Why the Weight Room is the Ultimate Team Sport

It's an endless debate: What is the ultimate team sport? For years, each sport has made its case by framing the many areas in which a team can succeed - and fail - based on the whole team's performance.

There is no reason to mince words: The weight room is the ultimate team sport.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. The Weight Room Doesn't Care How Talented an Athlete Is

Of all the characteristics that help athletes become great during the season, few will translate to being great in the weight room. The weight room doesn't care how talented an athlete is. It only cares about the characteristics in which the athlete has a choice: discipline, work ethic, grit, persistence. Talented athletes can't cheat those values - which is what makes the weight room the ULTIMATE team sport.

2. The Weight Room is For Everybody

If an athlete is slow, then the coach will make them a lineman. If an athlete has a strong arm, they will become a pitcher. You get the point.

The weight room doesn't allow individuals to specialize like this.

Everybody can bench press. Everybody can power clean. Everybody can squat. The team will do the weight room exercises together and be ALL IN on the results. Few sports can offer the uniformity that takes place on the weight room floor.

3. You vs. Yourself, Not an Opponent

Often times in sports, athletes get hung thinking that they are competing directly against the opponent when in reality they are competing against themselves. The New England Patriots refer to this as "Do Your Job." Nick Saban says: "Our approach is to take the other team out of the game, and only focus on us."

A mentality based on perfecting one's own craft says: "I don't care who or where I play, as long as I focus on doing my job, I will help our team succeed."

Perhaps no place emphasizes this mentality more than the weight room. There is no opponent, there is are no fans, there are no gimmicks. It's the just the athlete and the job to do. That's one of the major benefits of weightlifting.

The responsibility in the weight room for an athlete goes beyond every set and rep. It has to do with showing up and participating fully every single day. This is the job where only the athlete can make the decision to do the right thing.