Every time I stop, my quality of life drops like a lead weight.
I have a sort of internal battle over this, but I love watching the numbers go up. They can’t forever and they won’t, but for the time being I find slipping another 2.5-5lb onto the bar incredibly gratifying.
At the same time I know the numbers mean nothing and arriving, effort, and consistency are everything.
Regardless, apart from god sleep, pushing myself with barbell training is the single thing I can point to that dramatically improves my mental and physical health.
Don't get hung up on the numbers. What's gratifying now also has the power to be very demotivating later.
Fall back to 75% or 50% every now and then and be conscious that it's not bad at all, but still progress.
I don't know where you are in your lifting career, but it pays 5x later on, when numbers don't matter anymore. You'll be amazed how quickly you can build strength back up after a break or injury or how much muscle is still "just there".
You start lifting to look better, to attract women. You keep lifting for yourself, to get these numbers up. Finally, you lift for no reason whatsoever, because you cannot imagine not doing it. Every one of these steps is great.
Absolutely! That's my story right there. In my mind this is sort of the process of acquiring any kind of wisdom. We inadvertently discover so many good things, and eventually stick with it because it becomes a sort of intrinsic knowledge that it needs to be done in order to live a good life.
I don't think lifting weights would popularly fall into the category of being a wise thing to do, but I'm sticking to it. Conditioning your body is key to living your best life, and being healthy enough to help those around you live theirs.
It's funny because I actually deadlifted the most I've ever had the day of my first date with my now girlfriend. It acted as a good nerve calmer. "If I can lift all this weight and have come this far, surely I can handle a first date" .
I agree completely. I guess I'm around 15 years in and I've had enough setbacks, mental and physical, to know that just making it from the bed in the morning to the barbell at some point in the day is excellent on its own. Regardless, I get a real kick out of that feedback - seeing evidence of my strength increasing.
> You'll be amazed how quickly you can build strength back up
You're not kidding. My most recent break was my longest, and I was dreading coming back to it. I felt like a hot sack of garbage, any exercise was awful, and I was soft as it gets. But maybe 2 months after I started up again, my lifts were not all that far from where I left them. I had no idea I had it in me. I guess I took almost 3 years off from any regular lifting (had a baby and life got away from me).
These days I don't really lift for anything other than strength and general well-being, though I started with a pretty explicit focus on building muscle, haha. I stick to a fairly basic 3x3 routine rotating a handful of compound lifts, then I've got a handful of calisthenics-based exercises I've come to really enjoy. Weighted pull ups, dips, push ups, some ring exercises, etc. I keep my reps low there too, usually between 5 and 10.
I really love 3x3 these days because I find I can go hard without overdoing it. I used to do a 5x5 routine and sometimes, shit, I just don't want the extra reps at all. I don't need them. I'm there to condition my body, not beat the hell out of myself. With 3x3 I'm arguably stronger than I've ever been, less muscular, and definitely less injured. I never got hurt too much, but those nagging pains and aches aren't as much of a thing anymore even though I'm older and shittier than ever. It's definitely an individual choice, though. Some people love the higher rep, lighter weight thing. I'm a slow, lazy, poorly motivated person who's pretty please if they just manage to show up.
I used to have this mindset that the only thing that matters are the numbers going up. This was probably due to Mr getting all gung ho about starting strength when i first started lifting. I think this has actually served to prevent me from getting motivated to lift nowadays. I still get this feeling in the back of my kind saying "what's the point if you're lifting only half of what you used to?" . I've slowly tried to transition to the mindset that lifting at all on a particular day is a success.
Same for me. I started lifting again a month or so ago and started just feeling better mentally. Then I just lost the motivation for a bit and have stopped for a few weeks. It's hard to put my finger on it but I just don't feel as good without lifting
Bodyweight fitness is also a great way to start. Until you're pretty far along, it's about as effective for gaining strength as weights, and has other benefits (balance, flexibility, coordination, etc).
