Unfortunately not me
Weight Lifting and I have never really gotten along. It all started my junior year in high school when the track coach decided that even us distance runners should lift weights. At the time I was about 5′10 140 (maybe lighter.) Needless to say weight lifting was not my specialty. To make matters worse we lifted in the weight room at the same time as the throwers and football players. So when I was struggling to bench press the bar with no weights on it, a football player was next to me pressing upwards of 250. While this was bad, worse was in the summer going to my local YMCA and trying to find a partner to spot me and me tiny lifting ability. It was embarrassing and a quickly lost motivation to lift.
Thankfully I was lucky enough to run for a varsity team in college. Each time had its own schedule time in the weight room and as a result there were lots of scrawny distance runners lifting along with me. Also the trainers designed plans built around long distance running, so their was little if any bench press and lots of core training. While I didn’t begin to love weight training, it did make it a tolerable activity.
A not so intimidating gym
Since leaving college I have gone through cycles of training a lot and barely training at all. Back in December I decided that it was time to start getting back into shape and to try and stay that way. Unfortunately this included dealing with weight rooms once again. However, I have noticed with surprise that weight rooms are no longer intimidating anymore. First of all, having grown up some I can lift more weight than before. Secondly, the average person in the weight room is not a high school or college football player but a middle aged man or woman trying to stay in shape. And finally, weight rooms now have tons of equipment which does not require a spotter.
While I don’t suddenly love weight training (I would much rather be playing a sport, rock climbing, or even running), the weight room has become a tolerable activity in my life (thanks in large part to my mp3 player and podcasts.) I also appreciate the way weight lifting makes me look (less like a scrawny endurance runner and more like a normal person.) What do you think runners? Is the weight room something you have learned to enjoy, something you tolerate, or something you try to avoid?
