I’ve heard people say lot’s of things regarding their bodies and fitness levels. They say things like I want to lose weight, tone up, get smaller, get bigger, or lean out. But what I can’t remember a single person ever saying to me is, “I want to be weaker”.
Even when someone’s goal is to be stronger, I haven’t known it to be the case that smaller meant weaker. In fact, often that person will get stronger even while they are exercising to get smaller.
Why, even when people want to decrease their body size, do they not want to also get weaker? That’s probably because life is more challenging and you’re more injury prone when you’re weaker. Like the MovNat principle says, “be strong to be useful.”
Although it sounds like a contradiction to say you can get stronger while you get smaller, it’s not. I talked about how strength works in my article You Don’t Train Muscles, What You Train Are Nerves.
I think we inherently know that we need a certain level of strength to navigate life. And the more we dip under that level the more daily tasks challenge us. Being stronger improves our endurance as well.
It’s much easier to carry a 50-pound box when you can deadlift 300 pounds than when you can only deadlift 100. It’s not that you have more endurance, it’s that you need less endurance because you’re using less effort.
What are your thoughts on being weaker? Have you ever met someone who wanted to be weaker? Share in the comments!
