Here’s something I thought about yesterday while lifting heavy again after a long time.
For a while, I’d almost stopped lifting heavy. There’s a risk of injury, and it takes a lot of time to prepare. You have to get your gear ready, warm your body up thoroughly, mobilize your joints, then work up gradually from lighter weights while rehearsing the movement. Being busy, I naturally drifted away from it.
But lately, various parts of my body kept hurting. Thinking about why, I wondered whether, rather than losing much muscle, my neuromuscular coordination might have weakened. I still play tennis and basketball, but lately I’d had almost no experience of lifting weight to my limit, or running until I was completely out of breath—no experience of pushing my body to its max.
So yesterday, I tried lifting weights again.
Weights I used to handle easily now felt heavy. I had to cut down significantly on both sets and reps. But the stimulation was completely different. I got a clear sense of, “Ah, this is how it connects.”
And after finishing the workout, I felt as if I had also found an answer to something I had been wondering about my state of mind.
Lately, I sometimes feel like I’ve grown weaker. Compared to when I used to push myself hard, these things are nothing—so why am I struggling so much? Both mentally and physically.
It wasn’t that the work had gotten heavier.
My tolerance for strain had fallen.
In the past, there were often moments of pushing to my limit, and having endured them gave me confidence. As those moments became fewer, my tolerance gradually dropped, and so even trivial things became stressful, even trivial things became hard. Just as the body forgets weight, the mind forgets how to endure.
So I don’t think the answer lies in avoiding difficult things.
Sometimes you have to deliberately go all the way to maintain your tolerance.
When you push to your limit, you gain three things.
First, you learn where your limit actually is. Not a limit you guessed in your head, but one you’ve actually hit.
Second, you learn how far you can go safely. Once you’ve touched the edge, you can see the line—how far you can normally go without overdoing it.
Lastly, you gain confidence. The experience of going all the way and enduring it stays with you as a sense of “I can handle this much.” Only as that confidence builds do ordinary challenges stop shaking you.
This isn’t just about exercise. It’s the same with work, study, and responsibility. When you go all the way, something forms, just like a neural connection.
When I set goals, I always look at four areas: physical, mental, spiritual, and social. This time, I want to go all the way in each of these four areas. Reading several books on one subject and turning what I learn into action. Practicing my faith more deeply and consistently. Cultivating relationships more deeply and systematically.
Just as yesterday’s weights reawakened my nervous system, this time I want to awaken the other areas of my life as well.