What’s My Motivation For Lifting Weights?
On my facebook wall, Tony asked me what my motivation was. It was a follow-up to a conversation we had on the weekend about lifting weights. I mentioned to him that one day I would like to dead lift 500 lbs to which he said “good for you” followed quickly with “why?” He made the accurate claim that there was no practical reason for me to ever need to lift 500 lbs.
Sure it helps my cycling - the stronger I am, the faster I will be able to climb hills. Being strong now is also going to help me age more gracefully - provided I do no harm to my body. I like that lifting weights burns calories so I stay lean, and I also like the muscle development that it promotes. These are all good reasons and if I lifted for just one of these, I think I’d have my motivation.
My primary reasons now are about personal integrety and optics.
I coach athletes of different ages and levels now and it is no longer enough to simply know what I’m talking about. I need to LOOK like I know what I’m talking about. We’ve all seen the fat personal trainer, the skinny strength coach, the gym at the gym with internally rotated shoulders who’s telling everyone what they are doing wrong - basically the people who consider themselves experts in something that they don’t look anything like - they may know what are talking about, they just look like they don’t follow their own advice so it’s tough to take them seriously. Given that I work with a lot of young people who couldn’t possible know if I’m knowledgable, I strive to LOOK like I am knowledgable. That’s the optics component, I try to make the visual impression that says to those who do not know that I do know.
The personal integrety component is more critical from my point of view. As much as I love coaching I need to be a sales man - if I can’t sell my services I’ll have no one to coach. I also need to sell my clients on my advice / programs. I know from my past experience that I have extreme difficultly selling things I do not believe in. Being an extremely passionate person, I can be very convincing. However, using this passion to convince someone to comply with a suggestion I know nothing about leaves me feeling kind of greasy, so greasy in fact that I have a tough time letting go of the interaction later. Basically, I’m blessed with the ability to convince others of things but feel good about myself only when I believe in what I’ve convinced them to do. This pairing means that I’m not going to be selling cars, sofas or cell phones.
Experience seperates wisdom from knowledge. This is what is critical for me. Until I actually dead lifted twice my body weight, I had no idea what it was like. Once I did, I realized a lot of things about myself, the movement and the potential for injury and progress. Having had these lessions, I’m in a much better position to coach others on how they should lift very heavy weight. I’m also in a position to speak with authority about the carryover benefits of lifting heavy - you’ll be faster, your other lifts will go up, you’ll enjoy going to the gym more, life will be a little easier than it was before.
It is only through doing that I can honestly coach other people on how to and why they should. Coaching from a place of no experience isn’t doing a service to your athletes, clients or yourself, so get out there and practice what you preach!
July 13th, 2009 07:11
I can finally understand your motivation and I definitely appreciate the merits. With that being said, I have reservations that many of your clients have the necessity to dead lift 500 pounds
Just like the weight on the scale is merely a number… but not necessarily reflective of your true body composition and health… I think the weight on the end of the barbells are equally irrelevant (other than to know for the sake of knowing).
In the end, the only number that really matters is that there is continued measured growth. So in that regard, knowing the “number” is important. Because even when you finally accomplish 500 pounds… I doubt you’re just going to stop there
But best of luck accomplishing that goal. Because setting goals is an important part of the any process. Cheers.
July 13th, 2009 07:35
Hey Tony,
Most of the people I train will never need to lift 500 lbs, but many of them would be better at their sport if they could (but not all of them). For O and D linemen, no one would argue that they will perform better if they are massively strong, the same applies to full backs, running backs and sprinters.
The tough part is finding the balance between strength and power - it doesn’t matter that you can lift 500 lbs if you move slowly.
My observational experiences, along with my personal experiences, backs up the approach that first you build strong muscles and then you make those muscle fast by lifting lighter weights as quickly as possible.
You are right about numbers being numbers. So long as one is lifting safely and the load is increasing over time, they are improving.
Also worth mentioning that what is ideal for health and what is ideal for sport are often two very different things. Most sports injuries occur because someone is doing something that will make them better at their sport. It’s kind of a paradox and the role of a trainer is to minimize the risks while maximizing the gains. But at times the two things are mutually exclusive.
Pat