Know Thyself

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There’s a reason we take time from our day to go to the gym. There’s a reason we pay close attention to our diet and spend evenings working on mobility. There’s a reason we read and talk about strength training every day online. Imagine:

Chalk floats softly through the air. The thumping of your heart is all you hear, all you feel. You step to the bar and place your hands on it, feeling the cold knurling on callused hands. The whirling hurricane of emotion settles into the eye of the storm, the peaceful moment when you have to make a decision to begin.

This introspection is the true reason we love training. That delicate, beautiful moment before starting a lift is the ultimate reflection of the soul. Is it angry, irritable, and ready to tear flesh with gnashing teeth? Or is it unsure, unsteady, and hesitant? As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t — you’re right.”

There are moments where our bodies feel defeated, incapable. Whether the fire comes from within, a friend, or music, our minds can kick down the door of possibilities and force the body to destroy a set with frightening clarity. The ability was always there, yet we must learn how to awaken it every training session. The fire rises, brother.

Your co-workers have an idea of who you are, some kind of abstraction. But there’s more to you, something illusory that no one can understand. You can stand there smiling while shaking hands, feeling their flesh gripping yours. Your lifestyles may even be comparable, but the truth is that they know nothing of the internal struggles, battles, triumphs, and failures you regularly feel. They’ll never understand the significance of cold, rough steel. Instead of bothering with these true moments of clarity, you smile again and ask how their Tuesday evening was. It’s easier that way.

54 thoughts on “Know Thyself”

  1. “There’s a reason we pay close attention to our diet and spend evenings working on mobility. There’s a reason we read and talk about strength training every day online.” It’s like you’ve been watching me…

    Epic treatise

  3. The final paragraph rings brutally true for me. My co-workers know nothing about my lifting – they simply wouldn’t understand. Sure, they know things about me, like my love of backpacking and military history, but strength training…. they just wouldn’t get it. They’re all middle-aged dads, and frankly, most of the general public associate gym-going with either 1) fat loss or 2) bodybuilding vanity – a pursuit fit only for callow boys, boys with time for trivial hobbies. Until they’ve woken up at 5am to lift before work, walked out a crushingly heavy squat, or chugged 2 gallons of water every day before a meet, they won’t get it.

    • You assume that middle-aged dads are incapable of putting in work and/or understanding this post. The truth is I can identify with this post just as much as you can, if not more. I’m the guy you see in the gym at 5am. You may ignore me because I’m not throwing around as much weight as you and am older, but I can assure you I’m putting in work and enduring the same internal struggles.

      • Bro, your jimmies are rustled. The truth is most middle-aged men are overweight and sedentary. If they go to a gym at all, they’re usually male cardio bunnies trying to work off 25 years of Milwaukee’s Finest on the treadmill. Might throw in some curlz at the end. Even in my neighborhood gym, they all tell me “Can’t squat anymore, my knees are shot”.
        Not all middle-aged dads are as cool as you and me.
        Brofist.

        The gym at 5AM? Not even once.

        • You’re definitely right. I guess I was really just trying to vent about my shitty age and place in life. If I had a nickel for every one of my friends that told me they can’t squat because a) their knees are shot or b) they don’t play football anymore and don’t need to. Now I’m the crazy one because I want to lift as much as I possibly can as often as I possibly can, and because I like to do conditioning work that is more intense than two sets of doubles tennis. The pussification of America.

          • My apologies, Dump, that didn’t quite come out right. Certainly, there’s older dads who kick ass in strength training – and for you guys who are raising your kids and training like a beast, I must offer the highest-of-high-fives.

            Unfortunately, too many older guys use their age or dad-status as an excuse *not* to train. I often hear “oh, I used to lift, but I got my wife and kids to take care of,” aka – if you have time for the gym, you must not have real responsibilities.

  5. Agreed with everyone else on all counts, so true. The moment right before a max effort lift is probably the most emotional thing in the world to me, and there’s no comparison between myself in that moment versus in everyday life.

  6. As i clean and jerk at the gym on the only weightlifting platform.
    Guy at gym “Hey man, there’s blood running down your tube sock.”
    Me- “I know.”
    Guy at gym “Shouldn’t you go patch that up?”
    Me “I will when I’m done.”

  9. There is an idea of Maslow; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me, only an entity; that delicate, beautiful being staring back at me in the mirror, which is why I always practice my posing routine upon return home from a high volume session.

    True story: I started using moisturizer daily after seeing this movie several years ago. Haven’t moved up to ice pack yet though.

    Side note–if you haven’t read Arnold’s new autobiography, quit wasting your time and go get it. I can’t begin to explain how motivating it’s been so far, and I’m only to the halfway point where he first meets Maria. I almost don’t want to keep reading about what happens next and instead just re-read the sections where he talks about overcoming the odds in his shitty town in rural Austria and feeling deep satisfaction from the pain of hard training. I was about to leave the gym after two hours of TM volume day yesterday, but then thought about Arnold and went back to the dumbell rack for some finishing sets. Probably didn’t do much but I thorougly enjoyed it.

  11. “Chalk floats softly through the air. The thumping of your heart is all you hear, all you feel. You step to the bar and place your hands on it, feeling the cold knurling on callused hands. The whirling hurricane of emotion settles into the eye of the storm, the peaceful moment when you have to make a decision to begin.”

    And then some cunt walks up and asks “got many sets left bruv?”, ruining the moment.

    Or is that just my gym?

    • or when a big group of bros are walking by all abreast and no one wants to fall behind becuase they all have themselves convinced theyre all alpha’s so instead of falling back one of them is forced TO WALK ACROSS YOUR PLATFORM WHILE YOU’RE ON IT ABOUT TO DO A REP AND ALL THEY MANAGE IS A SLIGHT NOD AND “SRRY BRA” or a “MINEZ BADZ MEHN”

  14. I like this. I’ve been thinking of squatting as more an addiction, with some sort of heavy self loathing involved. Kind of like priests whipping their backs with a cat o’nine tails. I’ll try introspection instead.

  15. If you haven’t yet read Stephen Pressfield’s books, especially Gates of Fire and the War of Art, you medically need to. The War of Art looks at first glance like it’s about just creative people, but it isn’t; it’s about anyone who decides they’re going to improve themselves by taking on a serious challenge. If this post resonates even remotely with you, go pick these up.

    http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/
    http://www.stevenpressfield.com/gates-of-fire/

  16. Nice post. It’s true no one understands…or cares. It’s just me and the iron out back in my garage…dog days or dead of winter, putting in the work, chipping away.

  18. It’s interesting because in the same way that ‘non-lifters’/the herd/society doesn’t understand the 70sbig type of crowd; I also do not understand ‘them’ (meaning people that don’t think lifting is important). That’s not to sound arrogant, I just feel like you all would understand that misunderstanding.

  19. Yes.

    The feeling of solitutude amongst the masses is a significant one. Most people are impressed and can understand things measured in miles or kilometers, but few know what 3, 4, or 5 hundred pounds really means to you and me.

  25. “You need to do cardio. You can’t just lift.”
    “Eggs are bad for you. They have lots of cholesterol.”
    “Why do you only work out your lower body?”
    -Normal comments/questions from my co-workers. They are experts.

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