As promised, in this post I’ll go over my reasons for starting to work out, some reasons that, on average, are not going to “keep you in the fight” for the long game, and some bonus bits and pieces about what keeps me going.
Click here for part 1, just in case you missed it.
I started to work out when I was about 25 years old. Had some attempts when I was a teenager but that didn’t last long. Why? Well, because of unrealistic expectations and goals. Back in my teens I was a bit overweight, had trouble fitting in, the usual teenager problems. So, I thought that looking a certain way would definitely increase my coolness level and help me with pretty much all of my problems.
The main reason, back then, was to look good and to boost my ego (which was kind of messed up, tbh, but I’ll get into that in another post, not fitness related).
I stepped into the gym, found a lot of jacked dudes and I was thinking to myself … hell yeah, after one year I’ll be a beast. Yeah, that didn’t go as planned 🤣
No knowledge/research into the proper technique of the exercises, jumped straight to the bench press - d’oh, obviously! Needless to say, I put about 10 kg on the bar and barely made a few reps. I was like, shoulders hurt, elbows are shaky, arms are trembling … moms spaghetti.
I was kind of demoralized after a few months when I saw … almost no physical results. Sure, I made some strength gains (these are usually the first to unlock 🙂) but nothing outstanding. In that time, steroids weren’t that popular, thank God; otherwise, I would’ve surely been a consumer.
Not to mention that I was seeing the other jacked dudes being able to bench 80, 100 … even 150 kg.
However, I was benching about 40 kg on the flat bench, and a bit more on the decline; around 60 kg tops. Anyway, seeing that in a year I was most likely not going to get to where I wanted, messed up almost my entire motivation.
Point is I didn’t know who I was, I was looking for validation outside and I was hoping that having a “strong”/”tough” physique would help me piece together my self-confidence. Well, as I said in part 1 of this post, “Iron reveals very quickly if you’re a b*tch or not”. Guess who I was … 🤣
So, to conclude, I was a f*cked up teenager who wanted to impress others. I managed for about a year and then … quits. I did learn a lot from my mistakes, but I also managed to mess up my back - ego-lifting @ deadlift, obviously. This mistake would cost me in the long run … but more about that some other time.
Now, to get back to the point of this post, some things you should consider before starting to hit the gym. If you’re doing it to impress others, or to be something that you are not, chances are you will fail! Because it’s not you; change happens first on the inside, and, once it happens, the outside - your behavior / character / actions - will automatically reflect it, without any effort.
Let’s say that you are a skinny guy; you get bullied constantly because you are weak/lack strength to defend yourself. One day you look in the mirror and you say to yourself: “F*uck it! This s*it ends here!”
You start on a journey of self-improvement, fueled by the fire in your heart that you KNOW that you are MORE and you have the POWER to change. Well, friend, there’s a very good chance you will succeed.
Don’t believe me? Does the name Conor McGregor ring a bell? 🙂 Cause he too was bullied and that’s one of the reasons that got him into training.
Now, fast-forward to when I was 25-ish. By this time I kind of figured out who I was and what I wanted (spoiler alert - there’s a good chance that you’ll never know 100% who you are - there’s always that new experience that reveals a new side of yourself, something that you had no idea was in you).
Well, I was not exercising at all, a smoker, and I had (still do) a 9-5 desk job. One winter I caught a flu and that really messed me up - couldn’t breath well, wheezing and I could barely climb 3 flights of stairs.
.
I was so f*cked up, that even sexy time was hard. Well … something clicked and I was like … I have to get back in the gym and exercise or else I’m not gonna make it very far. I felt kind of a cold breath down my neck … probably from this dude 😀
So, my first reason was being healthy (or as healthy as possible, given I am a smoker - I know … oh, the irony); Second reason, I wanted to improve my physique. My girlfriend at the time was smoking hot (she’s my wife now, still smoking hot 😀) and I thought I can do better when it comes to how I look. I knew I could. In a way, she inspired me to improve on this aspect of myself.
This time, my expectations were real. I knew that if I didn’t take it seriously, I would get nowhere. Most importantly, I was not doing it to impress someone else … I was doing it to improve myself, without any f*cks given to what anyone else had to say/think.
That’s a veeeery important point - do it for yourself … to better yourself in any way possible. Physically, mentally, hell … even spiritually 😂. What do I mean by spiritually? Well, for me, working out was, and still is, some sort of active form of meditation. My mind clears … all the BS that happens throughout the day is dissolved when the training begins. It’s like my mind becomes some sort of a void and all the bad thoughts (and the voices 😀) go away.
Next, the satisfaction of being able to “defeat” your old self; in time, you outgrow and outperform yourself; you become a better version of yourself. That’s some powerful stuff when you come to realize it.
Closely tied to this (in terms of improvement) is the fact that weight lifting helped me a lot with my ego - or should I say, it helped me a lot in learning to be humble - this is not a sprint; this is your fight and it doesn’t end …
It's a grind, and, everyday you strive to win against an older version of yourself; so, you must stay humble and not get cocky, because if you get injured ego lifting … guess what … you’re either not going to lift again or you’ll be out of the game for quite some time.
So yeah, those are my reasons … Now, look yourself in the mirror, spend some time on it, and tell me, what are yours? 🙂
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