Our weight training began long after we joined the workforce. By then, our bodies acquired the ungainly proportions of the modern desk jockey. Swelling belly fat, waistlines straining against our trousers. Rounded keyboard warrior shoulders. Mouse-shoulder upper body strength asymmetry. We hadn’t ventured far on our ergonomics quest at that time, so we stood (or sat, rather) at the mercy of our postural inadequacies.
False Starts
Earlier in life we made a passing attempt at weights, but with neither the space (under the parents’ roof) nor money for home based equipment, we partook of the dreaded gym membership experience. Public spaces never agreed well with us. The scrutiny, the judgement, not that we’re condemning the gym going public, it’s more that we’re slow and sloppy learners and could do without an audience.
Our gym work largely focused on cardio machines like rowers and ellipticals, recommended by a physical trainer to increase our energy levels. The leg press machine got tossed in as a token weight training activity.
Little came of gym training for us. We did not understand the workings of the body, and went through the motions every session while hoping for the best. Nor did we understand the finer details of nutrition. Fundamentally, we weren’t sure of what we hoped to achieve. As an early foray into the fitness world, it’s likely we intended nothing further than to try it on and see what happens. Had we met with favourable results, we would have persisted. Sadly, we fell victim to the tired old story of gym membership – no results, no interest. Eventually, we gave up entirely.
A few years after, we caught the bug once more and decided to build our home gym. Starting with dumbbells, that most basic of training equipment, and at the lowest budgetary level. Short bar, circular iron plates, threaded nuts, 10 kilograms max. A quick googling of dumbbell exercises and off we went. Unfortunately, we ran afoul of the most accursed of exercises, the overhead tricep extension. Naturally, with our bodies in disrepair coupled with poor form, we injured our shoulder by way of rotator cuff impingement.
As of that injury, we went on hiatus for several years. Dispirited from the setback, we simply gave weight training no further thought.
Making Inroads
Ultimately, three factors drew us back into the fold. YouTube, moving out of home, and free time.
Faster internet plans with growing data allowances led to streaming video, which spawned a new breed of internet denizen, the YouTuber. Thanks to YouTube’s recommendation algorithms, we stumbled across some home workout guides. We found encouragement in the video learning format. Explanation, demonstration, tips to avoid injury. Perfect!
Coincidentally, this newfound enthusiasm arrived after we moved into larger quarters. Room to house new equipment and experiment in private . Privacy is as necessary to the equation as the equipment itself for the likes of us.
Additionally, a surplus of spare time opened us up to a new (or perhaps renewed) pursuit. It’s possible that a causal link existed between our reinstated single status and the uptick in spare time. Time that proved crucial, since we discovered that weight training is not an instantly grasped discipline. There’s a learning curve and without dedicating time to map that curve, it’s hard to develop the rhythm and groove to see it through.
We provided this account to illustrate that finding the path to weight training wasn’t as simple as mere choice. Sometimes it takes time for the elements we need to coalesce. This comes as no comfort for folks in dire need of instant results, as we once were, but we’ve reluctantly made peace with our slow meandering ways. To those out there like us, we feel you.
To What End?
We’ve dabbled with weights for a while now, but (come to think of it) we never truly undertook any rigorous program of “weight training”. Our efforts focus largely on maintaining muscle tone. Proper weight training requires significant effort to achieve progressive development of muscle mass.
Noting our utter disdain for significant effort, the full suite of planning and activities necessary to build that coveted imposing physique proved outrageously demanding on our limited resources.
To us, there’s no point pushing our bodies to heights we can’t maintain. It’s harder still when we don’t have a purpose in mind that demands a body in peak condition. No beach photos to pose for, no marathons to run, nor any supervillains to rough up.
Thus, between our laziness and lack of ambition, only two things enable our ongoing commitment to weight training:
- recognising the importance of health and its part in longevity
- reducing the total maintenance burden (upkeep) to something manageable.
The Maintenance Burden
In our ignorance, back when we knew nothing of weight training, we assumed that building muscle simply required a program of exercise. Nothing more. If only that were true, then there’d be no maintenance burden.
As we came to discover, the exercise component is but a third of the enterprise. The other two being nutrition and recovery. In total, effective weight training is a way of life.
What we find burdensome about this way of life is the unending regimen.
Exercise. Eat. Rest.
Do this long enough, the body adapts to the strain, manifesting as muscle growth but the growth gradually plateaus. Then we re-evaluate and apply progressive increments. Up the weights, try different exercise techniques, up the food intake.
Exercise. Eat. Rest … Plateau. Re-evaluate. Repeat.
It takes a lot of time and money to push through this pattern, sometimes we achieve results, sometimes we don’t. Over the long term, it is worthwhile, even if we never become hulking mounds of muscle.
Fact of the matter is, we suck at time management and this weakness undermines our endeavour. We don’t like scheduling or sticking to schedules because it feels like our future is locked in place and inflexible. Especially since weight training is not a finite once off event that’s completed after a week or a month. It stretches out into perpetuity. A way of life – until we expire.
While utmost health is an achievement, it is not a worthwhile goal to us. We want to be doing enough training to slow down the body’s natural decay over time, preserving as much vitality and function as possible.