Captain Ahab’s BodyBlog

 I have heard this term bandied about and used quite a lot but usually only when it comes to home renovations. I don’t believe I have ever heard it used when it comes to fitness or when attempting to make a body transformation, and so from now on I am going to start utilizing it on a regular basis and stressing how important it is when it comes to fitness.
I bring this up because the other day my wife (bodyspace: judimax) and I were in between sets at the gym and I looked around and for whatever reason or maybe because we were both seating, I decided to see if other people were sweating also. It was about 11:00 AM and there were about 30 people working out with about 10 doing cardio and the other 20 doing some sort of weightlifting exercises.
The temperature in the gym was far from hot but I had sweat running down my back and my wife’s workout top had indications where sweat had soaked through and in looking around we saw only one other person sweating. This was a young man in his early twenty’s who was working his legs and was pushing himself pretty darn hard at this point doing one legged dumbbell squats. My wife and I had been doing a back workout and as always she was pushing me and I was challenging her and there was not much slacking off.
In looking around I saw many of the same people who I normally see at this time of day and they were doing most of the exercises I have come to know them to do and in taking notice I actually saw how little they were working or pushing themselves. I also saw that every single person doing cardio was either reading or watching the TV and not one was breathing hard or had broken a sweat.
A large number of these same people had previously approached either my wife or myself and asked how we had managed to get into such great shape and also how they could achieve the same results. We had taken the time to talk about the Body for Life program we followed and its nutrition, weightlifting and cardio segments along with explaining high intensity cardio and what good form when lifting weights was and how they needed to try to push themselves a little bit more each and every time they either lifted weights or did cardio, or they would not be able to effect positive changes in their bodies. We had actually shown a couple of these folks what we meant by pushing harder and challenging themselves and had them do a work out with us. In looking at these folks I saw a number of them putting very little effort in, in the way of exertion. I saw them lifting very light weights and using poor form, and not sweating and these were both men and women. I saw one man who is always there who uses very heavy weights along with the worst possible form doing his usual 4 to 6 inch biceps thrusts. I can’t call them curls because he bends his back and thrusts his hips as well as keeping his elbows locked and rocks the barbell up and down. Then after 4 to 6 reps and still not sweating he sits down for at least five if not ten minutes before repeating any of the exercises. I have heard this same man complain about not seeing results.
I know that there are a number of people in our gym who really have great bodies and I know these people to push themselves hard when they are working out and I have seen them sweat.
The young man I mentioned a bit earlier who was sweating had a very good body that I am sure many other young men would like to have and I believe he achieved this body through a number of things, one being sweat equity. I know that my wife and I both received our results with the addition of a lot of sweat equity and I am sure that if any others want to achieve good results from their workout regime they also need to put in the required amount of sweat equity.
I guess it doesn’t matter if it is a home renovation or a physical body transformation you won’t get too far without a good old fashioned dose of sweat equity.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.