As you bulk up on your manliness one part of your character will want to add a little more weight to certain aspects of your journey.
In your exercise routine you’ll always like adding weight to your bench press; but not so much on your squat (does anybody really like leg day?)
The added weight allows you to measure your gains and losses, giving you something to measure all of your other lifts off of. That one good day where you were completely rested, hydrated, and your calories were just right. A day to measure all other days.
That day gets a lot of weight. That’s your “bench mark,” or “yard stick” by which you measure all other days to come.
You’ll tell yourself, “Man, that was a good day.”
Now stop and think for a minute… what else in your life have you either added weight to OR have removed the weight from something else (member those squats) in order to justify your perception or position on it??
We give weight to so many things… people, days, diets, weight lifting routines… and then we measure ourselves by those self imposed weights (broad shoulders can come in handy) BUT THEN…
the other day happens… the day we fail to meet our bench mark… and then the negativity of that day is so heavy that it can crush your “good day,” along with all of the days in between since then, like a empty beer can.
Why do we slap so many plates of weights onto those days? Why do we allow those days to crush us?
Look at your last bench press. So what if you couldn’t get that last rep in. Were you trying? (No, really trying.) Ok then.
I’ve been finding the days I miss the mark are the days that provide the most beneficial information that allow me to hit that mark the next time.
Maybe you were over tired, under nourished, and a bit dehydrated… because you worked that day, helped your neighbor before going to the gym, and you’ve been waiting for the test results to come back from the hospital.
Oh! That’s why you didn’t have a GREAT workout? I think your fine.
There’s a principle I’ve found along my manly journey that I am starting to place more weight on…
- Get 1% better each day… I look at this as “working on” each aspect of my manliness… putting in the daily reps to be more responsible, to be stronger, did I write, did I do what I was suppose to do today?
As men, our minds add weights and worries, like our bellies add fat… when we’re not paying attention… when we’re not doing reps.
Take a look at where you are today in relationship to your personal weights and measures.
Instead of asking, “How much ya’ bench?”
Ask yourself, “How much weight do I give to my negative thoughts?” “How much weight do I give to being a responsible man?” “How much weight do I give to being a dependable man?”
Just like the excitable teenager in the gym who just keeps slapping on 45’s to impress the girls… we keep slapping on negativity as weight, when we miss a weight or fall short of our personal measures.
The thing you learn, as you mature as a man, is that along with weights & measures you also need those to be balanced out and realistic.
What would happen to that dumb kid if you allowed him to slap on all those 45’s… on only one side of the bar?
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