I already wrote an article about turning 40 and the difficulties that my 39-year-old self is facing. This article is about trying to get into decent shape when you’re about to turn 40.
Let’s take it back to when my gym days began. I was 15, and my brother from another mother, Jamel, and I joined the TCNJ gym. We only got the membership because my dad worked there. Thanks, Dad!
Jamel had graduated from Drew University and was now working at a local school, and I was still in high school. Our other brothers, George and Peyton, were in college. If you read “The Four Brothers” article, you already know that Jamel lived directly behind me.
Jamel would “jump the fence” from his yard to my yard and walk into my house through the back door unannounced. We would literally run from my house to the TCNJ gym (it was about a mile), work out, then run home. I’m thinking about this now, and I would have definitely driven the 74 seconds instead of running.
I quit playing high school soccer, so I had a ton of free time after school to get physical.
The gym and I became estranged once college hit. Who has time to go to that place when you have classes to skip and girls to meet? Like most college kids, I gained the freshman 15, but I didn’t even bat an eye. My roommates and I tried to go for runs, but we always ended up inside a McDonald’s or a bar.
Once I graduated, I got a part-time job at a radio station, and I had a ton of time on my hands. My buddy Mase had just graduated from Frostburg, and he had the same time on his hands. We agreed that we would join a gym together and get massive (I actually said those words — eye roll).
2009 was the year that my buddy Greg, aka Mase, and I joined a gym. It was also the year that the MTV show “Jersey Shore” came out. We also got a membership at a tanning salon, and I’m sorry that I’m not sorry for spilling the beans on that, Mase.
For the next three years, Mase and I were inseparable, and the gym became our second home. I think he will tell you the same — we got pretty jacked. Shirts were optional and seldom worn at this point.
We both ended up in serious relationships, and my gym days came to an end. I stopped going to the gym, but my credit card didn’t think I did. I kept the membership while not going for about two years. I kept it just in case I felt like dabbling. I never dabbled. Waste of money.
While I was in my non-swoll phase, my father was in the gym like he was a bodybuilder. This dude has arms as big as Hulk Hogan’s, and he lets me know about them every time I walk in the house. I swear every T-shirt he owns has cut-off sleeves to show off his biceps.
I just joined the same gym that my wife and my father go to. My wife goes early, but my dad goes at the same time that I do. My dad is basically the mayor of Urge Fitness. Everyone in the place knows this dude. He introduces me to the most jacked humans I have ever seen in my life. I shake their hands politely, and he says, “This is my son.”
I’ve never seen people so confused in their life. How does a 60-something-year-old dude with a physique like his have a son who looks like he should be on a high school JV bowling team?
P.S. My dad doesn’t hide his physique at the gym either. He wears the least amount of clothes possible — a tank top and shorts — as I wear sweatpants and long-sleeve shirts. Pretty soon I’m going to be working out in a trench coat, fully buttoned, with MC Hammer pants.
Honestly, I’m so proud of my superhero dad and the shape he is in, and just like I said in a previous article, I love you, and I can only hope to be 50% of the man you are. Now, can we not go to the gym at the same time?
Donnie Black was born and grew up in Ewing Township. He currently works at radio station XTU in Philadelphia as a producer, on air personality and promotions director.
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