As I hear the clank of another barbell on the ground I am reminded how heavy the weights I and my fellow gym members are moving are.
I am reminded how hard we must fight for each and every squat, press and pull. I am reminded how impossible it seemed before we began.
On a personal note, I am your average college student, with moderately sized biceps, who has developed a three-year long love affair with CrossFit. With that being said, my experience in this specific community has driven me to ponder the larger purpose of lifting weights. Why devote so much time and energy to moving these heavy and cumbersome things? Why do we put ourselves in this vulnerable position, underneath this heavy burden? What do we gain?
My simple answer is sanity, but the truth is it differs from individual to individual.
My time in a community of barbell addicts has allowed me to experience hundreds of stories, most of which culminate in sharing the personal burden each person brings to the community. Some are coping with loss, whether this is a loss of life, marriage or a job, many in the community are grieving. Some come with body issues. A head filled with a lifetime of being called too fat, too thin, too scrawny or too buff has left scars for many. Some of these emotional triggers existed long before the athlete's journey began, and some occur during. Regardless of the timing, lifting weights is therapeutic for many.
While these experiences are certainly not exclusively women’s issues, I have personally seen countless women become empowered by athletics in general. To be a woman in our society today is to be encouraged to be small. To be small in stature, to be small in presence, and to be limited in strength. We are encouraged to depend, to be seen and not heard, to be helpless. The world seems to be a constant reminder that we are not, and never will be, enough. To watch this manifest in individual women in your life is both confusing and heartbreaking. And yet, to see women fight their personal battles through means of physical movement is a reminder that we have the ability to change these stigmas.
Each individual carries their own baggage in the gym and out. They must learn to move it, to push it, to pull it. To live in the vulnerable position underneath it, and yet to not be controlled by its presence.
The truth is, lifting heavy things is something we do all day because life can be heavy, but we have to keep moving. I have come to see the lifting we do in the gym as an externalization of the internal. As we fight through each repetition, we train ourselves to work through life more efficiently. We learn it's okay to struggle. In fact, it is the origin of all growth. We learn that when things get tough, we must focus on the present day or repetition, because the current situation demands our full attention, rather than half of our head stuck in worry about tomorrow.
