Born on third ain't a triple

Coming of age in the nineties produced two lasting traits; an affinity for alternative rock and skeptical conformity. The former of which I enjoy while keyboard prophesying, as a sound garden while driving for a living, and especially as a mental crutch during workouts. I use skeptical conformity professionally to secure middle-class station, which has the similar DNA to a "yes man," while picking up on the echoes of anything that is complete manure. A prime example of lock-stepping with de facto is the swilling of undigested inspirational mantras. "If you work hard, dream big, anything you desire will be yours," or "anything is possible" or "mind over matter." Complete CRAP! Wake up cattle, get the golden ring out of your nose. It is the big three that get you to the promise land... Birth. Circumstance. Timing.

The more and more time I spend in the gym, the more and more I see natural selection and physiological birthright at play. Even though some fools believe they can chemically codify reality, billions of years won't be dammed by a few shots in the butt cheeks. I was born with the coding to grow to 6'-2" (1.89 meters), but it was not in the genetic soup to give me basketball hops. What I did come equipped with was the ability to quickly recover anaerobically, which helped me as college swimmer to handle practices with fast intervals on short rest. To this day I still enjoy the rapid lowering of my heart rate during cardio sets -- going from 170 bpm to under 110 bpm in less than :30 seconds on most interval sets. But I completely accept the fact that because of my genetic cocktail no matter the multiple arrows in Jaron's workout quiver I will never have twenty-two inch (56 cm) biceps or dunk a basketball.

Equally important to birthright is for me to acknowledge the circumstances to which I have enjoyed great gains in the gym. I have a personal trainer who commands $100 to $125 per hour to the rest of the population write and mentor me for the unfair amount of zero dollars. The value of his training is not lost on the monetary absence, he still holds me to the highest standard and calls me on any stupid corner cutting excuse I employee. I check my privilege to the transparency that I'm enjoying the fruits of Jaron's dedication to his craft just because we have been friends for over two decades. Circumstances people. Circumstances. Horatio, there is no struggling valiantly against adversity here.

And lastly, timing. In a future post I'll discuss the male phases loosely defining the trail through adolescents, the destructive years, and the catalyst for change for those in the bell curve. Timing plays a vital role in determining when to start taking control of health and wellness. For me it meant owning the results and controlling expectations on a journey that really has no destination. A destination denotes an end point that only serves Double Doubles and chicken wings at 1:00 a.m.