The Meaning Behind Lift More Live More
I’ll never forget exactly where I was when I thought of the name, Lift More Live More. I was visiting North Carolina for a Weight Lifting Seminar with Travis Mash and I was staying with his business partner and my friend, Chuck. Chuck and I were sitting at his kitchen table talking about the latest Podcast he had started with Travis and I was expressing my vision for my future business in the fitness industry. Being the good friend he is, Chuck was grilling me about not having an Instagram to promote my content and business. In that moment I downloaded the app, and not only came up with the name for my account, but for my business, Lift More Live More.
My passion for Strength training began out of necessity, not want. In 2011, my Grandmother, the most wonderful and important person in my life, her health began drastically deteriorating. Eventually, she couldn’t even sit up in bed without physical assistance. At the time, I may be weighed 115 lbs soaking wet on a strict beer, pizza, and party diet. Needless to say, my life drastically changed and instead of leaving the club at 4am, I was now waking up at 5am to Strength train until 7am before work and helping her. I knew the stronger I was physically, the less physical pain she would feel, and that was all the motivation I needed. I was going to the gym 5-7 days a week, training hard, and I bought dumbbells for the house so I could do extra work when I had time. Me Strength training, saved my Grandmother from having to feel unnecessary pain, and it saved me from expressing my pain in an unhealthy way. My Grandmother was the strongest person I knew, she was my hero. And to see my hero rendered physically helpless in a bed, in physical pain, and it’s physically up to me to help her do the simplest things, like sit up in bed with the least amount of pain as possible, there could have been no greater inspiration to be strong.
Watching someone you love physically wither away on their deathbed until they eventually pass away, has a different effect on each individual, I’m sure, but it left me with two life changing realizations. The first is your muscle mass is essentially your immune system and your body armor, the more muscle mass you have, the more likely you are to fight off illness and even physical injury. In fact, in the event you do become ill or injured, your muscle mass will directly affect how quickly you recover. That alone is reason enough to train, to simply live a more optimum life. The second lesson is, the only constant in life is change and sometimes that change is good and other times it’s a horrific wild pitch that slaps you right in the face out of nowhere. We can’t always plan for catastrophic accidents and while I don’t wish this situation on anyone, it’s a real possibility that one day, one of your loved ones will need you to physically help take care of them. How useful will you be?
Strength is never an option and there’s no situation in life where it will benefit you to be weak. With this mantra now permanently branded in my brain, I’m on an indefinite mission to become the strongest version of myself. I truly lift more, to live more, live a more optimum and fulfilling life. When my Grandmother passed away I didn’t have much balance in my life when it came to my health and fitness. Perhaps because my life was a 24/7 party before she became ill, it was only fitting that I swung to the other end of the extreme spectrum once she passed away. My diet went from all the alcohol and whatever food was available to no drinking at all and not even indulging in a piece of a cake at a friends birthday party. I never recommend being the douchebag who won’t even have a piece of cake at their homies birthday party, but I was for far too long. And maybe I needed to live both sides of the extreme to eventually come to a healthy medium. The truth is, the best times of my life have been equally split between, physically exhausting yet epic adventures with the dopest of people, and life altering conversations shared over the finest tequila and weed with the dopest of people. We have limited time on this earth and none of us know when our timers will run out. I believe it’s my responsibility to be as fit and capable as possible in order to be a positive service to those around me. I also believe it’s my responsibility to live as much as possible; experience as much as I can, laugh as hard as I can, smile until my face hurts, love like my hearts going to explode, cease every opportunity, and try to leave everyone I meet with a gift, even if that means a simple smile and positive attitude. The harmony of life is earning beers with your friends on the weekends with squats and sled pushes during the week. That’s the essence and meaning of Lift More Live More.
Health is Happiness
Coach Karli