- Joined
- Feb 25, 2009
- Messages
- 247
That was something Viktor Frankl said in the beginning of Man’s Search for Meaning.
It has been something I have realized more and more lately.
Let me begin from the beginning and I will I will tie it in with bodybuilding.
I started on Alinboard. A friend of mine had mentioned steroids. We wanted results, we were 18. I instantly had pre-conceived ideas of steroids, how they were dangerous, how they ruin your body, how they are for cheaters.
I realized just now, Alinboard wasn’t the first site I found “Information”, but a paid site, that had a link to Alinshop.
I was never one for the ‘learned’, I was lucky to have passed high school. Not for lack of intelligence but for lack of interest.
Soon after my search for a source of steroids, I started reading, of course after a post I made. That I was 18, 155lbs, been training for a couple of years and was struggling to gain muscle.
Of course, I was flamed. Although, some were kind and helped. One in particular made me a tailored diet. Of course, I was told to stay natty. But naturally I didnt listen, but that doesn’t mean I didnt listen at all. I learned how to eat and train. I soaked up the knowledge. Not only from Alinboard but also from the textbooks. How the body works, how long it takes the muscles repair, that I dont grow in the gym but in my dreams. Whoops, I mean in my sleep. Or was that a mistake?
At the time, I picked up Arnolds Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding.
Because of my pre-conceived ideas, and believing I wasn’t smart, I had a philosophy of “work harder, not smarter”. I also believed that strong mind equals strong body. And in this case, or my case, strong body, strong mind. Since I recognized my weakness. Which wasn’t psychological but beliefs. So, I worked on my body, if I couldn’t be smart, I could be strong. But it was more, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
To bring this around to the present, the textbooks are wrong.
Vicktor Frankl says this in his book, which is about his experiences during the Holocaust. He was a Jew, and survived the Gettos, and later, the extermination camps. He was a psychiatrist, they [Nazi] took everything from him, everything that can be taken from a man. Even his name was taken from him. He was given a number, a number he didnt need to remember, for it was tattooed on his forearm.
What he realized, how the textbooks were wrong was because of what he could survive through, or how he says it, “man can get use to anything, but dont ask how”.
You may be asking, what does this have to do with bodybuilding?
He realized, that the books said man needed, so and so, amount of sleep to function, he needed, so and so, amount of calories to function, and if not, he would deteriorate.
Of course, he proved that wrong. That he could eat only 150 calories a day and work slave labor. Yet retain muscle. That he didn’t have to sleep for days on end to function. And, that the textbooks were wrong.
He also realized something else, that there was one thing, something a man had, that could not be taken from him. His freedom to choose his attitude in any given situation.
Therefore, as said by the great Kant, “I must abolish knowledge, to make room for belief”.
As I find myself getting back into bodybuilding, I find my knowledge restricting! Limiting! Confining!
As if all my learning is drowning my potential!
And I see it on the board.
Who says Arnold’s knowledge is outdated? Who says what is right and wrong? What works and what doesn’t?
We must be wary of knowledge, we must be wary of learning, we must be on guard, to guard our ability to believe in ourselves and to believe in others.
What do you guys think? Do many of you feel the same way? Has the same fear/knowledge shown its ugly face? Have you told others what is and what is not? How you told others... to not believe... and... in who?
It has been something I have realized more and more lately.
Let me begin from the beginning and I will I will tie it in with bodybuilding.
I started on Alinboard. A friend of mine had mentioned steroids. We wanted results, we were 18. I instantly had pre-conceived ideas of steroids, how they were dangerous, how they ruin your body, how they are for cheaters.
I realized just now, Alinboard wasn’t the first site I found “Information”, but a paid site, that had a link to Alinshop.
I was never one for the ‘learned’, I was lucky to have passed high school. Not for lack of intelligence but for lack of interest.
Soon after my search for a source of steroids, I started reading, of course after a post I made. That I was 18, 155lbs, been training for a couple of years and was struggling to gain muscle.
Of course, I was flamed. Although, some were kind and helped. One in particular made me a tailored diet. Of course, I was told to stay natty. But naturally I didnt listen, but that doesn’t mean I didnt listen at all. I learned how to eat and train. I soaked up the knowledge. Not only from Alinboard but also from the textbooks. How the body works, how long it takes the muscles repair, that I dont grow in the gym but in my dreams. Whoops, I mean in my sleep. Or was that a mistake?
At the time, I picked up Arnolds Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding.
Because of my pre-conceived ideas, and believing I wasn’t smart, I had a philosophy of “work harder, not smarter”. I also believed that strong mind equals strong body. And in this case, or my case, strong body, strong mind. Since I recognized my weakness. Which wasn’t psychological but beliefs. So, I worked on my body, if I couldn’t be smart, I could be strong. But it was more, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
To bring this around to the present, the textbooks are wrong.
Vicktor Frankl says this in his book, which is about his experiences during the Holocaust. He was a Jew, and survived the Gettos, and later, the extermination camps. He was a psychiatrist, they [Nazi] took everything from him, everything that can be taken from a man. Even his name was taken from him. He was given a number, a number he didnt need to remember, for it was tattooed on his forearm.
What he realized, how the textbooks were wrong was because of what he could survive through, or how he says it, “man can get use to anything, but dont ask how”.
You may be asking, what does this have to do with bodybuilding?
He realized, that the books said man needed, so and so, amount of sleep to function, he needed, so and so, amount of calories to function, and if not, he would deteriorate.
Of course, he proved that wrong. That he could eat only 150 calories a day and work slave labor. Yet retain muscle. That he didn’t have to sleep for days on end to function. And, that the textbooks were wrong.
He also realized something else, that there was one thing, something a man had, that could not be taken from him. His freedom to choose his attitude in any given situation.
Therefore, as said by the great Kant, “I must abolish knowledge, to make room for belief”.
As I find myself getting back into bodybuilding, I find my knowledge restricting! Limiting! Confining!
As if all my learning is drowning my potential!
And I see it on the board.
Who says Arnold’s knowledge is outdated? Who says what is right and wrong? What works and what doesn’t?
We must be wary of knowledge, we must be wary of learning, we must be on guard, to guard our ability to believe in ourselves and to believe in others.
What do you guys think? Do many of you feel the same way? Has the same fear/knowledge shown its ugly face? Have you told others what is and what is not? How you told others... to not believe... and... in who?
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