Monkey Blog

It’s pretty amusing to me that a lot of what I assumed to be true about weightlifting was completely wrong, not to mention the things I didn’t know at all.

• I assumed everyone would be focused on what the gym newbie was doing.  I was surprised to find out that no one cares what you are doing.  Let me repeat that.  No one cares what you are doing.  I put off joining a gym for years because I thought it was only a place for jocks.  Then when I finally joined a gym I was really self conscious at first about how much I was lifting.  I was embarrassed because I was using weight that was so much lighter than what some of the monsters around me were using.  I slowly realized that NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU ARE DOING. That person over there?  They’re just trying to finish up their set so they can get home and watch Lost.  That person over yonder?  They’re so busy staring at themselves in the mirror that they wouldn’t notice if Attila the Hun rode through the gym on an elephant.  The only times I can recall anyone caring what I was doing concerned gym regulars.  If the gym regulars see you coming back week after week they’ll know you’re serious and respect you.  I’ve gotten some pats on the back for improving.  Everyone who is big started out small.

• I assumed that going to the gym would be miserable but it was just something I had to put up with to look like I wanted look.  For the first month or so this is generally true.  Everything is new and awkward.  Then there’s the soreness.  Oh my goodness.  You’re going to ache in places you never knew you could ache.  I was so sore after my first leg day that I could barely walk up a flight of stairs two days later.  It’s a whole different story after you get past this hazing period. It was pretty amazing to me that one day going to the gym flipped from being ’something I HAVE to do’ to ’something I WANT to do’.  Sure it feels great, builds character, relieves stress, blah blah.  What really lit a fire under me was seeing results.  You start to see results and think “holy ****, maybe I really CAN do this.”  I recently switched to working out to four times a week instead of three.  I wasn’t unhappy with the progress I was making, I just freaking enjoy it.

• I worried that I was too old to start lifting.  I am so embarrassed by this but it is true.  I really thought that the mass train might have left the station without me.  I was 35 when I started.  I’m really glad I found BodySpace.  I was completely amazed when I saw some of the profiles on here.  Of course it’s impressive to see people around your age who are in shape, but what really motivated me were the people who also started “later” in life and made amazing progress.

• I had no idea diet was so important and is ten gazillion times harder than lifting.  It’s not a problem for me to make myself hit the gym.  To make myself take in all the calories I need? Not so easy.  I remember being completely stunned when my personal trainer told me he wanted me to eat five or six times a day.  Although I do struggle with diet I have found that I feel so much better now that I eat cleanly (and eat so much more than I used to).

• I had no idea “the pump” feels so good.  I mean “OMG, I can’t believe this feels so good - good!” Before I joined a gym I was a pushup junkie and that gave me a little taste of what a pump was like, but nothing like what you get from blasting your muscles for an hour at the gym.  When your muscles are pumped up you look great and you feel like a million bucks.  I just want to shake all of my friends that don’t lift and scream “Why would you not want to feel this way???”

• I had no idea most people who start drop out.  The statistics I’ve read have varied, but all of them say over half (some say WAY over half) don’t make it past eight weeks.  That’s really a shame because that’s when I really started noticing changes.  I was really lucky in that I found a trainer that pushed me hard but at the same time made working out fun.  Quitting was never an option.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 10:13 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.