The importance of humility in a successful strength training program

The bar will always be there. Long after your soul drifts off into the ether, that bar will be at the gym waiting for someone else to pick it up. That's why you  have to respect it.

I'm not talking about putting incense candles around it and kneeling down before it and start praying to it like it's some deity. But realize the bar is made out of hardened almost unbreakable steel. You're made out of fragile carbon based molecules in the form of bones, skin and muscle.

So what am I getting at?

I recently had to start wearing latex knee sleeves to stabilize my knees while I'm in the hole doing ATG pause squats. Since my right leg is longer than my left, that puts me out of alignment when I'm bottomed out. This puts a great deal of stress on my right knee because it has the tendency to drift inward. Imagine putting a three hundred pound weight on a structure like that, and the likelihood that a stress fracture will occur will be highly probable over an extended period of time.  But I  was always too stubborn to admit it.

I've already been doing deadlifts with straps because my gym doesn't allow talc. I recently kicked out $170 for a pair of adidas adipower weightlifting shoes that stabilize my feet while I'm lifting. My recent addition of the knee sleeves helps to prevent my knees from drifting inward which helps reduce stress and pain.

But with each little piece of assistance equipment I add to my lifts is an admission of my weakness. It's one more crack in the facade  of me pretending that I'm a tough guy. Maybe later down the road I'll come in the gym with a full body wrap like I've been mummified.  Every joint on my body would be fully stabilized.

But you know what? Whatever it takes to allow me to do ATG squats is what I'll do because I have to admit I'm addicted to the testosterone spikes I get after I workout. When I stopped lifting for those three months, I felt listless and weak. I'm forty two years old, and the process of aging hit me like a ton of bricks when I stopped lifting. Now that I'm back, the vitality of the testosterone flowing through my body feels
like I've been recharged,  so whatever it takes - knee sleeves, powerlifting shoes,  full body mummy latex rubber suits or whatever - I'll keep on doing it.

Barbell,  I  humble myself to you.