Those around me in the gym know the intensity I bring as the lifts get heavier. My coach always jokes that she knows when the programming is wearing me down by when I start to talk to myself. The internal monologue is a part of my routine. It is a freedom of expression to remind myself where I am and where I am heading. Often as maximum efforts are reached and on competition days those listening carefully will hear my rallying cry as I step to the bar, “Five pound’s ain’t shit.”
Not long ago my wife questioned me on it. Asking me what I truly mean when I utter the grammatically incorrect foul language ridden sentence. It was then that I realized how truly important that sentence had become to me. It is more than a motivating phrase; it is a life perspective. It is an outlook on what is about to be accomplished and a reminder to what you have already accomplished.
Seven years ago, I was in a bad place. I was addicted to drugs and alcohol and unable to see a hopeful future. Clinging to my vices was costing me my health, my family, and employment. When I finally did kick the habits, I found myself drifting for a long time. In Alcoholics Anonymous meetings I kept hearing to take things one day a time, to get another day, keep up that momentum and you will have a year before you know it.
I earned my first year, then another, and another as time passed. I found the love of a beautiful woman who became my wife and the mother of my incredible children. After a great deal of turbulence, I found myself a career in sales that provided for my family. We moved, I found a new sponsor who lived closer and is my closest confidant. I made friends, made amends, but something was still missing in my life. Until I found the iron.
My entire life I had been interested in weightlifting, but I was shy about it. I felt like I did not know where to start or how to start. I will fully admit that I was intimidated by the machines at the gym. It felt like something you had to have some sacred knowledge of. So, I started at home in what was a spare bedroom with a five-pound kettlebell. Then a few dumbbells, then a barbell, and before I knew it my wife and I were looking for a coach.
Suddenly my fascination was a full-blown love. I started to consume all there was to learn and realized my life-long hesitation had been silly. All I had really needed to do was start to ask. The community is, for the most part, one of comradery. Even in competitions I find myself making friends with the people I am trying to beat, sharing in triumphs and failures at the hands of the iron. It was on one such occasion that the phrase was born.
Official Strongman Games annually publishes and online qualifier with differing events from year to year. It was one such year that included an overhead press. I was working to max my overhead press and reaching my limits with one of my gym buddies. Reaching that maximum, we were down to the point of adding a two and half pound plate to each side. Slipping under the bar, my hands on the knurling, standing behind me I heard him say, “you got this, five pounds ain’t shit.”
That moment was a paradigm shift for me. Something clicked into place and everything changed. Just like getting another day sober, taking on a smaller increment made the task at hand feel manageable. Five pounds was two plates less than six and a half inches each. With the rest of the weight on the bar, how much harder could that really make it?
Take on the small increment to see big results. Trying to build a five-hundred-pound deadlift? You need to be able to deadlift four hundred and ninety-five pounds, right? From that point, you are only adding five pounds, less than a full one-gallon jug of water is all it takes. You eventually find a limit that might take more time to overcome, the path might be hard, but this is a process after all. Even a one-pound personal record is still a personal best.
How about losing weight? Losing forty pounds may sound astronomical to some, but what if you say you decide you want to lose five pounds. Then lose another five and keep the momentum going until you are at the desired weight. In strength sports and bodybuilding, maybe the opposite is true, tacking on mass can be handled the same way, those small results adding up to a big change.
On the world scale I will give a recent example. Eddie Hall held the world record for the deadlift at eleven hundred and two pounds with some change. The record stood until Halfthor Bjornssen broke elven hundred and four pounds with some change off the floor in 2020. Less than five pounds was all it took for The Mountain to claim a world record title. Let that sink in.
That is what the five-pound mentality is all about. Making the small change to see the big result. Tackling the challenge at hand in an increment you know in your mind you can do. Celebrate even the small victories and learn from the defeats. Everyone will have a bad day, everyone will have a point that the iron will win, but you go never give up and always go back to it knowing that “five pounds ain’t shit.”
CULT-OF-IRON 