What’s up team?

Happy to say that I am downgrading my DOMS status from Sore AF to Achy. This is good. I have been feeling the pain deeply these last few days and it started to worry me. This morning, however, I really got to thinking about it. As it turns out, I am glad I am in this pain. Pain, along with anger, are motivators and need to be used.

We are born already alienated from our surroundings and at odds with the world around us. As creatures with free will in an otherwise causal universe we are stuck as part god and part ape and because of it there is angst, and anger and the idea that we would mollify these feelings rather than harness them and use their power is absurd.

You may have noticed that this year I’ve brought a lot of Nietzsche to the program, and I am doing it for good reason. I think that a correct understanding of Nietzsche helps us with the correct mindset for the goals we want to achieve. Think hard on this quote for a moment: “Life is the will to power; our natural desire to dominate and reshape the world to fit our own preferences and assert our personal strength to the fullest degree.”

This is exactly what we are aiming at. Whether it is our bodies, our minds, our career or

Austrian Bodybuilder turned American Body Builder, Turned 7 time Mr. O Champion, Turned movie star despite funny accent turned Governor of California….Arnold did not let the prevailing winds blow him hither and tither, he imposed his will on the world around him.

relationships, whatever exists in the world around us we need to have the courage to impose our will on it. This is our nature. Wolves have long been told that they have to act in such a way that conforms to the ethos of the lamb. I want you guys to stop. There is an inner aggressor in you, one that doesn’t fit into polite society and I want you to let it out. I know it is harder now in January, you are still fluffy, you are getting used to the lifting schedule and you are likely sore as fuck but start forcing that mindset. By the time you start drawing stares and commanding the focus of those around you I want that mindset to be so locked in it is second nature.

I know all you guys, you are all great. But to the people who don’t know you, you should be intimidating. Your anger is an unused source of fuel that the lambs who can’t or won’t harness it have told you to abandon. Bullshit. Wade into it. You will not make many friends, but that is ok. I am sure you already have more than enough. In all aspects of your life I want you to be wolves again. You can’t be a lamb who does 1 hour a day wolf training. Not on my fucking watch. It is time to remind the lambs of the world that there are predators. I want you to, without a single word, be able to convey the fact to someone in a room with you that should you at any moment

That look you make when weak people would rather tell you to cap your strength rather than make themselves stronger

decide to drop the mantle of polite society you could crush their skull and feel no remorse for it.

Let me be clear, in no way am I advocating any form of violence. But I am advocating creating a body and a mindset to go along with it that clearly reminds the world around you that there are things to be intimidated by and that they would be in their best interest to fear them.

Life has become soft. I won’t lie, I like it soft. But inside me, like inside you, there is a fire that

burns. It is a biological imperative and all the 72 inch televisions and comfortable cushions in the world will not quell it. It needs to get out or it will leave you anxious and neurotic. It is ours to be strong. It is our birthright. This isn’t to say we don’t have to work our assess off for it, we do, but strength is our birthright as is the pain that goes along with it.

I’m in pain, yes. To those closest to me I will complain about it because their care is a solace and a balm. But to the world outside my small circle, they need to know that a hungry wolf is loose and he is dangerous.

Do not escape pain. Do not run away from it. The great and often analyzed scene from fight club says it perfectly.

Stay with the pain, don’t block this out. Look at your hand. The first soap was made from the ashes of heroes. Like the first monkeys shot into space. Without pain, without sacrifice we have nothing…This is YOUR pain, this is YOUR burning hand. It’s right here. Don’t deal with it like those dead peopl

Pain is for the living.

e do.  What you are feeling is premature enlightenment. This is the greatest moment of your life, man! And you’re off somewhere missing it. Our fathers were our models for God. And, if our fathers bailed, what does that tell us about God. Listen to me. You have to consider the possibility that God doesn’t like you, he never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen. We don’t need him. Fuck damnation. Fuck redemption. We are God’s unwanted children? So Be it.  You can run water over your hand and make it worse, or, look at me, or you can use vinegar and neutralize the urn. First you have to give up. First you have to know, not fear, know that some day you’re going to die. It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything..

This is it, one step closer to hitting bottom fellas. When you are in the gym, do NOT avoid pain. Seek it. Encourage it. Slowly work through every rep, fight both the burning of lactic acid in your muscles as well as the thoughts in your head which seek to distract you, hurt you or in any way take you away from the here and now.

I have no criticism for those who would seek serenity. However, it is not for me and it is not something we chase after at Team WB Fitness

In Buddhism you learn the four noble truths and Gandhi will teach you that the spirit has the courage to withstand impulses and pain. Well fuck the Buddha and that creepy little pedophile Gandhi. Escaping your pain may give you peace, but peace is not the proper state of the human. As I mentioned earlier, we are born in a state of war both with the world and with ourselves. Free beings in a causal universe. A mind imprisoned in a decaying lump of matter.

When that weight starts to hurt don’t be a Buddha. Don’t find the release from suffering. Don’t be a Gandhi, don’t withstand your impulse to pain. Do not go to your happy place. Do not go to your cave. Do not vanish into your music in order to finish the set.  Focus on that pain. Feel that pain. Above all, remember these two things: That Pain is making your strong and only corpses are truly free of pain.

Grind on!