Back in 2009, I read an essay that changed my life.
I had just started Nerd Fitness, a fun side hobby about helping beginners get started with health and fitness.
It was then I stumbled across an unexpected essay from an unexpected source: musician Henry Rollins.
He had penned an article called “The Iron and the Soul” about strength training and how it had changed his life, and I was floored.
I wish I had discovered strength training – and the confidence it gave me – a decade earlier. I wish I had read this essay when I was 15 instead of 25. I certainly wouldn’t have felt so alone.
Today’s newsletter is a bit longer than usual, so I’m going to break this newsletter into a few parts.
I promise you there is wisdom in every quote below, so ignore it at your peril!
Lack of Self
Rollins has an origin story that we can all relate to:
“When I was young I had no sense of myself.
All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me ‘garbage can’ and telling me I’d be mowing lawns for a living.
And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I hated myself all the time.
As stupid as it seems now, I wanted to talk like them, dress like them, carry myself with the ease of knowing that I wasn’t going to get pounded in the hallway between classes.
Us nerds often feel lost and unsure of ourselves, and yet desperately want the approval of the very people who made us feel “less than.” Luckily, we can often find solace with other nerds:
“Years passed and I learned to keep it all inside. I only talked to a few boys in my grade. Other losers. Some of them are to this day the greatest people I have ever known.
Hang out with a guy who has had his head flushed down a toilet a few times, treat him with respect, and you’ll find a faithful friend forever.”
It was at this point, that Rollins had a chance encounter with his school advisor, Mr. Pepperman, who encouraged him to buy a cheap set of weights and start training.
“In the gym he showed me ten basic exercises. I paid more attention than I ever did in any of my classes. I didn’t want to blow it. I went home that night and started right in.”
Over the next six months, Rollins trained with conviction, hoping to make Mr. Pepperman proud.
And in that time, he found himself.
Strength Training is the Best Teacher
Okay, now we’re at the good stuff! Rollins starts to share how “The Iron” (AKA weight lifting) changed his life:
“It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn’t want to come off the mat, it’s the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn’t teach you anything.”
Easy success doesn’t test our capabilities, nor does it push us to become better. To find out who we really are, we need just the right amount of challenge. We need to get comfortable with discomfort, and we need to learn how to fail and try again.
This is true in the gym, but it’s also true in real life. When we screw up, more often than not it’s due to our own mistakes, not outside forces. And that’s okay, as long as we admit it:
“When dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego.”
It’s not the weight’s fault we put too much on the bar, we had bad form, or we didn’t warm up. That’s our ego. We need to slow down, and learn the lesson the Iron is teaching us. There’s no better way to stall progress than to get injured. Leave the ego at the door and lift what you can.
Strength goes beyond muscle
This is where we move from physical strength to mental strength, and I am here for it:
“Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.”
Strength includes how we treat ourselves and how we treat others. And boy, it’s amazing what can happen when we get strong – it bleeds over to how we feel about ourselves on the inside too.
“I have never met a strong person who didn’t also have self-confidence.”
Self-confidence is not cockiness or bravado. Those are false idols. Self-confidence means “know thyself.” Strength training teaches us who we are, and what we stand for. That’s true self-confidence.
We all need to pick up heavy things.
Although Rollins wrote this essay in 1994, I think the following paragraph about humanity’s struggle is more relevant than ever:
People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole.
I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron Mind.
We need to play life on the right scorecard, and we need to treat our bodies with respect. That doesn’t mean perfection, but that does mean we need to prioritize the right things. And strength training is one of those non-negotiable priorities.
There’s something incredibly powerful about a strong nerd:
I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts.
Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind. The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength.
I believe we have a personal responsibility to get strong. When we get strong, we think strong. And those strong thoughts are what allow us to take chances. To take risks. To fail and try again. To take care of ourselves and the people around us. To stand up for what is right.
We need to take care of our bodies, our minds, and our hearts. Strength training helps with all of the above.
The essay ends with a call to arms that makes your arm hair stand up:
The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver.
Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs.
Friends may come and go.
But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.
What I learned from the Iron
Here’s what the Iron taught me, personally:
The Iron taught me about patience, and learning to not lift more than I was capable of. This lesson had to be repeatedly learned after injuries, or strains, or setbacks, because I was too stubborn to listen.
The Iron taught me to be present, because picking up very heavy things requires absolute concentration.
The Iron taught me that excuses don’t help me lift the bar, or make me feel better about NOT lifting the bar. If I was stressed, or hungover, or overwhelmed…I could convince myself it was okay. But the Iron only cared if I could move the weight or not.
The Iron helped me develop self-confidence: not just because of what I saw in the mirror, but also because I could look at a pile of weight on a bar and know, “I lifted that, something I’ve never done before.”
The Iron has taught me humility, needing to back WAY off how much I was lifting after a month away, or to rebuild my form correctly.
The Iron taught me that strength training is both the means to the end, and the end itself. I train because I want to look good and feel good. But I also train because I enjoy challenging myself, learning what I’m capable of. It’s also my “me time,” which is why I train alone in my Blair Witch basement (my house was built in 1940, with a stone foundation).
I plan on strength training every other day from now until forever, including during the next apocalypse.
Strength training is one of the most important things you can do for yourself.
And for those around you.
Let your kids see you lift weights, and struggle. Teach them to be strong, and you will change their life.
And remember, two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.
I’d love to hear from you, so hit reply:
- How has strength training changed your life?
- If you haven’t started strength training yet, what’s holding you back?
-Steve
PS: You can read the full essay here, one of the first articles I ever published!
