One of the biggest problems we humans face throughout our health journey is maintaining a proper strength training philosophy.
With all the fitness and health information out there online and people offering different perspectives, it’s hard to find one that actually works and can be implemented with ease.
Well, I believe I have found the perfect one. It’s more of a mindset that one has to adopt. Once you understand its truth, it’s hard to unsee it. You eventually become a new person after integrating it into your life and personality.
Keep an open mind, and let’s dive in!
What Is A Strength Training Philosophy?
A strength training philosophy is the lens through which you see your fitness journey.
For example, a bodybuilder might view their lens as getting as big or “yoked” as possible.
A triathlete may view their philosophy as building endurance, stamina, and resilience.
The way I view my strength training philosophy is that fitness is a way of life.
Now, young grasshopper, I know this is starting to sound like an 80’s karate movie, but bear with me. This philosophy is far more important to understand than trying to understand muscle groups, exercises, and training programs.
When I say fitness is a way of life, what I’m really saying is that fitness should become integrated into your life as second nature, like brushing your teeth or eating food when you’re hungry.
It’s merely a decision you have to make within yourself first, before you can understand how this training philosophy can be implemented.
So, if you accept the philosophy that fitness is a way of life, we can continue.
Fitness As An Adaptation
Fitness is an adaptation. This means that humans have the ability to change their level of strength, flexibility, and form simply by doing certain movements.
It’s actually pretty remarkable when you think about it.
Every animal has certain adaptations that help them accomplish things in their environment, like a giraffe has a long neck to eat from trees or ducks have webbed feet to help them paddle. Humans too have environmental adaptations.
What sets humans apart from the average animal though is that humans are rational thinking creatures. We are not confined by our instincts and can override them with thought. This allows us to push beyond our physical and mental limits.
We are also very flexible and can adapt to various environments and activities. Unlike most animals who are specialized and can’t survive in dramatically different environments nor accomplish a variety of different tasks.
For example, you can’t put a horned lizard into the Arctic and expect it to survive, nor a polar bear in the desert. Humans, however, have been found to live and thrive in both Arctic and desert environments due to our versatile nature.
Humans are special, and I’ve often intuited this stems from our spirit. There is nothing more powerful on this planet than the human spirit.
Yet in our modern society, we have lost this spiritual resilience. We’ve adapted to our couches, our screens, and leisure. Finding difficulty in our lives so that we can keep building mental and physical strength actually takes effort now.
We have to set aside time to do things that used to be second nature to us. Walking is now called “getting steps in“, and to lift heavy things like we would have naturally done in nature, we have to go to buildings that contain heavy objects and call it “weight lifting.”
What we have to realize through our new strength training philosophy is that we can be fit by looking at the opportunities we have right in front of us daily.
Related Reading: Healthy Weight Loss Strategies That You Can Do Daily
Fitness is All Around You
Look around—what do you see? Maybe a TV, bookshelf, closet, bed, windows, kitchen, trees, your family, etc. Where you see regular household items, or just the passings of ordinary daily life, I see a playground.
I see space with unlimited fitness potential, and you are only limited by your level of creativity and ingenuity.
When I look around, I see that I can get a workout in anywhere and anytime.
It’s not that modern society forces us to be lazy; albeit, the ease and instant gratification of everything makes it tempting to do so. The problem is that we have allowed that ease to put us to sleep, making us unaware of all the benefits that come from difficulty. It’s this very difficulty that has given us the ability to create a life of leisure. You can’t have one without the other.
So we must wake up! And look for opportunities to do something difficult. We must look for ways we can get a workout in if we feel we’re ready to make a change in our health.
10 Opportunities To Get A Workout In
There are opportunities every day to get a workout in in today’s modern society. It doesn’t take that much effort to get fit; it’s more about noticing these opportunities and where you can capitalize on them. All it takes is a little bit of willingness to try something difficult. You should strive to balance your life with difficulty and leisure every single day.
1) Playing With Your Kids
As a father of two, I’m constantly tired, constantly aching, and constantly being pulled by them to play. Sounds bad, but I’m extremely grateful to have that constant difficulty in my life. There’s never a boring moment when you have kids.
You don’t realize how much of a workout playing with them is. You’ll find yourself constantly running around at the park or playground, playing sports, or just wrestling around on the floor having tickle fights.
These are perfect moments to really exert some energy and burn some calories. Even the constant picking them up and holding them gives you a good arm workout. I try to stay present with them when playing with them and realize that I can stay in good shape by doing so.
2) Combating Boredom
Are you ever bored? Have you ever thought of working out as a pastime? The fitness space is so extensive; there’s a variety of different workouts and exercises for everybody.
Why not use spare bored time to get a workout in. Even if it’s just doing 10 pushups or pull-ups here and there throughout the day, you can easily get in shape.
If I’m ever lounging around and feel bored, I’ll just start stretching, squatting, doing pushups, pull-ups, or use some resistance bands. If I’m going to be bored, I might as well use that time to do something that actually benefits me.
3) During Chores
Hate chores? Who doesn’t; but they are necessary to maintain the quality of your living space. Have you ever realized how tiring chores can be when you actually are putting effort into them?
Even just standing and washing dishes, I’ll feel a burn in my back. The constant pushing and pulling of a vacuum I’m sure is burning a ton of calories. Squatting to pick up dirty clothes off the ground I’m sure helps with mobility. There’s also never not something that doesn’t need to be wiped down or dusted.
If you’re looking to lose some weight or improve mobility, just do chores, seriously. Again, you are benefiting your life and killing two birds with one stone—your living space is clean and you just improved your fitness.
4) Mental Health Hack
As you get older, you do go through spurts of sadness, anger, and depression. It’s just a normal part of life. Whenever I’ve felt down, I know the one thing that can always make me feel better is working out.
It’s one of the few things we have immediate control over. I remember, when I was 18 and was going through a deep depression. I started going to the gym regularly and it improved my mental health so much.
It gave me a reason to get out of the house, I improved my physique which gave me something to be proud of, and the endorphins made me feel happy. My life slowly but surely started improving and eventually got me out of the depressive slump after a few months.
5) Running Errands
I always look forward to running errands. For one, I like browsing the store for deals and new items, but two, I know I’m going to constantly be carrying boxes or bags.
The constant carrying back and forth from the car to the house, is a great workout! It’s actually the most natural workout there is. It’s like a farmer carrying hay bales or a caveman lifting logs or rocks to build their shelter.
I try to challenge myself by seeing how few runs from my car to the house that I can do. One, because it makes it more challenging carrying more stuff, and two because I just hate making multiple trips (don’t we all?).
6) Recovery From Injuries
As I’ve gotten older, I didn’t realize how many injuries I’d sustain just naturally. It seems like aches, pains, and tweaks are a constant. Once one thing heals, another thing seems to get hurt.
Injuries are inevitable, but the one thing we can do to prevent and rehabilitate them is exercise. We should strive to stay strong and keep a baseline of muscle, flexibility, and mobility in order to stay injury free.
Even right now, I tweaked my hand and it hurts to do some everyday movements. My plan is to rest it for a few days, then build strength back up with some light movements and resistance bands.
I’ve discovered that the statement, “use it or lose it” is quite true. If we want to keep our joints healthy, we have to use them. But know your limits and find a balance of building strength without overexertion.
7) Group Activities
When hanging out with friends, it doesn’t always have to be just a purely “social” gathering like a house party or going out for drinks. My favorite type of activity for building the closest friendships has always been doing some sort of active group activity.
My best friend and I would go to the gym, then go walk around town looking at houses and architecture. I felt the gym was a great place to build each other up to improve ourselves, and it’s that camaraderie that really forms a solid relationship and bond with someone.
You can do things like go on hikes, play sports at the park, take a dance class, find some cycling buddies, join a sports league, etc. There’s no shortage of active group activities.
8) A Quick Pick-Me-Up
You know what’s equally as strong as a cup of coffee (maybe even stronger)? Just a short, quick workout. You may have heard of HIIT, or high-intensity interval training. Well, if you can do a quick workout like a sprint, jump rope as fast as you can, or rapid interval training, you’ll find yourself energized and ready to take on life.
I discovered this when I would workout right before bed. The problem was that I couldn’t get good sleep after I just did 100 push-ups…
I wanted to test this further. There was a short period of my life where I quit caffeine (not one of my best ideas), and I did my typical morning workout of calisthenics mixed with some resistance band training. I found myself super motivated for the day and feeling really happy—no caffeine needed.
It had to be the endorphins kicking in. Of course, I still need rest days from working out, so I went back to drinking caffeine for energy. But in a pinch, if I ever need a quick little pick-me-up, exercise is the key.
9) Hobbies
Hobbies are a great way to get a workout in. Any hobby that forces you outside to get your blood moving is A-okay in my book.
During my fitness journey, I have gone through so many different hobbies that involved intensive movement that burned calories and built muscle. Here’s a small list of things I’ve done that you might find interesting:
- Football, Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball
- Taekwondo, Tai Chi, Boxing
- Weight Lifting, Calisthenics, Yoga
- Jump Rope, Sprinting, Plyometrics
- Obstacle Course Runs, 5k Runs, Trail Running
- Indoor Trampoline Parks, Parkour, Rock Climbing
- Swimming, Surfing, Snorkeling, Jet Skiing
- Snowboarding, Skiing, Ice Skating
- Cycling, Skateboarding
- Archery, Shooting Ranges, Paintball
These are just the ones that come to mind. I’m sure there’s more that I’ve forgotten about.
You can see, though, that there’s an endless list of active hobbies that one can do to get a workout. The best part is you truly get to sample all the different hobbies that life can offer.
Once you’ve tried a lot of different hobbies, you start to not identify with them, and they just become another thing that you do when the opportunity arises—making fitness effortlessly incorporated into your life.
10) Standing
Last on the list is the most obvious yet the most underrated: standing. You want to burn calories and lose weight? How about improve joints and bones? Just stand up, and stay standing up.
You don’t realize how much we sit. We sit on our couches, beds, at work, in the car, at mealtime, in waiting rooms, at events, and while socializing—it’s no wonder we’re dealing with high rates of overweight and obesity in this country.
We don’t realize how much those rates could drop if we were all just aware of how effective standing is. Stand for most of the day and you’ll feel it by the evening, no question. I’m sure if you tracked the amount of calorie burn too, you’d be shocked.
With standing, you’re not just going to be standing in one place for hours on end. By getting up, you’re forced to do other movements, only accelerating the calorie burn and your fitness.
Choose difficulty to stay healthy
I’ve covered a lot here, but to truly ingrain this strength training philosophy, you only have to do one thing: choose difficulty.
Health comes when you are perfectly balanced by exerting energy (difficulty) and then enjoying a proper amount of rest (ease). You don’t want too much of either, as that will lead to stagnation and degeneration.
I’ve flipped-flopped back and forth between both of those extremes many times and still struggle with it from time to time, but it’s something you constantly tweak and get better at. You constantly course correct until you achieve a level of almost perfect balance.
I like to say and remind myself that you are always a work in progress.
It takes some introspection in your day-to-day to analyze whether you could use some difficulty. For example, you may be feeling “down”, and you realize you haven’t gone outside or done a workout in over a week. That’s a good sign to add some difficulty. You might be surprised by how it makes you feel after you’ve done some exercises or gone for a long walk.
That feeling after you’ve achieved a difficult goal, whether physical or mental, is just what us humans need to feel accomplished and fulfilled day to day. To stay fit, it starts by just acknowledging the things that you’ve already been doing and then just doing them to the best of your ability.