What made you fall in love with lifting?

You will never experience a runners high like you will from lifting- the chenical reaction just isn't there.

It's different.

It's a sense of power- and accomplishment. Not a high.

I walk out of my gym feeling like I'm a motherfncking god. I do not do that when I run. I feel good- but it's not the same.

When you start to get really heavy- if you are doing a real weight training progressive lifting program- you set goals and accomplish them it gains satisfaction.

All the sudden lifting triple digits isnt' scary- it's your warm up. All the sudden your PR is now your OWN body weight.
All the sudden the idea of lifting 300 some pounds off the floor doesn't' seem like an impossible feat for you.

These things make it satisfying. Keep at it- it gets better as you start gaining.

I've started lifting over 30 years ago. I loved it from the first drop of sweat & the first callus on my hands. I am a effing god as you mention before, during, & after I step into the gym. Its a amazing rush.

But in all respect, I have only been running for 10 months. Two months into my first steps, I ran two half marathons in two days. That is 26.2 miles in two days. A month later I ran my first 5K ever, taking 2nd place in my age group. Two months later I took first place after pulling my hamstring 5 days prior. Last month I ran over 175 miles after been being hit my a car on my bicycle and injuring my hip and wrists. By the end of this year, I will have ran 1200 miles. All while lifting heavy & all while dealing with a joint destroying disease that had me walking with a cane last Christmas Eve. When I finish each and every run, I am just as bad *kitten* as when I walk out of the weight room.

I may not get a "high" when I hit the weights, but I get every bit of a "sense of power- and accomplishment." when I run as well as lift.

I started out very underweight, sickly, weak, and terribly broken down. What weight training has done for my mental state is incomparable. I was falling over doing bodyweight lunges. I couldn't do a squat, even at 113 lbs (I'm 5'9"). But I also worked with trainers that were afraid of pushing me, and I was still too afraid to push myself. Add into that terrible anxiety issues and severe asthma, and I'm a bit of a mess.

It took two years of consistent work to get to the point where I felt confident enough to start pushing myself, but that's an internal issue. It took me another year of working with a REALLY good trainer to learn REAL form and weight work and start gaining in strength. But then, I started from 20 pounds underweight - and I think it's a little different...

Things went really really haywire last fall, and I lost all of my grounding. I started gaining stress weight really fast, and I couldn't find focus at all. I sat down with my trainer and talked to him about how to fix it and how to heal, and I also started reading and learning a lot more about fitness and diet and found MFP. So about a year ago, I recommitted, changed my goals, and started lifting progressively heavier. I have been in a deficit for most of the year since, so I haven't been building much muscle, but ZOMFG, what I have gained in strength and confidence and control.

Lifting helped me cope with a whirlpool of tragedy. It helped me find my center, myself. The aesthetic gains have been nice, but when you have zero self-esteem, it doesn't matter much. I keep lifting heavy 4x a week because I love what I can accomplish, both in the gym and out of it. I can manage my grief and my stress, knowing that none of that matters in the gym.

I see the strength gains every day in my life - just last week, I was able to walk into Target, pick up a great big 5-shelf bookshelf I've wanted for 6 years, but couldn't lift into my car or up the 2 flights of stairs into my house. I refused the help of the clerk and the gentleman in line behind me and it's now built out and bolted perfectly set in my living room. I was able to out-lift my 10 year younger, 100-pound heavier cousin at Thanksgiving. And I can do anything I want, all on my own.

I keep lifting because it has taught me to respect myself, something I didn't have for 37 years. I have confidence in myself that I have never had either. And, I hope that someday, it will start to grow into self-esteem... I have stopped hating myself for the most part in the past couple of months, so it's a start.

TL;DR - I lift much more for the mental health aspects than for the physical aspects, and that's completely fine with me. Like I said, the physical is a great bonus, but I've grown so much more mentally and emotionally, and that's what I needed.

I hate cardio! I would rather lift for an hour than do 15 minutes of the elliptical. I have a really strong lower body, so I love to see what my legs can do. I do work my upper body as well, and I love the days where I up my weights to see if I'm getting stronger. Unfortunetly my body needs cardio so I've reluctantly put my weights down and bought an elliptical for my house and spikes for my shoes so I can walk in the winter. It sucks, but it has to be done right?

Why put the weights down? Why not do both?

Because it makes me look awesome and makes me feel awesome. :smokin:

I think for me it was watching the gains I had, and also lifting was a competition between me and my friends at my crossfit gym.

Sschwarzenegger. As a kid growing up in the 70's I was completely in awe at the sheer size and power such a physique could bring. Then I realized it was the best way to control my weight..........and my temper. Now it's something I need just to sleep at night. Few days rest is great, but after 4 days I start to feel physically sick and start having a hard time sleeping at night.

Wow!! I thought I was the only one that got sick or restless after not working out!!! I love all the things lifting does for me and the high is pretty amazing!!

I may not get a "high" when I hit the weights, but I get every bit of a "sense of power- and accomplishment." when I run as well as lift.

Good for you- that's quiet some work!!

I don't mean to say it's NOT an accomplishment to do those things- but the endorphin rush is not the same- there is a complete and different chemical thing going on. There is a fundamental basic- chemical difference between what happens when you run and when you lift. I've finished the BaTa'an Death March.. its' definitely an achomplishment- but there is no high I get from pulling weight from the floor.

it wasn't to belittle the accomplishments of cardio goals.

I know what you meant hun. What I was saying I get the exact same rush from weights, as I do running, & cycling for that matter. Maybe I'm a special snowflake. Hahahhaa. Probably means I have a chemical imbalance in my head which would make more sense...
Congrats on your accomplishments!

Okay I'm going back to my original posting here. After reading people's good stories. I lost my dumbbells during my move but really I fell in love with lifting a long time ago when I took a class as an elective. I liked the feeling afterwards. Feeling strong. It was important in getting over something that left me feeling vulnerable. Every time I would finish and surpise myself what i could do, I felt better. Better and better. I liked the feeling of that was something I did all by myself, with no help from a machine or anyone. All me. This time around same thing. I surprised myself right from the start what I could do after a long held injury, finally fixed thru surgery. I feel strong afterwards and capable and whole. And it gives me great pleasure to know that anyone looking at me would never know what I can do. But I do. gotta find those free weights or put them on my santa list.

The feeling of strength.

^ I shoulda just said that. brb.

looking back at my post I guess you could say...empowering.

Quite simply, the only alternative to cardio, which I happen to loathe. I love the definition I have, every part of my body is tight and perky and I'm extremely strong; results I never got from cardio.

Lifting is teh siht. I'm glad I found it.

It is an incredibly empowering feeling being able to lift heavy things... off the floor, over your head, off of your chest, through concrete walls...

Even more so when you can look back in your records to see that you are now lifting more weight than you were just a week or two ago. Progress isn't lightning fast, but it is easy to see where the hard work is paying off.

I like that I can look in the mirror and notice that I look different. Certain muscles appear that I couldn't see before. Ones I saw before are bigger than before. My shape is changing for the better. This isn't the same skinny me that I've always known.

And then there's the health aspect. Strong isn't just strong, it's healthy too.

This is something that I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I want to go into the gym at 70 and be the crazy old guy who lifts more weight than the 20 year old bros. Then I can get my old man voice out and tell them, "I've been doing this twice as long as you damn kids have been alive!" If gyms and heavy objects haven't been outlawed by that time.

Because "You must do the thing you think you cannot do." (c/o Eleanor Roosevelt)

When I step up to the squat rack or the loaded barbell on the floor, it's all about banishing the doubting voice inside of my head that says "you can't." I push increasingly heavy loads around because I CAN, and the feeling I get when I DO is awesome.

I hate cardio! I would rather lift for an hour than do 15 minutes of the elliptical. I have a really strong lower body, so I love to see what my legs can do. I do work my upper body as well, and I love the days where I up my weights to see if I'm getting stronger. Unfortunetly my body needs cardio so I've reluctantly put my weights down and bought an elliptical for my house and spikes for my shoes so I can walk in the winter. It sucks, but it has to be done right?

Why put the weights down? Why not do both?

I didn't, i just shortened the routine. I am in and out of the gym in an hour, but i've dedicated more to cardio this go 'round then to lifting. I still love to lift, but it became a procrastination to getting my cardio done. I've seen way more results by increasing my cardio, it just sucks.

During the weight loss, I began to notice that I wanted to please my mirror. I figured if I am already loosing weight I might as well build muscle at the same time and the mirror agreed with me 0.0