(Update: A version of this post appears in the October 2013 issue of Stride magazine, where I'm a new columnist. Check it out!)
Part of being a weightlifter is the willingness to regularly confront fear. My emotional state (as it relates to weights) fluctuates quite a bit within and between workouts, but when the heavy squat routine rolls around every sixth week, fear is lurking in my mind somewhere. It’s not a question of whether I’ll be afraid—it’s a question of how I will handle it.
Is “fear” too strong a word? No, I don’t think so. The last
time I did heavy squats, I did one set at 165 pounds and a second set at 145
pounds. I always make sure the safety bars are at the appropriate height, so
the chances of my being injured at that amount of weight are very low. Yet I
think that’s why I feel afraid as I prepare to start the set, then as I get to
the difficult last few reps. Part of me believes I am going to be injured. Not
only injured, actually, but crushed to death.
Probably not dying, though one wonders
Source: www.leeboycetraining.com
Crushed to death. That is just scary. Even though I can
reassure my conscious brain it’s not going to happen, emotions aren’t that
simple. In a February 2013 article, Justin Feinstein of the California
Institute of Technology states, “We're still learning a lot about how the brain
processes fear...”1 This complex emotion can trigger physiological
changes such as muscle tension and a faster heartbeat.2 Likewise, it
seems that physical actions such as doing squats can arouse feelings of fear. The
amygdala, thalamus, hormones, and other parts of our nervous system just don’t
respond to rational persuasion in an ideal way.
It’s not just
weightlifting that can be frightening. The other day when I was swimming laps,
little stabs of fear shot through me as I did the front crawl. It was the fear
of drowning. Though I was only slightly more likely to drown in that pool than a
shark is likely to drown in the ocean—it was five feet deep, relatively small,
and had two lifeguards—the exertion combined with breathing only every four
strokes made it feel otherwise. I’ve also experienced fear during sprinting
workouts, when the act of running as fast as I can seems to make some part of
me think I’m fleeing for my life from a leopard or feral pig or some other
unfriendly beast.
If only laps were this serene
Source: www.muscleandfitnesshers.com
Beyond fear of bodily harm and death, exercise can make
someone afraid of less tangible things. These fears include not measuring up to
your standards, wasting time and resources, and looking foolish. Dying is
scary, but so is the suspicion that everyone around you thinks you’re
(literally) a big fat idiot.
So the only thing to
do is be brave. As the WWI fighter ace Eddie Rickenbacker
said, “Courage is doing what you're
afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.” Squats, laps, and
sprints don’t require nearly as much courage as flying war planes, but they do require
some. That makes learning how to face your fears yet another benefit of regular
exercise.
1. Sarah
Zielinski, “What Makes You Feel Fear?” NPR, last modified Feb. 4
2003, accessed Aug. 18, 2013, http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/01/170877971/fear.
2. “What happens inside your body when you get
scared?” Discovery, n.d., accessed Aug. 18, 2013, http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/what-happens-when-scared.
