Lifting Weights = Warrior?

Off Topic
1

The “300” thread reminded of something that has always baffled me…

Why do so many people who lift weights but never served in the military or fought (professionally or on the streets) talk about being warrior?

Do people really think that lifting weights and reading Sun Tzu qualifies them for warrior status?

I’m serious. I hear gym-goers contanstly talking about their “warrior philosophy.” It’s really annoying. Perhaps I am missing something.

Enlighten me: Why are you guys who never risked your life fighting or served in combat warriors?

2

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
The “300” thread reminded of something that has always baffled me…

Why do so many people who lift weights but never served in the military or fought (professionally or on the streets) talk about being warrior?

Do people really think that lifting weights and reading Sun Tzu qualifies them for warrior status?

I’m serious. I hear gym-goers contanstly talking about their “warrior philosophy.” It’s really annoying. Perhaps I am missing something.

Enlighten me: Why are you guys who never risked your life fighting or served in combat warriors?[/quote]

It’s called macho talk. I have done no fighting with people shooting at me, so I call it lifting weights.

3

I dont know. I do remember kellen winslow ranting in the locker room to a bunch of reporters screaming he was a warrior, on ESPN. He looked like the biggest tool ever.

4

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
I dont know. I do remember kellen winslow ranting in the locker room to a bunch of reporters screaming he was a warrior, on ESPN. He looked like the biggest tool ever.[/quote]

He actually said he was a “fuckin soldier.” Either way, he’s really just a “fuckin jackass.”

5

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
I dont know. I do remember kellen winslow ranting in the locker room to a bunch of reporters screaming he was a warrior, on ESPN. He looked like the biggest tool ever.[/quote]

hahahaha, classic. I have found that true warriors don’t yell nonsense about being warriors.

6

[quote]H-Bomb wrote:
rrjc5488 wrote:
I dont know. I do remember kellen winslow ranting in the locker room to a bunch of reporters screaming he was a warrior, on ESPN. He looked like the biggest tool ever.

He actually said he was a “fuckin soldier.” Either way, he’s really just a “fuckin jackass.”[/quote]

Didn’t a reporter call him out and say the real soldiers are fighting in Iraq?

Sadly, yeah. I know a few people whom I’d consider “warriors” but they NEVER refer to themselves as that.

7

My idea behind it is doing something that is hard and requires effort beyond the norm. Most people choose the easy way out and are lazy and weak. To choose to get off your ass and go to the gym to battle the weights takes a warrior like mentality. In reality it’s just something to get amped up on and get the test flowing.

If it offends you sorry. Are you a former or current true warrior? (side note, I did serve in the military and have been in a street fight or two in my younger days)

D

8

[quote]Dedicated wrote:
My idea behind it is doing something that is hard and requires effort beyond the norm. Most people choose the easy way out and are lazy and weak. To choose to get off your ass and go to the gym to battle the weights takes a warrior like mentality. In reality it’s just something to get amped up on and get the test flowing.

If it offends you sorry. Are you a former or current true warrior? (side note, I did serve in the military and have been in a street fight or two in my younger days)

D [/quote]

It doesn’t offend me. It amuses me more than anything. It’s in the “squat rack curls” category - something I ignore, but when I notice, I chuckle.

What amuses me most of all is when people who are under 35 (and thus could enlist) talk about being warriors. Why don’t they join the military? After all, there is an actual war going on right know.

Yet instead they’ll watch “300,” go lift weights, and then talk about how they are like Roman gladiators.

9

Using the term depends only on how you define it.

[quote]war-ri-or (w’r-r, wr-) n.

  1. One who is engaged in or experienced in battle.
  2. One who is engaged aggressively or energetically in an activity, cause, or conflict: neighborhood warriors fighting against developers. [/quote]

Some people go to war with a gun, blade, or fist. Some people go to war in the boardroom, to program code, or in the operating room. Some people go to war on the field, in the ring, or in their training. And of course, some people are a mix of all of the above.

I have respect for anyone willing to wage a personal war and even more respect for anyone who put their life on the line, but I really don’t think the term can be narrowly defined to only include soldiers or fighters, etc.

10

typical blowhard bullshit. everybody’s a tough-guy these days. if you lift, you’re a tough guy 'cause your STRONG! if you drink you get beer muscles. when you got 'em…you’re tough! guys who smoke are tough…'cause they think they look tough.

it’s a lot of bullshit. i’ve had a few situations over the past 10 years or so when i either had to or almost had to throw-down with someone. every fucking time it’s talk, talk, talk. guy wants to tell you about what he’s gonna do to you or use a string of profanity that’s supposed to scare you out of your wits.

most times you find out he’s got nothing and talked so fucking much because he KNEW he had nothing for you.

reminds me of a great line from ‘wyatt earp’. costner plays wyatt earp and ike clanton is mouthing off about getting the earps, etc. earp says matter of factly, ‘you talk too much for a fightin’ man, ike.’

usually very true.

11

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Dedicated wrote:
My idea behind it is doing something that is hard and requires effort beyond the norm. Most people choose the easy way out and are lazy and weak. To choose to get off your ass and go to the gym to battle the weights takes a warrior like mentality. In reality it’s just something to get amped up on and get the test flowing.

If it offends you sorry. Are you a former or current true warrior? (side note, I did serve in the military and have been in a street fight or two in my younger days)

D

It doesn’t offend me. It amuses me more than anything. It’s in the “squat rack curls” category - something I ignore, but when I notice, I chuckle.

What amuses me most of all is when people who are under 35 (and thus could enlist) talk about being warriors. Why don’t they join the military? After all, there is an actual war going on right know.

Yet instead they’ll watch “300,” go lift weights, and then talk about how they are like Roman gladiators. [/quote]

I see where you are coming from although I am clueless on this “300” thing. Growing up when I heard someone referred to as a warrior it usually denoted toughness beyond the norm. Like if that guy could hike in the mountains or buck hay bales all day and not get tired he was a warrior. I think it’s a pretty benign way of praising someone’s ability.

D

12

[quote]Hack Wilson wrote:
typical blowhard bullshit. everybody’s a tough-guy these days. if you lift, you’re a tough guy 'cause your STRONG! if you drink you get beer muscles. when you got 'em…you’re tough! guys who smoke are tough…'cause they think they look tough.

it’s a lot of bullshit. i’ve had a few situations over the past 10 years or so when i either had to or almost had to throw-down with someone. every fucking time it’s talk, talk, talk. guy wants to tell you about what he’s gonna do to you or use a string of profanity that’s supposed to scare you out of your wits.

most times you find out he’s got nothing and talked so fucking much because he KNEW he had nothing for you.

reminds me of a great line from ‘wyatt earp’. costner plays wyatt earp and ike clanton is mouthing off about getting the earps, etc. earp says matter of factly, ‘you talk too much for a fightin’ man, ike.’

usually very true.[/quote]

No ones as tough as you hack you are hereby crowned the toughest SOB in the world.

D

13

[quote]Plisskin wrote:
Using the term depends only on how you define it.

war-ri-or (w’r-r, wr-) n.

  1. One who is engaged in or experienced in battle.
  2. One who is engaged aggressively or energetically in an activity, cause, or conflict: neighborhood warriors fighting against developers.

Some people go to war with a gun, blade, or fist. Some people go to war in the boardroom, to program code, or in the operating room. Some people go to war on the field, in the ring, or in their training. And of course, some people are a mix of all of the above.

I have respect for anyone willing to wage a personal war and even more respect for anyone who put their life on the line, but I really don’t think the term can be narrowly defined to only include soldiers or fighters, etc.[/quote]

there is only one kind of war, dude. guys training are training. not at war. guys coding software are developers, not warriors. people in the operating room are doctors - i would hope - not soldiers.

i understand the analogy - and that’s what it is - and it doesn’t bother me too much when it’s applied to sport. if i say a football game was a war you know it was a closely contested, physical battle. if i say it was a cakewalk - well…it wasn’t that either but you know it was a blowout, easy game.

but let’s not go crazy with this whole ‘life is war and we’re all warriors’ shit, okay? that ain’t real.

14

[quote]Dedicated wrote:
My idea behind it is doing something that is hard and requires effort beyond the norm. Most people choose the easy way out and are lazy and weak. To choose to get off your ass and go to the gym to battle the weights takes a warrior like mentality. In reality it’s just something to get amped up on and get the test flowing.

If it offends you sorry. Are you a former or current true warrior? (side note, I did serve in the military and have been in a street fight or two in my younger days)

D [/quote]

That’s how I feel about it. If you are military, cool, you may have a reason to be upset with it. If not, you are just bitching because someone else used a term to describe their effort. How is that possibly harming someone because they consider themselves a “warrior” in the weight room? Sometimes it may take that mentality for someone to competely change their habits and the way they look. The real question is, who are you to define someone else’s battles in life and how important they are to them?

Could a cancer patient be considered going to war by fighting the disease? Would that offend you?

Some of you are full of shit.

15

[quote]Hack Wilson wrote:
that ain’t real.[/quote]

Neither are you but we don’t see you complaining about that.

16

Wouldn’t a real warrior not worry about such small things as fake people?

To me a true warrior is the guy who doesn’t talk much but walks the walk.

The guys in the military talking about how many people they have shot, or are waiting to “get some” are just rednecks that legally get to shoot people. The real warrior is the LRRP who tells his story only when asks and doesn’t brag about what he has done. (could be anyone for that matter, I just have a large amount of respect for the LRRP vets).

17

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Hack Wilson wrote:
that ain’t real.

Neither are you but we don’t see you complaining about that.[/quote]

that’s your comment? i’m not real.

18

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
The “300” thread reminded of something that has always baffled me…

Why do so many people who lift weights but never served in the military or fought (professionally or on the streets) talk about being warrior?

Do people really think that lifting weights and reading Sun Tzu qualifies them for warrior status?

I’m serious. I hear gym-goers contanstly talking about their “warrior philosophy.” It’s really annoying. Perhaps I am missing something.

Enlighten me: Why are you guys who never risked your life fighting or served in combat warriors?[/quote]

If you read the Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo you probably read about the pinnacle of Samurai culture…

However, this book was written centuries after constant feudal warfare the made the constant expectation and suddenness of death a fact of life.

Samurais later made a journey inwards to fight in their own minds instead of an outward enemy, like Zen Buddhism, poetry, etc…

Probably all a bunch of posers, weren`t they?

And yet, after centuries of, more or less, peace, they were among the few Asian nations not conquered, and their warrior spirit seemed to be very much alive in the 20th century…

Perhaps the rules haven`t changed so much…

If you want to know how much “warrior” there is in a man, there is really only one way to find out…

Plus, to y`all military fetishists, the concept of “man, with something sharp in his hands and an agenda” precedes the US military by a few hunderthousand years…

A few thousand if it absolely has to be a metal object…

19

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Dedicated wrote:
My idea behind it is doing something that is hard and requires effort beyond the norm. Most people choose the easy way out and are lazy and weak. To choose to get off your ass and go to the gym to battle the weights takes a warrior like mentality. In reality it’s just something to get amped up on and get the test flowing.

If it offends you sorry. Are you a former or current true warrior? (side note, I did serve in the military and have been in a street fight or two in my younger days)

D

That’s how I feel about it. If you are military, cool, you may have a reason to be upset with it. If not, you are just bitching because someone else used a term to describe their effort. How is that possibly harming someone because they consider themselves a “warrior” in the weight room? Sometimes it may take that mentality for someone to competely change their habits and the way they look. The real question is, who are you to define someone else’s battles in life and how important they are to them?

Could a cancer patient be considered going to war by fighting the disease? Would that offend you?

Some of you are full of shit.[/quote]

dude. you are full of shit in the most self-riteous way i can imagine.

20

[quote]Hack Wilson wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Hack Wilson wrote:
that ain’t real.

Neither are you but we don’t see you complaining about that.

that’s your comment? i’m not real. [/quote]

At times real boring.

D