’s exactly what I plan to accomplish with this giveaway. So actually.. we all win. :)

I strongly suggest you to subscribe to my email update (submit your email address below) to keep up to date on the announcement of winners, and other cool giveaways coming real soon. Winners for this giveaway will be announced on dailymuscle.com on the 20th of March 2008.

Don’t forget to include your valid email address when you submit your comment(entry) below, and don’t worry, as emails won’t be disclosed to the public in your comment, so you CAN submit ‘anonymous’ entries if it’s something personal.

I’m really excited - and really looking forward to see your entries below. Good luck!

*The prizes are valid only for Fitness First Health Clubs in Malaysia, so if you’re from another country, I apologize that the double pass won’t be of much use to you. However, even if you can’t use the prize, I urge you to contribute for the benefit of us all

I couldn’t help but IMMEDIATELY read this article in today’s newspaper, The Star. I was shocked
not by the perverted behaviour of an individual, but by the fact that it was the Manager of the health centre. Sigh… read on…

Gym goers nab Peeping Tom manager
A MANAGER was caught for peeping at a woman bathing in the washroom of a health centre in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, reported China Press.

The woman – a lawyer in her 20s – was taking a shower after her gym session at the health centre in a shopping complex around 1pm. Shocked to see someone peeping at her from below the door, she shouted for help.

The others at the centre went to her aid and nabbed the 31-year-old manager. They handed him over to the police.

It’s sometimes quite annoying when newspapers don’t disclose the actual location, but I guess they do it for a reason. It would be a great embarrassment to the fitness centre if the entire nation finds out which one it is. I think that I too am at risk of making an enemy if I do disclose the gym here - but fortunately (or unfortunately), I do not know where this incident took place. But wouldn’t you like to know?

One thing for sure is that it must be in one of the larger health clubs since it is in a shopping complex, and that rules out Fitness First too since the branch at Menara Axis isn’t in a shopping complex (phew!). I could make a guess that it could be the gym in Jaya33 because thats the only shopping complex I can think of in Petaling Jaya with a gym.

You know… it’s hard enough to get someone to adopt a healthy lifestyle and be comfortable in a gym and adhere to their workout routines, therefore I hate it when something like this happens especially when it was DONE BY A STAFF of the health club. It’s just SAD.

Anyway, I’m SURE that someone among all of you gym goers in the Klang Valley out there - one of you (yes, you!) knows where this happened. So, please… do share. Or even if you have had other similar incidents happen to you - I’d like to hear from you. Post your comments via the form below (scroll down).

In this post, dailymuscle.com reader Jennifer relates her personal experience and shares her thoughts on women constantly feeling dissatisfied with the size of their breasts.

I’m in the smaller category myself - sometimes an A cup, sometimes a B cup, depending on labels and such. I admit there were times when I wished they were bigger (puberty, anyone?), but I really don’t anymore. I am totally against teenage plastic surgery (except in really extreme cases - say, you have a nose the size of Ayer’s rock), because did anyone REALLY like his/her body over the teenage years? If yes, I’ll give you a medal, heh. Honestly, judging a woman by her breasts is as insane as judging men by penis size alone *rolls eyes*. I don’t feel inadequate about small(er) and/or natural breasts. I like mine. They’re well-proportioned and firm. So there. [click to continue...]

In this post, Dave C, one of my readers, relates his experience with kettlebell training and his attempts to try out the 300 workout routine - recently made popular by the movie 300.

I’ve been working out, cycling, circuits, running etc. for years. The gym I go to is small and owned by a friend so over the last couple of years I’ve convinced him to get a kettlebell, some high & low rings as additional equipment.

Last week on Friday, the workout was the 300 workout for those that felt up to it. I tried it but focused on finishing rather then on time. I took 44 minutes & I was wiped. Today, after a weekend off, I hit it again but this time I worked on speed. I managed to complete it in 27 minutes. The last 25 pullups were murder. I’m 46, male, and I eat pretty good. I usually get 1g of protein per lb, I’m 6′3″ and weigh 195lbs. I’m not saying this workout was easy, far from it, but it’s doable. The 20 minutes is not something I’ll ever get down to though. My time today was probably as good as I’ll get… I didn’t see much time I could have cut off. Maybe if I get better at pullups I can improve.

As far as preparing for this workout, I added components of the 300 into my regular workouts for the past year. So I’d do floor wipers (the hardest part of the 300 IMO) or kettlebell presses in sets of 25 so when I tried the 300 I’d be familiar with them and my body would be able to handle the stress.

In the end the cardio stress was greater then the muscle stress. It’s hard to move from exercise to exercise without taking a long break, as each exercise forces you to work to exhaustion 2-3x.

Publicity photo from movie ‘300′
(Credit: Warner Bros.)

Be sure to read my post: The 300 Movie Workout - What We All Overlooked for more insight and my thoughts on the challenging 300 Workout Routine.

DM says:

As you can see from Dave’s experience… the 300 Routine, or components of the routine can be fit into your existing workout routine for that extra bump in intensity and perhaps even breathe a refreshing change into a stale routine. Just because we can’t perform the entire routine, does not mean that we don’t even try!

Anyone else out there having fun with their kettlebells?