Gainz - A Way of Life
Lessons from weightlifting
Over the last couple years of my weightloss journey I’ve picked up a new hobby: weightlifting. What started as an activity to get just a little stronger so I could carry myself better has turned into a minor but not insignificant focus in my life. I enjoy it, I like this specific form of exercise. I enjoy the work outs, enjoy getting stronger, and enjoy putting on muscle.
In the various weightlifting activities (bodybuilding, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, and strong man) they call these increases in strength and muscle “gains”. In slang it’ll often be spelled as “gainz” gotten from gym bro culture.
In the pursuit of gainz I have learned many lessons that now shape how I view life. There are actually some very intelligent life lessons that can be learned from lifting something heavy and putting it down many times over the course of years. I don’t plan for my whole newsletter to become anecdotes about living life, but I did want to share some of these insights here.
Newbie Gainz
There is a phenomenon in weightlifting called Newbie Gainz, where people who have never lifted before can make insane amounts of progress when they first start out. Let’s say as a dude you might be able to start off bench pressing like 80lbs and then after just a few months you could possibly be doing 160lbs. The exact numbers are affected by a zillion different factors but that’s the general thrust of what can happen. When you start out you will see rapid progress just by simply trying.
I now look at many other activities and pursuits through this lens. With lots of things you may want to learn or do in life there will generally be a lot of low hanging fruit at the beginning. If you overcome the initial hurdles of just doing it, there is a lot of improvement you can make in a relatively short period of time. If you can get yourself to just start doing something, you’re already making massive progress towards being able to do it. After starting, if you are deliberate about working on it consistently then you can make big gainz early on in whatever you do.
Staying Consistent
One of the main points of gainz is this idea that there is the maximum amount of progress you can make in any given time. You don’t get jacked, swole, shredded, or any other term used to describe a muscular person in just one insane workout. It takes many workouts over time to be able to build muscle. Not only that but there’s a maximum amount you can grow and progress in any given time. The end results come from the total of many daily efforts. If you take time off you can regress, so consistency is key. There is a small amount of gainz to be had every day, it’s up to you to realize them or not.
I’m finding this in my other passions as well. I get better when I keep working at it. If I neglect a skill or project for too long then I can lose it. If I want to keep making progress I need to keep doing it consistently. If you’re serious about making progress in something specific then you need to make the choice and be consistent about it. If you don’t make that choice it’s fine, but knowing that it’s a choice can help your mental relationship with whatever the activity might be.
Setting Your Goals
If you’re wanting to make clear progress in any fitness endeavor then it’s important to establish what your goals are. Within even just the general activity of weightlifting there are the different sectors that are optimizing for different things.
Bodybuilding is about building the most muscle.
Powerlifting is about being the strongest in 3 lifts: bench press, deadlift, and squat
Olympic Weightlifting is about being the strongest in 2 lifts: snatch and the clean & jerk
Strong Man is about being the strongest overall in many different events
All of these different activities would involve optimizing training differently because they all do different things. This is why anytime you’ve ever seen a trainer they ask “what are your goals?”. It may seem obvious that you just want to get healthier and fitter, but there are a zillion ways to do that. If increasing your bench press is your main goal but you also decide to run for an hour before each workout you’re most likely not going to make much progress.
Same goes with life. It’s good to set clear goals for yourself so you’re actually working on what you want to work on. Right now in my life I’ve chosen to focus much more on my writing. To do this I have stripped away many other things that aren’t helping me progress in writing. Setting clear goals helps you better work toward the specific progress you want.
Reaching the next level
So with all the above you can make some decent progress. If you start, are relatively consistent, and have set clear goals then there’s a good chance you’ll make good progress. But if you want to reach the next level, you’re going to have to dial in your efforts.
Building strength and muscle isn’t just the exercises you do in the gym. It’s your nutrition, sleep, stress, cardio, and many other factors. If any of these get too out of whack then progress will be harder to come by. If you want to make the most progress you need to get them all dialed in.
Same too with many activities, if you want to reach the next level you’re going to have to give it an effort that encompasses more than just the thing. You can get far by just kinda paying attention, but reaching that next level requires a more concentrated effort. You will have to push yourself further than you had before, closer to the limit.
Failure as part of the process
The final big lesson from weight lifting is that getting close to failure means you’re close to your maximum effort. Failure in lifting means the point when your muscles can’t do a lift any more. If you want to make the most progress you need to be getting close to failure at the end of each set. It’s those approaches to failure where the strength and muscle are really made. If you stop too far away from failure then you probably didn’t push yourself far enough to make progress. You don’t have to fail every time, but knowing accurately how close to failure you are is important.
This seems to apply to life as well. I say all the time that life is trial and error. Failure is a condition for growth. You don’t even need to actually fail, you just need to be aware how close to failure you truly are. The lessons learned when close to failure can be extremely valuable.
IN CONCLUSION
In the pursuit of gainz in the gym I’ve discovered they offer a path to gainz in many other aspects of life. If you want to build something then you have to build it, bit by bit. You can make big progress in the beginning but if you want to make progress past your newbie gainz you’re going to need to become more serious. Set your goals and accept when you fail, because getting close to failure is where the real growth occurs.