The Zen of Strength Training - Part One
Something told me that the title of this post was about as original as the notion of inventing a long pointy thing you can write with. It’s not as if The Zen of Strength Training has not been discussed before, right? Surely the Internet must be loaded with articles on this subject. So, to test my theory I did a google on “The Zen of Strength Training”. Guess what? Very little is discussed on the topic. At least, not as Zen relates to strength training.
Oh sure, there is tons of information on the Zen of Martial Arts, The Zen of Poetry, the Zen of Motorcycle Riding etc. Yet, nothing on The Zen of Strength Training.
As I sat at the kitchen table this afternoon eating my spaghetti, I surveyed my surroundings, I wondered to myself, “how in the world did I end up in a place like this?”
How did I manage to become homeless? How did I end up in a strangers house, sleeping on the floor of her computer room at night? My thoughts spiralled out of control and the next thing I knew I found myself wondering if a cardboard box was my next destination. Perish the thought!
Regaining my composure, the question continued to reverberate in my head: How in the world did I end up in a place like this?
It would be easy to blame the nutcase that started the fire that displaced four families, got my brother fired, split the two of us up (three, including Hershey, our beloved little feline sister) and wrecked our lives for the immediate future. But really, is the nutcase to blame? Or, would it be more accurate to blame myself for not managing to become more of a financial success in life. Oh, sure I tried to be a success. Trouble is, I failed up to this point.
Let’s face it. If I had 100K in the bank, I would not be in the position I am in now, would I? I would have moved into a nice, cushy condominium or even better, a new house. I would not be in need of food and cloths because I would have bought them already. So, yeah, the fire was the nutcases fault, but the inability to recover from the fire is nobodies fault but my own. Or is that even true?
Did I ask to be born with CF? No. Have I tried the best way possible to deal with the challenges dealt to me by this damned condition? Hell yes, and I keep trying every day. Have I done the best I can do up to this point? Maybe not. Or, more to the point, I guess have not made the best decisions in every instance. But I have worked my ass off to make things work. I suppose in some ways I have succeeded and in some ways I have failed. The bottom line is, I am where I am. So how did I get here?
Maybe the question is faulty from the start. It is not any one thing that brings us to a place. It is not any two or three things. In fact, it is all things that brings us to a particular place in life. And I know that God is in control.
Maybe the question is not what I did to get myself into this mess, but what I will do to get out of it? Maybe the answer is I will do nothing. Maybe the answer is that I should accept the fact that God has me in his hand. Maybe the answer is that I just need to trust Him. God expects nothing more of me than to trust Him. And if I can do that, I know for a fact that I will be OK. Trust God, do not trust your own limited understanding. Trust that all things that happen will work to bring Glory to God for those that are in Christ Jesus. Easier said than done, but a formula for success none the less.
So, in the midst of thinking about all of this stuff, as I was working a heaping forkful of Spaghetti into my gaping pie hole, I had a most non sequitur thought: Traditional strength trainers primarily think about two things: what to shove into their stomachs and how to get big. And that got my attention. The problem with strength training is the lack of anything substantive to it.
OK, so you are strong enough to do the Farmers Walk. Great, you can bench press 700 lbs. Awesome, you can do 400 pushups, non-stop, and not even break a sweat. But who are you as a person? Who are you really? And of what value is this pursuit of physical excellence if the only fruit it bares is awesome pecs and oak tree thighs?
Stay tuned.
