I remember when I first started contemplating lifting weights, it was when I was in 5th grade and just started playing football. It was obvious to me that I was much smaller than everyone else, so I thought I should get bigger to get better. I can remember using my brother’s dumbbells in his room doing sets of curls every day. I never really saw any results so I gave it up.
Once I hit high school I was introduced to the weight room. I had no idea what people were doing so I was sheepishly sitting off to the side for a while before I figured out some stuff to do by observation. I never really had any clue what to do as everyone was doing something different, but the bench press seemed to be the barometer by which everyone measured each other by.
Lifting at this point in time was never anything I did consistently or for any real purpose. It just seemed to be something to do while sitting around after school. It wasn’t until later when I started lifting out of boredom that I discovered the true power of lifting weights.
Lifting weights is a metaphor for success in anything
Ever wonder why a lot of people out there don’t lift weights or stay healthy? It’s because it’s a slow and steady process that requires consistent hard work. If you are able to apply yourself to going to the gym, and work hard for the rest of your life, you will have great results. This is the secret to accomplishing anything.
When you first start out at the gym, you aren’t familiar with your surroundings. You have to start out with low weight because you aren’t strong yet. It’s can be very intimidating and awkward. One of two things happen at this point, you either figure out what to and start lifting weights, or you go home.
Every session at the gym you become more familiar with it and it becomes more routine. You increase your weight the more you go and as a result, your power increases.
After a few years of consistent work put in of increasing your weights, you are an accomplished lifter and much more powerful.
This concept can be used for success in anything be it a blog, a business venture, or working on your art. The difference is that there’s very very low risk in going to the gym. There’s little money on the line and it takes very little time. All it is is just showing up and doing work. This is why lifting weights is a great way to introduce success principles to anyone and should be the base of everyone’s life.
The equation is very simple. Consistent hard work over x time period = positive results in anything.
Lifting is paramount for young teens
Back when I was a teenager, I had no idea what to do when it came to lifting weights. The coaches were basically like, “There’s the weight room, have fun.” I remember in football there was one coach who lifted and was a jacked guy. He pretty much led by example though and didn’t really explain things to everyone.
Another memory I had that always stuck with me was that the “Field” coach would always try and kick people out of the weight room to train his athletes after practice. What was interesting was that he always stressed doing radical stuff like squats and deadlifts. He was only interested in training the field athletes though and wouldn’t entertain anyone else getting in on the knowledge.
This was really unfortunate because lifting weights can be an easy way to expose young people to the principle of hard work paying off. There’s a lot of variables in kids other activities such as school work or sports, but with lifting weights, it’s all about just showing up, doing work, and everyone will get results.
In high school, we had to take a class called “health”. It was an absolute joke!
The first half of the year we’d have to learn about nutrition, diet, and how exercise works to make us healthy. The second half of the year we played volleyball, basketball, or soccer. On the surface, this sounds great. The problem was that you didn’t have to participate in the activities if you didn’t want to and it only lasted a half hour each week. Another problem was that the teacher was a large out of shape woman.
How serious could I take this person trying to teach me about health when they were fat? Ideally, the guy who taught field should have been teaching the health classes because he actually knew what he was talking about and was totally in shape.
Teens are right at that age where they are getting optimal levels of their hormones, so it’s the perfect time to start growing their body. Once you start getting up in age those hormone levels drop off and it will be harder to grow. If you grow your body young, it will stay with you the rest of your life.
Lifting is Meditation
I have talked about meditation before and how it helped me stop panic attacks I was having. However, one of the best forms of meditation is just lifting weights at the gym.
Meditation at the gym is a very natural thing. It’s just you and the iron. You either do work, or you don’t. Lifting weights forces you to be very in the moment because if you aren’t and your mind wanders, a 45 lb plate could slam into your neck. Controlling your mind is essential to being able to lift heavy ass weights. Controlling your breath for maximum power is another critical component to lifting.
After you are done you have that same rush of endorphins after you are done meditating. If you’re a guy who isn’t into the whole woo woo aspect of meditation, just meditate in the gym by pushing heavy stuff around.
Lifting is being Healthy
I just recently turned 31, and what I can tell you is that a lot of my friends have become soft because they don’t do any physical activity. This shouldn’t be too surprising because a lot of these guys are sitting around all day working. The real reason they have gotten soft is because they got comfortable in their routine and lost momentum from their high school years.
If you are reading this in your 20’s right now and have stopped lifting weights, get started back up. Trust me on this, the ability to slug down multiple beers and eat whatever you want diminishes greatly once you start hitting the late 20’s early 30’s.
A great way to avoid becoming a fat out of shape person into middle age is by lifting weights. Lift heavy weight and force your body to respond the the weight. This response uses energy to heal your muscles and make them bigger. Using energy makes you lose fat on your body.
If you are coming to lifting weights from the position of a skinny guy like I am, check out this post as I have already discussed this.
Lifting is Health Insurance
Health Insurance in America is getting completely insane. Obamacare was passed and is a complete scam. We’re so free here that the government is forcing everyone to buy insurance. Who benefits from this?
As a result, I created my own health insurance plan that is designed to stop one of the biggest problems in our everyday health through our lives – degenerative disease. Lifting weights is just one tier in my health insurance plan. Lifting weights for the rest of your life will leave you healthier than 90% of the people around you. Sign up today merely by going to a gym and lifting weights.
Never stop lifting
Lifting is a lifetime job. You’re doing this to be healthy in the long term. If I told you that if you lifted weights every week for the rest of your life, you’d be healthy for that period, would you do it? Seems like an easy choice for me, but most people don’t do this. Yet, they are scared shitless to leave a job because they’ll lose their health insurance.
Just consider lifting weights as a part time job. There’s no excuse to not be lifting in this day and age. This job will take a minimum of 3 hours a week. There are so many gyms around now that are pretty inexpensive and they have pretty good equipment.
Just get started now, build that momentum up, and make it consistent.
-Tate
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