It was anger, it was sadness, it was emptiness (trying to find a purpose in life maybe), it was hate or you just enjoying it (which i doubt unless you’re a masochist), or maybe you just feel that lifting heavy, being strong is the meaning of your life (the only thing that makes you be SOMEONE), or you just want to plain badass, maybe you love fighting and you also want to become strong thinking that ul start a mma/kickboxing or whatever career in future! (self confidence that being stronger means that ul also be capable of fighting better) and more things, maybe something else motivates you instead of what i writed above!
. it looks cool as shit
. I personally think what the human body can do is incredible so pushing 500 pounds off your chest or standing up with 700 on your back is just insane.
. It’s satisfying when you hit a big number and feels awesome
. and of course, I want to be in the discussion of one of the strongest
why the hell wouldn’t you want to lift heavy?? ( crossfit )
First post on T Nation so this will tell a lot about my motivation.
Lost my sister in 2003 and lost my mother in 2009. Threw me into a dark depression. I was suicidal for a short while and my family got me help. I was in college and living by myself, so the depression caused me to live a lethargic lifestyle and eat to fill the time. Literally ballooned myself. Finally came out of the funk and realized it had been so long since I’d last lifted. A friend of mine got me back into the gym, though we were doing a lot of crossfit style stuff. Then we changed it up with more heavy lifting and I felt awesome. Then my boss gave me a bunch of stuff on powerlifting and told me about elitefts and T-Nation and I’ve realized this is the style of training I’m built for. Every rep I tell myself is for those I’ve lost and to keep me living instead of giving up like I once wanted to. The stronger I get, the healthier I get, the more I feel like I’m making them proud.
In 9 months I’ve done:
Squat: 285 to 475
Bench: 275 to 385
Deadlift: literally didn’t do it, now I’m at 405
Military: 160ish to 220
This was done without set programs and sprinkling in of crossfit style training for months at a time. So with a set program, I’m excited to see where I can go. Starting 5-3-1 this week.
I consider it fighting weakness, self doubt, and pain of loss with strength and motivation.
I just really enjoy doing it. The feeling I have now is the same as when I started, and I’ve never felt burnt-out, mostly because I just plain enjoy training.
Also, being good at something is potent motivation to continue on.
Because I just hate being weak. I grew up weak and vowed to put an end to it. So I’ve pounded away in gyms for over 30 yrs, determined to do whatever it takes. After all those years, have seen progress. Just did 215# squat yesterday, a PR. Bench up to 175 and DL up to 275.
Because I wanna be the strongest man to walk the face of this earth, I wanna be achampion, and I wanna be remembered not neccasarily by everyone but I wanna know I inspired some one any one to get off their ass and go to their limit… I have a long ass way to go.
Ever since a rock fell on my head I’ve made a vow to overcome my arch nemesis gravity! It has become my imperative to lift more and more to defeat him! One day I will be the victor! THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!1!1
No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training?what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. ? Socrates. This, and I fucking love to train and make progression. It makes me feel really good. Plus it’s a lifestyle, it gives me the motivation too live healthy.
[quote]Reed wrote:
Because I wanna be the strongest man to walk the face of this earth, I wanna be achampion, and I wanna be remembered not neccasarily by everyone but I wanna know I inspired some one any one to get off their ass and go to their limit… I have a long ass way to go.[/quote]
Great question. I started lifting 32 years agao as a teenager to “get big” for high school football but found I liked liftin’ better than traditional sports. Loved the solitude of it, just me, my goals, and the weights. No one else to pass judgement on me or to bench me for missing a block. I could disappear into a world of “I’ll show them”. The movie Pumping Iron came out about the same time so I was ripe for the iron bug. In ths school weightroom someone taped up a pic from the movie Paradise Alley with Sylvester Stallone dressed in a leather jacket and a cigarette hangin’ outta the mouth looking all badass. Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones was cranking out of the Dolby quadraphinc stereo system. Chris Dickerson won the Olympia that year and I pulled a 405 deadlift my first try at 17 years old. It was 1982, and I found my salvation. special.
When in college, a friend turned me on to powerlifting. Never put up any great numbers, but kept at it. Went to the Army after graduation and the physical culture there played nicely with my lifting.
Now years later, with a family, career, house, etc…I still lift. There are no more girls left to impress, no guys on the other team who I need to outmuscle, no need to see my name in the back of Powerlifting USA magazine’s meet results. There is no practical, career, or biological need for me to be strong now as I sit at my desk and plug away at Microsoft Excel and deal with the insanity of the real world. But the whole day I’m thinking about how tonight after work, I’ll go the gym and try for a personal best in the OHP, which I have been training for and keeping meticulous training logs on. Oh, and of course, there was the meeting we had where this guy was trying to use his position of power and act all tough guy on us while proceeding to rip us about one thing or another, and the whole time I’m picturing that Sylvester Stallone movie pic back in the old high school gym and saying to myself, “You know, motherfucker, if I really wanted to, we can go out in the parking lot right now and I could kick your ass.”
Originally I got serious about it when I found at as a junior in high school that I would be 5’4 the rest of my life. I decided if I couldn’t grow taller I’d at least get bigger and stronger. Now I do it because I just love it for SO many reasons.
I have struggled with bi-polar disorder, ADHD, and OCD my entire life and last year, after the roughest bout yet, the high water mark if you will, I decided to get treatment.
As part of my treatment I decided to get healthier and exercise, in part to adopt a more balanced lifestyle and partly to stave off the weight gain from the meds. I started with kickboxing and running and did that for about six months. I felt better, had more energy, and looked better. However, something was still missing. Six months ago my best friend invited me to train with him. He had been introduced to the barbell in the army and had just begun the 5/3/1 program. I accepted and my first day I bench pressed 190x3. I never knew I had it in me. It was exhilarating and what had I been missing was found: a sense of power.
Everything about strength training appeals to me; the strain, the pain, the victories, the defeats, but most importantly is the effect the mind has on whether or not you nail that lift. Every time I attempt a heavier squat, dead, or press than I’ve ever done I am scared shitless. It motivates me, it angers me, and it makes me attack that barbell as if it just grabbed my wife’s ass.
At the end of the day, the mastery of the iron is the mastery of my body which is the mastery of my mental demons. The barbell…yeah, I’m a little obsessed.
