Page 33 - HEF Pen & Ink 2020

THE THINGS THEY LIFTED
by Ryan Magee
The ability to produce visible growth carried a weight in their minds. They saw no repercussions, just growth and the ability to grow.
BEAUTY
by Anna Justice
They lifted the Hammer Strength steel cast dumbbells and barbells. They lifted Smith’s, cables, curl bars, lead plates, and Rogue bumper plates, ropes, flyes, integrated dip parallels, stringers, and much more.
Every month the maintenance team came in, they lifted patches, rubber to melt and repair. They lifted refill jugs, each held four gallons of water. Lee Haney lifted a new chest supported row for those qualified. Ronnie Coleman lifted his tub of Optimum whey to avoid catabolic muscle loss. Dave Draper lifted his meal prep container. Some of these they mutually lifted. With a shared effort, they lifted the lateral raise circuit machine, weighing 150 pounds. All of them carried the pressure of expectation. Fre- quently they lifted one another’s spirits. They carried the mental struggle of persistent dissatisfaction.
They carried side effects from their drug use. They lifted gym cards, shower towels, trophies, sup- plements, and tobacco, books on the science behind growth. They lifted their fists in disapproval. They carried the gym itself—Gold’s Gym, the iron, the environment, the work required to maintain a suc- cessful atmosphere. They carried the members. They carried the integral traits of their gym, the body odor, the sweat stains, the sound of weights being lifted, the aggression, the hate, the frustration.
They worked like soldiers, carrying their own weight on their shoulders. By sunrise they were in the gym, at sunset they were finishing their final work of the day, but it was not to stay healthy, it was simply the immense pressure to conform to their unrealistic morals, dumbbell after dumbbell, with no immediate gratification.
SKY
by Jayden Bloom
Rich Piana was no exception—he took the iron to the extreme and was never satisfied. He claimed to be part of the one percent of the popula- tion with a dedication of such intensity. They lifted simply to lift. Exhausted, they forced themselves through another workout, one rep at a time, sweat pouring from every pore in their bodies, not a bad day’s work. They overcame the overwhelming urge
to come to completion, just one rep following the last, bearing the lactic acid buildup, forcing them- selves past failure, pushing past the breaking point. The work was seemingly second nature to them, no conscious deliberation went through their minds, it was solely the vision of conquering expectation which yielded a force capable of producing unrealistic vol- ume.
This ideology stemmed from their success.
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