Push

The gym was my first contact with what I'd later come to know as self-improvement. And there's one moment there that captures the feeling better than anything.

On the leg press, you sit at a 45° angle, pressing the weight up with your legs. At the bottom of the movement — the most compressed position — all that weight is on you. And the only way to get stronger is to push.

The lesson behind the weights

Weight training is a great model for improvement in every area of life, because its core mechanism — progressive overload — is how progress works in almost anything. Do a little more than last time, consistently, and you grow.

That's why the gym teaches you discipline, progression, and improvement all at once.

More than anything, you have to be consistent. Keep showing up. Do every set and every rep. Skip them, and you won't grow. Keep adding a little more weight, session after session. Do that, and you get better, fitter, and stronger.

What was your first contact with self-improvement?