It’s true - most people have a vice, and we spend most of our lives fighting off signals from within our own heads to give into those vices. The tricky part is - recognizing that something is your weakness doesn’t give you a free ticket to give into temptation because it’s what you want - it’s actually a call to action, and fixing the problem immediately becomes your duty. The divide between people who live their whole lives in addiction and those who pull themselves out (whatever your addiction may be) is based around that call to action. Not that you only get one chance to answer it, but that those who never do, at some point, decided never to do so.
I reached that point. I’d get up, check the yellowness of my eyes, jump in the shower, etc. I just figured that’s how my dad went, all of his friends, etc.
It was kind of comforting knowing what comes next, even if it’s death, as long as you have the comfort of your drug of choice. Not knowing how to live, combined with the fear of the unknown is a deadly combination.
To me, it’s a miracle anybody quits or stays clean for any amount of time.
Sadistic serial killers were actually exactly who I was referring to with that comment, hahah. There are many people with sick urges that don’t act on them. Many CEO’s and politicians display sociopathic traits.
Jim Carrey said it best: “Madness is never that far away. It’s as close as saying ‘Yes’ to the wrong impulse.”
Psychopathic. Psychopathy can be described as the “absence of empathy and remorse”. You are typically born this way. Its the “me first and always” people you meet. No care for the hurt they cause as the climb over people to reach the top of the tree.
This sort of behaviour is rewarded in business and politics. So the people that instinctive display it get to the top. You can not “fake” a lake of remorse or empathy. You can try but in the momentary pause it takes you to remember you’re meant to be mean - someone has supplanted you.
I confess that setting up your phone on a tripod to record yourself doing ez bar curls with 45 lbs right next to me will earn you a fairly long and awkward stare from me. I have no issue with someone propping a phone up somewhere to record something, but this was like a full lifting video, for some pump work on someone who is smaller than average. The tripod just adds to the whole ridiculousness.
I confess that I rarely film myself lifting, because in order to do so my phone cuts the music, and I don’t want to hear the sounds my joints (knees primarily) make during the set.
One of my favorite parts about traveling for work is when I have enough time to drop into a commercial gym that’s away from home. Really get to double down on the watching.
I confess I have never in my life trained calves and as soon as I see any program with dedicated calf training, I immediately discount it because I know I won’t do it.
I confess that I hit a rep PR of 395 x 12 the other day and my quads were the reason I had to stop there. I did squats and RFESS prior to the deadlift attempt. My back felt fine so I think I can do more than 12.
Confession #1: I probably won’t try to beat that because it was awful.
Confession #2: My training is clearly working because my deadlift is moving upwards but I continue to question my squat programming.
But your squat programming is designed to increase your deadlift, right? Since you don’t care about your squat max.
I confess that on particularly gruelling sessions, i’ve sat down in the middle and typed up the whole workout as a way to peer pressure myself into completing it. Because we can’t have lies on the internet right?