chatting with a friend of mine who had a terrific deadlifting session and felt pretty awesome about it. he asked me if i felt the same, if it was something reptilian. here was my response:

I think it’s the sense that things can go horribly wrong. So you focus, you approach the bar and review every sinew and sore spot. You think about your joints, you think about your grip. You think about the last lift you just did and how to make this next one better. All tied to a singular moment in time. You are present in a way that you usually are not. You are not thinking about work. You are not thinking about your mortgage. You are not thinking about that client call that went bad or how you shouldn’t have said what you said to her. To them. To yourself. There’s the weight in front of you and you need to get it off the ground because that is the only thing in the world that matters. You are the bar. You are the weight. You are the lift. You are the lockout. You are whole and fucking outstanding.

or, ya, something reptilian