I view lifting weights as icing on the cake. It’s fluff, I enjoy it, but if you took all the gym shit away from me I’d be just fine and keep on getting better.
I’ve done it the past and am fully capable of doing it again.
I started training before I’d ever touched a barbell.
As a 2nd and 3rd grader I did karate and all that comes with it. In addition to the drilling, sparring,and wrestling we also threw medicine balls and did fairly high quantities of situps and pushups.
I can still hear my Sensei, and my mother’s imitation of his voice telling me to do poooshups (pushups).
That pushup ability I maintained over the years. Most can’t imagine how many I’ve truly done .
In 4th grade we moved across the country and being lazy , thinking it was hard I never went back to karate, instead spending the next few years playing PlayStation and getting horrendously out of shape.
However growing up I always thought that I’d be a US Marine.
The summer between my 8th and 9th grade years, my grandfather having just died, and searching for meaning I adopted a fairly intense mentality.
So it’s summer break, I’m at my now Grandma’s house, and am sleeping on a bed roll on the living room floor.
I’d wait until late night and turn the TV to MSNBC. I’d discovered Lockup Raw.
I’d watch an hour or two with the volume real low so as to not disturb anyone, then right there on my bed roll I’d PT having got myself into life or death mentality via amp up by prison documentary.
(Not my first method of amp up,but far more result yielding than metal before middle school baseball games)
All I did were situps and pushups, the only exercises I knew, but the beauty of it looking back was the mentality behind those few daily sets.
I worked it into my mind that not giving my all could be the difference between life and death in the future for myself and/or my comrades in the Marines or for myself in prison one day.
I’d visualize the Spartans at Thermopylae while viewing these sets as life or death.
I’d do as many reps as possible for 3 sets of pushups and 2-3 sets of situps. I’d exhaust myself, pant, regain a semblance of normalcy,then go again. When done I’d drink a little water and pass right out.
Now come freshman year I backslid on this mentality, having quit both football and wrestling while still being horrendously out of shape, but the roots had been laid.
Having quit wrestling was the last straw.
I did PT obsessionally for the rest of that school year.
Lots of pushups, situps, pounding a punching bag, some chins, and riding a stationary bike for 1000 calories burnt nightly.
I’d drop and do pushups practically whenever there was a gap. I still remember this kid saying I couldn’t even do a few pushups and I dropped right then and there backpack still on hitting far more than he gave me credit for, standing up,looking at him and saying something like “your turn asshole”. I still can hear his reaction,his excuses for not dropping, as he knew I won.
Over the years I’ve kept doing pushups, daily.
I’ve went almost as long as 4 years without missing a day. Currently I’ve went more than a year.
I still view exercise through the lens of survival and with a military mindset.
I’ll always PT, pushups I love, Hindu squats are close behind, and I always maintain the ability to hit at least 5 chins.
9 months of no gym in 2015 and I came back stronger from calisthenics, isometrics, and jump rope.
I will always PT.
It’s both a part of me at this point and a life necessity.
PT is my foundation not weights. It is readily accessible to all, and travels with you as it is a part of your body.
Gyms are nice and fun to use.
PT is part of survival and can never be taken from you.
I PT EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Weights? When I feel like it, anywhere from 2x to 10x weekly.
If I lose weight access, I’ll be annoyed that my fun is gone, but I’ll still be hitting the PT.
(Also I’ll be ramping up PT volume)
All would benefit from this mindset shift. You don’t need a gym it’s just icing on the cake. PT is necessary and is no excuses.
Get It.
-J