I got started working out when I was 12 years old after seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Conan movies. I was just blown away that someone could actually be that big and look like a real life comic book super hero. I was determined that I would someday look like that myself.

I would do exercises like pushups and situps in my bedroom before school each morning. I can even remember thinking to myself... "If I do this everyday until the end of the school year I'll be as big as Arnold in the Conan movies."

That year I asked my parents if they would get me a weight set for Christmas so that I could workout and get big. I can still remember how excited I was Christmas morning when I woke up and saw this HUGE box under the Christmas tree.

After ripping through all the fancy wrapping paper and colored bows there was a York 2001 home gym machine and a York barbell and dumbbell set. We set it up that very day and I did my first official weight training workout on Christmas day 1990.

From that point on I was hooked on weight training. I would workout daily with my little home gym, sometimes for several hours at a time. My dad has always been an active person his whole life and this really helped motivate me early on to workout and keep fit as well.

During high school I worked out consistently and I would read every bodybuilding and fitness magazine that I could get my hands on. I'd get bodybuilding and exercise books from the library. I would record every bodybuilding contest that was on television and watch them over and over again. I was obsessed with learning as much about bodybuilding, exercise and nutrition as I could.

While in my last year of high school I entered my first Bodybuilding contest, The 1995 Newfoundland Provincials, I was 17 years old at the time. Since then I have competed almost every year in bodybuilding competitions.

After high school I went on to do a computer studies program in College. This is where I got my interest in computers and the Internet. Keep in mind that when I started working out and competing there was no Internet. So I can remember sitting in the computer lab in the fall of 1997 when I logged on to the Internet for the very first time.

I asked the guy sitting at the computer next to me: "How do you use the internet?"

He said, "You go to Yahoo and search for something." So, that's just what I did and the first thing I searched for was "bodybuilding."

In the computer studies course that I was doing they taught a basic class on writing HTML and designing websites. And in January of 1999 I created my website LeeHayward.com. From then on I've focused on improving it, adding more useful information, and making it better each year.

Best Lifts:
Bench Press: 445 lbs.
Squat: 525 lbs.
Deadlift: 530 lbs.