posted July 31, 2000 10:17 AM            

Iron Zen Lesson #3: Men Can Nurture One Another.

I don't know how the women ironheads feel about this, but in my experience the weight room is one of the very few places where we men generously help one another out. In the weight room, maybe alone of all the other places we men find ourselves during the course of the day, in the weight room we actually � yes, we nurture one another. We do that when we take time out of our own routines to spot another lifter. We do that when we greet our fellow "regulars" everyday with a handshake and a "What're you training today?" We do that when we help a questioning newcomer learn the form of a difficult lift, or give a newbie props when we see him doing incline presses with #40 dumbells after starting with 30 pound bells a couple a months ago.

That's why, on this board, some of us take time - a few of us take a great deal of time - to answer newbies' posts. It's why we call each other "bro," and why Ranger writes poetry about his "Iron Brother." That's also why it's such a pity when we see a bro who doesn't know what he can do for and with other men, a brother whose narcissism and one-upmanship, whose I'm-bigger-than-you-are attitude keeps him alone, and lonely, and, ultimately, smaller than he would otherwise be, in a moral if not a physical sense.

Unfortunately, I see too much of that crappy attitude in my career and my private life. As I say, the gym is one of the very few places where we men nurture one another. But I see it can be done, and that's a good thing to realize.

More later, bros. Keep the Fire!

Bjaarki

------------------
"'Til the weard of the world, stands, unforgotten,
high under Heaven, the hero's name." - Hrolf Krakki's Saga (Iceland)