I write this article unprovoked. It's a sweet day, Indian Summer, and life is good. Sounds of the freeway and city are made small and harmonious by distance and drift like a melody up the craggy hillside to our house. The hum of early morning travelers, a fading siren, the occasional roar and shifting gears of a Harley is what I hear. Music, really. My friends, I have before me a mission: to get us going and keep us going. Hard, smart and smiling.

I attempt (Laree by my side) to present a simple, clear and direct way to become involved in muscle building and health through weight training, thoughtful eating, discipline; the process commonly known as bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is not a term to be reserved for the development of champion physiques only. It is, as the word implies, the building of one's body healthfully to satisfying muscular proportions. This incomparable sport is for all of us.

I particularly underline the exercises, sets and reps, poundages, proteins, other nutrients and factors that have been established and proven over the last half of the century. The good stuff that has worked for my peers and me and is certain to set you in motion as a beginner or further you as an ongoing or returning enthusiast. Bodybuilding, I am commissioned to remind you, is an exciting, fulfilling and priceless adventure in seeking the good life.

Once you're duly invested (conditioned, stable, knowledgeable) and being the free spirit this hearty pursuit attracts, you are bound to research the various training techniques expounded by the pool of experts in the field. I urge you to experiment and experience - it's all good, now that you are relatively established and your instincts have been aroused.

Giant sets, single sets, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, HIT, Heavy Duty, Hard Gainer, 1-2-3-kick, I've tried them all before they were articulated, had names and cult followings. Same with menu, protein/carbs/fats and the alphabet soup of anabolic, anti-catabolic concoctions on and below the Earth's surface. All of it has been mixed with a curious, intuitive deliberateness to come up with the composition I sincerely offer you.

You and I have different chemistry, bone structure, DNA, mentality, personality, and external influences. These factors will determine our training direction, our potential, our level of satisfaction; why, how and how well we perform.

Don't be lured down any one path as if it were the only path. When the timing is right, when you're sound and confident, yet restless, take a four to six week journey to stray from the norm. Invest in one of the highly touted training styles that draw your attention. Or, make up your own. Be alert and open minded. Take the risk, apply your savvy, give yourself credit for creativity and discovery and learn through the understanding that is now beginning to surface. The point is to keep going, isn't it? Aggressively, joyfully. Every method and every technique will be to your benefit, even if it's to teach you by "set back" or injury that is not the way for you.

Predictably, confusion and strife arise, confounding our progress. These, the big guns in the Devil's armory, are ruinous and deserve dismantling. Let's together attend the process through sharing and comparing. Why not join our terrific e-group, IronOnline? Live and learn, you can sit in the background and be enlightened and encouraged.

Discussion is engaging, revealing and often endearing. Argument is for bullies, the frustrated and the insecure. Argument leads to war which restricts capillary action and prevents oxygen and nutrient laden blood from gorging the outermost micro-fibers accounting for, maybe, 25% of our muscular growth.

Me? I'm an animal. I prefer working out to conversation; sniffing like a hound dog and pulling the wagon like a workhorse.