I saw a reel the other day and the only thing I remember about the whole video is “the real privilege is to be strong”.
When I was thinking about starting to write my thoughts down I went through a few topics that I wanted to share my views about, and stregth was deifnitely one of them, so this video must have been a sign to do it!! Perhaps this will be my big breakthrough. LOL
Speaking with people is half of my job – and in some form the word “strength” definitely appears in all of the conversations I’m having. You may be thinking now this is obvious in a gym environment, but the word itself is being used in many ways. Someone who is disciplined is considered strong. The discipline can be eating one chocolate bar instead of two, one half instead of a full bar, or nothing at all instead of a little. Considering the circumstances, these people are all strong. Similarly, people are equally being called strong when they have a slim, lean, toned physique or built like a wardrobe. And then there are the old, indestructible Nokia phones – if you know what those are – I think we agree that’s the definition of strength itself.
By now, you are either confused about where I’m going with this (hang in there soldier) or a regular reader who knows I’ll get to the point eventually: strength means something else for everyone.
I hate “love” when doctors tell people they should get stronger. Yeah, no kidding – who shouldn’t? You, doctor, should get stronger too. But by the way, what do you mean? Stronger physically? Stronger mentally? Stronger compared to who? Stronger by how much? Aaannd into the weeds we go…
It’s interesting how a tiny addition at the end of a word lifts an entire conversation to a new level. As we can’t really define what is strong, maybe we just need to get strongER. I never really understood why women should only lift a 12kg kettlebell. All women. Period. Young. Old. Healthy. Injured. Unfit. Athletic. Women, in general. Partially, I understand it’s easier to say an exact number rather than to give people the education so they can make their own educated guesses and rational decisions about that number; but partially, this is also very incomplete and wrong on multiple levels. So here I am, taking the long road, and hoping you are up for a ride.
I give it away early: I don’t have a clear definition for the word “strong” – nor know all the answers. Sadly, the reality is that doctors (therapists, trainers, teachers, and many other professionals) don’t have the time and the opportunity to teach people how to think more openly (and be honest, a lot of people don’t have the interest to learn anyway), so it appears to be more simple to use a common term and hope the patient / student / learner will continue to look for answers when they begin to feel incomplete or want more. So, for now, just go and get stronger – and hopefully you will figure out whatever the hell that means.
A better way I like to think about strength is that we simply need to increase our ability to withstand and overcome resistance better. Although this is very broad, I think it essentially covers many areas of life. For example, if you can pay for anything that you need (or decide) to, people may label you differently. If you don’t need much and can afford that, that can be considered a modest life. Someone who wants it all and is able to pay for it, is called rich. To some degree, they both are doing the same thing technically but with very different perspectives. It’s subjective, just like strength is.
What I believe we all need is to be able to deal with “more”: stand up one more time, take one more step, lift up one more book and hold that book one second longer. Following this same idea, for someone to become the strongest athlete on the planet who lifts the heaviest weight ever lifted, they just need to be able to lift a little bit more than the currently strongest guy.
For one, I’m hoping you start to realize that our needs – as humans – differ by degree, and not by kind. We all want to be more mobile, more flexible, more strong, more capable or more relaxed, whether our desire is only to go to the fridge and take out a drink, or we want to become world champions. For two, you must accept that even though this may sound simple, it’s probably more complex than that because everything is connected with everything else, so simply asking you to lift more may take a while.
Let me mention some of them, because lifting more isn’t always as simple as lift more. The strength of the same person can be very different in the morning and in the evening. When someone is tired or when fully energetic. When fully tired but driven by a large rush of adrenaline, or when fully energetic but demotivated in their head. I’m sure you heard stories about mothers who gained superhuman strength when their children were in danger and they had to be strong. Where did they get their strength from? Was that strength always there, just never unleashed?
Maybe by now you have started to wander and question if human capability is more contextual than we often think. Going a step further we may ask, how much our capacity is limited by our brain’s willingness to use it? And more importantly, how much do we need? Well…
… it depends. There will always be a bigger challenge, and it’s down to you to decide if you want to be prepared, ready, and able to get over that next challenge. If you want, and you are prepared, good. If you want, but you are not prepared enough, that’s not so good. If you don’t want to, then that’s a kinda “good for you” situation. There is only you who can tell the answer.
Being in a position where you can welcome the next challenge because you know you can deal with anything is a very good place to be at. One could say, a privilege.
Earning strength takes a lot of strength. It takes many kinds of strengths. And much more. And it means something different for all of us. For the swimmer who wants to swim faster, being able to pull through the water stronger is key. For an elderly person, having the strength in the legs to walk up the stairs is invaluable. For the parent to be able to carry 3 shopping bags and 2 buckets of toys while their child is jumping on their back is life. For an athlete, it’s a work requirement.
After all, it might be a bit vague to say that being strong is a privilege. But if we are able to deal with whatever life throws at us and keep going, we are in a great place – strong, capable, and one would say lucky. If you can deadlift 200 kilos, you are strong. If you can travel the world alone at the age of 80, you are strong. If you can sit down and study 14 hours every day for years, you are strong. These are just a few examples, and as you can see there is no measure to define what being strong means. But to have the capacity to keep going is a privilege.