Comfort Is A Bad Disguise for Laziness
Return of the quads…
I have avoided short shorts for a long time.
Strangely, I also went through long periods of neglecting proper leg workouts.
I wear shorter shorts with ease now that I am actually working out my legs.
Coincidence?
I didn’t just “prefer” wearing joggers to the gym. It turns out there was more to it than just comfort. Actually, discomfort had just as much to do with it, if not more.
This was a truth I recently realized after a trip to the local public swimming pool. I was talking to Jodi about how in years past, I was inclined to wear a shirt at the public pool out of embarrassment at the state of my physique at that time.
That’s when it dawned on me….
I’ve been neglecting my gams…
The pool to my body was the same as the gym to my legs.
I knew in my heart that I ignored my legs. And if I had ignored them, then that means visually, they suffered.
As with any part of the body which you have worked hard, showing it off is almost required for many of us, a payoff for the hard work and time put in.
And typically, the opposite is true. Hide what you have neglected. NOTHING TO SEE HERE, FOLKS!
Using “Comfort” as a shield.
For 20 years, I have said I just don’t like shorts. Strangely, looking back, at no point during those 20 years was I ever proud of my legs.
I was always VERY quick to point out how shorts weren’t my thing, and equally quick at assuming that it had nothing to do with my shortcomings or lack of effort.
And that was a large part of my failures in my life….not the failures themselves, but the lack of recognizing the reality of the situation, and being quick to find a plug to stop my emotional boat from sinking.
I was unaware, and dishonest with myself, but that was a something I didn’t recognize until much later on in life.
A funny thing happened on the way to the gym…
Once I accepted that I should work legs just as much as any other part of the body, and started getting serious about building them, a funny thing happened.
On leg day, instead of looking for my usual Nike joggers, I started looking for shorts.
Short shorts.
The type of shorts that will show your pale upper thighs due to not wearing any shorts for 20 years.
And what I realized was totally true. I wasn’t more comfortable with long joggers. I was uncomfortable with myself.
And just like most everything else in life, effort changes the way you feel about yourself. Effort changes your outcome. And my outcome, two days a week, is shorty shorts and leg presses.
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