The Ring of Fire

Some workouts you need to do alone.

I know fitness is often about the group workout, the shared pain and joy, the agony, the elation, the brotherhood, the seemingly innate desire (in many of us) to be better than the next person. The community drives us onward, in so many ways, and we find much sustenance there.

But, sometimes, you need to work out alone.

Why? Because, often, it's harder. Because it hurts more. Because it almost seems to wound your soul.

There are lessons you'll learn alone that you can never learn with someone else there.

A level of depth and darkness that may surprise and even scare you.Alone is not safe. There is no one else there to pull you from your darkness. No one to rescue you. No one to save you from stepping over that edge into the echoing abyss of your soul.

It's just you and the barbell and pain.

And nothing stops until you do.

Are you scared of going there? You should be.

Scared and maybe excited at the same time. Fitness isn't all hot bodies and high fives.

Fitness can be about finding the darkness and making it work for you, instead of against you.

The person you'll find alone in that workout is most likely not the person you want to show to anyone else. And that's okay. You need to learn this person, this place, this pain. You need to learn to drive yourself onward in a way that no one else ever can. Internal motivation is the key to success in the gym and so much of life.

That's not to say that you should abandon the group: that would be foolish. Faster times and greater effort can be derived from in-person competition. You must not let those opportunities pass you: they are rich and should be grasped.

But, sometimes, attack the workout alone.

Step into the Ring of Fire by yourself. It will burn in a way that will mark you, as the flames go higher.