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Barbell Stories Pt. 2

Why YOU should be Weightlifting
I wrote this piece a year and a half ago I believe. It was around the time of one of the march-
es that people were doing.
While a few things have changed in the world, nothing about the point and purpose of this
has changed.
The moral of the story is this:
*Work HARD
*Have INTEGRITY
*WIN the day
*NO ONE OWES YOU ANYTHING
While Women from all over were arranging to go to Washington to demonstrate their rights
and voice their opinions....my two daughters were in the gym, learning one of the greatest les-
sons to be learned: No One Owes You Anything.
The Barbell will teach my young girls to be independent. No one is going to lift the bar for
them, and no one is going through all of their training reps so that they can lift heavier weights.
They will do that on their own, or they will fail.
If they fail, and they will, because that’s how the game works... The Barbell will not feel sorry
for them and let them lift it anyways. It won’t give them a hug and a pony until they feel better.
No, they will go home with some thinking to do about their failure. They will have to make some
choices about how successful they want to be, or not want to be. They will need to learn to fi g-
ure out ways to improve their skills. They will need to learn to buckle down and go through a lot
of tedious training reps and drills, for a long time, for a bit of improvement.
They will not learn entitlement. Just because they call themselves Weightlifters doesn’t mean
they get to just lift all the weights. That’s not how it works. The Barbell will teach them to work
for what they want. And if they want more, they need to work more and work harder. You don’t
just get more because you want it. That’s not how it works. If they want to rise above and sepa-
rate themselves from other athletes they will learn to prioritize and sacrifi ce. To pay greater
attention to the detail of their technique, or how to focus more during the reps of their strength
work. Or they won’t. But they will get out what they put in and at the end of the day, nothing will
be given to them from The Barbell.
The Barbell will teach them to be resilient. To accept failure with grace and to attack success
with a relentless perseverance. They will learn to master the mundane and build a foundation of
fundamental excellence.
In the end, they will likely never be professional athletes...and they may not want to be. But
they will be prepared to take the World on.

Joe Stewart, MSW, CF-L2, USAW L2
Owner
Mission 1 Fitness LLC
1900A W. Caro Rd.
Caro, MI 48723
(989) 553-1044
www.missiononefi tness.com
Mission 1 Apparel
www.mission1apparel.com
KELLY@SPORTSFINESTMAGAZINE.COM 989 545 0735 SPORTSFINESTMAGAZINE.COM April 2018 SPORTS FINEST MAGAZINE • 13 KELLY@SPORTSFINESTMAGAZINE.COM 989 545 0735 SPORTSFINESTMAGAZINE.COM April 2018 SPORTS FINEST MAGAZINE 13