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I got into weight lifting for the same reason I get into most things, which is pure unbridled vanity. I read or heard somewhere in my many biohacker information channels that weight lifting is the most anti-aging form of exercise, especially for women, and so I was like on my way! I wasn’t about to pay some community college bro $100 an hour at my LA Fitness to train me though so I just googled “weight lifting classes near me” and because I live a charmed and bless life I found the fucking coolest independent gym like a mile from my house and have been going there for almost a year. Vanity aside, it just makes you feel so good all the time. I love watching myself get stronger and I love the feeling after you lift something really heavy you thought you could never have lifted and I love all the neighborhood friends I’ve made there, including former PI subject and possibly coolest girl alive Petra Cortright. (Honestly a large part of my social life takes place there?) Anyway everyone over 30 should lift weights, preserve your waning muscle mass and build up your self-esteem babe.
Related Recs
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Beyond shocking development for anyone who knows me off the internet. I’ve gotten so strong and feel like a badass lifting the big bar over my head (and then waddling around the city for days afterwards remembering what I did).
Never thought I’d do something like this but I’m so glad I gave it the ole college try and am putting that rec out to anyone else who has hesitated about CrossFit specifically but wants to get stronger/have more workout structure/protect from injury (vs just running)/build gym community.
Apr 5, 2024
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Heavy metal pressing down, your neck in its path to the ground.
Contracting muscles, screaming joints squeeze out the chemicals your brain knows as "fear".
It's the folly of humanity, the preference for harm over boredom.
It's the schizoid relationship with the self; the awe at the infinite potential shown on the magazines, and the despair over the work required, work that can only end ever end underground unless you love (or hate) your body enough to try and make it perfect.
It's cool. It's a craft. It should be catered to your tastes.
It's endless lies, peddled and inherited, the biggest two being that the numbers matter and that the numbers don't matter.
It's the love for the moment; the sweaty mechanics of forever existing in a present ready to abandon you. That's where the power of the exercise comes in. When you lift, you defy space but also time. Taking the bar means taking the present and refusing to let go, stretching the instants as far as your condition can because on some deep, reptilian level you know you don't have an infinite supply of them.
Apr 24, 2024
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I won't blather on about all the physical, hormonal, empirical benefits that I'm sure we've all been informed of ad nauseum. I think lifting allows for a firsthand encounter with the suffering that's inherent to living, the suffering that the more sensitive among us can't help but metabolize as depression or despair. Lifting weights is not pleasurable in the traditional sense; you are literally tearing your muscles apart. It's taxing, it's exhausting, and when you go to failure you're gracelessly reminded of your limitations, of your mortality. In fact, the only way to grow stronger is to go to failure— it’s absolutely necessary that you must confront your own weakness regularly. But this encounter is incredibly important, it makes something previously nebulous and overwhelming and undefinable real, measurable, and extremely importantly, in your control. And this suffering with time transforms into growth, strength, beauty. When everything's said and done, I think that's the best you can hope to make of the sorrow that's essential to life. It's not for everyone, but it's brought me a surprising amount of peace.
Nov 25, 2024
Top Recs from @yasi
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My favorite kind of movie is a kind they really went hard on in the 90s, where it’s largely just interesting characters talking to each other about ideas the whole time and the dialogue almost sounds like a play. Walk and talk movies, if you will. Hal Hartley’s are like that but dropped into these sort of fantastical, dramatic plotlines. I love them so much. Surviving Desire or Trust are perfect ones to start with.
Oct 20, 2023
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At this point 70% of my personality is raw milk - procuring it, drinking it, taking photos of it with pithy little captions like “night cap!”, talking about it to other people against their will, like on dates or to like trapped baristas at Starbucks. As someone of formerly lactose intolerant experience, I am not exaggerating when I say raw milk has VITALLY improved my existence. Besides the fact that it has something like 70% more available vitamins in it than pasteurized milk (I keep an infographic of this on my phone because I’m a girl and can’t be expected to remember numbers and science) it has all its natural enzymes for digestion which means not only can I party on as much raw milk and cheese as I want, the enzymes in those also digest regular bootleg ass milk, cheese, ice cream etc. I love you so much raw milk!!!
Oct 20, 2023
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If you can do this, every day is filled with moments that fill you with joy and wonder. This already happened to me like eight times today, starting with my perfect smoothie (other moments included seeing a squirrel, walking past these cool flowers that look like fried eggs, and smelling the new perfume samples I ordered). It’s pretty easy, just go stand outside and look at something beautiful. There are gorgeous things everywhere. If you’re having trouble connecting with this, which I do sometimes because I’m not a lobotomized freak and also because life can truly beat you down, just take like 1-2 grams of mushrooms like two hours before sunset and then go on a super long walk with great music in your headphones and I promise you’ll remember how fucking cool it is just to get to be alive.
Oct 20, 2023