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At VIT, all I did was show up at the gym at 6 in the morning. Every single day. I don’t remember a single class or lab.
There were two gyms in VIT. A free one near the stadium. And a paid one above the convenience store on the periphery of the campus.
I went to the paid one since it was less crowded and air conditioned and had a nicer set of dumbbells.
Plenty of folks came to the paid VIT gym. But it was mostly to listen to music on the single TV. They would be fixated on Channel V or SS music. I found it very annoying.
The gym had a reasonable selection of machines. But I gravitated to the free weights and I had no clue what I was doing.
I cringe at my workouts from college. I would squat, bench, do some push ups and some bicep curls, overhead presses till I was sore or couldn’t do any more. It was horrible. And I didn’t like using computers, so I would depend on Men’s Health or some other rag to give me ideas. And bad ideas they were.
This was the situation till 2012. Too much volume. A random selection of moves. And not enough progressive overload or working on skill.
And this was after knowing I was vaguely doing something that was right for me.
I call it a lack of mentors or culture that didn’t give me direction early enough.
But that’s not entirely accurate. I remember there were local students from Vellore/Katpadi who got jacked and plenty strong. They went to the ‘free’ gym. They knew what they were doing. That was a function of the local lifting and bodybuilding culture. Vellore produced some really good strength athletes.
I wish I had hung out with them more. I wish I had found Lyle McDonald’s blog earlier than I did.
The reason any facilities that were available to us went unused, misused or abused was the lack of direction or culture. The lack of clear information.
And that is one of my missions. If anyone under 25 joins us, they will have direction, tools and the knowledge to know what not to do. And they will get stronger and move better than I ever could have dreamt of at that age. That’s a culture and habit of moving and getting strong I wish I had been exposed to when I was much younger.