GRATITUDE

GRATITUDE 
By Shane Robert

It is the week of Thanksgiving in the states. A time that is meant to be spent with family and friends overeating rich foods and reflecting on the things they are grateful for in their life (like the aforementioned loved ones). For some people, this is easy. For others, not so much. I can foresee many people struggling this year to focus on the positives as it is an election year. Politics and the news has a way to get people down regardless of which side of the aisle they sit on. 

It is sad that we only have one day per year to express gratitude. Many studies have shown that frequent recognition of positives in your life has innumerable benefits, from the obvious increase in happiness, to better social and romantic relationships and increased productivity. There are, I’m sure, similar benefits to exercise performance. I know from talking with people, and reading social media comments, that it is quite common for people to focus on the negatives; what they DON’T have; what thing is holding them back. Rarely do you see the opposite. 

How often have we heard the phrase, “I have to workout,” as though it is a chore. If we reframe that a bit to, “I GET to workout,” it makes the task seem different. It becomes a privilege. To those who scoff at that idea, think of it like this: you have so much access to excess food and lack of physical stress in your life that you get, instead of dealing with the stress that comes from food insecurity and hard physical labor, to workout instead. If you do the right kind of exercise and keep eating that excess food, you get to build muscle and strength. 

Equipment falls into this category the most. I read people complaining all the time about not having the right fill-in-the-blank. Shoes. Belt. Barbell. Squat rack. You name it, they complain about it. The truth is, it doesn’t take a lot to get strong. To this day, there are Olympic champions who get unimaginably strong with little more than an old barbell, weight plates older than your parents, and a squat stand made from junk yard materials. It’s pretty hard to feel sorry for someone who is complaining that the lack of whatever perfect thing is holding them back when you know what is capable without it. Henry “Milo” Steinborn squatted over 500 pounds, without a squat rack, by lifting one side of a barbell from the floor, propping it against his shoulder and tipping/leveraging the rest of it onto the other side. But yeah, you’re being held back by the fact that your barbell sometimes bumps the side of the squat rack upright. 

I’m always moved by the lengths people will go to lift when they don’t have access to it the way that we do. In Thailand, I went to multiple public parks where people were lifting weights made from cement and tin cans or simply lifting rocks. To think that I have access to the kind of equipment that those lifters would kill for makes me grateful. On days that it’s a struggle to get up at 4am and get to the gym, I am grateful that that is the hardest part of my day. When my body is sore and tired, I am grateful that it is because of something I chose to do, rather than because I had to do it simply to survive one more day. When a piece of equipment is broken, I am grateful that there is always a second option available, even if it takes a little imagination to figure it out. 

This time of year, when we give thanks, is a good reminder that we should be thankful throughout our year. Recognizing what we do have, and not focusing on what we don’t, goes a long way to make our training, and our lives, better. Hopefully, between fork fulls of turkey and mashed potatoes, you have some time to recognize all the positives in your life.