Duke simply enjoys training. I get it. So do I. It’s a hobby and good for my mental health. I choose to prioritize my training over other things in life. It’s a choice. I would like to be huge and lean and be able to eat whatever I want, but even if I had that, I would still probably train… probably CrossFit since it has no rhyme or reason to it in terms of progression and balance.
So if Duke could take a pill to reach a goal in life then it would not be to achieve his training goals. He might pick something else.
This is similar to my view on the topic. I’ve decided that I would take lots of money over the pill…or perhaps my pill would make me successful as something that also gave me lots of money while requiring me to spend very little time at work.
So? I go to the gym to get bigger and stronger + the benefits i listed. That doesnt make any sense to me at all as to why i cant enjoy the process?
Like what?
Wanting to get bigger and stronger check
Willingness to stuff down as much food as it takes check
Make sacrificies so i can train check
I still dont understand why i cant enjoy the process? Im willing to endure suffering to achieve in the gym? Suffering is apart of the process of what the gym does for me + trying to get bigger and stronger, hence i enjoy it.
None of this is suffering. This is not “hard work”. It is simply expending more effort than the average gym-goer. Not going out with your friends or watching netflix is not sacrifice.
The really hard stuff is outside of the gym. You are willing to take a pill to make that go away so you can do what you enjoy.
When it becomes a slog to get to the gym, and it will, that’s when enjoyment turns into a chore. I’m not sure you will be singing the same tune then.
When i come home from school all i want to do is sleep and watch tv because im tired af and dont feel like doing shit. This is only the beginning, when i get more responsibilities i will be even more exhausted. I despise the fuck out of school even though i know i need it. The only thing i look forward to in my day because i have shitty school is going to the gym. When i work full time it will be no different. When i have kids and a mrs i will then look forward to them but i will still sacrifice a little bit of time to train because it is a hobby and i want to be big and strong and will do what i have to . What @Frank_C said is pretty much spot on.
True story. I was sitting on my bike this morning at 5AM thinking “why the fuck am I doing this.”
At least, it was quiet. Mickey Mouse Club House was not on. No one had shit themselves (that I was aware of anyway…) and I was not at work answering emails or sitting in endless meetings. So, in that sense, I was enjoying the hell out of:
So, it isn’t a grind at all for you then? Right? It sounds like it’s your favorite activity.
It would be like me saying sex is such a grind. “Jesus, who does my wife think I am?!? She wants it again??? It’s only my favorite activity after all. Such a grind!”
This conversation is very interesting and pretty funny if you think about it. I just don’t understand how doing your favorite thing is considered a grind. “The Grind” aka “The Suck” is not enjoyable, lol. It’s a necessity to achieve an outcome. People like to play basketball. I’ve never met a player that enjoyed the pre-season grind to get into playing shape. You know, like running suicides until you puke (something that’s happened to me).
It is difficult for these two sentences to co-exist in a logical universe. In the first one, the thing you look forward to is sleeping and watching tv. In the second one, the thing you look forward to is going to the gym.
Yup. It reminds me of when I got my CMA license. I spent hour upon hour reading, going through practice question after practice question, and taking practice exams. Wife and son playing in the living room, I’m studying. Friends want to hang out, nope, I’m studying. So on and so forth.
When I passed both parts of the exam, it was such a relief and I actually felt like I had accomplished something. I reached my goals, but the grind to get there fucking sucked and I would not want to do it again.
This is what I’m saying. You are still being motivated to go to the gym because, unlike other things in life, you are still experiencing noob gains. Different workouts are new and interesting to you. There is room for experimentation, new movements, methods etc. You are figuring new stuff out.
Once this has passed and you figure out what works for you, which will eventually become boring, it will be like mundane shit you have to do in real life. What is going to sustain your continued participation and effort for years? I think you will end up doing stuff to sustain your interest which will not have much benefit towards you end goal.
This is why I wrote that definition of “the grind” involving immersing yourself in your studies above. Would you do it? Half of it? The end result would be worth the effort and sacrifice.
If you approach this with the mindset of “enjoying the process” or being passionate about it, I’m not sure you will succeed. When the process ends up sucking, passion normally exits the building.
However, if you approach this as a responsibility, understanding that it’s a shitty process but well worth the end goal, just like you should be doing with your studies, then I think the odds will be in your favor.
I guess shit only makes sense in my head lol. Id rather sleep and watch tv because im tired- but go to the gym because i need to/ enjoy it. 20 Rep squats sign me up. Spewing sign me up. Passing out sign me up. I enjoy the process regardless of what i may need to do because it is my hobby.
That is fine, but because of that, what you are experiencing could not be considered a grind.
This past training block, at least once per session I have caught myself saying “I’d rather be anywhere else but here right now”. It sounds as though you would say the opposite, no?
That isnt the only reason i enjoy training though.
Why would i get bored? I eventually plan on competing in strongman and powerlifting. Even though il figure out what works for me eventually thats fine. Even now doing exercises like front squats i hate crushing my clavicles and half choking but i do it to get bigger and stronger. I enjoy getting bigger and stronger, i enjoy what training does for me mentally.
Your training sessions look like hell. Correct though, i would rather train through hell then not be there. Although i still despise half dying haha.
as well he should have. When I said I’d sacrifice 10-15 years of my life for the pill, it was literal.
@duketheslaya , the problem you’re really having is simply that you BELIEVE the near-linear gains are not the reason you go to the gym, but at the same time, you have no way to know that because you’ve never EXPERIENCED otherwise. The 5kg per 6 months thing is pretty funny too. I mentioned earlier that I recently missed 595. I’ve missed less than that in the last year as well. A couple years ago I hit 625. How are you going to deal with it when you go to the gym consistently, and start UNDERPERFORMING? Are you sure it’s going to be ok? I’m not so sure. I can tell you it’s not very fun. That’s where the grind really kicks in.
And let’s not forget that you haven’t even been consistent. Go a year without missing more than 5-10 gym sessions. Something along those lines. I’ve got several years that I’ve put together where that was the case. You’ve taken lay-offs when things are hard. I just don’t think you’re ever particularly honest with yourself about these things. Most kids your age aren’t, so it’s not surprising. But try to understand yourself a little better, maybe.
You’re just getting physics all wrong. It’s possible that the kid was never lifting a load heavier than 300 lbs or so, and that the car never lost contact with the ground/his dad. All he had to do was take enough pressure off of his dad for his dad to forcefully slide out from under the car, not lift the car entirely. THIS is what I assume happened here. Basically a 1" 400 lbs deadlift, at best. That’s why I think your thinking is very faulty. If 3 of the 4 wheels were still on the ground, then only about a 1/4 of the, say, 2200 lbs car was being lifted. And if that quarter barely moves, then it’s nothing like a deadlift.
careful brah. you’re gonna accidentally say the exact same thing we’ve been saying this entire time. That we do it for the results, not the process.
And yea, as everyone else has said. As long as the gym is your favorite place to be, as long as you can say ‘20 rep squats sign me up!’ then it’s not a grind. period. But I PROMISE YOU. IT WILL BECOME A GRIND. You’ve never had an injury, right? like a REAL injury. A tear. A break. Something you see in the mirror years later. All these things will affect how you look at this activity.
When I was in college lifting, the gym was never a grind. I couldn’t wait to get out of class to go. Like you, it was my favorite activity. For years. I made tangible progress almost every time I touched a weight. I felt awesome. And so yea, I could say what you are, that it was my favorite thing to do and I also thought nothing would ever change, and I’d just love it in the exact same way forever. It just doesn’t work that way, for anyone, and you don’t seem to be willing to accept that YOU WILL CHANGE YOUR MIND. And when you do, you will either stop going to the gym, or it will be a grind you overcome. Those are eventually the only options.
Imagine how much worse you would have felt if you’d been pedaling.
+++++++++++++
I’m sorta standing with the duke on this one. (Disclaimer: I may be doing so in hopes of ingratiating myself with him enough to where he takes me off the “zero chill” list. I can’t have a 15 y.o. thinking I’m not cool.) If grinding is defined as working out when you don’t want to, I’ve never grinded (ground?) a day in my life. I have always loved the process. Someone once told me they “admired” my discipline, working out so consistently. I told them that was like admiring me for eating potato chips. No discipline required.
I still look forward to, and am excited by the prospect of, every single workout. Maybe even more so now that, at 55, off in the distance I can see the end of my lifting career. Like athletes in general, every lifter dies twice.
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