12 honest reasons on why to start lifting from a dad

In a world of glammy marketing messages which promise you to get your beach body in 30 days while not changing anything about your diet except taking a wonder pill and look at a video for twenty minutes and pick your own intensity, good old steel is still honest to you. It rewards hard work and punishes laziness. A long way from my usual posts with references and stuff, this one is meant to be fun. Enjoy!

Do something rather than nothing

Lifting is definitely better than nothing. If you are sitting on your couch and not doing anything, get off your ass and try to change something. Lifting is a good start for this as the usual excuses do not apply.

I am too fat

Well that actually helps in lifting because of physics

I do not have the gear

You do not need gear to lift in the beginning. Focus on technique and going regularly.

The membership is too expensive

Oh, come on. Memberships in commercial gyms nowadays come as cheap as chips. Actually, if you saved the money you spent on chips you probably could go to the gym.

It is too far to the gym

I don't know about your place, but in my suburban area, there is loads of opportunity to be had. Within 10 minutes walking distance, there are three boxes. Same goes for my workplace. If you can not even walk for ten minutes to get to a place, you definitely should do something.

I don't know where to start

Well, do some online research and find this blog. Start with Stronglifts 5x5. Find some other website of the thousands which offer free advice on getting toned and shaped. We live in the age of Google.

I do not have the time

How many episodes of Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Peaky blinders or any other box set have you watched this week ? Come on, be honest ? Look I have a full-time job, two cats, two dogs, two teenagers, train and still get to see ENTIRE box sets...

It was never easier to start than in this internet age of voyeurism where anyone with a six pack will exactly tell you how they got there.( Including me once I get there. Yes, guilty as charged) Believe me, you will get more out of life if you start lifting (or running for that matter, but that is a different article).

Become more patient

If you are in for the long run lifting will teach you a lot about being patient. Progress is made in months and years, not in days. You will hit plateaus, occasionally have a minor injury and if you are not patient a major one. That will also help you to become more patient. As with everything in life anything worthwhile takes time.

Invest less time than with running

I have found that with half an hour three times a week you can get good results when lifting. With running not so much in my personal opinion. With running you have to at least invest half an hour or more to see good results for the 5km, 10km, half marathon and marathon distances. At least for me, that was the case.

Stay inside

Bad weather, clothing, the right shoes, being seen in public and getting sick from hayfever or other diseases and bugs you hate are no problem when you lift. (Never mind the germs you will find in the shower or on a bench in the gym). If you are not an outdoorsy person, lift. The other option is to run on a treadmill which I think is one of the most stupid fitness inventions ever made. (Come on it is kind of stupid you can do that for free outside with more health benefits unless your metropolis has no park)

Develop a better understanding for numbers

Is your forecast all over the place in your job ? Did you not know how to set targets and how to break them down into little chunks of work ? No problem! If you start lifting , you will soon know how to operate a spreadsheet and how numbers work over a longer period of time. This will be of tremendous benefit if you work in a sales or management job where you have to predict organic growth.

Prepare to be humbled

There will be days where you can uproot a tree. There will be other... less glorious days where you will feel like you lift like a mouse. Some PR attempts will miserably fail, others surprise you. You will overestimate your personal one repetition maximum a many a times and the bar will spit back the unbending truth right back at your face.

Get Big and more toned

Last time I checked most ladies seem to have liked big arms better than small arms. Most men seem to like athletic back sides more than flabby bottom blues. The bonus of lifting is it works to achieve these goals, as long as you keep your diet straight.

See your progress

A great thing about weightlifting is that you can actually see how the weights get bigger and bigger over time. That, for me at least, is very rewarding in a world of software coding, as software is always broken, hardware sales, as hardware always gets broken, and corporate sales where the clock is dialled back to zero every year, quarter or month. In lifting, if you can lift 200kg today, it is very likely that you will also lift 200kg tomorrow. That is a nice change of pace.

Stay (more likely) injury free

The good thing about lifting is, the only guy who can hurt you is yourself. Not like in soccer, football, basketball and other team sports where potentially up to 20 other guys are running around, most likely younger and fitter than you, who want to get their toy that you stole from them. No offense to team sports, I think they are great, but i think in lifting there are way lesser variables you would have to put into a calculator to assess risk than for team sports. You do not have to work at wall street or at Geico insurance to get that.

Go crazy

Once you start lifting heavy weights, you are usually the nutjob of your local commercial gym anyway. With nothing to lose, why not make a bit of fun of it and terrify some teenagers, old ladies, and other random folks with your grunting, huffing and puffing until you get banned. Don't worry there is another gym and if you come back in a month, they will still take your money. Just be nice for a bit and pounce when least expected ;).

Be less stressed

I am ALWAYS less stressed AFTER lifting. End of paragraph.

Stay healthy

If you have an active lifestyle chances increase that you will be successful in your job, get a prettier wife, life longer, have healthier kids, eat better and maybe even write a bit of nonsense in a blog like this and have fun with what you are doing. Healthy body, healthy mind.