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Mahler’s Monday Morning Motivator # 116 – Why?
Good Morning, All,
Many of you posted on a thread that I started on Men’s Health about a 375 pound Deadlift and a subsequent post on JP Fitness called “Why?” I was so gratified by the responses on both that I wanted to formalize my thoughts in a Motivator. Thanks to all of you for the impetus and inspiration and a special thanks to Foster for really making me think about the things I do.
Why?
Recently a friend questioned the reasoning, the very rationale, behind my completing a heavy lift. He put it this way. “That is very impressive for your age, but I think we might be overlooking a more serious issue. Why in the world do you think that at age 57 you need to be deadlifting 375? Are you trying to regain your youth? I just find it somewhat irresponsible and obsessive for you to be attempting such heavy lifts. I'm willing to bet that if you told your doctor that you nailed 375, he would just say, "Why?"
At first, my gut response was a typical one of irritation and even anger. The words that jumped out at me from the screen were “for your age” and the phrase “Are you trying to regain your youth?” These were closely followed by, “more serious issue” and “why in the world” as well as the real stingers “irresponsible and obsessive.”
How dare he relegate me, at 57 years, to the status of old age? How bold to tell me that I was overlooking a more serious issue, and what impudence to suggest that I was being irresponsible and even obsessed. But, the word that I kept coming back to as I scanned his complete remarks over and over, was the single word, “Why?” These three letters and a question mark quelled the anger and really got my thought processes working. Yes, indeed, why?
I am trying to grasp what age has to do with it, first of all. Lifting 375 pounds just happens to be the next step in the progression of my training. Do I pick an arbitrary number and say, lift this and do not lift anything heavier? What is the accepted level of exertion that should be attempted at 57 or any age, for that matter? Is there, sadly, a cutoff point or an age barrier that should, nay must, be observed when one says, this far and no more? I am too old. When is it time to throw in the towel and give up, or in the very least, step back and take it easy?
Is there some vain attempt going on here to regain lost youth? If that be so, it is too late. In many ways, by my lifting and life style changes, I already have. I am in the best shape of my life and getting better. There is an assumption here that at a certain age one should somehow feel "old" and that futile attempts are in the offing for those who try to get back something that is missing in their lives. In all honesty, I cannot regain my youth, but I can function on a more youthful level, or, as I prefer to think of it, on a level that I was meant to function on; a level that has not been compromised by lack of exercise and poor diet. I want to be what every older man should be and is not, by regaining my self respect and by not letting myself go and quitting the game of life.
Finally, am I really being irresponsible and even obsessive? My training, like any other lifter, is a natural progression. That progression does not mandate that I tread water and not move forward. My body will tell me, in no uncertain terms, when its limits are being exceeded as do the bodies of my 20, 30 and 40 year old counterparts. It's also irresponsible to drive in the left lane of an interstate and go 10 miles under the speed limit, but people my age and a lot older do it all the time. I have talked about obsession on other occasions. Those without the resolve and drive to succeed call the efforts of others, obsession. It is the form that our obsessions take that defines us as individuals. Yes, I am obsessed, and proud to be the product of that obsession.
I see all that I do as taking each day and saying, tomorrow will be better. What I am trying to understand is, who sets the limits? Who says, you can go here and no farther? And for that, I have found an answer, which is, quite simply this. I do.
Putting it all in perspective, however, my friend does make a good point. I can probably be pretty healthy and fit without ever lifting heavy. I can no doubt live a good life without risking injury by lifting 375 pounds. But, there is a vital element missing here. What is being alive without having something to reach out for, something to grasp and say, this is mine. I did this. I am constantly inspired by the story of Gislebertus, a master mason of the middle ages and possibly an ancestor of mine. Upon completing the elaborate decoration of the cathedral at Autun in 1135 he carved over the doorway the words “Gislebertus hoc fecit.” In essence, he was saying, I did this, and was indeed, the first mason ever to put his name to his work.
To be fully alive we need goals. Each day should be an improvement on the one that preceded it and a mere prelude to the one to follow.
In all of this, please understand that I do not ever want to be viewed as the exception to the rules. I want to write the rules and you should, too. And, in writing those rules you must now, and always, answer the question “why?” with a simple, yet emphatic, “why not?”
__________________ In Fitness & Friendship, MAHLER
______________________________ __________________________ There is no light at the end of the tunnel. You carry the light with you.
nay....he will never understand. He is not one of "us".
__________________ "I'm growing older but not up. My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck. So let the winds of change blow over my head. I'd rather die while I'm living then live while I'm dead."
In all of this, please understand that I do not ever want to be viewed as the exception to the rules. I want to write the rules and you should, too. And, in writing those rules you must now, and always, answer the question “why?” with a simple, yet emphatic, “why not?”
Exactly. Thanks, John.
__________________
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
For anyone the has truly made the transition and commitment to living a healthier lifestyle the answer to the question "Why" seems amazingly apparent. Why would I want to leave a lifestyle of hangovers, sleep apneia, trouble walking, high blood pressure, low self esteem, and of course the occasional hospital stay. Why indeed. just so you can wake every morning at the crack of dawn and lift heavy objects and put in miles on a treadmill followed up by a carefully calculated day of nutrition. Why, because maybe we are trying to regain every bit of youth, health and enjoyment of life that we may have previously wasted. If that means I have to make a few sacrafices and make a few people uncomfortable about my lifestyle than that is the price I am willing to pay. And before someone wants to criticize those choices they should try it for a while and maybe they would find out that they would be happier as well. I was lucky that several of the people who questioned me with "Why" at the start were inspired by my sucess and have now made similar changes in their lives and are celebrating their own sucess. So I really think the question for these people that need to ask should not be "Why" But "Why not me".
Normally the criticisms about working out come from people who don't frequent fitness message boards and who don't work out. I would have expected to hear that to come from a co-worker and not from someone who actually works out (or do they?).
A couple months ago I told the lady who sits beside me at work that I did 200 chinups in 40 minutes (5 per minute) and she thought I was crazy and was looking to hurt myself. I told another co-worker, who is in great shape and their response was, "Good job, now you have to do 300 in an hour!!"
__________________
I want to be pushing weights when I'm 70 instead of a walker in an old folk's home.
Great modivator Mahler. Why not stive to do your best at everything you do. Age know no boundaries, your limitations are your own. Be happy and keep lifting, appreciate that you can do it.
__________________
"My darling," she said at last, "are you sure you don't mind being a mouse for the rest of your life?"
"I don't mind at all," I said. "It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you."
To be fully alive we need goals. Each day should be an improvement on the one that preceded it and a mere prelude to the one to follow.
Mahler, you rock!!
Thank you.
Ted
__________________
Two Bears Dadda? Two Bears Benno, just two. ______________________________ ___________
There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem - once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit. ~Al Gallagher, 1971
Location: Philly on one side, Pittsburgh on another, the Green Between...
Posts: 5,857
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
It's the age old question that has been asked to people who climb mountains, jump out airplanes and fly around the world. The most common answer is "why not?" or "because I can". It's part of the human condition to do our best and to go above and beyond what is required. The day we stop doing these things is the day we lose a little of bit what makes us human.
__________________
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." -- T.S. Eliot
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."-- Aristotle
life is nothing without a goal and with nothing to achieve tomorrow. Very nicely said Mahler. It is also a quality to be able to evaluate everything we do and stick with what we feel right.
Like duff bear, one day I told one of my co-workers, I swam 25 laps this morning and she stared at me and said "But you are pregnant". I knew exactly why I swam 25 laps and I did not feel it necessary to explain to her why.
Mahler's Monday Morning Motivator # 116 - Why?
"I'm growing older but not up. My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck. So let the winds of change blow over my head. I'd rather die while I'm living then live while I'm dead."
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