I was thinking again about Henry Rollin's excellent article Iron and Soul from back in the day (make sure you read it later) and realised that my love of strength-training has also surpassed the physical benefits alone. I can't put a date on when this happened, only that I too came to realise much of what the iron "teaches you" -- as Henry Rollins so eloquently phrases it -- has tremendous roll-over effects into areas of life beyond the gym doors or in my case, the garage door.
This article could have been titled 15-Benefits of strength-training (that actually have nothing to do with strength-training) which is both true and false simultaneously. The point is, you learn an enormous amount of life-skills through pumping iron, many of which can be applied far outside the gym. Maybe the below could have been learnt other ways but the fact is that I learnt them (or at least experienced them) in a way unique to strength-training that only those who move iron can readily understand.
So without further ado, what I learnt was...
Patience #1
With strength-training you have to be patient. You have to accept you're in this for the long haul. I saw a mint quote about success that read thus: success is a journey, not a destination. So it is with strength-training. Your iron-journey is long and convoluted; rarely is it linear. It may take years to see results, especially as an older lifter. But. As any seasoned lifter will tell you, time is not your enemy, simply your teacher. Be patient and lift. As you do, you become more open to the idea that good things take time. You mature. Every week of exercise is another brick in your wall of success.
Motivation #2
Surprisingly, if you really want to do something, you go out and do it -- yes, yes I am being a bit sarcastic here. When strength-training, the only one motivating you to continue is you. Like so many others, I work out alone (which is my personal preference), so I'm in charge of pushing myself to excel. I like that. I like that responsibility. If I fart out it's my fault but conversely, if I surge ahead it's because of my own efforts. Not all of us are as in charge of our destinies as we like to imagine, so being in charge of this particular aspect is immensely gratifying. Not to mention self-motivation being a trait for success.
Routine #3
You learn that routine i.e. doing the basics over and over and over well, is how you groove and improve. By that I mean you groove movements through constant repetition and you improve poundage as you steadily increase weight over time. You get better. No shortcuts, no quick-fix, just long-term steady progress. Blood, sweat and tears. The same routine(s) day after week after month after year. I've never found this boring. Ever. Which in turn develops steadfastness, endurance, reliability, perseverance y'know, all those character traits people today avoid like the plague. Each and everyday -- or every second day, however you lift -- you get yourself in there and you do what needs to be done. That is excellence.
Goal-setting #4
You have to have an underpinning goal for your iron-journey. Yes, this may change over time whether through having achieved it or due to the need for a timely tweak, but it becomes fixed in your minds-eye. You know what you want. It's a lot easier to work towards what you specifically want (and have outlined to yourself) rather than go through a series of motions that may or may not meet some vague, unclear expectation. For the record, it's incredibly difficult to meet some vague, unclear expectation because it's vague. And it's unclear. Hm.
SMART GOALS
S = SPECIFIC
M = MEASURABLE
A = ACHIEVABLE
R = REALISTIC
T = TIMED
The fact is we need goals to achieve which automatically translates into matching your program, meals, cardio etc. in line with said goal. Each of these contribute towards your achieving your self-designated outcome(s). You're teaching yourself -- and others -- not just the skill of goal-setting but being able to identify what you need to have in place so as to achieve said goal. Anyone can set goals but few are able to clarify what they need and/or must do over time, to make them reality. Being able to delineate and designate what needs to be done fo maximal achievement is a life-skill.
Awareness #5
Strength-training makes you far more aware of your own body. It makes you aware of what you can and can't do (yet). It makes you aware of how to move. You begin to pinpoint strengths and recognise weak links or poor form. You start to identify how muscular systems work in tandem, how opposite body parts complement each other. You don't just develop the ability to "hear" yourself -- perhaps this could be better explained as being more attuned to your own physicality -- you also develop the ability to recognise what's happening where and why to different parts of you.
NARLEA COHEN
THE HARDER I WORK THE LUCKIER I BECOME
It's like you wake up some primitive, unused part of your amygdala, an aspect of yourself lost in the comforts of modern living. Over the many years of hard work at the bar you naturally familiarise yourself with aches, pains, pulls, cramps as well as greater muscle-focus and the ability to monitor your own condition and progress. You become aware you're located everywhere in the body as opposed to being solely in the skull region. Yeah it's weird, but it's a good weird. You identify and improve your ability to balance, move, extend yourself, that sort of stuff. You grow into yourself at a deeper, connected mind-body level.
Growth #6
Strength-training causes muscles to grow. You get bigger. Some get fucking hyuuuuuuge. The point is, we all grow to some extent and for us guys, we love that simple visual. We love seeing the results of our effort. Enough said. It's also amazing seeing how much stronger you're capable of being. Seeing how much more you can move (and how often) as opposed to last month, the month before that, the end of last year. It's a great confidence boost when you know you can move decent weight. More importantly, not only can you move the many heavy loads you may encounter at home, in the garage or out and about, you know how to move them without hurting yourself. That's a goddamn bonus right there.
Adaptabiilty #7
Some days you're not up for it and don't want to work-out. Some days you feel a little weak, a little tired, a little washed-out. Some days you miss a work-out because your cousin has asked you to help trap unicorns with the oompa-loompa's and you can't make the gym. Some days your shoulder is still a little tender from last time when you dropped a weight awkwardly on your son's pet frog, so you have to tweak your program a bit. What I'm trying to say is you have to adapt, handle and accommodate. You have to find work-arounds even as you have to accept that sometimes there are none. Another word for this is "initiative". I have long since discovered that one of initiative's best friends is bravery. Be brave.
Confidence #8
Here I'm not talking about the confidence of being bigger or stronger, I'm talking about the innate confidence you develop as you expand your own personhood. You walk taller, you project yourself further, you exude capability. This self-confidence is something you're not only aware of but something others pick up on too. I'm not a big fan of the current obsession by males in being "alpha" as this too often manifests as a need for power over others, which in turn comes from insecurity (and possibly fear). Confident people don't need power; they carry themselves with authority. Learn the difference between power and authority.
Stress relief #9
Strength-training is a superb stress relief (so is cocaine). As I've stated elsewhere, I find stress accumulative physically, mentally and emotionally. It can reach toxic levels such that little things you'd usually never notice can send you over the edge. You go from 0-to-100 because you're permanently hovering around 90. Stress needs to be relinquished and in most cases, expelled; this is where work-outs come into their own. Being able to recognise and identify this in yourself -- and actually do something about it -- is extremely important for our ongoing health. How many people do you know would benefit from some form of regular stress release?
The weights are always there. They can always be relied upon. It doesn't matter if you've had a terrible day or you've had a huge argument with the missus. It doesn't matter if you're feeling disconnected and adrift, like you've suddenly lost yourself just like "that". It doesn't matter if you're upset or sad, frustrated with your current situation or just pissed off at the world. The weights are always there. They're always the same, waiting for you. They can always be relied upon. They will never let you down, never tell you a lie, never flatter you in fact, the weights are always cold and resolute. That's exactly why us guys like them.
Pushing yourself #10
As you grow confident under increasingly heavy loads, you start to get an inkling of what the human body is capable of. Little by little, bit by bit, you start to push yourself. First it begins with incremental weight increases, then you start incorporating different movements and experimenting with training splits, till finally you reach a point where you're willing to give any protocol a go. Why? Because the whole time you've been pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. Exercises you once avoided (like heavy squats) suddenly become the bread and butter of your strength-training. You're willing to push yourself because you recognise your capacity for future potential.
You had to re-learn how to do this.
...because one upon a time you did this regularly.
You also have accepted temporary challenges -- and yes, sometimes pain -- in the present will lead to later gains in the future, and this applies to a broad swathe of real-world living. You are eager to better yourself and better others. In effect, you've trained yourself to be teachable and trust me, we all know plenty of people who either refuse to learn new things for whatever reason(s), or are simply incapable of doing so. That's their loss, not yours. There's also a clear tie-in with initiative, confidence and goal-setting here, skills not only beneficial for employment and business but quality relationships. Who would have thought that pushing yourself in strength-training would have such carry over into the rest of life?
Health & function #11
These two common terms are bandied about a lot within the fitness industry these days. We know that essentially any exercise is healthy (just like we know too much exercise to be unhealthy) but a lot of people are caught up with this whole "functionality" terminology at the moment. Like any new craze or fitness focus, the whole functional-fitness-mantra seems to have taken on near-mythic proportions but what does it actually mean? Basically its self-designated as a fitness that specifically relates to and/or is commonly used, in day-to-day activities. This makes it functional or at the very least, grants it permission to use the term.
To give you an example, wrist-curls and calf-raises aren't part of functional fitness, deadlifts and overhead press are. Why? Because you don't wrist-curl or calf-raise anything in real life, but you do squat down to lift things or store things overhead. In sports like bodybuilding or even lifters of any code who wish to build up specific body parts using bodybuilding protocols, limiting yourself to such delineations is pointless. The point is that strength-training directly impacts your health and ongoing function in their totality. It improves your circulatory system, your digestive system, your endocrine system, your respiratory system, your skeletal system and more besides -- not just your muscular system as is commonly assumed.
That's what I want to leave you with for point eleven: the fact that strength-training (and yes, the majority of exercises) have a direct impact upon your entire make-up as a human being. Why someone would willing choose not to exercise is beyond me. What's more, because we lose muscle mass as we age, strength-training is an excellent exercise system for us older lifters, male or female. There's nothing gender-inherent to it, both sexes should be hitting the iron. Lastly, you will automatically function better through strength-training; do the research, I'm not making this up. Just don't allow others to judge your training program inadequate because it doesn't fit their "functional-fitness" construct.
Purpose #12
You get so much purpose through strength-training in fact, it gives you purpose. I watched a clip of an elderly gentleman who credited his dog and cat as giving him purpose after the death of his wife. They needed him and he needed them. He rawe: terrific! It's the same with strength-training believe it or not -- it needs you and we need it. I love getting up each morning to hit the weights. I'll often find myself looking forward to it the night before, revisiting my program to familiarise myself with the upcoming focus. I've lost count of the amount of times I've felt gratitude for the opportunity to work-out, or expressed thankfulness to the One to be physical capable of doing so. That is incomparable.
Knowledge #13
If you had told me all those years ago when I first started working out with nothing more than a barbell and four plates that I would one day host a website waxing lyrical about strength-training, I probably would have laughed it off. Yet here we are. The amount of knowledge I've gained about this is awesome, and it's awesome because in all truth, none of it is original to me. I just went out and found it and y'know what? There is shitloads of knowledge about bodybuilding, strength-training, weight-lifting, power-lifting you name it online, waiting to be discovered. I've really enjoyed (and still enjoy) learning about different aspects and research within the strength-training field.
Giving #14
This point ties in with the above: the amount of times someone's asked me questions about strength-training which I've been able to answer are too numerous to recall. Gaining knowledge for its own sake has a degree of purpose, but its higher purpose is to share that knowledge with others so that they too are empowered. We all need to take time to stop and reflect upon how much knowledge we have actually accumulated over the years from different occupations whether teaching to child-raising, business to home maintenance, relationship-building to being open-minded. A lot of you are walking encyclopaedias and don't know it. I've learnt to not just gain knowledge but to share it -- and not just within a fitness paradigm but beyond. Share your values. Share your thoughts and insights. Share your culture. By doing such simple things you teach, you instruct, you inspire and you pass on.
Cross-over #15
This page has been dedicated to showing the cross-over between strength-training and other areas of life, which is one of the most beneficial outcomes I've had the pleasure of learning on this ongoing hikoi. I regularly find myself comparing situations I'm in or circumstances I'm currently part of in day-to-day living that have direct parallels to the bar. If you can find it in yourself to dig deep, calculate the risk(s) as best you can, trust to what you know and get yourself under the bar to attempt a new PR for a maximal heavy squat, then you have all the resources you need to face a new challenge, address a problem, hold an uncomfortable conversation or simply put in the grinding hours necessary to achieve your goal.
:: CONCLUSION
There is a degree, and always will be a degree, of risk to strength-training. If you lose focus even for a second you can pull a muscle, experience that fatal twinge or fail a lift, putting yourself out of action for months. Worse case scenario you can do some serious fuck-yourself-up damage. You have to be aware and in the moment. You have to respect what it is your engaged with because like Henry Rollins insinuates, the weights take no prisoner. The best mate of a friend of mine was in a smith-machine of all things doing heavy overhead presses. He pushed it up and locked it off or at least, thought he had. It came down at the rear of his head and crushed his neck. He's paralyzed to this day.
Don't ever take the weights for granted. Don't ever be casual in the rack or on the bench. Us oldies lost our swagger years ago but if you still have yours, leave it a the door of the Iron Church. The god inside takes great pleasure in crushing mere mortals. Some of the first things that will get you succinctly destroyed in the iron game is being egged on by clowns, not accepting your current limitations or lifting from ego. I don't know of any lifters, myself included, who weren't brought down to earth more than once by the weights. They will not let you cheat and they will not pander to your narcissim. It is because of that we feel great achievement when succeeding under the bar. Kia ora whanau.
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