I grew up a gym rat, starting to go to a local gym in sixth grade. The gym gave me something to do. I saw how a room filled with inanimate, stationary objects used by other exercise participants offered a simple yet engaging and fulfilling aspect of my life that had been missing. Over time, seeing what the other adults in the gym did made me curious about why they engaged in those activities.
My parents would drop me off at the gym about four to five times per week. After school, I didn’t really have much to do. I hated homework, wasn’t very social, and found TV increasingly boring. The gym gave me something to do.
I recall having two complimentary training sessions with the personal trainers at the local gym I signed up for, as part of a “get to know the gym” service offered to new members for the first month. I took up that offer and met with a vibrant, hyper-athletic young man who was excited to show me around. During those two sessions, the trainer taught me to warm up on a stationary bike for ten minutes, then head to the gym floor and use the weight-training machines.
I distinctly remember a time when the trainer showed me how to use the upright seated chest press. The first set, he told me to perform eight reps. I rested, and he adjusted the pins on the weight racks. This made the resistance heavier and also made the pushing action harder. I distinctly remember a new sensation that was akin to a sense of pain that flowed throughout my chest and arms. It was a burning sensation that almost caused a brief feeling of paralysis after the set. Little did I know, this was totally normal. The trainer looked at me and said in his quintessential teenager “surfer dude” nineties tone, “Good job, little dude! That’s what you call muscle activation!”
As an eleven-year-old who never really experienced this sensation, I was in shock. Was this pain? Were my arms going to function the same way after this session? Was this grown adult in front of me a psycho? The trainer saw the expression on my face and let me know that this is what working out feels like. He reminded me that pushing my body past its normal comfort zone produces feedback that rigorous work is underway.
As I was panting and holding my chest, he added, “You have to break the muscles down before you build them back up. This is how you get strong.” One could imagine that, as I was sitting on a chest press machine, holding my arms as if they were about to fall off, I was questioning his logic. The next comment he said made me wonder if I should run out of the gym completely, “Now let’s do another set and finish strong.” For some reason, I complied with his suggestion. What did I have to lose? The other alternative was going home to watch a rerun of The Full House Show or doing homework. The next set of the newly discovered “muscle burn” wasn’t as bad as the first time. It was fun to learn that I could get better at exercising.
The next morning, I woke up with an odd sensation, like a sunburn after a long day at the beach, all over my body. I moved around, grimaced as I put my shirt on, and noticed that sitting down was challenging. However, I felt something good about this feeling of soreness. I felt I had accomplished something that wasn’t necessarily easy.
A few days after the delayed onset muscle soreness had subsided, I asked my dad to drop me off at the gym again after school. I sat down on the same chest press machine “surfer dude” trainer had me perform a set of exercises on, moved the pin to ten pounds heavier than it was last time I sat in that machine, and performed ten repetitions, which was two more repetitions than what I did the first time I set foot in the gym.
Surprisingly, my arms didn’t feel like they were going to explode. I had gotten stronger. From that point onward, I went to the gym four to five times per week and discovered other exercises that put me in uncomfortable positions, which eventually became manageable, and demonstrated that I can overcome challenging situations in the exercise arena.
It may sound like something simple that many people experience at certain times in life, but the concept of “work” isn’t always comfortable. However, the feeling of overcoming an experience that makes you work hard is special. Even though exercise can seem daunting, completing a difficult task can help us feel more comfortable in uncomfortable situations.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.