Iron Therapy by G Diesel

The original motivation that brings us to the gym is typically very specific and goal oriented… Make the team, compete in bodybuilding, look good in a t-shirt, get the girl. Our training is fueled by a clear-cut objective, firing us up–keeping us focused and continuing to show up day after day. It is usually in this period of inspired intensity that we make rapid progress and are bitten by the iron bug, our routine locking us in for life.

I’ve observed and experienced, over time, that the iron morphs and swells in its importance for an individual, in a way that is far bigger than biceps and bench presses. Within the confines of the gym can be found challenges, tests, battles. Within your head can be found confidence, purpose, self-knowledge. In your life can be forged patience, resilience determination. It is as if the physical struggle unlocks the potential greater version of yourself that has long been hiding within.

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” -Socrates

It is this potential the ancient Greek spoke of, that I have long chased, one balanced by the pursuits of the mind. A physical capacity helping to actually provide a person with greater inner balance. In this way, the steel is the greatest teacher, coach, confidante and therapist I have ever known.

My evolution as a man, in many ways, can be linked to the gym. And over time, any external or superficial pursuit related to the weights—a better physique, or bigger lifts or better conditioning or higher numbers on the scale, were at the very least equaled, if not eclipsed, by the growth and progress that was happening inside.

The gym became my refuge, a shelter from life’s storms. A place of creative revelation, where the caffeine, endorphins and iron, the blood sweat and tears, would bring me to the precipice of madness and genius and invention. The hairs standing up on the back of my neck, inspiration would strike from above out of nowhere like a lightning bolt.

In especially dark days, in sadness and despair, the weights propped me up. They gave me release for rage and anger and allowed me to take out my frustrations, evening the score when facing life’s inequities. Often when times were hard and hope was tough to come by, the best coping mechanism I had available was to turn myself into a fucking tank.

In a period of recorded history when fortifying our health is the highest priority, the gym serves a dual purpose, making it all the more critical. Not only can exercise and quality nutrition strengthen your body, it builds you up from within. At this point of my life, at this moment of humanity, I train each day as much for my emotional wellness, my creative intellect and my spiritual being as any surface superficialities. The weight room has become my home workshop and my house of worship… Healing what ails me, inside and out, this is my iron therapy.