I, like many of you fellow t-nation readers workout at home. I have currently hanging in my home weight-room the following quote that I “borrowed” from a post a few months ago:
“Pain is only weakness leaving the body”
-unknown
I was thinking about changing/adding a new quote…Any good suggestions? (it’s gotta make a guy want to press serious weight at 6:00 in the morning)
A tattoo i saw in a High Times mag…
“Never demand that which you cannot take by force”
Vedic Principal
“We are eternal - Pain is an illusion.”
The Terran-Republic’s war support poster…
“Never surrender…”
I got a couple more that mean something to me personally like “My Arms, Your Hearse” and “My Six to your Five” and my favorite, " SHU Bleeds Blue" go pirates!..
As overdone as it is, there’s something to be said for Nike’s slogan of “Just Do It.”
For some reason Arnie training posters always get me fired up. If I feel like slacking, I just think,“Arnie wouldn’t.” Works well for me.
A journey into nature
Push yourself until the pain comes
Until you think you can not survive
And then go on
Here the ego will let go
Here you will be purified
Here is the moment of true prayer
Where you will feel the power of the universal language
Eco-Challenge 1996
[quote]UserRamma wrote:
I, like many of you fellow t-nation readers workout at home. I have currently hanging in my home weight-room the following quote that I “borrowed” from a post a few months ago:
“Pain is only weakness leaving the body”
-unknown
I was thinking about changing/adding a new quote…Any good suggestions? (it’s gotta make a guy want to press serious weight at 6:00 in the morning)
[/quote]
UserRamma:
I don’t know who originated the above quote. However I do know the Marines have adopted it: “Pain is only weakness leaving the body.”
Here’s one for you: “You don’t get far unless you get under the bar.”
“Under the bar” That, of course entails many of the great movements (not all). Squats, Pressing, Pull-ups. Oly movements etc.
One of my friends, after working out at my home gym had a sign made: “Beware Of Zeb.” That inspires me during those early morning sessions.
these are all great quotes and should be able to get anyone motivated. But for its simplicity and since the original poster wants something to motivate him at 6 in the morning, I like this one.
“Pussies lift at 7”
I don’t believe that statement to be true but it would get me going at 6 in the morning if I had that on a big poster in front of the squat rack.
"Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting … “holy shit … what a ride!”
Be polite,and professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
There comes a day in every man’s life when he must admit defeat in the face a seemingly impossible task…
TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY!
Wow Guys!
All good ones…definitely worthy of a quick print…(maybe I’ll have to hang a couple)
BluePfaltz :
…Your “My Six to your Five” reminds me of an old one I heard long ago:
“It’s better to be judged by 12 then carried by 6”
Zeb:
…That “under the bar” one sounds like it might work…although, it may get to sounding a little corny after while?
hfrogs00
…I think that should go beside my alarm clock for those days when you just don’t want to get up…very good one indeed!
Thanks guys, and keep them coming!!
Some quotes i found in an old Warhammer 40,000 book (yes i was a game geek)
The dead are mearly the countrymen of my future
and
To loose is acceptiable, to fail is not
and one from LOTR (not realy weight room related, but cool none the less)
The way is shut, it is made by the dead, and the dead keep it.
La’
Redsol1
I got a couple from my brother when he came back from MCRD San Diego.
If it don’t hurt, it don’t help.
It’s just mind over matter, if you don’t mind, it won’t matter.
“We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level
of our training.”
I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Indian Larry. He was a famous motorcycle builder who died recently. Anyway, he had a tattoo on his neck that I always thought was kind of cool. It read:
“In God We Trust
Vengeance is Mine
Sayeth the Lord
No Fear”
Also, there are some great motivational posters over at elite fts. I have the one titled “Today I Will Squat.” Its got an awesome picture of Chuck Vogelpohl on it. Chuck is a Westside powerlifter who has squatted 1,025 pounds at a bodyweight of 220. Check it out.
TONING: (def) “in-effective weight training”
10 years a go I wore a shirt to the gym every day that said ‘Life is too short to be small’. Everyone was probably laughing at me but it was a comfortable shirt.
My favorites:
May the Lord have mercy on the iron, cuz I sure won’t.
When I don’t feel like squatting:
The leg press was invented to keep the geeks out of the squat rack.
Lifting is life.
When the guy at the gym hogs up a station that you’re waiting for and talks on his cell phone in between sets:
Hang up and lift! Cell phones in the gym? Can you hear me now?
And then there’s the all popular: You Ain’t Been Squattin’ Poem
Way down this road, in a gym far away,
A young man was once heard to say,
“I’ve repped high and I’ve repped low,
No matter what I do, my legs won’t grow.”
He tried leg extensions, leg curls, and leg presses too
Trying to cheat, these sissy workouts he’d do.
From the corner of the gym where the BIG men train,
Through a cloud of chalk and the midst of pain
Where the big iron rides high and threatens lives,
Where the noise is made with the big forty-fives,
A deep voice bellowed as he wrapped his knees,
A very big man with legs like trees.
Laughing as he snatched another plate from the stack
Chalking his hands and monstrous back,
said, “Boy, stop lying and don’t say you’ve forgotten,
The trouble with you is you ain’t been SQUATTIN’.”
by Dale Clark, 1983
That one gets me everytime.
A couple off the top of my head, from adidas and i believe gatorade…
“Impossible is nothing”
“Is it in you?”
These next few are a little long but they always get me fired up…
“Squat till You Puke”…You stand alone, 6 plates in the hole. It’s you versus the weight. You’re thinking, “I’m gonna get friggin’ crushed.” You’re thinking, “I’m not gonna get up.” But you will. Yeah, you’ll puke, Yeah, it’ll be hard getting off the crapper the next couple days. But it’ll be worth it, cuz when there’s blood on your hands and sweat on your back, there’s no better place in the world. This is pain. This is Animal. Can you handle it?..from an old animal stak advertisement…
“Bathed in sweat, bent over and gasping for breath, the athlete might have wondered aloud if this is what death must feel like. In time, this same athlete will surely realize the opposite. Indeed, this is what life feels like…”…an x gf was a soccer player, gave me that one
You aren’t alive anywhere like you’re alive here… It isn’t about winning or losing. It isn’t about words… You see a guy here for the first time, and his ass is a loaf of white bread. You see this same guy here six months later, and he looks carved out of wood. This guy trusts himself to handle anything. There’s grunting and noise here like at a regular gym, but this isn’t about looking good. There’s hysterical shouting in tongues like at church…and when you wake up tomorow, you’ll feel saved…From fight club, modified it a little bit…
PAIN IS A LEARNED REACTION. IT CAN BE DEALT WITH…
This is one of my favorite quotes.
“To Die is nothing. But to lived defeated, and without victory is to die every day.”