Brett asked me to make an article about strength training and how it relates to manliness. Great topic, because strength training is all about that. Here are 5 ways strength training will make you man up.
1. Confidence. The stronger you are, the more muscles you’ll have. The more muscles you have, the more calories you’ll burn. Strength training will build muscle while lowering your body fat. You’ll look & feel better.
What you achieve will inspire you in other areas of your life. Success breeds success. You’ll feel more confident about yourself & what you can do. And that’s the number one personality trait that defines men: confidence.
2. Testosterone. Strength training & weight lifting increases your testosterone levels. Increased testosterone means more muscles, a lower body fat and an increased libido. Testosterone is the Man hormone.
No need to buy fancy supplements to increase your testosterone levels. Just go to the gym & do a simple 3×30mins/week routine like StrongLifts 5×5.
3. Responsibility. You want money: work. You want girls: approach them. You want to build muscle & lose fat: pay your dues at the gym. Strength training teaches you to be responsible for your own future.
4. Hobby. Smoking pot, drinking beer, playing video games, … Those can all be fun, but they’re not rewarding in the long-term. Get a real hobby. Lift weights, build muscle, lose the belly, get stronger.
5. Cave-man.
Exercise is substitute cave-man activity. – Mark Rippetoe.
Once you’re doing heavy sets of Squats & Deadlifts you’ll understand what Rippetoe means. Strength training will wake up something inside you. Something that in many people lies dormant: being a man.
This post was submitted by Mehdi of StrongLifts.com. Check out his site for more info about the Bench Press, Barbell Row, Pull-ups & building a home gym.
If you liked this article, please bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Mehdi would appreciate it.
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Great article. It’s blunt and to the point. I’m sick of hearing people write about the latest version of the bench press or the new cardio device that’s gonna save you hours of workout time and get you cut! None of it matters. All you need to do is knuckle down and do the work required.
Christian
“Strength training teaches you to be responsible for your own future.”
Exactly. Great post.
“Testosterone is the Man hormone.”
So true. You’ll be surprised how much more you’ll feel like a man when you strength train. You’ll look better and you’re filled with confidence. Getting women is a great plus.
Take responsibility for your body, take responsibility for you life. Excellent post!
good article, but to lose weight and build up muscles, you don’t need to go to the gym, just buy some dungbells and go for 1/2 hour walks. It works.
Dungbells? Ewww, I wouldn’t want to get my hands on those.
GREAT POST, as a football player and a avid lifter, i could not agree more. being strong feels great. it has turned me into a man. SAVE YOURSELF and go work out!
great advise youve given. thanks. hopefully i could reach the ultimate physique by my 20’s ; )
great article!
and great site too, i love how it’s to the point and isn’t loaded w/ commercial bullcrap!
keep up the good work guys!
Thank you for this informative and much needed article on manliness. I have been struggling with being more masculine since I’ve lost quite a bit of testesterone from age. Have not been to a gym for years. Your article has inspired me to join and begin my new life as a MAN> Thank you.
“4. Hobby. Smoking pot, drinking beer, playing video games, … Those can all be fun, but they’re not rewarding in the long-term. Get a real hobby. Lift weights, build muscle, lose the belly, get stronger.”
Can’t I smoke the pot AND life weights? They are not mutually exclusive.
@opeongo66 –
“Winners don’t do drugs.”
@Alexander –
No, “winners” drink like fish, spray each other with Champagne in strange phallic rituals, and, ultimately, seem pitiful in their knowledge that they have “won” an ascetic, frustrated existence… Testosterone is a drug, btw, ever look at carrot top?
Manliness and jock mentality are not equivalent, stop suggesting they are.
“manlinness and jock mentality” I don’t believe the article was saying anything about having a jock mentality just that strength training increases your testosterone thus increasing your energy, libido, and confidence. I absolutely agree.
“Winners don’t do drugs.” Really? So, Ted Turner was a failure. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson too. The list goes on. How about all those pharmaceutical companies and the Doctors who prescribe these toxins? I guess America is filled with losers. Now lets see if there is a “winner” who came to America as an immigrant speaking no English and with a near unpronounceable name. Someone who has also smoked pot on film, but unlike some poor black person in Texas who would go to jail for years for the same “offence” became the Governor of your most populace state in the country. Need I say more. The pot myths are dying on the vine so to speak. Ever seen a fist fight among pot smokers? How about drunks? I rest my case.
I’ve been doing StrongLifts 5×5 for 2 weeks now and can attest that going from zero lifting to this point is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.
And I’m liking the way my wife is looking at me now too. Not that she looked down at me before, but it’s… better… more manly…
Do doubt about it, heavy weight training will change you from a dud to a stud. Forget about the silly balance balls, and quit reading the metro/bi-sexual Men’s Health fitness routines. Stick with old fashioned barbells and compound power movements for serious testosterone release!
Mark Rippletoe is an idiot. Nippletoe, Stuart McRobert, Ellington Darden, and the rest of the HIT nutjobs can suck one.
Brooks Kubik is where’s it’s at. If you want to know ANYTHING about old-school strength training, the way the old-timers did it, pick up Dinosaur Training. It’s hard as nails and will make you the same.
And yes, America is filled with losers. Some winners, but mostly losers.
Did you just say Mark Rippetoe is an idiot?
Wtf?
R.I.P. Joe Rolino. This 104-year-old strongman from Coney Island was run over by a car.
That said, long live dead lifts. And the military press. And squats.
@ TB and Isaac,
Amen to that brothers…