It’s cool at first, you start working out and you feel noticeably better over time. You see gains and think: ‘this is great.’
But then something happens: you start to hate the gym.
After a while, repetitive lifting of heavier and heavier weights begins to feel like torture. You keep ripping and rebuilding your muscles — you experience long term fatigue; your body wants you to stop. But if you stop you lose your looks.
And so it becomes this unhealthy cycle of body image vs. body health.
All guys who are jacked manage to keep this nag at bay, but they have probably become addicted to their look in the mirror. The drastic diet plan required to maintain god-like bodies is actually quite rough. Repetitive eating of lean meats like chicken, plus carbs and vegetables like brown rice and broccoli as infinitum.
After a certain point you begin to wonder to yourself, ‘is it worth it?’
You’re never big enough, and eventually you may need to begin taking anabolic steroids to go to the next level. And so on forever.
Meanwhile you are starving your body of healthy fats and wearing down your joints — especially the wrists.
If you go into a gym and watch guys lift, they are not happy. They have become slaves to the weight rack all to impress a woman. At least it begins that way, but then it never stops.
It becomes all out drag war for glory where self-sacrifice for the title is the name of the game.
It’s definitely not healthy, but it’s also understandable. I have no opinion yet other than I feel the drag on my body as I continue the grind of lifting every other day, adding 20-30 pounds each few weeks.
My shirts don’t fit anymore, except for ones with perfect cuts.
But most oat of all, I miss the cardio I had as a varsity athlete. I think that’s what lifting should be all about rather than pure strength.
As such I’m probably going to grab a personal trainer to get me oriented for a sport rather than engage in aimless lifting all the time.
Anyway, I had to get this off my chest. ✌🏻
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