I’ve had similar objections in the past. What helped me overcome that was to think about it like I was “going undercover” and “behind enemy lines” to steal their secrets and techniques to use against them. I was going to get strong, yes—but I was going to do awesome stuff with my strength, not lame stuff.
As Nornagest put, I totally had the geek mentality of “Physicality is for jocks/oppressors!!” Eventually I realized that they were winning on a lot of important levels, and I was avoiding successful methodologies because they were being used by The Enemy. This was needlessly sabotaging my own success.
Even now, the weight lifting communities tend to be extremely irrational, misogynistic, homophobic, and otherwise problematic, and for that reason I’m not totally OK with identifying as a weightlifter, since that’s how most people associate it. However, there are groups of non-problematic weightlifters, and I find that identifying with that crowd is pretty cool.
I’ve had similar objections in the past. What helped me overcome that was to think about it like I was “going undercover” and “behind enemy lines” to steal their secrets and techniques to use against them. I was going to get strong, yes—but I was going to do awesome stuff with my strength, not lame stuff.
As Nornagest put, I totally had the geek mentality of “Physicality is for jocks/oppressors!!” Eventually I realized that they were winning on a lot of important levels, and I was avoiding successful methodologies because they were being used by The Enemy. This was needlessly sabotaging my own success.
Even now, the weight lifting communities tend to be extremely irrational, misogynistic, homophobic, and otherwise problematic, and for that reason I’m not totally OK with identifying as a weightlifter, since that’s how most people associate it. However, there are groups of non-problematic weightlifters, and I find that identifying with that crowd is pretty cool.