After I had a conversation with Nitti yesterday, I was moved to post some inspiration to my brothers because we always have this façade that when something is going on we are the only ones…Now I got your attention….I will give you my strength, hope and experience…I have been training since I was 15 years old and using gear for about 25+ years…I trained like Arnold said and the advice of other Olympian greats in a time period where a lot of those exercises have been contra-indicated or technique has been modified for better form and less injury….Through the early years of not training properly and working manual labor and now the field I’m in, I have developed and been diagnosed with degenerative disk disease in my L4, L5, and S1. For you that don’t know that’s my lower back and tailbone…In the past 5 years it has gotten progressively worse…My doctor started giving me trigger point injections in my back right in the joint….Ouch!!! I was sent to physical therapy and it worked for a while but then it would start back again. My doctor pretty much told me that my option was to quit lifting weights and training and just walk, no cardio in the sense of running or elliptical training. Just so you know I am a recovering addict…No I didn’t shoot up, but when I first was diagnosed I got hooked on pain pills bad and I was in a bad marriage to top it off so the pills helped me to cope, so I thought…I am now recovered for 3 ½ years and my life is awesome and on the right track….Now back to my point, so my attitude was that no more training wasn’t an option…I got with and friend that was in kinesiology and begin to study my body…This is the reason I always say know your body it’s limitations and just how far you can push it..I did just that and changed my training and exercises to accommodate my injury. I don ‘t believe in pain is weakness leaving that body, my training partner saw that on the back of a guys shirt and now he can no longer lift because he tore his RC and blew out his knee seeking that utopic lie..and all the while I warned him…I have recently come into the issue of my back starting to give out again and the need for another epidural series…During the last few weeks of my cycle it started and now its to the point of compression where I am having nerve pain…By the way, I am having another epidural in just a little bit so I will be fine…My point is that in that time I found myself getting depressed or discouraged but the word can’t is not in my vocabulary and quitting is not in my character…I strive for progress…Im down but not out…I listen to my body and I train in according to its response to me…Now that I have really gotten involved in Eroids I find that giving myself over to helping these young guys and other gentlemen allows me to get out of myself and self pity and realize that just because I can’train the way I want to at this very moment doesn’t mean I have no purpose…It has inspired me and I have learned so much in helping others…My back will be fine in just a moment and I can go back to my hardcore training pain free…I still go to the gym but its light weight and my ego hates it and I lost a little size, but you know what I can get it back in no time…So I guess I’m trying to inspire you guys to push through and re-invent yourself, as Zewi once told me and keep on keeping on and GS9902 has given me inspiration to in my dark hours and it has made the difference.…Because in the face of darkness of being told I never would be able to workout and train again, I rose from the ashes smarter and better than before…Just like your muscles…You have to be broke down to be built up….I really hope I gave somebody some inspiration…I was moved to write this so maybe it was God pressing on my heart and mostly because I love my family at Eroids and owe some of my drive to y’all….