Training and discipline.

I know that you have noticed the same thing I have in recent years.

Everybody's attention span has gotten shorter.

There's a website called statisticbrain.com.

And it offers some very interesting statistics on the subject of attention span.

For example, the average attention span in 2015 is 8.25 seconds, whereas it was 12 seconds in 2000.

It seems certain that the vast increase in information availability and data variety amounts to an overwhelming increase in external stimulus.

Many people, especially younger people, who grew up without the handicap of only three television networks,

a phone hanging from the wall, and having to wait for the postman,

have yet to develop that, which for us older guys, was a simple side effect of the times.

I refer to discipline.

The ability to sustain an effort past the point of comfort, past the next whim, past the next immediate impulse in a different direction.

As I sat here in front of my desktop computer writing this article, I struggled with the same problem that is shaped the past 20 years of Western

culture. I had to wait to check my email and the drudge report until I finished these thoughts. It was tough.

Despite my occasional failures, I have an advantage that lots of kids don't have.

The barbell has taught me some valuable lessons that they have not yet had a chance to learn.

Strength training makes your body stronger in many important ways.

It makes muscle stronger, bones harder and denser,

joints more stable, and the whole body tougher. But it also strengthens the mind. By giving it a task,

it must finish once you start it. A heavy set of squats is an amazingly attention-dependent event.

You take the bar out of the rack for five rips,

and the set takes maybe 45 seconds to complete.

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