M8:D2 (D619) Climbing Pyramids

As I look at Matty I am in awe.  His body has been changing before my very eyes.  His lats are starting to pop out and he is thinning down quite a bit.  The baby fat that has plagued him is slowly leaving his body due to his extremely hard work. 

For those of you with a short memory or who haven’t been reading the blog long, let me update you on my son and why I am so proud of him.

The original idea for him to join me at the gym came from him.  He asked and I naturally agreed to have him join me.  At first it was a nightmare.  He would pretend to not be able to lift a weight even one time that he had lifted several times the workout before.  He would never really give it his all.  He wanted to take the easy way out rather than work hard.

At some point he and I started to have small conversations on the way to the gym and on the way home from the gym.  I planned these talks out in advance—just the topics—so that I could help guide him in the right direction.  Realizing that as a dad it was my job to mentor him (and mentoring involves creating independence), I set out to help him understand why we go to the gym daily.  We would have conversations about how silly it is to go to the gym at 4 a.m. but not give your whole effort to the workout.  We discussed results and he was surprised at my take on them (everything you do brings about results, but not always the kind you want).  He got to listen to my philosophy of lifting (you can never work hard enough because you can always go harder than you just did).  I helped him understand how that philosophy is linked to progression. 

Over time I noticed his attitude was changing.  He started to lift harder because it felt good.  He went heavy because it made him feel strong.  At one point, after a particularly grueling, mind blowing workout I saw him smiling, so I asked him an important question.  “Do you workout with me because I make you or because you love it?”  His answer was perfect.  “The answer is both.”  So I decided to clarify.  “Let me understand—you workout with me because you love lifting weights, you do it at 4 a.m. because I make you—is that correct?”  He confirmed that I had nailed it perfectly. 

That was a proud day for me for several reasons.  Here was my 14 year old son telling me that he shares my passion for weight training.  At the same time, he was telling me that he respects me enough to get up at 4 a.m. and not complain about it.  How many of you have 14 year old boys who will do this without a complaint?  Mine has never once complained about getting up in the morning to lift.