Born to Lift
Are we bodybuilders genetically pre-disposed to lifting weights? Is it inherent in our DNA? Were we subliminally programmed as babies or very young children to have a prediliction toward lifting iron? Or is something in our personalities that makes us want to linger in closed, artificially lighted rooms with groups of sweating, grunting men and women - all of whom are engaged in the same obsessive ritual as ourselves?
I have a friend who is an avid runner. To him, the thought of devoting two hours to lifting weights is roughly akin to having wisdom teeth extracted sans anethesia. Yet, he will think nothing of spending that same two hours running the Convention Center stairs, expending enough energy to power a square city block. He thinks I’m crazy, and if truth be told, I think the same of him. Running simply does not float my boat. Just the thought of running is enough to make me cringe. Even now, writing about it, I have gooseflesh. I imagine my ambulatory friend has similar feelings about taxing his muscles past the fatigue point.
Yet, though we have chosen different activities, we are very much alike, he and I. We both do something for the pure love and joy of it. We both want to achieve something, and although our end goals are different, the paths we take to reach those goals are strikingly similar.
To me, all of us who sweat and grunt and strain and jump are all brothers under the skin. We chase an ideal. We all seek the Holy Grail. We simply have differing visions of it.
May 13, 2008 at 10:05 pm
That last paragraph says it all.