Nathan Miller, a powerlifter, argues that running six miles takes more mental toughness than deadlifting 400 pounds. He's hit a plateau in the gym and decided to start running to build grit, even though he hates cardio and has never felt a runner's high.
As someone who used to powerlift religiously, like that's all I did, that's all I cared about, running 6 miles without stopping is way more impressive than deadlifting 400 pounds. I'm just gonna say it. The amount of effort that you have to do, the amount of effort you have to put into, the amount of mental resilience, right, that you have to go through to get through 6 miles of running, right, at a decent pace, like at least like a decent pace, like sub-10, I don't know what a decent pace is, right? And this comes from a guy like, I've worked out my entire life, right? I've lifted weights my entire life. I always hated doing cardio, and I've always realized like, dude, why do I find weightlifting so easy and fun then compared to like actually running? Well, because it is, it's a lot easier and it's a lot funner, right? You're lifting weights, you get a pump, you're getting jacked. Running, right? Yeah, you get to run runner's high or whatever that thing is. I never got that. I never have gotten that still. It just takes pure grit, bro, and it builds your mental resilience. And so I'm honestly going to start running just because I hate it so much to build my mind, because I've just noticed like I've hit a plateau in the gym. Like, yeah, I could lift more weights, but like getting souped up on pre-workout and gummy bears and then deadlifting for one rep really isn't that impressive. I think it's way more impressive to actually be an endurance athlete, to have to continuously suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer, and push through rather than me pull away and then suffer for 5 seconds. It's way, way harder.
