Ditch the Gym Myths: Dedication Over Equipment

When Air Jordan’s came to market, Nike had everyone thinking that the shoes could make them jump higher and make more baskets. The everyday high schooler soon found out that they had been sold a little white lie.

I see something a bit similar on the gym training front. Social media is riddled with videos and testimonials about the latest weight machines, massive gym floors, and how this gym or that gym was such a step up in their training experience.

I’m here to say that that mindset–the mindset of “if I only had a great gym to train in, I’d finally build the physique of my dreams” is massively flawed.

Pumping Iron

Enter Pumping Iron. If you aren’t familiar with this documentary, then you have some homework for the night. Notice in the film, the equipment is sparse, it was handmade by Joe Gold himself (the owner at Gold’s Gym), and most of the movements the top professional bodybuilders were doing were of the free weight variety. Sure, they did some cable moves, and a leg press or two, but it was mostly barbells and dumbbells.

Fast forward to today. Most true fans of bodybuilding history will attest to idolizing those Pumping Iron physiques. You’ll hear phrases such as, “Now that’s a classic physique,” or, “I admire those guys of the golden era so much more than today’s pros.”

So if we do our math correctly, Cool, new machines and massive, well-equipped fancy gyms do not equal “better” physiques. And by “better,” I mean a classic, well-proportioned physique, a lot of men would prefer over the mass monsters of today.

Benefits over features

In advertising, one of the concrete rules is to showcase benefits, not features. In other words, they avoid telling you how many bells and whistles a new car has. Instead, they will sell you on how those features will make you feel. Anti-lock brakes? Numerous airbags? Reinforced steel cage? They are all designed to make you feel safer.

The fancy big gym with all of the latest tech might sound awesome. It may boast many features convincing you that they will finally help you build the physique you’ve dreamed of, but without the work ethic, dedication, and discipline, it will all be for naught.

It’s not the equipment, the tech, or the fact that a new gym just opened up in your town enticing you that once you join, you’ll start to put on slabs of muscle while your body fat melts away. Instead, look to your tools at your disposal now and what you can get done.

Are you honing your workouts to be effective and efficient, utilizing the timeless principles of dedication, discipline, and loving the process, or are you waiting for the latest and greatest high-tech gym to swoop in and save you the trouble of all that hard work?

Your move.

Happy lifting!