Watch the video on YouTube above or Listen to the podcast
5 Reasons All Men Must Workout
Why do I train? As a teenager the drive was to build my body, get strong and look good. Most men who pick up a weight at a young age are modeling their favorite bodybuilder, superhero or sports figure. This is the motivation in phase 1.
Why do some stick with a training routine while other athletes slide into their career and watch the scale go up as they give up the gym, the routines and disciplined practices that made them a great athlete at one time?
I embrace training and physical transformation as a metaphor for life and I will give you 5 reasons why you should too.
1. You Need to Grow
Men need to be constantly growing and transforming in all areas of life. Call it a growth mindset if you want, but if you are not getting better you’re getting worse. Nothing is static, you don’t stay the same. A commitment to evolving physically, whether your goal is strength, building muscle, getting leaner or increasing performance is a must for men who are committed to the concept of growth in their lives.
At the core of physical exercise is the ability to transform yourself. By completing certain movements with resistance, you start to build strength and enlarge your muscle fibers. This is a literal picture of growth but represents something much deeper. Every man encounters resistance in life. When face to face with pressure, will you retreat? Or accept the challenge, push past pain and develop strength.
“Strength training develops the mental fortitude to meet resistance with force.”
The discipline developed as you push the weights in the gym will empower you to push through resistance in all areas of life and keep growing.
2. Increase Your Physical Capacity
The science says if your optimized physically you will perform better in all areas of your life. We are dynamic creations, everything we do affects all of our actions, thoughts, mindset, willpower and our drive to succeed. If I am lazy in one area, that one area will have an impact on others.
A clean diet, the right hydration levels, a solid training regimen and recovery protocol will dramatically affect not only your physical performance but also your mental performance. Reports of increased mental clarity, mental toughness and fortitude are common among those who employ the daily discipline of physical training.
3. Men Need a Challenge
Unless your career has you risking your life for a greater cause that you identify as your purpose, chances are you are going unchallenged in life. Men who never learn how to evolve and control stress, tension and challenge, buckle under pressure or worse they choose to avoid anything hard in life. Choosing passivity by avoiding hard things makes you soft and weak not only physically, but mentally and spiritually. You need to be challenged in your life.
The challenge is what causes you to step up and break out of the way you are currently doing things. Challenge incorporates competition, even if that competition is only with yourself. Accepting challenge in the gym will have you push yourself to beat your best, set a new max and keep moving forward.
4. Develop Discipline
Physical strength reflects mental fortitude. The gym doesn’t care if I am tired, what my emotions are, or if I feel like training. Anyone can start a new activity, but most will never stick with it. Commitment and discipline are developed by showing up every day. Show me someone who has accomplished anything significant and I will show you someone who put the reps in. Training is a daily discipline of showing up every day regardless of your emotional state. Develop this daily discipline and it will show up in other areas of life.
The discipline developed in the gym cannot be contained in the gym. It will show up in other areas of your life and definitely make it easier to live a disciplined life.
“Discipline compounds over time and it pays dividends.”
One area I have reaped the benefits of developing discipline is in my spiritual life. All men need a strong spiritual life and I believe there is a positive and direct correlation to the discipline in the physical realm to the discipline needed in the spiritual practices within your life.
5. Training is a Metaphor for Life
Waking up, putting the work in, the push and pull followed by the rest and the recovery period. This is life. Training is the ultimate metaphor for life. I am embracing vulnerability when I struggle, push and press against the weight. When my body screams no more and I push past pain for the extra reps I am embracing change. If I cheat in the gym I have to ask myself where else am I cutting corners in life?
The way you do ANYTHING is the way you do EVERYTHING.
Are You a KINGDOM DRIVEN MAN who is ready to level up in your spiritual walk and your Physical Discipline?
Take the KINGDOM DRIVEN MAN CHALLENGE
The Kingdom Driven Man Challenge is a Spiritual and Physical 40 Day Training Program.
If you enjoyed this article you will want to check out How to Finish What You Start
