Quote from uptik2000:
This is an interesting thread. I never spent much time lifting weights. To gain strength for high school sports was really the only time I've ever lifted weights in the traditional sense.
I understand weightlifting as a form of exercise. I understand the idea of body building for sport. Also, if the goal is to look "better" in order to attract a mate or whatever, I get that.
Here's what's puzzling to me, and please realize this is not a cut on anybody, I do plenty of things that people question and might consider dumb (150mile bike rides, week long solo camping trips, etc), but:
-if you're married and claim not to be interested in attracting more mates
-ingesting possibly dangerous chemicals
-obsessing about going from 12% body fat to 10%
Do you ever stop and think, "Why the hell am I doing this?"
Again, this isn't a knock against anybody. Just trying to understand it from a psychological point of view.
I was at a fundraising event recently where I was seated at a table with 7 other guys. After about 30 minutes of bullshitting with everybody at my table, the leader of the event gave each person a piece of paper. We were instructed to write down one word that best described each person sitting at the table.
After a few minutes of pondering, everybody wrote down their answers and turned them in. To my surprise, I was the only person at the entire event who received the same one-word description.
The word was "intimidating". I was pretty shocked to hear that to say the least. I thought for sure it was going to be "personable" or "easy-going" or something like that. After each person explained the logic behind their answers, it made a lot more sense to me.
As it turns out, men very much want to be in a peer group where they feel they are generally on the same level (both mentally and physically) as the others in the group. So for example, most American men in their 40's are out of shape and are sporting some level of beer gut. When asked about their past, they can easily tell you about a time in their lives when they were "in their prime". When a 40-year old guy like myself comes rolling into the group sporting a size 30 waist and 16 inch biceps with veins running down his forearms, most men find this intimidating as hell. There are other characteristics they find intimidating too, but I want to stick with the physical part so this thread stays on track.
My point is this. I enjoy fighting the clock and trying to become a better version of myself with each passing year, especially when I achieve more than I even thought was possible. Like smilingsynic said, I know it won't last forever and that age will eventually catch up to me, but that fact shouldn't stop me from trying, especially when the benefits encompass not only looking my best, but FEELING my best. Although my motivation for doing all this comes from within, it's definitely a good feeling knowing that I'm separating myself apart from the crowd, and that the crowd actually sees the results too. After the event I described above, a few of the guys at the table came up to me and started confessing to me out of the blue how they haven't worked out in forever and that they need to get back to the gym. And we weren't even talking about working out before that moment. It's like they felt guilty just being around someone who's fit, especially someone whose older and fit. I suppose that's because they realize that getting older shouldn't be a catch-all excuse for why every new pound of fat materializes.
So although I push myself because I actually enjoy the process of it all, and because I especially like looking at myself in the mirror and seeing improvements from the year before, it's definitely nice knowing that other people can be intimidated by me at first, but then motivated later on to make some positive changes in their own lives.
As a whole, I'm also trying to , "fight the clock". In large part for my children's sake.