TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

For reporter, putting on muscle will be worth the weight

Tribune photo by JIM REED

Tribune reporter Anwar Richardson takes weekly boxing classes with professional trainer Pete Fernandez.

ADVERTISEMENT

By ANWAR RICHARDSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 28, 2009

TAMPA - There was a time when my body resembled L.L. Cool J, Eminem, Will Smith, Busta Rhymes and Mark Wahlberg.

OK, the much skinnier versions of those guys.

Then, suddenly, they all decided to forsake our skinny fraternity and mold muscular bodies. My body-doubles beefed up and exchanged their baggy T-shirts - an essential item needed to conceal a small chest - for tank tops that show off arms bigger than my thighs.

The remaining notable members in my bony brotherhood are Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Snoop Dogg, plus every member of My Chemical Romance and Panic at the Disco. Even Bow Wow, an underweight person whose only previous exercise was counting money, has been working out.

Before "Napoleon Dynamite" star Jon Heder shows up in his next movie with more muscles than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, I decided to join the fraternity's fugitives to see what the creatine life is all about.

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed being thin. I'm 35, and being 6-foot-2 and 147 pounds has allowed me to hear every skinny joke known to man. My favorites are, "You're so skinny, you use ChapStick for deodorant," and "You're so skinny, you can hula hoop with a Cheerio."

However, there comes a point in a man's life when he wants to take his shirt off at the beach and not have people wonder, "If you turn sideways, will you even cast a shadow?"

All jokes aside, I've always been underweight and definitely struggled with my self-esteem as child. It's amazing how some people can approach me with ease and say, "You're so skinny - do you ever eat?" Yet if I responded with, "You're so fat - do you ever stop eating?" they would be offended.

Each statement judges a person's outward appearance. I just never understood why it's socially acceptable to ridicule the exterior of an underweight person more than any other body type.

I decided to add pounds this year because it's something I want to do, not because people suggested I should. There is nothing wrong with being underweight; and as long as they're healthy, skinny people should be happy.

I started working out with Corey Simpson, a former Mr. Florida and personal trainer at the Fight Factory gym in Tampa, in March. Simpson has an excellent reputation and was somebody I believed could help me obtain my ideal body type.

During our initial session, I expressed to Simpson my desire to gain weight. Simpson quickly dismantled that plan and said we needed to focus more on obtaining muscle. He explained that building muscle weight is healthier than just adding calories.

Although it sounded great, the thought of weightlifting gave me a skinny flashback.

As a ninth-grader at Orlando's Boone High School, I remember being forced to "max out" on the bench press during my weightlifting class. Considering I was 5-foot-3 and 90 pounds, my 55-pound max was lower than everyone in my class, including the teenage girls. When I graduated from Lakeland High School in 1991, I was 5-foot-7 and 110 pounds, and although I could bench 145 pounds, it took a few more years to lift my self-confidence.

Simpson is more knowledgeable than my high school gym teacher, which is why I work out with him twice a week.

We never work with extremely heavy weights (something my body would probably disagree with). Instead, Simpson makes me do several sets and repetitions until the weight feels heavy. His creative workouts and the counting, which usually goes something like "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 1, good job," have helped build my little muscles.

In addition, I take weekly boxing classes at the gym with professional trainer Pete Fernandez, who previously worked with champions Nate Campbell and Edner Cherry. Fernandez's boxing for fitness classes would make Jack LaLanne ask for a timeout, but the cardiovascular exercise and full-body workout are good for people on both ends of the weight spectrum.

After two months with Simpson and Fernandez, my body fat has gone from 6.5 to 5.4 percent (probably from crying during my workouts), but I've gained six pounds, all of it muscle. I've also gained more than 1 1/2 inches of muscle in each arm, and more than an inch in each leg.

I will give everyone a progress report by the end of this year.

Snoop Dogg can run our underweight fraternity meetings. I'll be out shopping for tank tops.

Anwar S. Richardson is a sports reporter at The Tampa Tribune and can be reached at (813) 259-8425

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT