KALDENZ'S DORM ROOM

Hey! How's it going? How was everyone's weekend?

I'd just joined RA and would like to introduce myself. My name is Kalden. I'm a mechanical engineering student turned pre-med thanks to all the injuries I've had during the last several years. Rightnow I'm working as a freelance, social, event, and advertising photographer. Med school and staying healthy ain't cheap! haha.

I've been working out for about 6 years, first 4 of it was very stressful. Being a hard gainer made it really tough for me to reach my desired goal, often time I would get left behind by my friends and curse myself for being too asian in blood. I'm sure many people have hit a plateau once or twice, what do you normally do when that happen? I'm open to any advice and opinion from you guys.

I'm 3/4 Thai, Japanese, Chinese and 1/4 British-German. I started working out when I was 15 for high school football. At the time I was 5'5" 109 lbs. I maxed out at 115 lbs for my bench press throughout sophomore year. Surprisingly I was squatting in the 305+ and maxed out at 405 that very same year. So I spent the 2 years working on my upper body hoping to increase my max bench to at least 135 by the end of the season. By sophomore year 95% of my friends were already repping over 135, I was the only one who made no progress even though all of us worked out on the same schedule and routine. I found out later that it was my running over 5 miles a day that was keeping me weak for the longest time. My upper body never had the chance to absorb the nutrient it needed to grow.

Junior and Senior year was great after I'd figured out the down side of cardio and finally went through growth spurt. I was at 5'9" 160 lbs for football, and 135 (3% bodyfat) for wrestling. My bench spiked from 115 struggling to 205, 185 rep. My diet has been the same all 4 years: 6-10 eggs a day, 3 protein shakes, plenty of water, and 3 full hearty meals. No supplements except for daily vitamins. I didn't know much about the bodybuilding world. The only time I've heard of vitamins and bodybuilder was when a classmate of mine overdosed on ephedra and ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks.

Right after high school my best friend introduced me to bodybuilding world. I still remember my first time to Mr. Olympia, it was the same year Ronnie Coleman was going for his 8th win. I met Jay Cutler a couple of weeks before at my local gym and wondered "Holy! is that guy competing?", I actually went up to him and asked if he's going to checkout the bodybuilding expo in a couple of weeks. haha. clueless.

Okay, I'm sorry but that's all for now. I have to get going.

ps: What did you guys think about the outcome of 2007 Mr. Olympia?
pps: Also, what happened to Animal? I didn't see them at the expo.