Why strength matters

A client asked me a question the other day while we were training.

It was something along the lines of:

“So, if I want to get strong, I need to lift heavy weights for low reps? If I want to be powerful, I need to lift fast? And if I want endurance, I need to do lots of reps?”

It’s a pretty common way of thinking about training. And while it’s far too black and white, she’s actually not completely wrong. Strength, power and endurance are different qualities. They overlap, interact with each other and can be trained in many different ways. There is a lot more to becoming strong, powerful or fit than simply changing the number of reps you do.

But the conversation got me thinking about something else…

Why does strength matter?

I’ve wanted to be big and strong for as long as I can remember. As a kid I watched He-Man and Thundercats. I was fascinated by the big, strong characters.

And let’s be honest, for a young boy the appeal of being strong is pretty obvious. Being strong means you can do things other people can’t. You get picked for the sports team. You’re harder to push around. You feel capable.

And somewhere along the way, most of us also get the idea that being muscular makes you more attractive, more confident and perhaps even more respected. Some of that is superficial. But I think there’s something underneath it that’s much more important.

For guys, I think the attraction to strength is pretty obvious. There is something about being bigger, stronger and harder to push around that appeals to a lot of men. Maybe it’s primal, maybe it’s cultural, or maybe it’s a bit of both.

For women, I think the reasons can be a little different.

Of course, there are plenty of health reasons for women to get stronger. Stronger bones, more muscle, better physical capacity and simply being able to do more with your body are all pretty good reasons.

But I don’t think those are necessarily the things that get most women through the door in the first place.

It might be wanting to feel better in their body. It might be confidence. It might be wanting to lose a bit of weight. It might simply be wanting to feel capable again.

And I think this is where strength gets really interesting.

Because sometimes the thing you think you’re going to the gym for isn’t actually the thing you get from it..

I remember a story a friend and fellow trainer told me about a client of his. I’ll call her Sarah.

Sarah was going through an incredibly difficult period in her life. She was in the middle of a messy separation from a controlling husband. There was a battle over custody of her children and, having recently lost her job, she was under enormous financial and emotional pressure.

She was scared, depressed, and by my friend’s description, had become a shell of the person she had once been.

Sarah didn’t have much money, but she knew she needed to do something. So she used some of the last of her payout from her old job to hire a personal trainer.

And the trainer did something very simple.

He got her lifting.

Not waving around tiny pink dumbbells for the sake of saying she’d “worked out”. He taught her how to actually train.

She lifted. Then she lifted a little more. Then a little more again.

And something started to change.

She got stronger.

But it wasn’t just her muscles that were changing. Her perception of herself started to change.

She went from thinking about all the things she couldn’t do to discovering all the things she could. She started standing a little taller. She became more confident. She began pushing back.

Over time she regained custody of her children, started her own business and began rebuilding her life.

Now, I’m not suggesting that lifting weights magically won Sarah her children back or started her business. Life is never that simple. There were undoubtedly dozens of other factors involved.

But my friend believed that getting stronger was one of the important pieces of the puzzle.

And I believe it too.

Because I’ve experienced a version of it myself.

There’s something very powerful about putting a weight in your hands that you couldn’t lift six months ago… and then lifting it.

It is physical evidence that you have changed.

You can’t really bullshit yourself. The bar either moves or it doesn’t. The kettlebell either gets pressed overhead or it doesn’t.

And when you repeatedly prove to yourself that you are capable of more than you previously thought, that lesson doesn’t necessarily stay in the gym. It can start to leak into the rest of your life.

“If I can do that, what else might I be capable of?”

The story about Sarah doesn’t stop there.

One day, while on holiday with her children, one of them grabbed her phone and took a photo of her in her swimsuit.

Sarah looked great. But, like many women who have had children, she had a little softness around her stomach. Nothing unusual. Nothing that needed fixing. Just a normal human body that had carried and raised children.

She could have deleted the photo.

Instead, she posted it.

And she did it proudly.

Not because she suddenly had the perfect body, but because she had become comfortable in her own skin. 

I’m sure the photo received plenty of encouragement. And I’m sure there were people online who were willing to criticise it too.

But by this point, Sarah wasn’t particularly interested in what those people thought.

She had discovered something much more valuable than looking good in a swimsuit.

She trusted herself.

A year later, Sarah entered her first powerlifting competition. She continued to get stronger.

And interestingly, she also became leaner.

Not because she had embarked on some miserable diet. Not because getting skinny had become the goal.

It was almost a by-product of becoming stronger, more active and more engaged with her training.

And that’s why I think strength deserves more attention than simply being another number on a training program.

Strength is obviously useful. It helps us lift things, carry things, play with our kids, climb, run, hike, work and remain physically capable as we get older.

There are plenty of physiological reasons we should maintain muscle and strength throughout our lives.

But perhaps one of the most underrated benefits is psychological.

Strength gives you evidence of your own capability.

And that matters.

Because life will eventually ask you to do things you don’t feel ready for.

You will get injured. You’ll get older. You’ll lose people. You’ll face setbacks. Your circumstances will change.

And when those things happen, having a history of doing difficult things and discovering that you’re capable of more than you thought can be incredibly valuable.

This is one of the reasons I still love strength training after all these years.

I’m not chasing a bigger bench press simply because I like having a bigger bench press.

I’m chasing the feeling that comes with knowing my body can still do things.

A heavy kettlebell that once seemed impossible becomes manageable. A difficult movement becomes familiar. A weight that used to intimidate you becomes your warm-up.

And every time that happens, you’re reminded of something…

You are capable of more than you thought.

That’s why strength matters.