I was a powerlifter for many years. I don’t mean that I lifted a lot. I don’t mean that I was trying to look good in a banana hammock on stage covered in fake tan, about to cramp up from dehydration. I mean that I competed in lifts on stage, moving as much weight as my genetics would allow.
I spent the better part of my life trying to be as strong as I possibly could. I started lifting at age 13 on a weight set I bought with my own money from Target. You know the kind. The straight iron bar with the plastic, concrete filled weights. I read every book and magazine I could get my puny hands on, often reading them while standing at the magazine rack so I wouldn’t have to buy them.
The summer of my sophomore year, I was 110 pounds. The summer after my junior year, I was 185 pounds. I graduated high school at 205 and my 34-inch pants were falling off me.
After graduation, I started studying martial arts. I guess I just needed to punish myself. I pushed myself in the gym and in the dojo. I got strong and fast.
I met a guy who was a monster, a grotesquely, obscenely strong dude. My bench press was about 300, and his was around 525. I asked him to teach me. Eventually I started competing in contests.
This guy had such strong grip strength he would bend 16d nails on the job sites where he worked just to mess with the carpenters. He had picture boxes all over the gym with bent nails, torn playing cards, torn license plates, and the like.
I started working on my grip and tearing strength as well. I started with phone books, which are quite easy. The Indianapolis phone book was more than 2 inches thick at the time and I destroyed it with ease. My next level of difficulty was playing cards.
Playing cards can be tricky. They are slick and slippery. One must be able to pinch them so strongly that they don’t fly apart while tearing them. This became easy after a while, so I looked for other challenging ways to accomplish this feat. I saw that some guys would tear them wearing oven mitts, or behind their back. One guy did it wearing handcuffs. I got to the point where I could tear cards in the box (even harder) while wearing oven mitts, with my hands behind my back.
The toughest part of tearing cards, or rolling frying pans (yeah, did that too), is that it hurts. It really digs into your hands. They are left red and swollen and sore.
I realized one day that the difficulty is not in tearing the cards, but in something much deeper.
I realized that certain feats of strength amount to how much pain you are willing to endure to accomplish the task. You must drive your hands into the cards, against the pain that begs you to stop, until the cards start ripping. The cards and your hands conform to your will, but only if your will is larger than the task.
In powerlifting training, we often lifted tremendous amounts of weight. Powerlifting is not like any other weight training. There are three lifts, in this order: the squat, the bench press, the deadlift. Each of these three lifts would be broken down into maybe 30 different variations. Each training day, we would attempt one of these variations. We would lift ONE REP, then we would add weight. Then perform one rep, and repeat. We would do this until we failed. That failure number is what would go into our logbook. Then next training day for that kind of lift, we would max out at a different variation – to failure. We never did sets or reps. We made a max attempt every training day, and we met failure every day. We gave everything we had every day. I can’t remember not being sore, everywhere.
In the end, I found my genetic limitations. My best lifts got me four IN state records.
Squat 625, Bench 505, Deadlift 525, Total 1655 in the 242 pound weight class.
With this, I again realized that these feats became a testament to how much pain a person would endure to accomplish a task. My will was more than the task.
Likewise with martials arts. I’m being sarcastic when I say being punched in the face or kicked in the ribs feels great. But to learn, you must fail. And fail I did. I had an instructor who used me as a punching bag for four years. I thought about having EVERLAST tattooed on my chest. He even told me one day he didn’t even really like me. I told him the same.
Getting my black belt was another example of how much pain I was willing to endure to accomplish a goal. I even broke my hand while training for my black belt exam. I had to go to work that night, so I didn’t go to the hospital. The swelling went down eventually.
I don’t watch sports. I’ve never been interested in sports. But I understand the devotion, dedication, and discipline they commit to in order to achieve their dreams. Mike Tyson would run at 4am, regardless of crappy weather, because he felt he needed to work harder than his opponent. His training routine at age 19 was brutal and vicious.
I’ve heard that Payton Manning demanded that his team arrive an hour early to practice and stay late because he wanted to instill in them the idea that winning isn’t easy.
Navy Seals train and train again. They live under the motto “The only easy day was yesterday.” They also believe the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.
David Goggins went through BUDs training (Navy Seal training camp) three times before he passed. He’s the only person to go through BUDs three times in one year. The last time, he had such bad shin splints he taped his legs with duct tape from his knees to his toes and taught himself to run without flexing his ankles just so he could pass. The more he suffered, the deeper he went into himself, and the more he learned who he was.
Bryan Adams became famous when the first line in his most popular song started with how he played his first guitar until his fingers bled.
Larry Byrd would arrive at high school an hour early so he could shoot 100 free throws before class started.
Dedication pays off.
Nothing of value is easy, nothing that is easy has value.
Motivation is when you do something when you don’t feel like it.
Discipline is doing staying motivated while doing that something again and again and again.
Habit is when you can’t think of doing anything else.
What do you want to accomplish? It doesn’t have to be something physical. It could be a new skill, new job training, music or art, writing, or running a business.
Are you willing to do what it takes, even when it gets hard, even when it sucks, even when you don’t want to?
I’ve taken guitar lessons. If you think you can practice only when you go to the class with the instructor and hope to be even mediocre, you’re wrong. The instructor gives you assignments. You better do those drills at home, every day, even if you don’t want to. The instructor will notice immediately that you haven’t touched your guitar. He won’t have time for you, and you’ll be gone. He’ll spend his time on someone who gives a damn.
Martial arts is different nowadays. Most people don’t train on their own. They practice only when class is in session, and it shows. But most instructors need the money so they will keep teaching this student. Then the student will be furious when the next testing comes and they aren’t invited to test. Then they drop out on their own.
I wanted to be good, so I practiced at home, all the time. When I was teaching, I practiced before and after classes. While working third shift, I would park my car behind a building and practice my kata (forms), and punches and kicks.
Accomplishing something means practicing it all the time. It takes dedication, perseverance, and sweat equity.
It occasionally means enduring pain, sometimes even real pain. The kind that hurts.
But pain breeds success. Pain reveals who you are.
Pain tests your will.
Sometimes it takes looking at a task and telling yourself that it won’t get done unless you get at it and get it done. Not eventually, not later, but now.
I’ve had to look at that loaded bar, knowing that this next lift will hurt. I might even fail. But I gotta do it.
I’ve had to look at my bloody knuckles, knowing that I’m not done punching this bag, but someone needs to punch it.
Maybe I’m crazy. I don’t know for sure. But I’ve done some things in my life. Things most people wouldn’t think of trying. And I did them.
What do you want to do? Are you willing to do it?
Are you willing to suck at it? I’ve told my kids, who are all adults now, to embrace the suck. It’s got to be done, who else is going to do it?
After I finish this blog, I’ve got a martial arts workout to do. It’s gonna suck. I know it will. But who else is going to do it? I could sit here at this desk and scroll my phone, but that’s not going to make me a better person. Doing what you don’t feel like doing makes you a better person.
So just do it.
Embrace the suck. Hurt a little. Hell, hurt a lot. You can rest when you’re finished, not when you’re tired.
No one ever got better at something sitting on the couch.
Never give up,
Weeg
Joe “Weeg” Weigant is a Board Certified Massage Therapist, Holistic Health Authority, Reiki Master Teacher, Herbalist, Metaphysician, and Empowerment Coach. He combines bodywork, energy work, and coaching to improve quality of life by healing from the outside in and from the inside out.
Weeg sells Nature’s Sunshine Products, Pure Herbs Ltd., doTERRA, and Juice Plus+. Weeg suggests lifestyle changes and provides herbal remedies to his clients so they may build new habits for long life and vibrant health. He teaches Karate and Tai Chi, Reiki Certification, as well as seminars and workshops in metaphysical and spiritual matters. Weeg is available for sessions at Tri State Holistic Wellness by appointment only.
Contact by text 812.568.5356, or Facebook Messenger to set an appointment.
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