AAMC Reporter: August 2008

A Weighty Issue

Jim Sorrell, M.D., started lifting weights to surprise his wife.

Several years back, psychiatrist James H. Sorrell, M.D., was looking for motivation to get fit and stay that way. Turns out he found both when his wife was traveling for work for about a month.

"I really wanted to surprise her and lose some weight by the time she came back," says Sorrell, assistant professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. "I was thinking about buying a bicycle, but a friend of mine convinced me to give the weight-lifting gym a try."

Long after losing the weight, he is still hard at work pumping iron. He heads to the gym three or four days a week, where workouts can last up to four hours.

"I like the challenge of focusing in on a single, concentrated event," Sorrell says. "Plus, it's incredibly thrilling and rewarding to set goals, and then reach them."

The immediate feedback weight lifting offers is a nice change from his day job.

"In medicine, and especially in psychiatry, it can be really hard to know if I failed or succeeded on the day-to-day level," Sorrell says. "With lifting, it is a lot easier—either I picked up the weight or I didn't."

Around three years ago, Sorrell began competing on a weight-lifting team, and now participates in several competitions a year. At these events, he takes on three lifts: a bench press, a squat, and a deadlift, which means lifting the weight from the ground up. Bench pressing 507 pounds at one meet, he says, was definitely a highlight.

Being on the team, he adds, is a nice balance of collaboration and autonomy.

"Your success and failure are your own, of course," he says, "but you can't do well without people helping you along the way."

—By Elissa Fuchs