Motivations for lifting weights

The other day, I was kind of wondering how many men lift weights just to get a better looking body. I'm sure a good amount of men do so, but that was never my motivation for lifting weight. Now that I think about it, there are probably 3 main motivations for lifting weight.

Other than getting larger arms, bigger pectorals, toned legs, and bulky shoulders another common reason might be health. Although, most people I knew who went to the gym never really had any set goals than to "get healthy". Without a set of defined goals or a way to track progress, most people would just work out casually and skip the whole thing all together until guilt sets in around the first week of January.

Getting larger muscles and a better looking body is a simple motivation for lifting but it might be a terrible way to gain results. Muscles will take time to develop and a man needs to be patient and consistent to get gains.

For me, my biggest motivation for lifting weights was just to challenge myself. I wanted to test myself and see what I was capable of. How much iron could I press? I wanted to try to gain strength, power, and excellence. These were my motivations for lifting weight. Of course, when I was younger, I watched a lot of DragonBall Z. I wanted to be those guys. Not by flying, turning my hair yellow, or shooting lasers from my hands but have the ability to punch through mountains. I wanted to be something.

I started lifting weights during middle school and it is something I've stuck with for more than 14 years. At this point, it is the longest thing I have stuck with right behind skateboarding. With every gain, every new lift, every new personal best, it was like exploring something new or finding a new area.

As silly as it sounds, it was just like playing a video game. A very simple game. Just lift heavy metal. Do a whole bunch of repetitive tasks and eventually get rewarded for your efforts. Of course, there are always parts of the game where you feel like you get stuck and can't advance but you just keep on grinding until you finally beat it. Achieving a new personal best or a heavier wait was a reward in itself.

And overtime, the effort put in is reflected in the appearance of your body. The biceps were the first areas to gain mass as I always started every workout with arm curls. As I got older and focused more on the bench, my friends were asking me how I got my chest so big. A couple of girls would touch my biceps when I was in college and so on.

As silly as it sounds, doing a deadlift of 250 pounds was the main game and having large pectorals is the trophy. Trophies are nice but the game play itself is what keeps you coming back. This is my motivation for lifting weight.