Live Hard

Hitting the gym and building a rock-hard physique can make life easier and more fun.

All bodybuilders ask the inevitable question at some point’or many points’in their training careers: Is it all worth it? The sweat, the time, the pain. For those who truly love training, ‘live hard’ is a liftetime credo, and they never leave it’at least not for long. Those who are merely infatuated with the iron, however, are often more absent than present when it comes to repping on a regular basis.

Even if you’re one of those dedicated bodybuilders who love the very sound of clanging weights, it doesn’t hurt to remind yourself of lifting’s many benefits. That may help you push even harder at your next few workouts and boost your gains to a new level. And if you haven’t trained in a while, perhaps the following list will motivate you to get off your duff and dust off your lifting belt.

1) Strength. As your training progresses, you get stronger’at least, that’s what’s supposed to happen with progressive-resistance exercise. Strength can come in mighty handy on a daily basis, making heavy manual tasks easier and preventing injuries when you try to move the couch, change a flat tire or carry in the three sacks of groceries you just spent $150 on.

2) Accomplishment. Getting stronger means achievement, and your mind reads it as such. There’s almost nothing like that feeling you get after a workout in which you’ve gone up in poundage on almost every exercise. You’re exhilarated, and that euphoria crosses over to other activities in your life. You’ll feel as if you can tackle any assignment with ease.

3) Self-confidence. As a direct result of getting stronger, you build plenty of muscle along the way. New size and strength give you so much confidence that you become hard to bring down in any situation. You stand taller, talk with more authority and move faster toward your life goals.

4) Energy. Training with weights makes your body an efficient machine, and that in turn gives you more energy to burn each and every day.

Bodybuilding, coupled with a moderate aerobics program, gets you pumped up for other endeavors. You’ve seen how out-of-shape people tend to get more and more out of shape because their lack of energy snowballs. Bodybuilding has the opposite effect. As you become more muscular, you get more and more energized, and that vigor crosses over into all aspects of your life.

5) Mental acuity. Weight training is a stress release that frees your mind of daily burdens. With that freedom comes creativity. Many people get their best ideas during or right after a training session because, as you pump away the stress, your mind is free to roam. Perhaps the endorphins coursing through your veins while you’re training have something to do with that. Whatever the reason, it’s a powerful benefit. You’ll also be more alert outside the gym, as a fit body can help foster a fit, creative mind.

6) Magnetism. There’s no doubt that muscle is an instant attraction. Perhaps it comes from primal instincts that steer us in the direction of mates who will thrive in a survival-of-the-fittest jungle. When a bodybuilder walks into a room, all eyes turn, and there are usually a few swoons’or at least a few sighs’although the negative surface banter may sometimes suggest otherwise. Don’t worry. The criticism is merely envy rearing its ugly head. In reality, muscle means magnetism. Flex appeal is probably the number-one reason lifting has become so popular among men.

7) Discipline. Hard work on a regular basis builds character. Hitting the iron and working up a sweat after sitting at a desk all day satisfies that inner craving for physical activity and makes you better able to cope with difficult circumstances in your life.

Go over these advantages often. Remember, every now and then you’ll ask yourself why you do it. Why do you grind out reps until your eyes tear up and your muscles feel like the molten core of an active volcano? The bottom line is, you enjoy the admiration you get. Sure, lifting makes you feel better and healthier with more self-confidence and so on, but be honest. The real reason you do it is that you love it when people notice that you hit the iron regularly, you enjoy it when you peel off your shirt at the beach and men and women do double-takes, and you beam with pride when your friends’or even better, your spouse’s friends’comment on how great your body is looking. Even with all the grit, sweat and pain you put out in the gym, these things make the workouts worth it.

Living hard is definitely worth the price’every grueling rep. IM

Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of the new book Train, Eat, Grow: The Positions-of-Flexion Muscle-Training Manual. See page 178 for more information.

Live Hard

All bodybuilders ask the inevitable question at some point’or many points’in their training careers: Is it all worth it? The sweat, the time, the pain. For those who truly love training, ‘live hard’ is a liftetime credo, and they never leave it’at least not for long. Those who are merely infatuated with the iron, however, are often more absent than present when it comes to repping on a regular basis.

Even if you’re one of those dedicated bodybuilders who love the very sound of clanging weights, it doesn’t hurt to remind yourself of lifting’s many benefits. That may help you push even harder at your next few workouts and boost your gains to a new level. And if you haven’t trained in a while, perhaps the following list will motivate you to get off your duff and dust off your lifting belt.

1) Strength. As your training progresses, you get stronger’at least, that’s what’s supposed to happen with progressive-resistance exercise. Strength can come in mighty handy on a daily basis, making heavy manual tasks easier and preventing injuries when you try to move the couch, change a flat tire or carry in the three sacks of groceries you just spent $150 on.

2) Accomplishment. Getting stronger means achievement, and your mind reads it as such. There’s almost nothing like that feeling you get after a workout in which you’ve gone up in poundage on almost every exercise. You’re exhilarated, and that euphoria crosses over to other activities in your life. You’ll feel as if you can tackle any assignment with ease.

3) Self-confidence. As a direct result of getting stronger, you build plenty of muscle along the way. New size and strength give you so much confidence that you become hard to bring down in any situation. You stand taller, talk with more authority and move faster toward your life goals.

4) Energy. Training with weights makes your body an efficient machine, and that in turn gives you more energy to burn each and every day.

Bodybuilding, coupled with a moderate aerobics program, gets you pumped up for other endeavors. You’ve seen how out-of-shape people tend to get more and more out of shape because their lack of energy snowballs. Bodybuilding has the opposite effect. As you become more muscular, you get more and more energized, and that vigor crosses over into all aspects of your life.

5) Mental acuity. Weight training is a stress release that frees your mind of daily burdens. With that freedom comes creativity. Many people get their best ideas during or right after a training session because, as you pump away the stress, your mind is free to roam. Perhaps the endorphins coursing through your veins while you’re training have something to do with that. Whatever the reason, it’s a powerful benefit. You’ll also be more alert outside the gym, as a fit body can help foster a fit, creative mind.

6) Magnetism. There’s no doubt that muscle is an instant attraction. Perhaps it comes from primal instincts that steer us in the direction of mates who will thrive in a survival-of-the-fittest jungle. When a bodybuilder walks into a room, all eyes turn, and there are usually a few swoons’or at least a few sighs’although the negative surface banter may sometimes suggest otherwise. Don’t worry. The criticism is merely envy rearing its ugly head. In reality, muscle means magnetism. Flex appeal is probably the number-one reason lifting has become so popular among men.

7) Discipline. Hard work on a regular basis builds character. Hitting the iron and working up a sweat after sitting at a desk all day satisfies that inner craving for physical activity and makes you better able to cope with difficult circumstances in your life.

Go over these advantages often. Remember, every now and then you’ll ask yourself why you do it. Why do you grind out reps until your eyes tear up and your muscles feel like the molten core of an active volcano? The bottom line is, you enjoy the admiration you get. Sure, lifting makes you feel better and healthier with more self-confidence and so on, but be honest. The real reason you do it is that you love it when people notice that you hit the iron regularly, you enjoy it when you peel off your shirt at the beach and men and women do double-takes, and you beam with pride when your friends’or even better, your spouse’s friends’comment on how great your body is looking. Even with all the grit, sweat and pain you put out in the gym, these things make the workouts worth it.

Living hard is definitely worth the price’every grueling rep. IM

Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of the new book Train, Eat, Grow: The Positions-of-Flexion Muscle-Training Manual. See page 178 for more information.