“That’s natural”/”Do you lift weights” – A Few Stories :

“That’s natural”/”Do you lift weights” :

Anecdote 1 :

Walking back from the pool I hear “damn bro, I need to get my ass to whatever gym it is you go to”.

I laugh, “haven’t been to a gym in six months”.

“How the”
“Pushups, lots of pushups”.

“Damn! That’s natural?”

Almost midnight on a friday or saturday night, a late 20s hispanic, about 6’1″ and a slightly chubby 280, was wandering back from the parking lot drunk past the pool to his apartment door.

I got a laugh out of the honesty of the drunk and childlike outburst.

At that pool complex I did so many pushups, rope skips, and deadlift isometrics.

In the sun during the day you’d burn your feet and hands on the concrete surface surrounding the pool.

That’s Las Vegas for you.

Because of this I had taken to working out in the dark once it had cooled off enough from the lack of sunlight.

That isn’t the only time I’ve had a hispanic male have roughly that interaction with me.

Anecdote 2 :

I had another a few years later (in New England), this time with a very short, skinny, tatted up junkie type inside of a gas station.

It’s likely on the site already, but a quick recap :

“Damn bro, you bodybuild.”
“I haven’t been to a gym in months.”
“That’s natural! You don’t lift?”
“I do a bunch of pushups.”
“That’s natural! That’s crazy! Some viking shit. I gotta start doing me some pushups.”

Anecdote 3 :

And recently at planet fitness I was asked if I lift weights by a retiree who was prior service because of how large I am and his surprise to only see me doing calisthenics.

Notes :

I get a kick out of how many will view not lifting weights as “natural” development, and how much being a big guy doing calisthenics blows people’s minds since in their eyes you should be lifting weights.

Persistence & Tenacity