The Bar’s Personality

Mark Brown

February 9, 2022

When I go to the gym or the garage to lift for the day I get locked in mentally and ready to go well before I get there. There’s no real warming up period before I get into my ideal mental state once I arrive. It’s there or it isn’t. In case of the latter, I lean on the discipline of getting the work done. That isn’t necessary in the case of the former. This mental state of readiness is extremely important to understand because definitely effects the day’s lifting session. Each piece of equipment and each lift requires different levels of readiness and therefore has their own personality. This use of metaphysical bullshit to describe how to lock in mentally is how I feel I can best explain my mentality in the gym and garage. This entry is definitely going to be less restrained in terms of language so you have been warned if you are sensitive to such language. This essay definitely falls into the “getting to know me” category of blog posts.

The personality of each individual lifter will be on display whether they realize it or not when they lift. No matter the words they use to describe it for someone, as is the case when talking with a coach or personal trainer, their actions in the gym will always be more truthful than whatever comes out of their mouth. That’s what makes gyms fascinating places to people watch. Some come to lift/cardio only while others come to lift and see “gym only” friends. I have been there enough to have a general idea what other gym goers do and use that information to progress through my lifting session accordingly. I generally fall into the first group. A minority part of that is that the only couple of people I talked to have moved on from the gym I lift at for whatever reason. The other, bigger part is that my gym mentality that started out pretty intense has become much more so in a “lifting is the only thing that fucking matters” kind of way. I’ve been told my co-workers who have seen me lift that I get kinda psycho. They aren’t wrong. I feel the psychotic rage come out when I lift.

How I got there was a realization of what was demanded by everything I do to make progress and get stronger. A “bar” is often used a metaphor for demarcations of achievement by people in writing or talk but in this case there is an actual bar. This is why the bar developed a personality in my brain as a way of readying myself to lift it. That personality I attached to it was one of defiance and challenging me to work “harder than last time,” as Greg Doucette would say. In my mind, there are simple truths about the bar. It doesn’t fucking care how my day went. It doesn’t give a fuck that work was crazy and required 3 hours of overtime to get stuff done. It doesn’t care I didn’t have optimum rest time or food intake. The only thing is gives a fuck about is if I can lift it or not. There are no pats on the back or knuckles for a lift done well. It just stares back up at me and demands I do it again. And again. Until I can’t anymore for the day. Doing this day after day is how I make progress. Thinking of the bar’s personality in this way only escalates because not only does the load go up but the intensity in my personality goes up to match it. This can become a dangerous cycle if I let it get out of control. I hold it in line with discipline and planning to prevent overtraining.

Giving personalities to inanimate objects isn’t anything new. We do it all the time in advertising to bring more eyeballs to products. Doing it for the barbell allows me to access a part of my mind that I reserve only for the task of strength training. It’s a less intense version of what Eddie Hall talked about preparing for the deadlift competition he performed the 500 kilogram deadlift in 2016. People often use music to find that mental place that allows them to lock it all in. I’m no different but it’s not completely mandatory for me to do so. I have forgotten my headphones before leaving for work putting me at the mercy of the gym’s music selection before and gotten through sessions. The song that best helps me lock in mentally is Under Siege by Amon Amarth. A major reason for that is that the song brings into focus the reality of the lift being a success or a fail, nothing in between, and the mentality of attacking as hard as I can. The lyrics of the song really push the message of the reality of controlling one’s destiny. Lifting with an “under siege” mentality means to make the lifts or fail while going as hard as I can. Failed lifts can be exceedingly instructive and necessary, but they cannot be viewed as successes in order to shield oneself from certain realities just to keep a positive mindset. Deluding oneself is never healthy.

Heavy objects at the gym tend to have different personalities for me than lighter ones do, though weight is situational based on the lift being done. Perhaps that’s just me attaching more danger and respect to the heavier loaded barbells and dumbbells. I fully understand injuries can happen at “lower” weighted dumbbells and such but the mindset of “not fucking around” is easier to get into with 115 pound dumbbells in my hand rather than 65 pound dumbbells. My switch to more powerlifting centric programming has me doing less exercises that are heavier in nature so that “not fucking around” mindset is constantly on. The programming definitely makes me prepare more mentally and focus more so I am ready to go before I even open the doors at the gym. The metaphor given to moving from one mental state to the next is “flipping the on/off switch.” It is generally seen as a hard task to actually do because it requires a high level of a discipline. I believe a person can achieve the ability to control their mental state through training, not necessarily physical but it does help. I would say for the most part that I am locked in most times but it manifests itself at the gym differently than when I am at work or at home.

I dislike most metaphysical analogies because most of them are used to excuse failure. In this instance, I use what I dislike to help me get to that place mentally that I am both calm and excited at the same time. That development has taken place over years. The last few have produced major development in the area of mental strength. I definitely make and accept less excuses now than I have in years past and I can thank the bar for that. The transition from general purpose lifting to more powerlifting made the personality of the bar stand out and created a more intense gym personality in me. I’m better for it. Finding out what the personality of the bar you lift will help you understand who you are as a lifter.