Barbell Philosophy: The Iron Path (English Edition)

When you lift the barbell, you set foot on the Iron Path.

Setting foot on the Iron Path means opening yourself up. It means knowing what the barbell is and what the barbell can do for you. It means knowing who and what you are, and knowing what you'd like to become.

The Iron Path is the path we all walk as we use the crucible of iron to build the body, mind, and life we've envisioned for ourselves. We know this path requires our focus, dedication and effort. We know that moving along this path requires encountering resistance, and pushing back.

What we may not know when we first set out is just how much of this journey takes place in the mind. We lift our physical weights, using our physical body, in the physical world. The reasons we lift, our passions, motivations, faults, desires, strengths and weaknesses all come from the mind. The way we think about our training is just as important as the training itself...you can't have one without the other.

Many trainees train hard for years without seeing the results they so desperately want to see. They know there's a problem with their process, but they don't know how to fix it. They don't even know where to look to find the problem.

The Iron Path is a book of barbell philosophy. It's a guide to the Iron Path itself. The lessons, thoughts and exercises in the book come from years in the trenches, under the bar. These lessons have been earned the hard way, through countless hours of hard labor and an equal number of hours devoted to reflection and contemplation.

Without considering the lessons in the book, it's possible to spend a lifetime spinning your wheels and getting nowhere. The book lays out a series of lessons, each describing a specific obstacle along the Iron Path. Each lesson will ask you to think about your training, your vision, and yourself. Through the lessons and the exercises, you can refine your mindset. You can learn to put in the work necessary to get where you need to go.

The body may lift the bar, but the mind lifts the body. Get your head in the game. Walk the Iron Path.