You walk upto your Barbell

Hi Guys


This got sent to me the other and thought it was good and wanted to share


What does it mean to you to approach a barbell? For some it’s just a mechanical movement, a means to an end. For others it may mean fear, trepidation, that feeling of insecurity when possible failure looms. For yet others, it can amount to a near spiritual experience, a ritual with supreme significance in the moment.

For the latter, the barbell can seem like an old friend or a cold enemy. Regardless, the look, the touch, the feel of the iron in one’s hands triggers a response that is as much on a psychological and emotional level as it is physiological. The response is chemical, muscular, soulful. Endorphins spark, fibers tense and twitch; the mind goes where it will.

If the barbell is your BFF, you’ll find your Zen, the still and calm and clear mind that allows the body to take over and use its memory. If the bar is your mortal foe, you’ll conjure up whatever animalistic urge you require in order to defeat it. Either way, it is a primal experience, and for those of us who sit at a desk or do some other soul numbing mindless and non-physical sequence of tasks in our day to day, it can be a moment of clarity or awakening. A moment in which it becomes instantly clear that we are a living, breathing, physical being. A moment in which we feel our bodies, their pains and triumphs, the full order of how the machinery of ourselves works. One instant where, if you pay attention, you can grasp the synergy of mind and musculature.

Try it at low weights. Focus your mind in the squat on the hams and glutes and notice how they act as spring loaders in the jerk. Feel the large muscles of the torso in the press and how your center and lower body act as pillars and stabilizers. Find the spots, both internal and external, that your explosion comes from. Do your mobility drills and focus – nothing will make you more aware of the thousands of fibers that make you what you are. Recognize the brilliance of the mechanism of your body, no matter your emotional feelings towards it.

Feel the chalk, feel the knurling, feel its heft in your hands. Try taking a moment to embrace the feeling of a heavy load out of the rack. Understand that your relationship with the barbell is both finite and infinite, both give and take. Every failure provides a new opportunity and should provide a new respect for your friend and foe.

At its pinnacle, the barbell experience is introspection. If you pay attention, you’ll find out a lot about yourself, in many more ways than just physicality.


Walking upto the bar can mean to overcome and to better myself, and learn and be better