Weight Lifting

Tonight

I like to weight lift because it really gets my aggressions out. The weights are all about mind over matter: If I am on a really heavy rep and don't think I can do it I concentrate and think of someone I hate or some injustice that makes me crazy and boom, up it goes.

I hurt my knee a while ago and need to have it taken care of but I keep putting it off. Because of that I have not done as much cardio and consequently I have gained about 15 pounds in the last 6 months. I think about half is fat and half is muscle.

I have been compensating my lifting heavily and I am getting much bigger. I studied exercise physiology at one time and worked as a trainer at a big chain gym for a while. Big chain gyms are the worst: they are staffed, both at a corporate and a club level, by really unqualified or young or inexperienced people. On a corporate and a management level, they care very little about member retention, just sales. Sometimes someone good will end up working at a big chain gym, but they will not last. They typically become jaded and quit or get fired.

That is really too bad because the fitness industry tends to attract people who are very passionate about fitness but they soon become disillusioned. It is very hard to make a living in that business.

It used to amaze me that they sent trainers out there with hardly any training. One time a young girl came down to my office on a quiet Sunday morning and casually said, "Bart, there's a lady upstairs who is moaning on the floor upstairs. She's cold and sweaty. I asked her if she wanted me to call her husband to get her but she said no." I ran up, checked on the woman and immediately called 911. Her husband came by the next day to thank me. It turns out she had an aneurism and could have died.

My favorite part of working in fitness was working with people who were afraid of gyms. I liked to make them feel comfortable and confident. Sometimes I would even take a class with them so they could see that classes weren’t cliquish. I enjoyed teaching them proper form and bonding with them.

I still see tons of guys to this day who are so concerned with plate numbers that they entirely forfeit form. Just yesterday I saw someone bar curling 70lbs and rocking his arms and back as he lifted. He probably couldn't lift 40 with proper form. I wonder if these people wonder why they don't get bigger? But you could never correct these guys. They always get defensive and say something like "I know what I'm doing."

I love fitness but the fitness industry sucks and it wasn't for me.