2024 was the year I started lifting. Actually, that’s not quite right. I’ve started lifting on many occasions. 2024 was the first time I actually persisted with it.

Growing up I had a weird relationship with my own body, in that I mostly viewed it as an external entity. Sure I needed it to carry around my brain, the real “me”, but that’s all it was, just an enclosure. I made sure it was in good enough condition to do that job, but didn’t really care much beyond that. I was never too fit or too unfit, and just comfortable hovering in the wide border between the two.

I did learn over time that this wasn’t sustainable though. Getting an Apple Watch to track my fitness helped me with the motivation quite a bit. All the various little trophies and challenges tickled just the right parts of my brain to keep me going. I was doing bodyweight workouts at home and going for longer and longer walks, but I could just feel I was reaching the point of diminishing returns.

Going to a gym seemed like the next logical step, but it wasn’t an easy decision to make.

Showing Up

This wasn’t my first time going to the gym. I had tried it a few times before, and while I’d have some good stints of regular visits for a few weeks, but I’d eventually return back to my ways and daily schedule. I had some momentum from my home workouts this time which I knew would help, but I also needed a different way to think about the whole situation.

This is where CGP Grey’s concept of Yearly Themes came in. The gist of the idea is that instead of setting concrete resolutions that you can fail early and give up on, you should help yourself achieve the larger goals you have by creating a broader, more vague theme, such as having a year of reading. This gives you more flexibility in your goals while still letting you count any progress as the win it is.

My theme for 2023 was a year of health, and for 2024 I refined it a bit to be a year of lifting. My main goal was that I wanted to show up at the gym as often as I could. I wanted to grow some muscle, I wanted to lose some weight, and I had a bunch of ancillary goals for specific exercises and lifts, but all of that took a backseat to the main target of just showing up.

The main part of this was just doing exercises that I enjoyed and would look forward to. I’d skip more “optimal” and tried-and-tested exercises if I found them to be uncomfortable or if they just didn’t feel right. I’m also incredibly careful around progressive overloading. I always make sure I can comfortably complete two whole sets with a few more reps left in the tank before even thinking about increasing the weights. As much as I want to push myself, the main goal is showing up, and an injury is the fastest way to prevent that.

I applied the same ideas to my nutrition. While I didn’t cut out sugar and sweets entirely¹, I made some smarter choices around them. As a vegetarian I knew I needed to supplement my diet with a lot of protein to properly recover, so I keep experimenting with different ways to make that work too.

Seeing The Results

The first big thing I noticed was sleep. As with previous attempts at going to the gym, the biggest impact it had was on my sleeping patterns. I went from erratic sleep schedules and durations to a more solid rhythm.

It was a bit difficult to make sense of some of the other physical results. The first noticeable changes were in the weights I was lifting. Progressions in the first few months were fast and easy. For instance, I went from bench pressing with 5kg dumbbells to 7.5kg, 10kg, and then 12.5 in about 2 months. This whole time I didn’t notice any big changes in my weight or body though. I later had times where I’d look visibly thinner but my weight didn’t move much, and also times where the scale showed a difference but I just didn’t feel it.

While I was initially obsessed with the numbers, I now mostly only view these metrics at a distance; as long as the trend line isn’t moving in the wrong direction, I’m not too bothered.

It’s also changed my mindset. Exercise is no longer something I do out of a sense of obligation. It’s just something I do, an intrinsic part of me. I’ve lost a ton of weight and put on a ton of muscle, and between these things I just feel so much more comfortable in my skin and confident in myself.

The biggest impact I’ve felt on my day-to-day mental state, really. There’s something incredibly empowering about pushing yourself to your limits every day and knowing you’ll survive. I feel calmer and more clear headed, though I don’t really know how much of that is a direct effect of the lifting or an effect of the other effects. I’m still prone to overthinking, but a bit less so, I think.

Some Advice I Wish I Had

The one big piece of advice I’d give anyone starting out is that most advice, even the stuff that seems like it’s pretty universal, isn’t always right for you.

It’s easy to find a thousand different viewpoints about anything and everything on the internet, and this is especially true in the fitness space. It’s really easy to find yourself lost in a maze of contradicting opinions while you search for the one true ideal workout strategy that will give you the maximum gains you’re searching for.

That said, you can’t really just walk into a gym and divine a workout plan knowing nothing, so my recommendation would be to seek some modicum of opinions, either from trainers at your gym or online, but then actually implement them and trust your gut. See which exercises work for you, which ones don’t, and adjust and adapt accordingly. You can check in periodically as you grow, but there’s little to be gained in constantly chasing the latest trends.

There are definitely other fantastic people out there whose work you might resonate more with, but two people whose work I personally follow are:

• Jeff Nippard, whose channel and book The Muscle Ladder are great resources especially for beginners and those building and tweaking their programs.
• Squat University, whose channel has been really fantastic for more fine-grained topics and specifics around things like mobility and rehabilitation.

Looking Ahead

As I write this I’m in a bit of a weird place. I think I’m fairly close to the end of the honeymoon phase of lifting where progress comes easy.

While I initially started out with a goal of just showing up, I think I’ve now got that part down and need to think more deeply about where to go from here: Do I want to put some weight back on to add more muscle? Do I go on a cut and see what it’s like to be shredded?

I’m currently aiming for some smaller, more technical targets, like fixing pesky ankle stability imbalance and getting my first sissy squat, pistol squat, and pull up. I’m not too sure about the longer term stuff yet, but I guess I’ll just keep lifting in the meantime.

2024 will always be the year I got into lifting. I hope that looking back in the future, I’ll see it as the year I just started lifting.