Working out

When I was younger, I was a very active person, involved heavily in both Boy Scouts and Martial Arts, going on long backpacking trips every other weekend, and attending black belt classes twice a week. I was never a big guy, but I was strong and capable, even if I didn't look like it. I was a solid kid, and for some reason, I was incredibly resistant to pain, which made being active as I was easier for me to do. But as I got older, it became time consuming and difficult for me to keep up with these kinds of things, and I slowly moved away from them.

Unfortunately, as I came to learn, being less active means becoming less capable. Moving away from the things that kept me moving meant becoming less able to move. And so for the first time in my life, I began actively looking into what it meant to work out. Because of my history, I knew that I wanted to look more into bodyweight training rather than free weights. Things like push ups and squats as opposed to lifting weights. I did not and do not want to be a huge hulking mass of muscle. I want to be compact and mobile, strong but able to move. Nothing against weightlifters, but that's just not my way of life.

But despite having lived such an active life, working out has not been an easy thing to fit into my life. It is a monotonous task, and one that benefits you slowly over time. You don't get immediate satisfaction from doing these kinds of things. In fact, the first thing that you're going to feel is pain and frustration and exhaustion. Your body isn't going to be used to doing these kinds of things if it isn't something that you already do, and trying to adapt to them and increase the number and difficulty or weight of them will shock and confuse your muscles.

But that's the exact kind of thing you want your muscles to feel. Confusing your muscles forces them to adapt, meaning that they grow and harden, strengthening them and making you a tougher and more capable person. It makes you larger and more solid, more intimidating in appearance, and in some ways, more attractive.

It's not something that appeals to everyone. Many people wish that they could have the benefits of working out without having to do so, and I am included. But I do find some kind of twisted enjoyment in pushing my body to its limits, becoming pained by reaching them and slowly pushing them forward, until I can do all kinds of new things.

I just have to keep it up. It's easier than you might think to lose all of that progress, and getting it back again will be twice as hard. If only I hadn't learned that the hard way.