Strength as a moral imperative

“It is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit.”

Socrates

You have a moral imperative to become stronger than you are right now.

This is not optional. This is not negotiable.

Strength is not a luxury. Strength is a necessity.

Now, I could evangelise to you about the value and importance of building physical strength and lean muscle tissue. I could tell you how strength training is key to achieving whatever aesthetic and performance goals you may have – whether you’re aiming for a triple-bodyweight deadlift, running a marathon, or simply trying to shed a bit of excess body fat.

Furthermore, I could explain how strength training is arguably the most protective activity you could engage in to maintain your health and wellbeing as you age. I could explain how you are losing muscle mass every year after age 30; or how strengthening your bones and joints will protect you from falls in old age; or even just have you consider whether or not you’d like to be able to pick your grandchild up from the floor in years to come. I could show you the studies that suggest that strength training has a direct inverse correlation with all-cause mortality.

I am not going to talk about any of these things today. Though I would urge you to learn about this important topic.

It isn’t that these things are not true – they are. It isn’t that they are not important – they are. It isn’t that I don’t care about these issues – I absolutely do.

Return, for a moment, to the title of this essay – “Strength as a moral imperative”.

As important as all the above may be, failure to heed this information is not a moral failure. Deciding not to train for strength, foolish as it may be, is not a mark of moral turpitude.

So why am I talking about strength in the realm of morals?

Because I don’t mean only (or even primarily) physical strength of the kind build by lifting barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags, and whatever other heavy implements you might use.

Training physical strength is both an excellent analogy for the other types of strength, and also a powerful training modality to develop strength that goes beyond the physical.

What does it mean, to be strong?

If we are using physical strength as an analogy for other types of strength, we should first define it.

Physical strength is the capacity to exert force on physical objects. The goal may be to move the object or to hold it in place, or even to move one’s body around the object. And so, the individual exerting their strength is acting upon the physical world, changing what is and fulfilling a potential of what might be (for example, that weight was here and now it is there).

Let us now look at some other types of strength: