Can you lift without becoming a gym bro?

An experiment in personality (or lack thereof)

Over the past year or so, I’ve become a fairly regular weightlifter. After the mask mandate in my county expired last summer, I joined the nearest 24 Hour Fitness. My brother’s roommate, an exercise science major, graciously designed me a lifting plan, and I’ve been relatively reliably lifting four times a week ever since.

Despite an utter lack of success, I have played and loved sports my whole life, from tee ball at age 5 to intramural flag football at age 22. But post-college, the opportunities to play organized sports are infrequent or expensive. I still make it to the local park for pickup basketball, but beyond that I didn’t feel like paying $150 to play four weeks of rec kickball with some strangers.

For people like me who were used to having a practice or game to look forward to, I felt myself missing that competitive aspect uniquely fulfilled by athletic competition. Sure, there are things like online video games, chess, or fantasy sports to scratch the itch to compete, but I f…