Weightlifting Psychology

A good majority of time is spent moving heavy objects transporting them from A to B. In that time you begin to think about the motivation behind this seemingly pointless activity. It is an interesting mentality. You have two of the great human themes: man vs. machine and man vs. self. There is also got to be something a little off with us though.

Now there are of course the blantantly obvious pyschological issues associated with weightlifting: the sadomasicisitic thrill of intentionally inflicting that level of pain on one's self; the clear obsession with size both of the lifter and of the lifted weight and the accompanying napleon complex; and the issue lifters have of never being satisfied or happy with themselves because they are often in actuality trying to compensate for issues with who they are as a person.

But there are also some less obvious ones that I have begun to notice. First off there is the constant preoocupation with "getting it up". Nearly every if not all weight exercises involve getting an object up. I often find myself on a obnoxious day of fatigue lay on the bench doing a press thinking to myself, 'I just can't get it up today." And of course I begin laughing which only makes it harder to lift. Even if your doing a cable pressdown or a lateral pulldown through a series of cables and pulleys you are still working to lift a weight up.

Then there is psychologic effect of the actual motion of the exercise. Lifters are constantly pushing working to push things away from themselves only to have them return. The things they pull towards them quickly retreat. The things in a lifter's life that he longs to escape only come to him with out relief. That which he strains to bring close to him, he can never trust to stay.