HOLD THE BODY HOSTAGE

We’ll return to the discussion on brutality momentarily and, if there’s any interest in it (leave a comment), I also blitzed through David Goggin’s book “Cant’ Hurt Me” and may write a review on it, but today I want to discuss the notion of the “self” and how many folks tend to misunderstand it.  Fundamentally, the issue I observe with many individuals is that their concept of the self is that which they can observe: their physical manifestation-their body.  Already we must contend with the flaw of such a philosophy, as the reality is that one can never actually OBSERVE their own body in whole, but only reflections and reproductions of it.  Hence, if one determines that their “self” is simply the physical manifestation, one will never have any TRUE understanding of the self, as they’ll be the ONLY person who actually cannot have a for real observation of said self.  But, further than that, I argue that not only is the body not a true representation of the self, but it’s in fact entirely isolated from the self.  The self is the “anima”, the spirit, the mind, or whatever other metaphysical word/understanding you have relating to those terms.  The self is cognition and awareness: the body is meat, bone and blood.  If one has this understanding relating to the two terms, one gains access to one of the more effective manners of achieving physical greatness: that of holding one’s own body hostage.

This picture should do a great job of alienating half of my audience that's too young to get the reference and the other half that finds it SUPER offensive

So again, when one has an understanding of their physical manifestation as their “self”, they are inclined to take the actions that result in the preservation of the body.  These are the folks that are very ginger in their approach to physical training, with an emphasis of avoiding injury, maintaining moderation, slowly easing into things, not pushing past their limits, etc.  To these people, they are “taking care of themselves”, or, more precisely, taking care of their “selves”.  But when one has an understanding that the physical is entirely separated from the true “self”, the body takes on a completely different form: it is abhorrent. 

The body is a physical manifestation, sure, but not a manifestation of the self: it’s a manifestation of limits.  The self is capable of true limitlessness: the mind’s power of imagination is limitless, with an unlimited ability to conceive of anything.  What limits the self from expressing this limitless manifestation IS the physical: the body.  The body is the weakest link, dependent on so many interconnected and related biological processes that are, honestly, fragilely and haphazardly connected.  If you were designing a race of superior beings and someone brought you a blueprint for the human body, you’d fire them for showing up to work drunk.  One of the greatest tragedies ever inflicted upon the self is that it’s only manner of expressing itself in the physical world is via the medium of the body.

I bet this was going to be WAY cooler in this guy's mind...

But with this perspective of the body, one is able to significantly change the relationship one has with their body.  Specifically, when one thinks of “my body”, or, even better, simply “the body”, rather than “myself”, one interacts with the body from an outside perspective.  It’s now no longer our dream car sitting in the garage that we keep polished and maintained by some crappy rental car that we’re gonna run until the engine falls out.  Why do we care?  It’s not “us”.

And from here, one obtains the ability to “hold the body hostage”.  Previously, one took care of the body, babied it, protected it from harm, and it reacted by staying soft and uncalloused.  But the body can do other things too: specifically, it can become more.  It CAN become bigger, stronger, more resilient, tougher, calloused, hard, sharp and keen: it simply needs a catalyst to drive it to that action.  And, thankfully, your “self”: the real, honest to goodness TRUE “self”, that psychotic tyrant that IS your mind, has full power and control over what happens to the body.  This means you can put the body’s adaptation on your schedule, with a promise of consequences if it fails to perform.

Yeah, sorta like this actually...

Because despite what the body might be trying to tell your self, it’s frequently ready and able to perform even when it indicates otherwise.  It’s ready to grow, even if it claims it’s not.  And you simply have to let it know that it’s choices are to either perform or get broken.  Because remember: this isn’t you breaking your “self”: this is you breaking the body.  Your self will remain unbroken from this process.  Hell, your self may even GROW from breaking the body, as you’ll have an even better understanding (and with it, resentment) of the failings of the body and how it limits your self, and, in turn, grow to develop even more deviant and terrible ways to force the body to at least come within some REMOTE proximity of how your true self envisions it should be.

When the body refuses, continue to push it.  Make it clear to the body that your self is in control, and you are more than willing to absolutely and totally destroy the body to a completely irreparable state UNLESS it does as it is told.  Squat a PR on Monday and tell the body you’re coming back on Wednesday to put 5 more pounds on the bar and that failure isn’t an option: and that, if the body decides to quit, it’s not going to walk away from the experience without at least some snapped connective tissue, a ruptured internal organ, and blown out blood vessels over every square inch of the torso.  Load up the barbell on the floor and let it be made clear to the body that it will either pick up the weight or learn how to live with a herniated disc.  Lace up the running shoes and run further than your best distance and then let the body know that it’s either going to find a way back home or it’s going to starve and die.  The body will HATE you, it will make its protests known, it will ache and breathe fire and camp and even have some small cuts, scrapes, and breaks along the way, but, ultimately, it will be so terrified of your self that it WILL comply until it absolutely, positively, REALLY cannot.  And at that point, you’ll have made the body at least marginally less abhorrent.  Hell, who knows, maybe someday, you’ll both be friends and you can laugh all about this.

Or maybe that’s just Stockholm Syndrome.