There was a time when working out wasn’t necessary.
Not because people were healthier.
Because life required them to move.
You walked because there wasn’t a car outside.
You carried things because there wasn’t a machine to do it for you.
You hunted, gathered, farmed and prepared food because there wasn’t a grocery store five minutes away.
Nobody needed to schedule “functional training.”
Life was functional training.
Then we got really good at making life easier.
And somewhere along the way, we engineered physical activity out of survival.
That’s why I find some of our modern arguments about fitness interesting.
I’ve heard people say women shouldn’t lift because they’ll become too muscular.
I’ve heard men say lifting isn’t necessary.
“I just walk.”
“Walking is all you need.”
And usually, the people with the strongest opinions about training aren’t doing much training themselves.
People who know, do. People who don’t, talk about it.
But this isn’t really about lifting weights.
It’s about what modern life has done to the human body.
Working Out Should Make You Better
I love working out.
I love lifting weights. I love bodybuilding. And yes, I love women who lift too.
Which is why I always find it interesting when I hear people say women shouldn’t lift weights because they’ll get too muscular.
I’ve heard men say it too.
“You don’t need to lift weights.”
“I just walk.”
“Walking is all you need.”
And usually, the people with the strongest opinions about training aren’t doing much training themselves.
People who know, do. People who don’t, talk about it.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this isn’t really about lifting weights.
It’s about what modern life has done to the human body.
We engineered physical activity out of survival.
There was a time when you didn’t need to schedule a workout.
Life was the workout.
You walked because there wasn’t a car waiting outside.
You carried things because there wasn’t a machine to do it for you.
You hunted, gathered, farmed and prepared food because there wasn’t a grocery store five minutes away.
Technology changed that.
And I’m not against technology. I use the hell out of it.
Technology has made life safer, faster and more efficient.
But every convenience came with a trade.
Cars removed walking.
Desk jobs removed physical labor.
Delivery removed errands.
Machines removed lifting and carrying.
Now we can work, eat, shop, communicate and entertain ourselves while barely moving.
Technology didn’t make fitness more necessary because life became harder. Fitness became necessary because life became easier.
That’s the paradox.
I learned this before I had words for it.
I started as an athlete.
So movement wasn’t something I originally thought about as “working out.”
You ran.
You jumped.
You changed direction.
You competed.
You used your body.
Then I joined the military.
Around that time, I was already becoming more interested in bodybuilding, but the military kept another type of training in my life.
Calisthenics.
Running.
Combatives.
Conditioning.
The objective wasn’t simply to look good.
The training was designed to make you capable.
Lethal, if necessary.
Then I got out.
I went deeper into bodybuilding.
I still incorporated some calisthenics, but cardio increasingly became what I jokingly call hamster-wheel cardio.
Get on a machine.
Go nowhere for 30 minutes.
Get off.
😂
And bodybuilding worked for what bodybuilding is designed to do.
I built muscle.
I got stronger.
I looked like I trained.
But I always knew something was missing.
Because I don’t believe somebody who trains consistently should be stiff as hell.
I don’t believe looking athletic should be confused with being athletic.
And I don’t believe the ultimate measurement of physical fitness should be how much weight you can move in a controlled environment.
Working out should make you better at being a human being.
You should be able to run.
Carry something heavy.
Move your own body weight.
Get off the ground.
Change direction.
Maintain balance.
Move through a reasonable range of motion.
Have enough cardiovascular capacity that ordinary physical demands don’t destroy you.
And yes, have some strength and muscle.
Not because everybody needs to become an athlete.
Not because everybody needs to become a bodybuilder.
And definitely not because everybody needs to train like they’re preparing for combat.
But because your body is supposed to remain useful.
Convenience creates a responsibility tax.
This is what I think we’ve missed.
Every time technology removes a physical requirement from our lives, we inherit the responsibility of replacing some of it intentionally.
You don’t have to walk everywhere anymore.
Cool.
Now you need to deliberately walk.
You don’t have to carry much anymore.
Great.
Now you need to deliberately train strength.
You don’t have to sprint, climb, crawl or move quickly very often.
That’s progress.
But your body doesn’t care why those demands disappeared.
If you stop asking your body to do something long enough, eventually it gets worse at doing it.
Use the technology.
Drive the car.
Order the groceries.
Take advantage of every damn convenience civilization gives you.
I’m going to.
But don’t confuse convenience with capability.
They’re two completely different things.
The easier civilization makes survival, the more intentional we have to become about remaining physically capable.
Maybe that’s why I don’t understand arguing about whether somebody is “lifting too much” or whether walking is all anybody needs.
We’re debating the wrong thing.
The question isn’t:
What’s the minimum amount of exercise I can get away with?
The better question is:
What should my body still be capable of doing?
Because modern life removed the requirement to be strong.
It removed the requirement to run.
It removed the requirement to carry.
It removed the requirement to endure.
But it didn’t remove the consequences of losing those abilities.
Training shouldn’t only change how you look.
It should change what you’re capable of.
At the very least, make yourself highly functional.
Personally?
I still like the idea of being a little lethal.