Oh the weight room...

 

Oh the weight room…The place where I can be at pure peace. Everyone knows I live to lift weights. In fact, my family loves to lift and train. Without fail, when Spencer and I come home (Los Angeles) to visit, our days will start off in the weight room and/or on the field. Also, if you didn’t know, our high school recently named their weight room after our family. Honestly, given our history with the school, there are multiple facilities at the school where the Paysinger name could have been placed. But the weight room is the perfect place. Disclaimer: this was rare incident where I brag about myself; don’t get used to it though.

 From the moment I step in the gym all the stress form the day seems to fade away. Hour after hour of putting in work, I relish in the sweat and pain. Every minute that passes I know I am getting that much stronger mentally, physically, and emotionally. However, there are times when things don’t go as planned when I am in the zone. Therefore, this post will highlight a couple of the interesting things that I have seen and done in the while in the weight room. 

The first incident happened this past weekend while I was working out with our Crossfit team. We were doing Hang Snatches and I was tweaking my form a bit so I could transition the bar overhead more efficiently. Well I was on the first rep of my third set and I was determined to get my form right. I dipped with the bar, started my pull, and as I was getting the bar overhead..BAM!!  I hit myself in the forehead with the full speed and power of the 155 pounds of barbell. Now, before you make fun of your boy, you should know that I did complete the rep and all the reps after that one…Ok, now you may laugh at me. Also, I think it is worth saying that this has happened before. Fortunately, playing football has heightened my tolerance for shots to the head. However, I don’t care who you are, it’s going to hurt when you hit yourself in the head at a high speed with that much weight. After it happened I was fine. That next morning was a different story. I’m pretty sure I may have been concussed. My head was killing me and my forehead was extra tender to the touch. Not to mention my vision was a little blurred. But in true meat head fashion, I powered through.

Another time, in high school, I was in the weight room with my boys putting in some good off-season work. On this particular day the weights were feeling heavier than usual which, as most gym rats know, is perfectly normal. I finished up bench press and was starting incline press. My reps were 10-8-6-4-2. The 10 set was generally the warm up. You were expected to get the 8 set and the 6 set. The 4 and 2  sets were supposed to be the most challenging. You had a 50/50 chance of getting all of the 4 set but you were likely going to fail your 2 set. Well, as I mentioned earlier, I was not feeling the weights this day. I knocked out my sets of 8 and 10. I only got 2 reps on my 6 set though! Generally, when this happens its best to walk away from that lift, go knock out some auxiliary lifts and core work, leave the weight room, and come back the next day to get after it again. As I started to transition to doing some tricep work the volleyball team came in for a post-practice lift. This is relevant because I had a HUGE crush on one of the girls on the team. Everyone knew I liked her so it was no secret. But when you’re in high school and that girl you like is around, you have to show off just a bit. So foolishly I decided to continue with my incline press work. I told my boy to give me one hell of spot because there was no way I was going to get any part of my 4 set but we could at least make it look like I was doing something impressive. Well leave it to my boys to totally try and screw me over. As I am lying there on the bench ready to lift, my boy spotting me tells me to hold on and he asks ole girl to come over so she can spot me. He looks at me and winks and then helps her up on the spotting stand. Of course at this point everyone is watching. I mean normally this would be no problem. I’m Justin Paysinger! I always get my reps…sometimes.  Haha not this day though. So she’s looking at me and ask if I am ready. At this point, I am beyond nervous because I know that there is no way I will be able to get this weight off my chest today and I was lifting nearly three times her body weight, so she was going to be of no help. Plus my boys were just itching to see all this go down. They couldn’t wait to see me embarrass myself in front of this girl. Gotta love em right?! I am at the point of no return now. This is happening and it’s not going to be pretty. She smiles and counts me down from 3..Three, Two, One..The bar is off the rack and I am looking straight up at it pleading to myself to find some sort of strength somewhere. Take it from my legs for all I care, it’s an upper body day anyway! I hold the bar for a one count and then proceed with the lift. Surprisingly I get the first rep. I was relieved for a second but quickly remembered that I had three more reps to go. The second rep goes up relatively smooth. I’m mildly in shock because there is no way I should have got the first rep let alone the second. She is cheering me on and so are her teammates. My boys however, are laughing and all I hear is “good luck with the next two J!” As I am holding the bar, I look at the weight and then look at her and with a big smile, she says “come on Justin, you go it.” Well that’s all I needed. Sure, I had nothing left in the tank for these next reps but my boo-thang was rooting me on so I couldn’t let her down right?! You damn right I couldn’t! I knocked out those last two reps with some struggle but I got them up. My boys were speechless and she was impressed, which is all that mattered at that moment. Of course she had no clue that I shouldn’t have gotten those reps. All in all, I finished the set, scored some points with the girl, and despite a slow start, I had a good day in the gym after all. 

I have plenty of other gym stories that I could share. Like the time my brother Spencer busted out all his front teeth when he missed the rack and the barbell smashed into his face. Or the time when one of my fellow O-linemen hadn’t lifted for nearly four months but decided to do max back squat with 400+ pounds on the bar. Yeah, he took the bar off the rack and fell faster than elevator shaft. There was also the time when a girl in my Crossfit class was flipping tires and she lost her grip and went flying head first into the opening of the tire. Haha I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. Don’t worry, I checked to make sure she was ok first. I’ve spent hours in the gym and have tons of stories. One thing remains though, the gym is my sanctuary. There are times of good laughs and memories as you can see. But there is also days when you can’t help but be defeated by the weights. You just have to shake it off and be determined to win the man vs. weights battle the next day. 

Here’s to all the people in the world who live to be in the gym!

Justin

Ps- if you don’t know what boo-thang is: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boo%20thang