How I started working out.

My name is Clark.  My wife and I live in Austin TX.  In early 2020 at 30 years old I began to experience pain in my right shoulder, and lower back pain in general.  I couldn't grip anything with my right hand without it hurting.  This hurt so much so that I couldn't shake another person's hand which is a big deal in the culture I grew up around.  Up until this point in my life my jobs had kept me physical.  Taking an office job took away a huge portion of me being physical in life.  

From when I was a little kid I had to be physical on a daily basis, moving anything heavy-courtesy of my mother, my first job was unloading trucks at our local grocery store, any odd job I could get to put some money in my pocket through the years, I even spent some time on a fishing boat which is where I learned what manual labor actually meant.  At first it was refreshing to get a job that was less physically demanding in my mid 20s, but I quickly learned that if I am not actively pursuing my health and fitness living becomes difficult.

I didn't have a normal fitness background.  I wasn't able to play sports in high school, and had been working from an early age.  I had tried to "workout" in the past but I never had any clue what I was doing, and I was too insecure to ask for help.  I decided to join a gym and meet with a trainer to work on some specific exercises for my shoulder/back pain.  He did a great job working with me and showed me that a lot of my issues stem from having weak back/core muscles.  It amazed me how much strength I had lost in such a short amount of time.  

I started in January 2020 slowly.  I met with a trainer once a week and trained on my own twice a week.  I had developed a good routine for 2 months, and notice that the pain in my shoulder started to get better, my sleep was uninterrupted, and it was easier for me to eat regularly.  After 3 months the pain in my shoulder was almost completely gone.  I also started using an app called fitbod to help with creating and tracking work outs.  Then March 2020 came, and COVID-19 shut down our area.

We have been sheltering in place, and I have been able to make fitness a bigger part of my life.  Using the fitbod app has helped me continue working out on a regular basis since then.  Fitness has helped me so much that I have decided to start this blog, and track my fitness journey.