The value in strength training has changed for me over time.
If you asked me as a teenager I would have told you the payoff of workouts was in the primal aspects of the activity, the immediate feelings. It was about seeing how hard I could push the body. All that adolescent aggression had to get channelled somehow. This was easy and satisfying. It was about adrenaline, the ‘pump’.
Later it was about the effects of the workout, over a longer time period, seeing the progress of lifting x yesterday, x+1 today. Or running a 400 lap at some pace, then shaving seconds off of it next time. Or running a race faster year over year. That is, the results were the focus.
It’s still about all those things. But during treatment, and ever since, I’ve noticed something interesting; the main benefit, and frankly the key motivator, is in the space between sets, in the process itself.
Generally how it works is some maximal exertion, like heavy deadlifts, is followed by a quick 1-2 minute sit on the floor – usually with a notebook to capture random ideas or plan the day. I try my best to fill the whitespace with something useful – which includes just feeling good. The key though is bringing my awareness to these moments (they were, of course always there!). I’ve shifted my focus and it makes a difference.
So if I workout lasts 45 minutes and did 15 sets of strength training (allowing for transitions etc.) that’s still a solid 15+ minutes of clear-headed thought. There’s an after-effect as well that seems to last a good part of the day. That’s more than I would get in a typical ‘sit’ and actually feels much more energizing. It’s probably the clearest thinking I do.
I’ve been trying to ask this of myself lately: what might I notice and appreciate in the whitespace of everyday experience?