Life lessons from the Gym, pt 2

Going to the gym is a lifestyle for many. Time spent there brings people together. Under the iron we learn intrinsic lessons. These lessons carry on into life outside the gym.

One of these lessons is that we are each stronger than we think we are.

- Are stronger than we think we are

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, the nationwide standard for men aged 20 to 49 should be between 13 and 28 pushups, and for women in the same age range, it should be between 11 and 20 (https://kiss951.com/2021/09/03/most-americans-cant-do-more-than-10-pushups/). 

This is more than just moving your body or moving weights with your body. Handling weights at regular intervals teaches you how to dig deep for another rep. You heart friends telling their training partner to get another couple of reps in each set. You may have been the one under the bar looking for what was needed to get that final rep. The bar moves ever so slowly. Muscles ache and quiver. The person under the weight is breathing faster and heavier to provide needed oxygen to those muscles.

This lesson carries over outside of the gym. The consistent facing of a physical challenge teaches you that, somewhere deep inside, is that something you need to go another step or repetition further. Outside the gym that lesson helps you to realize how capable you really are. It shows you that your fortitude runs deeper than you had ever imagined. This is key to completing tasks which seem insurmountable. This is key in facing life’s challenges. This is key when confronting our own demons.

We handle stress and pain better than we previously thought

Lifting weights, jogging, whatever our physical training teaches us, through experience, that we can handle pain. We face physical pain after many workouts. This is the result of lactic acid building up in the fatigued muscles. The muscles themselves have undergone trauma. Yet, the day after, life goes on. We have to participate in life regardless of the residual pain. The body reacts by rebuilding and becoming stronger. We take that basic lesson and apply it to other areas of our life to see that adversity makes us stronger.

There is another pain threshold we face and learn from. Success comes with hard work. By digging deeper into our fortitude and finding strength for a few more reps, or running a few steps faster, we learn to persevere. 

- Stronger sense of self

These previous two lessons help us see ourselves in a different light. We have gained insight into being more capable than we had thought. This now found understanding begins to fill a wellspring of confidence. Physically, our posture changes. We stand up straighter and taller. We step out with inner strength as if nothing in our path will dissuade or impede us.

We have learned that we adapt to stresses in our lives, that these stresses make us better. We put our body and mind through the crucible of fitness training. As a result our confidence grows. We know better what we can handle. We know better that challenges will always be present. We know that we can overcome. As Leonardo da Vinci had put into his codex, every obstacle is destroyed through rigor.

These lessons from the gym translate into other aspects of our lives. They transform us deeply. Keep training and keep growing.