The Gym Monkey Mindset

Now kids, before anyone gets all up in arms about me using the term "gym monkey" and thinks I'm applying it in a negative connotation, take a deep breath.

It's cool, I'm taking the phrase back ala Randall in Clerks II.  (Sorry if you don't get the joke.  You have some movies to catch up on sir or madam.)

Instead of breaking into old tried and truism laden labels for people who frequent the gym, let's skip a few steps and just distill everything down to two groups: those who want to stay "in shape" and those that are there to "get shit done."  As in move weight.  As in the big sidewalk crackin' motherfuckers, all credit to the will probably be immortal CT Fletcher.

The folks in that later category are the ones that the rest of the crowd refer to as the gym monkeys; everything from the chimpanzees over in one corner hootin' and hollerin' over each other's accomplishments on the bench to the gorillas in the other corner that cause foundation damage when they finish that next set of three Balrog sized deadlifts.  Yes I fall into the later category although perspective-wise I think I'm somewhere between orangutan and actual gorilla.  

The actual purpose of this piece, yes I swear there is one, is to discuss a little bit of the answer to that wonderful question that keeps popping up: "why do you do that to yourself?"  It's also worth noting that usually that miraculous piece of interrogative laced derision occurs the day after leg day when getting up from the toilet requires both divine intervention and an advanced degree in engineering.  

So why do I and the rest of the crowd who have been doing this so much longer than I have tear our bodies down to the point of oblivion so frequently?  It's all about the gym monkey mindset.  You see, those of this ilk have found something in the gym other than the ability to run that extra half a mile on the treadmill before yoga class.  We've found a way to excel in competition against not one but two groups: the masses around us and the person staring back at us in the mirror.

When you're a beginning lifter you're all about the numbers and the numbers are usually the next plate you put on the bar, or as the overweight powerlifters among us like to call it "the next piece of pie."  You're focusing on getting stronger and stronger until you realize you're stronger than most of the "average" folks running around. (Which by the way isn't all that tough since the average man can't bench press 165lbs.) Then one day something changes and that "mentality" sets in.  You realize that this isn't just a sport about competing against the next guy, it's about finding that thing within yourself that pushes you forward when a big part of your brain is pushing you to become one with the gym floor, grab your binky and call it a day.

Why do this to myself? Why at thirty eight years old did I decide to start back down this road and why, at now forty, do I continue to push myself to endure day after day and week after week?  Well, here's a look at this gym monkey's mentality:

1 - Henry Rollins said that he finds the Iron to be the great reference point, the all knowing perspective giver.  It is his greatest friend.  It never freaks out on him; it never runs.  Friends may come and go but two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.  In short, no matter how jacked up life is, there is a consistency in the gym that exists nowhere else.

2 - The ultimate competition when lifting weights, be it as a beginner, powerlifter, or even world champion bodybuilder, is always against the person staring back at you from the mirror.  Yeah you may be competing against someone else on the outside, but the real fight is inside yourself.

3 - The gym is the only place on this rock where the true animal inside me is allowed out to play.  The longer I lift the more I find places to employ the anger I carry inside my psyche.  I'm able to get something good from the urge to destroy that all of us deal with.  The iron gives me a battlefield that the barbarian part of my soul can run rampant across.  I can picture myself lifting a vanquished enemy as I pull its carcass to pieces while everyone sees me finally breaking 500lbs on a deadlift.  You get the point.

4 - There's something to be said for being the guy who has a hard time getting through the door from the shoulders and not the gut.

and 5th, and probably most importantly - I know now that at 40 I'm stronger than I was 22 and will continue on so that at 50 I can say I'm stronger yet than I was at 40.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not dumb enough to try to chase eternal youth.  It's just nice to know that middle age me could whip my 22 year old self's ass!

Alright kids, enough babbling for today.  Hope you enjoy the 'why' and we'll continue on to other things tomorrow!