I feel that statement way too much, haha. Although my degrees of satisfaction or disgust definitely depend on day to day form (bloat).
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Add me to that club. Wife went shopping yesterday and bought me some new work pants. Had to go up a waist size due to power belly. She buys two pairs but doesn’t notice that one pair is Euro slim fit. I squeeze myself into what I can only describe as smart leggings with a fly!! She nearly wet herself she was laughing so hard. Pretty sure she did it on purpose to make me feel fat and lose some weight. I will not be deterred … road to 100 !!
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We all are our worst critics (well maybe in your case the wife is a close second, haha).
If we saw someone with the EXACT build of our’s we probably wouldn’t think that he looked all that bad. Same goes for strength levels and other accomplishments (when it comes to me): I see someone in the gym deadlfting 140 kg and think: “wow, some strong lifting, dude!” although I can deadlift considerably more. But I only compare him to the regular gym folks and me to my strongman competition. I’m generally happy for others to achieve their goals or make small steps in the right direction, while I often times fail to acknowledge that in myself.
I know I am my worst critic. Then again I’m messed up in the head and to a degree hate myself.
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Mate this could literally describe like 20 people on here.
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Same boat here haha.I usually look at the elevator mirror and think to myself “You jacked beast you”, but then I get in my home mirror shirtless, and, well, you know the rest
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I sincerely hope it doesn’t, considering how it was meant.
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I got you mate, and understand your response. My point whilst slightly in jest, was really just to point out that it takes a certain amount of self hate and desire to be better than we are, to do this stuff. If we all loved what we were then we wouldn’t put ourselves through the pain. I hope you don’t think I was making light of your personal challenge as that was not my intent.
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That x2
I was at my strongest when I hated myself the most.It’s an outlet.You can certainly lift and have a great life, but serious lifting, especially compared to other sports, given that you start at an older age, attracts a certain kind of individual imo
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JP Carroll calls powerlifting the land of broken toys.
He’s not far off the truth. The majority of PLers I know have issues, definitely including myself. Some a narcissistic MFers, some have self destructive mental health issues to a greater or lesser extent, some are just angry as fuck, some have a major chip on their shoulder, you name it.
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Following on from that, I think it helps if suffering is familiar. When you’ve dealt with actual shit in your life a hard training session or a bad block doesn’t even register on the scale.
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I agree with this Mark but I also like to draw on the suffering or challenges than others have faced. I often think, how hard is this really compared to my grandad doing X or my mum doing Y.
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See, that’s admirable but it doesn’t work for me because I have zero empathy. I can sympathise, but not empathise.
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I don’t really have to empathise to use this as motivation. My drive doesn’t come from how I think they may have felt at the time but more how challenging that would be for me to live through.
Again, I think that’s admirable but for me would be meaningless. I can only meaningfully relate to what I have experienced, not what I may have experienced in a hypothetical situation.
Lifting is pretty zen for me these days. Not all sunshine and rainbows but if anything it helped me overall in life and it’s relatively healthy mentally and physically.
I’m unaware of any strong correlation between lifting success and neuroticism. I know a bunch of dudes with issues who ain’t that strong. Most gym bros are running on that negativity fuel as well and ain’t particularly strong or big.
Theoretically/hypothetically wouldn’t less issues wearing away at you, fatiguing you and taking away from training be better for the gains? Personally I’d love to have a bit less neuroticism and over active stress response to make more gains.
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Hey, I didn’t say they were any good 
Then ones to watch are the confident ones. Some are quietly confident, others a little cocky; but neither are arrogant or narcissistic.
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I think that depends entirely on the individual. Some people thrive where others fail.
Extra stress that doesn’t produce adaptions is counterproductive no?
I raise u retard strength. Too dumb to worry about life nevermind training or missing lifts. Just get em a good coach, plenty of food and supps and watch em execute
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On paper yes, but then you look at the guys coming out of Westside in the 90s and early 2000s and that was by all accounts an extremely stressful environment.
I think generally the best perform well regardless, and perhaps some are so good because they do thrive on situations others wouldn’t be able to operate in.
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