It is a common trope among gym bros: “gym is life.” While dedicating your life solely to building muscle and achieving low body fat might not appeal to most people, there is something to be said about applying lessons learned through exercise to the rest of life.
Below, I outline some of the parallels between exercise, the gym, and the broader picture of life.
The weight doesn’t get lighter; you get stronger.
We all carry a weight with us—our life experiences, worries, and stresses. Sometimes, it feels unbearably heavy. We hope someone will come along to lighten the load and make it easier, but they don’t. They can’t. No one can.
The burden you carry is yours alone. The weight doesn’t get lighter; you get stronger. The more you work on bearing these heavy loads, the lighter they begin to feel. The weight doesn’t change, but you do. You become stronger, more resilient. You can’t grow stronger by avoiding the heavy stuff. Your load is strapped to your back, and you must push on; otherwise, it will crush you.
The more repetitions you put in, the stronger you become. It’s that simple.
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Find your weakness and improve it.
With experience, you start to notice areas that need attention. Maybe your cardiovascular fitness is lacking. Perhaps you need to correct your posture. Or maybe your lack of assertiveness is stopping you from asking for that raise, or your defensiveness is blocking meaningful relationships. Often, the areas where we are weakest are the ones holding us back the most.
Confronting our weaknesses can be uncomfortable, but ignoring them only makes them grow larger. It was the great physchologist Carl Jung who said "That which we need the most will be found where we least want to look". Personal growth begins with an honest evaluation of your current state, no matter how painful it may be.
At the end of the day, what’s the point of training if not to improve your weaknesses?
Don't rely on 'talent'
The most successful athletes share two traits: hard work and genetic potential. While you can control the former, the latter is something you’re born with. Genetic potential determines the types of activities you may naturally excel in. For example, if you’re seven feet tall, the NBA is a better option than gymnastics. But even genetic potential doesn’t guarantee success—hard work is always a crucial part of the equation.
We’re all naturally suited to certain things. Some people excel with numbers. Others possess deep empathy or thrive in high-stress environments. Whatever your ‘gift’ may be, lean into it, and life can become subjectively easier.
Does this guarantee success? No. Just like an NBA career, you won’t get anywhere without hard work.
Mark Twain once said, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” This could also be interpreted as, “Find a job you are naturally gifted at...” or “Find a sport you are built for...”
We all have a gift. Identify it, and lean into it.
If you make it too easy you won’t grow.
If you want to get stronger, you need to move against resistance - weight, in this instance. If you want to become more flexible, you need to move against resistance - your own muscles resistance in this instance. If you want to become fitter cardiovascularly, you need to move against resistance - gravity, for extended periods of time, in this instance.
In all these cases, improvement comes from overcoming resistance. Without pushing your limits, your body won’t adapt, and you won’t grow.
Humans aren’t the biggest, strongest, or fastest species. We can’t camouflage ourselves, and we can’t survive long without air or water. Yet, our ability to adapt has allowed us to thrive.
Change happens when we’re forced into situations that demand it. Staying in your comfort zone—using the same weights, running the same distance, working the same job, or repeating the same bad habits—prevents growth.
If you make things too easy, you won’t change.
Sooner or later, the measurable won't matter.
When we are young we have the gift of being able to chase personal bests when we train. Our lifts increase. Our running times improve. Our body fat goes down. The goals which we can measure are the ones we tend to so vigorously chase. Our progress is visible, measurable and tangible.
There comes a point where this must change. Our results slow down and chasing the numbers becomes harder - aging has a way of ruining things. One very poignant thought surfaces which we, maybe, should face earlier. Maybe the measurable doesn’t really matter. Maybe it’s more important that we feel the benefits of our hard work.
A time must come where we sacrifice chasing the success we can measure for the success which we cannot. At the end of the day, what really matters?
How do you measure spending time with your children? How do you measure the love felt from a partner? How do we quantify the feeling of security and the satisfaction gained from feeling you have given life to something greater than yourself?
It's okay to stop chasing numbers. The things which truly colour our lives are not measurable.
Final Thoughts
Life and exercise share many parallels. Both require effort, self-awareness, and a willingness to embrace discomfort to grow.
By learning these lessons in the gym, we can carry them into our lives and become stronger, more resilient versions of ourselves.
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