We don’t need fitter people. We need more fit people. There are plenty of fitness professionals who cater to those already fit. To those who have established a strength training habit. I am more interested in helping someone to move from zero weekly strength workouts to doing two a week. As far as my limited understanding in colour coded population graphs and maths goes, that’s a shitload of people.
Imagine for a moment that 1% of those non-training people would make strength training a weekly habit. How much healthier would the world be? What would it do to the economy if people would age with vigour, take less sick days and need fewer healthcare services? What would it do to our individual happiness?
But allow me to dream. What about going from 1% to 2%? I. can’t. even.
We know from science that the older we get the more important strength training is for our autonomy and functional longevity. Even if someone is already active in other ways, strength training twice a week takes our physical health and resiliency to withstand life’s scissor kicks up another notch or three.
Unless your job involves manual labour, you work in a barn equipped with the hippest tech of the late 1800s, or spend considerate time free-climbing mountains (and let’s face it, neither you nor me fit into those categories), it’s hard to replicate the benefits of strength training without actually doing it. And, if you haven’t started yet, the best time to start is now.
So, if you are currently not doing strength training, or doing it once a week or less and scrambling with consistency, I’d like to hear from you. What do you struggle with it? Why? What would make it easier for you to show up twice a week?
If you used to train, but stopped, what made you stop? Why? What would help you get started again with strength training?
And if you’ve struggled in the past, but have now been consistently doing strength training twice a week for over six months, I’d like to hear from you too. What helped you make the shift?
Please share with me either publicly on social media or privately at joonas(at)repsandtherest.com. Let’s start a conversation. I hope we can both learn something.