Showing up, getting up.

The last blog article prompted some really good words from people, thanks for that. I started writing this in response to those comments, it grew into what follows...

I will NEVER look down on anyone in the gym or who is just breathing hard because anyone who has simply shown up and truly tried has done a great thing. All of us are athletes when we're moving, the relative level of that athleticism is far less important than the act of moving. I have been very unfit, injured, depressed, stressed-out or just plain non-functional an annoying amount of my life. I've also been so psyched and motivated that nothing else but the session mattered. But no matter where you are mentally or physically just showing up in the gym or simply breathing hard is a statement of hope, an expression of, "I'm gonna fucking try." And that's cool. Most of the "developed" world is devolving into couch ornaments, so anyone who just shows up to breathe hard is truly a hero in my book.

In the gym I train at most regularly there's an older lady who comes occasionally. She moves slowly, stiffly, but she's my hero because she moves, and because she's in there. I sometimes think of her when I'm a bit stiff or tired, and I know she would still go, so I do too. There's a great group of young kids who train so hard that I often train at the same time just to watch them and try and to keep up with their energy. There's an older guy (well, not much older than me!) who has taken low-income living to an art form; he's too cheap to buy a chalkbag, but he's my hero because he's in there. When I see a truly fat person running or just hiking up a hill I invariably want to start cheering from the bottom of my heart out loud, but I don't 'cause I don't want to scare 'em or make them feel bad somehow. Some little pretzel dude running along like a damn gazelle? That's cool and all, but moving athletically with an extra person strapped to you? Now that's an athletic accomplishment I can't dream of but that truly inspires me. Maybe these people don't "train" in the same way I look at it, but they are busting a move, and that's powerful. Winning isn't always about winning something. Often it's about just showing up, and anyone who shows up and does his or her best is my hero.

But if anyone is actually training to be better at whatever level then I want them to not waste the time I have doing useless repetitions of useless exercises. I also believe time spent doing any sport should be fun, exciting and challenging. If it isn't some combination of those things then nobody is going to keep at it. There must be a million barely used treadmills put into landfills every year. The following edited lyrics from Fugazi sum up a lot of things in my mind:

I am a patient boy
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait
My time is water down a drain

Everybody's moving
Everybody's moving
Everything is moving,
Moving, moving, moving

Please don't leave me to remain
In the waiting room

Sitting outside of town
Everybody's always down
(Tell me why)

Because they can't get up
(Ahhh... Come on and get up)
(Come on and get up)

But I won't sit idly by
(Ahhh...)
I'm planning a big surprise
I'm gonna fight
For what I want to be

And I won't make the
same mistakes
(Because I know)
Because I know how much
time that wastes
(And function)
Function is the key

-Fugazi

I hope everyone found what was needed today, be it sore lats, time with their kids, or just a smile out of something new in life. Now I gotta go train, thinking about all this just got me too fired up. Get up!