Slow Burn
I always felt at home with the weights. This was my sense ever since playing high school football. It was one of the few things I knew about being a man.
Weights keep me centered. Have since the age of 14. Always will.
Last post I explored more is caught than taught. It’s so true. You find men you want to be like in life and emulate them.
The men I looked up to in my life were men who generally worked with strength training.
When I was about 5, there was the massive guy in the YMCA fitness center in Edwardsville, Ill. Someone there told me he played for the Chicago Bears. That oak of a man was impressive. He was a picture of what a boy could become with work.
I also saw outdated weight equipment at my mom’s boyfriend’s apartment. Didn’t know what it was used for. Just knew it was important to him—Jose Manzano. Means Jose apple tree.
Weights keep you centered because they show you controlled resistance. That is something you want in your life, because you will face resistance.
Every day you have various pressures coming at you. Like defensive tackles and linebackers in the NFL, just breathing down your neck. But these pressures are actually real. Good thing there is an answer.
One of my life values is “make physical exercise a priority.”
It should be for every person to some degree. Everything in life is a test.
My wife recently said because I’ve been lifting heavier weights, taking creatine, I’ve become testy. This could be the case due to the increased testosterone it builds inside. So, I have backed off (Lesson—listen to your wife!). And ramped up cardio training.
For the best life some physical training is essential.
As a believer in Christ, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And God allows us to fall into destruction when we choose not to honor these temples He has given us.
Do you want to be masculine? Fall for the exercise of the temple. Also fall short of worshipping it…
The Lord has put in our own systems the endorphin rush after a vigorous run. Or the building of testosterone after a lift. This builds confidence. It helps us defend our families. This assists us in making key decisions at work calmly.
And a supercharged adrenaline burst, while doing a High Intensity Interval Training such as burpees, engages your whole body.
These systems are divinely ordained to function just as they do so we can be better men. They give us increased focus, better mood, and strength, in a world seeking to strip us of it.
These are only a few reasons why the gym is my friend. It always has been, and always will be.
I always felt at home with the weights.
Resistance is a metaphor. Well, sort of.
Life will test you with bills, interpersonal conflict, work struggle, doubt…just to name a few.
But one controlled burn…ahh.
One controlled burn we can engage in is gym work.
Where I live in central Illinois, prairie land is all around. People actually burn it in these parts to help the land revive the following season.
After growing back, the grass is lusher and fuller of life.
Do you have a controlled burn? Do you have something you are engaging in that burns you down to your core? Then afterward it builds you back up?
My friend Dirk Sommers was enthralled after becoming a football coach. He was surprised when he told them what to do and they just listened.
But he said he was hard on them, because, the tearing down exists, to build them back stronger.
This is how my football coach was. And I can attribute most of my accomplishments in life to him. Scott Tonsor was so instrumental in my development because he burned me in a controlled environment.
Everyone knew he wasn’t going to smack me. He never laid a hand on us.
That wasn’t the point.
But he challenged me. Challenged us. And he did this so we could be something better. This was his angle. He told me later that motivates some kids. And thank God I was one of those kids
Some players received motivation elsewhere. Me, I needed the structure. Needed the rules, needed the hard burn.
And in the weights, it’s the same way.
You can go in there, listen, stay off your phone, and the weights will speak to you.
They will challenge you. How much can you lift today?
Are you going to push yourself or scroll?
Will you burn yourself to the core in here today? Will you be a stronger man when you leave here?
A man more equipped to serve your family? To protect the weak and vulnerable in your neighborhood and society at large?
Are you willing to let these weights burn you, that you may eat some quality protein afterward, get built up, bigger, stronger, faster than you were the day before? So your mind can be clearer to face life’s myriad challenges soberly, eagerly with a positive attitude?
Be a producer. Not a consumer. And the way you do that and do it with comprehensive vigor is through the weights and cardiovascular exercise such as running.
Serve people, but you must also help yourself.
Slow burn.
Controlled fire.
Come up stronger.
Repeat.
Period.
Perspective 