There’s an aspect of a workout I forget about sometimes. When you show up to workout – you’ll always get in a workout – unlike what can happen with other activities that can eat up a lot of time in not doing what you set out to do.
Surfing, for example, is often frustrating when there aren’t waves or if there’re waves, they aren’t very good both after spending time on “the search” as it’s called. Or if you show up to practice some other sport and your partner who you need doesn’t make it.
Or if you’re a student studying an advanced and hard to understand subject, you can wind up frustrated if the material isn’t sinking in after hours of studying. Or in business you might be trying to close a deal and be undercut by a competitor at the last moment.
I’m not saying there’s no value in failure and trying, but it can lack in satisfaction.
When you lift weights there’s the immediate satisfaction of completing the movement along with a sense of accomplishment. And if you’re doing the lift correctly and safely you’re also getting stronger. And as someone once said when talking about why in a nutshell it’s good to be strong: strong people are just more useful and are harder to kill. You could also add that strong people are more satisfied too.