I see a rather large divide in the training world today. You don’t
have to be brilliant to notice it, it’s rather obvious.
On one side you have
the people who train to be strong, who train no matter what, who
train in the cold and the heat and are always striving to maximize
their strength and readiness. They love physical challenges – in
fact, they yearn for them. They love all types of combat sports and
enjoy seeing warriors battle each other, the blood and the will to
win of the elite athletes. These folks also are well-read and they
get it, they know that nobody is out to save them. They understand
that it’s all up to them. They thrive on common sense. They are
independent, and they think for themselves. They are self-starters
and finishers.
One the other side you
have everybody else in the gym: the influencers and “pretty” boys
and girls, the posers and selfie-takers and butt-injectors. They
don’t understand the drive that it takes. They are not part of the
first group, the folks that are slaving away in their garages or
basements or dungeon-like-gyms every training session because they
know – they just know – that being strong is what it’s all about,
the base of the pyramid, and without strength, there is nothing.
They know that strength
comes first. They know that without strength there is no
independence, there is no way to keep others safe, to be responsible
for others’ care and safety. Weakness just doesn’t work, life doesn’t
work without strength, and here’s the rub: You must be strong ,
because the stronger will always survive over the weak. Harder to
kill, right?
They get up early to
train when everyone else in the house is still sleeping, because they
have a family and responsibilities to care for later in the morning
and all day long. Or they take care of their daily responsibilities
and then venture into the weight room when most others are finished
with their day. They squat and press and pull, not for any
recognition or a pat on the back. Nobody, including their family,
understands why they do it day after day, this obsession that calls
to them.
And the funny thing is,
they don’t care if anyone knows or appreciates that they train or
not. They sort of like it that nobody outside of their family knows
that they train. It makes them feel like they have separated
themselves from the masses. They do it because they know that it is
necessary for their survival, just like it was necessary for their
ancestors’ survival. Their ancestors had to be strong to survive, and
they feel the same way, only the instruments are different, theirs
were the plow and the ax, ours are the barbell – the iron.
They see social media
as a way to learn, not a way to promote themselves. Most of them
don’t even have accounts except to keep track of high school
friends. Posting their training sessions seems like bragging to them,
and like Hemingway said about writing, “You’ll lose it, if you
talk about it,” meaning that some things hold their power because
they are kept private, that they become less special when made
public.
And then there’s still
another side, that looks down on us. Those that don’t put a premium
on being strong and able to defend themselves, about being resilient
and able-bodied. They still hang on to the myth that the government
is out to help them, that cow flatulence is ruining the Earth, that
those who lift weights are daft and muscle-bound and narcissistic,
unable to think for themselves and blinded by toxic ways. Training
with weights is silly to them – better to be helpless and weak, and
a complainer, I guess.
This group is guided by
their emotions, and ad hominem is their fail-safe strategy when they
begin to lose every debate. Common sense is out, going with their
feelings is in. It is a losing strategy, always being on the
defensive, always searching for a reason not to take charge, always
looking for sympathy and focusing on being a victim instead of a
victor. They are stifled by inactivity, paralyzed by their weakness.
Too much talk, not enough action. They have an aversion to achieving
anything worthwhile through effort, especially gaining strength. They
take the painless path. We know that with the painless path you get a
lack of self-discovery, of self-mastery. And we all know that nothing
worth a damn comes without some pain. It is easy to be that way, but
it is not the way to be.
It seems
counterintuitive to me that being weak and dependent on others is the
best way to be.
I used to wonder why
being strong isn’t important to some people, but now I am beyond
questioning it all. I have come to the understanding that there is
Us, and there is Them, and we should just focus on making ourselves
better. After a while, it becomes mental masturbation to focus on why
they don’t understand it. Part of being in this group of go-getters
is to not look back and question, but to just grab the bar and go.
It is time. Time to
rededicate yourself if you have lost your way. It is time to push
yourself more than ever, time to reach down and dig out the desire to
mold yourself into a machine of strength and might and sinew, to
become the one that others look to for leadership and clear thinking.
All of this is developed by those training sessions where you develop
a will to win, forged by the discipline of the relationship between
you and the Iron. This challenge can be seen as mostly physical, yes,
but the mental battle of always being there, of earning a
daily win, of conquering a seemingly insurmountable task set in
front of you by you is the key here, and is the clear path to
developing a body and mind that can’t be defeated.
