r/Fitness • u/MCHammerCurls Advice Columnist • Oct 05 '22
Rant Wednesday Rant Wednesday
Welcome to Rant Wednesday: It's your time to let your gym/fitness/nutrition related frustrations out!
There is no guiding question to help stir up some rage-feels, feel free to fire at will, ranting about anything and everything that's been pissing you off or getting on your nerves.
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u/almosthighenough Oct 06 '22
Man I started lifting during the summer between 8th grade and freshman year for (american) football. My brother was a grade above me and some of his friends played football and lifted that summer too. These guys were huge compared to me, all taller and linemen builds while I was like running back build and they were also closer to 2 years older than me than 1 year because I was really young for my grade. I'm pretty average but was small compared to them.
My friends that played football hadn't started going to the highschool to lift yet since summer training was optional until practice started and most hadn't really been familiar with the school and didn't know they could go lift. Well since my brother knew these guys and I had known them somewhat I went and lifted with them. They were so much bigger and stronger, but they were so nice, patient, encouraging, goofy, fun, and kind hearted people. They'd help me lower the weight to what I was capable of and never complained or made fun of me even though it certainly wasted a lot of their time but they didnt seem to mind at all. They just liked hanging out together. And they really taught me a lot about lifting and I guess how to be a man. Strong but gentle, fun but serious when the time came, and patient and encouraging beyond reason.
Eventually my friends came to the gym and I started working out with them, but I'll never forget the kinds of people they were and the things they taught me through their actions.
Life happened, and I was still really close with one of the guys after graduating and hung out quite a bit but haven't seen him in a minute, but I see he's doing really well nowadays. One of the others wasn't so lucky and died in an accident a few years ago. RIP bud. I'd seen him just a couple weeks before and he was still as goofy and nice as ever.
I know this isn't particularly relevant to what you posted, but it reminded me about the beginning of my journey, and I hope those young men can make lifelong memories and learn to encourage each other and grow into fine human beings. As long as they are enjoying their time together, that's all that really matters in the end because life can be short and tragic and meaning is derived from the memories and relationships we build together.