The Joy of Suffering - Bryce Lane
"The more you suffer, the more you deserve to gain and the more you get; right?
No, in fact its damn stupid and can ruin you workouts and your life. “Noble suffering” is so
ingrained in our culture and the way we think about things its near impossible to
distinguish who we view as hero's from who we view as victims, especially of
themselves.
What does this have to do with weightlifting? The answer is easy. How often do you hear
people talking about the pain and misery of their workouts or of some guy's workout that
makes the whole thing seem more like a mean S&M session than anything any rational
person might ever want to do? Its as if most people think there are old-testament strength
gods that must be appeased in blood sacrifice in the rack to bestow us mercifully with
results. I think this is as “bass-akwards” as anything can be.
Well, there ain't no strength gods folks, we are alone in this big gym and we gotta either
solve our own problems or work together to find our own ways or we are lost and all the
blood and sacrifice in the world ain't gonna help. If the car breaks down, your mechanic
can fix it a lot faster than banging your head bloody on the hood and praying to the
goddess of multi-point fuel injection for mercy.
I've seen lots of people simply kill themselves indiscriminately and without thought in
everything from business, or artwork to the weights and either move painfully slowly or
get nowhere at all at some point or for years. So, what do they do; They try harder, they
figure with more blood on the bar they will “deserve” more strength, flexibility,
endurance or whatever they want. The strength deities will see and reward the sacrifice of
this desperate worshiper and reward him with glowing robes of throbbing muscle. Instead
of trying to solve the problem they slam their head against the wall until either their head
or the wall gives, and we all know how that contest usually turns out.
I think the reality of this is that results come into proportion to the love and interest you
put into what you are doing not some kind of “pain quota”; You take from it in proportion
to the joy you take in what you are doing. One thing about suffering desperate people is
that they don't listen well and they certainly don't pay attention; its easy not to pay
attention to something you hate, something that hurts you where you see no payoff for
doing it in itself. People who enjoy what they are doing, even though it may certainly be
tough at times are paying attention, they are observing, thinking, learning and improving
since they like where they are and what they are doing. Challenges and some kinds of
pain are part of it, but just part of it, something you learn to deal with but not the whole
point itself.
One way to tell a real lifter from the “I do weights” guys is by noting how much they
want to get into the gym, under the bar and on with the job, not out of the gym away from
the bar and out for the count. When you find excuses to work-out and not excuses to toss
it for that day, your chances of success are way up.
Weightlifting is a big world. If you don't like what you are doing find something else; no
amount of pure catharsis is going to get you to the winners circle. Find what you like
doing, honestly like doing. If you have found what you like to do, are paying attention,
are learning and are improving based on what you learn, you are hard to stop. If you go
into the gym each time with a couple of new little details to try, some adjustment or two
based on what you have observed or learned or have new a whole new idea to work with,
you are way ahead of the “zombie-cisers”.
If there are strength gods or goddesses up there I can't imagine that they would mind a
church full of happy people who keep coming back and have stuff to contribute other than
stories of plagues and tribulation."
