In recent years, lifting weights has transcended a sphere exclusively home to athletes and bodybuilders. While some lift to compete at a higher, more physical level in their sport, others lift to appear stronger and for a myriad of scientifically-proven health benefits.
Rohan Logue, ‘24, discussed some of the benefits of going to the gym he experienced personally. “You’re more focused, you get more sleep, you get more energy to wake up,” Logue said.
Non-athletes may question the impact of regular exercise since our culture isn’t inherently structured around physical activity. For students and workers with sedentary jobs or activities, working out can even seem secondary. Though it’s these students and workers who may need exercise the most.
According to the CDC, regular physical activity helps manage weight, reduce the risk of disease and even improve brain health. Lifting is an accessible way to stay physically active, though it can be hard to take that initial leap of faith and go to the gym for the first time.
“Find a friend or someone that motivates you and go [to the gym] with them,” Logue said when asked about how to take that first step. Doing anything with friends can make a process more enjoyable, but in a situation like this it can be helpful to lessen the awkwardness of starting something new. Lifting is certainly not for everyone, though if it is, your first day may be the start of a life-long journey.
The benefits of exercise don’t stop at the physical level. According to a 2017 study by The National Library of Medicine, exercise can relieve feelings of depression.
“I noticed I was a lot happier,” Logue said. After a long day at work or a hard day at school, working out can be a helpful way to relieve stress or expel negative emotions. The act of physically pushing yourself to the absolute brink can be its own type of therapy.
There is a more morally skewed side to lifting, often in the form of gym influencers. “People who show off their physique for likes and views,” Logue described. “They’re saying ‘go to the gym, try my routine – you can look just like me in a couple of weeks,’ it’s almost like false advertising.”
With how tailor-made every individual person’s social media feed is, the more you begin to view gym-related content, the more wildly unrealistic physiques will start to show up on your feed.
YouTube and TikTok can be great for finding different kinds of workouts, though intermingled throughout will be these “get ripped quick schemes” if you will. It can paint a very unrealistic picture of what an achievable physique actually looks like and how to obtain it.
“You have to do it for yourself,” Logue said. “Find out what works best for you because if you don’t you’re going to end up hurting yourself in the gym.” It can be sometimes difficult to find that sweet spot between light and painful exercise and different people have different schools of thought on this. The important thing is to find a routine that pushes yourself while still able to be consistently completed.
Lifting is something anyone can get into. A world that is easy to pick up yet hard to master. It is a realm entrenched with physical and mental benefits, though it can sometimes stoop to superficiality.
It is a field that features a wide variety of media online, which is easy to get wrapped up in. Staying level-headed by focusing on your own life and your own goals is the key to truly improving yourself no matter what the activity is.
“If you don’t think for yourself and you worry too much about how other people are lifting, you’re not even there for yourself anymore,” Logue said, “you’re there for them.”