Building Resilience

Physical strength used to signify that you were a protector. You were ready to fight off threats and stand up for individuals who weren’t as strong.

Today, we can generally break down the desire for physical strength into two categories:

1️⃣. Aesthetics

2️⃣. Increased Health Span

Most likely, if you’re lifting weights and doing cardio, it’s because of some combination of the two.

But there’s another factor that I want us to consider:

Building resilience to pain.

When we exercise, we’re not just increasing confidence by looking how we want to look, or reducing our risk of chronic disease by adding more muscle mass and improving our cardiovascular health.

We’re building resilience to fight all of life’s challenges.

Building strength is unbelievably challenging, and committing to the pain that accompanies exercise has profound results.

When we willingly put ourselves in pain, we build resilience and the ability to cope with future pain.

“So lift some fucking weights.”

Here’s the catch though:

We’re not just talking about physical pain and resilience.

This capacity is translated to the rest of our lives as well.

When you’re laid off at work, you’ve built the resilience to pivot and move forward.

When a family member says they won’t support your right to get married, you’ve set yourself up to handle that conversation the best way possible.

It’s not too far a stretch to say that willingly putting yourself in pain through exercise enables you to handle any challenging circumstances life throws at you.

So lift some fucking weights. It’ll save your life.