Why We Lift  and Why As Men We Should
 
*This one is for the men, but some of you ladies will find it inspiring too.
 
Some people think men lift weights purely for reasons of vanity- for bigger muscles and better looking bodies.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  There are many reasons to lift beyond looking good or for impressing the other sex.  For the record, those reasons are perfectly valid and good.  After all, people wear certain clothes to try to look good, drive nice cars to look good, pay for expensive haircuts, and spend a lot of money to make their houses attractive.  The body is no different, it requires an investment to get it looking attractive and presentable.  Out of a respect for others, and for ourselves, lifting for aesthetic reasons is not a bad thing. 
 
Of course, you can take vanity too to an extreme, but wanting to be in shape and look good physically is no different than wanting to wear a nice suit or dress.  When we look good we’re more confident, and it’s more respectable to other people to not look slovenly and out of shape in public.  Lifting weights improves posture, widens shoulders, firms glutes, builds chests, flattens abdomens, and develops the arms, legs, and shoulders.  Just like we straighten up our houses to make them look nice, strengthening and straightening the body makes it look better.  Plus, modern life doesn’t offer many chances in daily routines to develop the body like lifting does.  Even if someone has a manual labor job, it’s often the machine that does a lot of the work.
 
But that being said, there are other more important reasons to lift weights beyond the visual.   Lifting weights improves our health.  It makes our legs stronger for walking, running, or hiking.  It builds the heart and lungs and boosts hormones that make us feel better and more energetic.  It teaches us to breathe better and deeper. Any type of exercise is beneficial for the brain and memory, including lifting.  Lifting also creates a psychological and emotional high, because exercise releases hormones like testosterone, growth hormone, and neurotransmitters like dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine.
 
Lifting weights increases bone density and muscle mass.  Building and maintaining muscle mass throughout a lifetime will decrease the risk of falls and broken bones, and help us to control blood sugar.  Controlling blood sugar and insulin over a lifetime by boosting muscle and metabolism will have major health benefits related to all sorts of age-related diseases.  
 
Also, as I wrote in a previous essay, lifting weights in a gym can have positive social benefits:
 
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Although there are totally rational critiques of gym culture, and I’d be the first to offer some of my own, I believe there are perfectly good reasons to go somewhere to work out.  Most importantly, these reasons in support of going to a gym offer lessons for other organizations looking to draw in more people. By understanding the constructive reasons why people go to gyms, lessons can be learned about what people need and want in life.  To put it simply, a gym is a “3rd place” and we desperately need more 3rd places. 
 
I’ve made many friendships working out.  The gym is what sociologists call a “3rd place”, a place that’s not home or work that people can socialize in.  Churches, bars, coffee shops, and parks are other examples of 3rd places.  It’s pretty easy to strike up a conversation with someone in a 3rd place, even with someone who you normally wouldn’t talk to.  When I was a teenager, the gym was a relatively healthy place I could go to make friends and mostly stay out of trouble.
 
America is the most atomized and socially isolated country in the world.  Deaths of despair, so-called because they involve many factors- moral collapse, social isolation, declining relative wages, family and marriage disintegration, drug and alcohol abuse, meaninglessness, and increased costs of living- are on the rise.  3rd places help alleviate some, if not nearly all, of the problems of despair.    We need 3rd places more than ever.  They help give people a place to go, to get out of social isolation, get some exercise, and get away from screens. 
 
It’s good to go to the gym. Sure, working out at home is fine too, but for most people a gym offers unique benefits.  In addition to the social benefits, there are pieces of fitness equipment like full dumbbell racks, bar squat racks, cardio machines and others, that are too big for most homes.  Gyms also offer group classes, another way to meet people.  So get off the couch, and go to a gym.  You might be surprised how much you like it. 
 
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Lifting weights gives men a goal in life, it builds agency, and so it allows us to do more.  Specifically, lifting is something objective, physical, and real that men can work to improve at.  Getting stronger is an objective goal that men can work towards attaining.  Some women may be interested in this too, but from my experience this aspect of lifting appeals to men more than women.  Getting stronger builds a man’s dignity and self-respect.  This isn’t some phony, abstract self-help self-esteem, this is real respect for oneself based on results by being able to lift more weight than the previous self could and lift more than most other men. Men get much pleasure and satisfaction from building strength, because physical strength is a masculine virtue.  All other things being equal, a stronger man is a better man.  To be stronger is to be better and men should strive to be better. 

Men weren’t born and built to sit around on the couch, at their core men's bodies were built to be physical.  We were built to do things, hard, challenging, and physical things.  Modern life doesn’t offer men many opportunities to do manly things, but building strength is one such thing. Plus, we can often share our strength with others when we’re stronger.  We can help build things, move things, lift things, and protect others.  Even the simple presence of a strong man can be beneficial to our family, friends, and communities. 

Lifting can be a habit that bleeds over into other areas of life like work, relationships, and into having more energy to do things too.  Achieving little things can lead to achieving bigger things, this is how human psychology works. There are other reasons to lift, but these are some of the most important ones.  It’s good for your body, good for your mind, and even good for your soul and community.   So now one more thing.  Go do it. 

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Read Next: How to Age Like a Fine Wine

Make the Effort the Reward
 
Make the effort the reward, and you’re well on your way to achieving great things.  This factor for motivation seemingly contradicts using pain and pleasure, after or before you're done, as motivation.  Sure, we can use pain and pleasure, and I recommend trying that at first.  But eventually I want you to advance to the point where the effort itself actually becomes the award. 
 
Enjoy the grind, enjoy the discipline, enjoy achieving the small things.  You’re taking yourself to a higher plane of existence now, you’re generating a different future for yourself by sheer willpower.  This is a better high than any reward. 
 
The problem with using rewards and punishments, is that they can actually make the activity itself harder to do! This sounds counterintuitive, but with the way your brain’s neurotransmitters work, you want to take the “high” away from the reward and put it on the activity itself.
 
Rewards increase dopamine, a powerful neurotransmitter in the brain that makes us feel good.  But you can actually trick your brain into thinking that the task itself is rewarding so that you don’t have a dreadful state while you’re doing what it is you’re doing. 
 
Let me explain a little bit more.  Research shows that rewards can actually decrease motivation, and they can even become counterproductive.  If you set up everything difficult you do, like work, behavior change, exercise, eating better, etc.,  as something which gets a reward afterwards, you’re essentially telling your brain that it’s difficult, dreadful, and hard, and in turn the activity gets even harder.  We human beings don’t really care for hard work.  So instead let’s play a trick on the brain.  The effort itself is going to be the reward!
 
Give yourself a ton of credit and psychological praise just for getting done what needs to be done.  Stop and think for a minute while you’re doing something how good it feels to be moving in a positive direction.   Here are some examples from daily life:
 

• Find a way to actually enjoy the workout itself, without having to rely on rewards. 
• Do little things in the morning to build momentum of actually accomplishing things and you will be more motivated to do more difficult things. 
• Adopt a positive attitude in challenging circumstances, even if you have to fake it, and eventually you’ll have one.
  

 
I want us all to feel good about doing what we need to do, what we want to do, in order to achieve our health and fitness goals.   Use a pain and pleasure system to help you get started, but eventually start to motivate yourself into getting a dopamine high just by being able to do your workout.  It’s a cliché but it’s true- the journey is the destination.  Moving is a gift, we’re blessed, we’re lucky, life is good, and the effort is the reward!
 
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This is a powerful concept! Like the blog? Bookmark and pass it on!
Scott
 
Read next: Move After Meals

It's long been common wisdom that a bit of a stroll after a meal feels good.  It's easy to feel sleepy after a meal, when your body goes into digestion mode.  But some new research even shows how moving for only a few minutes can be good for you. 

From an August, 2022 NY Times article:

"Walking after a meal, conventional wisdom says, helps clear your mind and aids in digestion. Scientists have also found that going for a 15-minute walk after a meal can reduce blood sugar levels, which can help ward off complications such as Type 2 diabetes. But, as it turns out, even just a few minutes of walking can activate these benefits.

In a meta-analysis, recently published in the journal Sports Medicine, researchers looked at the results of seven studies that compared the effects of sitting versus standing or walking on measures of heart health, including insulin and blood sugar levels. They found that light walking after a meal, in increments of as little as two to five minutes, had a significant impact in moderating blood sugar levels.
“Each small thing you do will have benefits, even if it is a small step,” said Dr. Kershaw Patel, a preventive cardiologist at Houston Methodist Hospital who was not involved in the study."

In addition to the benefit in managing blood sugar, it would also be helpful to move to help with nutrient absorption from the food you've eaten.

Practical tips:

• Every time you eat, get up and move gently and lightly for at least 5 minutes, but up to 30 minutes.
• This is a perfect time to take the dog for a walk.
• If you don't have time to walk, at least try to stand up instead of sitting down.
• Eat your bedtime meal at least an hour and preferably 2-3 hours before bed.

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Scott

One main reason America has an obesity epidemic is the sofa on wheels, better knows as the car.  Now I'm not completely bashing the car, I have one myself, two actually, and a motorcyle.  What I am pointing out about the car is that the USA invented the mass-produced car and built it's entire modern infrastructure around the car, including suburban sprawl.  As a result, we don't walk much, we don't bike much, and we don't even meet many of our neighbors.  It's strange when you walk around most cities- you feel the aggression of cars, and often you're the only one walking! The sofa on wheels is an impersonal, obesity-inducing machine, if never questioned.  I don't want to ban cars, but I do want you to be healthy. 

Do cars give us "freedom"?

So from now on think about this.   Yes it is a "freeing" feeling to have the ability to drive, but when does it the "freedom" to drive, become the necessity?  The freedom to drive has become the requirement.  And the problem with sitting on the sofa all day, at work, in the car and at home, is that it's not good for us.  The proof is that we have the most cars and the most obesity in the world.  What to do?

• Walk
• Bike
• Live Closer to Where you Work
  

From now on, your car is a Sofa on wheels!

Scott

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