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Part 2

The Components of Fitness

Chapter Six

Strength

“Having faith does not mean having no difficulties, but having the strength to face them, knowing we are not alone.”

— Pope Francis

The foundation of any physical fitness program is strength building, plain and simple. “But I don’t want to get too big,” you say. There are two answers to that.

One: Seriously, do you think you’re going to go to bed one night in the body you’re used to and wake up the next morning as a human tank? Growth, generally speaking, happens gradually, and there will be no Hulk transformations, I promise.

Two: Size and strength are not synonymous. The goal of this chapter is to help you find an appropriate level of strength to meet your needs and desires. “But I can’t lift weights… I have injuries!” you cry. Wow, you’re full of excuses today. I promise we’ll address them. But first, let’s start with why strength training is so important.

Literally every part of physical fitness involves strength in some capacity. From the beginning, Genesis tells us that God makes us in his own image, to share in the act of creation, to have dominion over the earth and subdue it (see Gn 1:26–28). Apparently, that’s hard enough work that even God himself takes the seventh day to rest! God doesn’t give us any capacity or gift to be left unused. As Jesus reveals in the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14–30), and like we discussed in Chapter Three on virtue, every repetition of good action builds our ability to repeat good action in the future. Similarly, God created our bodies to respond to work and stress by growing stronger as well. Noticing a pattern at all?

It bears repeating that since God made us a unity of body and spirit, there are generally cognates in the physical life that directly mirror the spiritual life. Any good spiritual action will produce growth in strength of virtue, and physical actions will result in more basic physical strength.

Obviously, this applies to the other fitness components as well. Speed necessitates strong fast-twitch muscle fibers; endurance requires strong slow-twitch muscle fibers; flexibility requires pliability and isometric strength. But this also applies to our daily lives. As my friend Carlen says, “What’s the point of fitting into a size zero dress if I can’t carry my groceries?”