I wrote this a while back…for someone who wanted to know why people like to train with weights.
A friend looked at this forum and suggested I share it here…

Take Hold of Your Life with Bodybuilding
                                                                                                               
Why bodybuilding? Why build your body? Well…one might think that the obvious answer is that it makes you look good. Let’s face it, people are inspired by beauty. And bodybuilding creates lines and curves; it shapes and sculpts. It gives you the power to control what you look like and presents to others an impression of formidable strength and an impressive appearance.  Interestingly enough though, even if it didn’t change how one looks, there would still be some people in the gym pumping iron. Are they nuts? Why would they want to do that? Let’s explore some reasons why…

Bodybuilding: Life’s Metaphor

There’s no question that the smell of the iron has been known to attract some hardcore lifters to the gym.  After all, iron is the metal that gives strength. In the bloodstream, it is what allows red blood cells to carry oxygen and get big and round. It turns blue blood red. Iron creates heat in the body; heat gets people pumped.

And it’s no surprise we are attracted to things that turn up the heat. But, I will say that even if people do it unknowingly, the main reason they continue to show up to push and pull weights time after time again isn’t because they like the physical pressure and pain…the endorphin rush and high they feel immediately and right after a work out (although that does appeal to many). It isn’t because they know they are strengthening their bones, flushing out their lymph system, improving their circulation, making it a piece of cake to lift those sacks of groceries out of the car and making it so they can sleep more soundly at night (although those are all good reasons too).

In my opinion, I would have to say perhaps the main reason people continue to show up at the gym is this: when they grab those dumbells or sit down on a machine to push and pull the weight of the iron, what they are really doing is pushing and pulling any and all obstacles, challenges or pressures in life that they must deal with every day, closer to them, looking at them in the face, dealing with them on their own terms and pushing them away from them. There’s a struggle and uncertainty there; they’re not sure if they can do it.

But something always happens that makes them achieve THE TRYING. And that’s what is the important thing. They are fighting with everything they’ve got. And in that moment in the gym, they are really out there in the arena battling everything that’s coming at them and no matter what happens, they are gonna come out on top. Somehow we have to know that. It makes us have the courage we need to move forward.

By pushing around the weight in the gym, what we are really doing is pushing around the weight and burdens of every day life, making them do what we want them to do, go where we want them to go. In essence, we feel we are in control. And that feels pretty good. So when we leave the gym, we feel successful already, and there’s no stopping us; we are ready to spread that out onto every other area in life we move toward. It sets the pace, making every thing else that is difficult that much easier because if we can exceed our expectations of what we can do in the gym, then why not in life too?