It's not vanity

[vicarz]

A few people have made comments about how guys in the gym stare in the mirror. For the record, that's not just for the sake of vanity. When you lift, it's very important to maintain proper form. Lifting that weight hurts like hell, and it takes concentration and a lot of monitoring to make sure you do it right. You know you can move your elbows, shift your knees, squeeze your chest, contract your abs, move or flex your back, or any other dumb-ass cheat to get the weight up - but doing so destroys the point of the exercise and any gains you might get from it. Every muscle in your body is screaming to either stop what you're doing or to help the muscles that hurt more, and you have to fight that. Also, you are often focusing on a particular group of muscles, and looking at it as it flexes helps you maximize the pressure you put on it. Squeeze!

When you're not actually lifting, it's not a bad idea to scan your body over to see how you are doing. You also may squeeze the muscles you're working on between sets, isolating them free from the pressure of the weights to make sure you are feeling the right muscle groups when you are straining under steel in the next round. The mirror won't lie to you, it shows you very well whether the muscles you think you are working are in fact being used when you think they are.

I do stare at myself in the mirror. Of course I do - I'm hot as hell - but that's not the only reason I do it.

Good god I'm defending gym jocks against criticism. What's next?