Understanding Strength:The Key To Your Longevity and Peace of Mind.
- innerathletetrainer
- Apr 6
- 6 min read
What is Strength?
Strength according to Oxford's dictionary is simply: "The capacity of an object or substance to withstand great force or pressure." Make no mistake, in this equation YOU are indeed the “Object” to withstand great force and pressure, and one of the many reasons you are working out is to increase muscle strength so your body is systemically capable of withstanding that great force or pressure. This could be your body withstanding overhead strength as you shoulder press, lower body stress as you squat, forearm & bicep strength as you pick up a heavy item while carrying it, and the list goes on. To explain the scientific minutia of physiological or musculoskeletal strength is beyond the scope of this writing. Often times strength training falls into the domain of males who long for bigger chests and arms and work real hard lifting heavy weight to attain them. Women often “tone” their arms while blasting their gluten & legs. There is absolutely an aesthetic that accompanies a body that has spent quality time in the gym, but symmetrically sculpted beauty is really only the icing on the cake when it comes to the plethora of other benefits of strength training.
Strength as a Metaphor: Understanding Strength on a Deeper Level
First and foremost strength is healthy! As strongman, professional wrestler and author George Hackenschmidt said in the 1800s, “Health can never be divorced from strength” Strength training creates a systemically stronger body that can endure both vigorous and light daily tasks with ease. A strong body will aways serve you well whether you are a professional athlete, soccer mom or somewhere in between. The more strength training one does the more one is laying down a foundation of more stable joints, greater bone density and actually helping one prevent a myriad of diseases which we will go into more detail later on. Looking at strength as a larger metaphor, we see quite clearly that life itself requires all kinds of strength. It requires emotional, spiritual and physical strength and one is working at their best if all these cylinders are firing at once. Physical strength becomes a tactile reminder of all the other areas of life that require strength. Strength training not only makes you strong, but makes you feel strong. The feeling of mastering ones body weight during a push up, pull up or lifting a heavy weight leaves a feeling of euphoria pulsing through the body that quite frankly is as refreshing as it is primal. You walk more confidently, stand more straight, and carry yourself with an air of confidence when you feel strength running through your veins. This is a feeling no exogenous consumption could possibly replicate. This feeling generates an air of confidence and competence. Strength is a right, strength is a choice, and the more we feel it physically the more likely we are to feel and experience it in the other areas of life. The strength it takes to love, the strength it takes to be long suffering and have patience, the strength it takes to walk in truth. Strength permeates both our physical and metaphysical existence. The more we train ourselves physically the more we are sending the message to our spiritual and emotional selves that we are indeed strong enough to not only carry heavy things, but to withstand temptations that are not conducive to the well being of our souls. Yes, strength is more than physical, but training the physical reinforces the quality of the other areas. My goal is to persuade you of both the emotional and physical benefits of strength training. With over 600 muscles and 350 joints our body was clearly designed to move. The stronger you are, the better you move! This is as true in the physical domain as it is in the emotional and spiritual domain as well.
What moves the mover?
A muscle moves because it first receives a signal from the nervous system. Where exactly does the signal that stimulates the nervous system come from? That would be you, and your very thoughts and will. It may seem strange to imagine but your body is animated by muscle, through a nervous system, that comes from a thought, a thought that may be conscious or unconscious. An unconscious thought is generally the result of a fight or flight response. Perhaps you are beginning to see why thousands of years of philosophy, theology, science and religion have struggled with this idea of the mind body problem. Some say the mind and the body are one, others say they are separate. This will be the topic of further writings in the future. For now I’m simply trying to tickle your imagination to fathom that all movement, which is mechanical in nature, comes from something rather non mechanical and immaterial, a simple thought. Gives you allot to think about as you use your muscles to tap your finger on your forehead while thinking about how knowing that your thinking is actually moving your finger. Wow, that’s allot to think about:) This is why it is hard to separate the mind from the body. The two truly act in concert to accomplish things of a highly complex nature to a mere pedestrian task. Either way it takes a union of mind/body to navigate our daily life. This is why an Inner Athlete trains both the body and the mind, and while training the body you are reinforcing the virtues of the mind. This is different from mindlessly cruising through a workout.
What is the Musculoskeletal System?
When academically referring to the body’s muscle system it often referred to The Musculoskeletal System. This is because what the muscles are ultimately responsible for moving is the body’s skeletal system. There are over 350 bones in the human body and they cannot move on their own. It is the muscle’s job to move them in accordance with the nervous system, in accordance with ones thoughts and intentions. The relationship between your muscles and your bones is pure physics as they act like a lever system with different variations. Our movement normally acts like a fulcrum with a load either close to it or far away from it. This is why we use the term Musculoskeletal System.
What is Hypertrophy?
This term refers to growing the muscle size through resistance training. Sometimes the actual term is Musculoskeletal Hypertrophy meaning you are growing the overall size of the muscle responsible for animating your skeleton. This would not apply to muscle that moves involuntarily such as the heart and lungs. We can indeed make some involuntary muscles stronger and more efficient though aerobic exercise, but we cannot increase their overall size like we can with chest, legs, arms, etc.
Putting it all Together
As you can see the employment of muscle is mechanical, chemical, neurological, and metaphysical. Muscle also happens to be the one tissue that when trained regularly can prevent metabolic disease as muscle is where your glucose, insulin and fatty acids are all regulated. This is all in addition to the fact that it sculpts the morphology of the body, prevents osteoporosis in women, helps stabilize your joints, helps you move better, and provides you profound functionality into your twilight years. Heavy training also employs the parasympathetic nervous system allowing one to feel more calm & relaxed after strength training. Strength training can accomplish what no drug could possibly replicate and best of all it is free. Exercise is like investing your money. Do it daily and wisely and your health will be there in your senior years when you need it the most. You can accomplish this with your own body weight or inexpensive weights dumbbells or kettlebells. Simple and heavy iron applied correctly can alchemically transform our bodies into an impenetrable fortress. Proverbs 27:17 reads: As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. This quote quite simply sums up everything we have discussed here. As we become strong physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, we to inspire others to do the same until we have created a community of warriors in our families and our communities. Keep lifting!
Final Note
This article is a sampling of a longer form essay you can find on The Inner Athlete Training Website.
You can download the entire PDF essay off the homepage for free.
Also, if you have not yet seen our latest film on Ketura Young, a young woman who made large strides with her MS through progressive resistance training, then you can watch the film for free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u18iRPSN9_A&t=838s
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