Serious.

I have always been a serious person. Too serious, really. Even when I was a kid I was always very serious about everything,and then I found gymnastics. It was like I had born to do this thing and I was as devout in my attention to every aspect of getting to be a better gymnast as the most fervent monk.Gymnastics fed this devotion with large amounts of adrenalin and glimpses into the ethereal worlds offered by intense training and intense mental focus on one thing.
So I was serious about my training and my life was, and is, still devoted to it( hence my way too much time spent talking and thinking about the details). And it's actually hard for me to remember than not everybody is as gonzo about their physical self and it's abilities as I am. ANd probably for the better but as Popeye said " I yam what I yam" and that so holds true for me.

It's actually better now than when I was a bodybuilder and getting to train with professional bodybuilder Scott Wilson. I worked at Golds San Jose and trained for competition. Life was good.But it showed me what perfection was in devotion to a training goal even more than I saw in the world of elite gymnastics. Scott lived and breathed his coming competition 24 hours a day 7 days a week. He created his body with his mind, as Arnold has so brilliantly pointed out, and never varied from that course. I LOVED that. Still do and for years held training partners to that standard.You were either serious or you were not. You were either training for your next competition or you were playinh pretend.

Power lifting and the incredibly passionate and INTENSE men I got to train with and learn from was even further down the road of serious seriousness. Real deal shit. Because with powerlifting you can get very seriously messed up very fast playing with very, very heavy weights . Like, go to the hospital now hurt. That helps develop one's concentration and puts the entire workout on a very serious plane.

You either had to be very comitted to doing whatever it took to make progress, no matter how small, or you were holding yourself and me back. That wouldnt do and I would choose train alone so I could get it done right. BUT, when you found kindred spirits, like minded souls, that lived to be better, to have a chance at being Elite, then the synergy and power created by those forces set the gym on fire.
Serious.
I loved that it was open to all, an equal opportunity chance at greatness. All it took is everything you had, plus a little more. But it could be had and that was the point. It was up to you and what it took was will, not luck, not money, not connections. Will and desire. I had that. Plus, it can be developed, just like any muscle in the body. By the same methods: Hard Training and Discipline.

But hey, not exactly the life of the party( " uh I have to go home, now, tomorrow is squat day and I have to do 450 for six triples".And being so serious all the time wears on you. It's a young man's game it seems and I was young then.Being old and injured has given me a much better perspective. I appreciate so much more deeply the little things that I can still do and the feeling that I still have the chance to keep getting better. To get a little closer to the ideals and images in my head and yet not feeling jealousy or anger for what I can no longer do. To smell the training roses and get better by going deeper not just lifting more.

But still, if you're my training partner DON'T not show up for a workout without calling. I'm serious.