How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?
-Epictetus
STRENGTH
We’d venture to say if you polled 100 people and asked if they would like to be stronger, that an overwhelming majority would answer in the affirmative. Some may be indifferent, to them we’d ask, well… would you like to be weaker?
We have strong beliefs around this (no pun intended). We believe that getting stronger improves people’s lives and that no one’s life gets worse by getting stronger (all else being equal). We believe that strength is virtuous. We believe that strength is a vehicle for better contribution and teamwork. It is said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This saying is a metaphor for teams and communities alike. If we can agree with that statement, then why could we ever be okay with allowing weakness to fester in our lives and our communities?
Every decade that goes by, our communities at large are losing more and more of their physicality. The diversion of extremes seems to get larger and larger (in more things than just physicality.) On one hand we have some of the highest recorded physical performances of all time. We could argue that we are at our pinnacle of human performance… while on the other hand we are at our lowest of lows. Our ancestors would shake their heads in disgust as the majority of our cultures self destruct and strip away their basic human capabilities.
Here at Salvation, we can admire the cream that has risen to the top. We can learn from peak performance. From those professional and Olympic athletes that are breaking records and re-writing the history books. But we know that this will carry on… and it is not our mission. Our mission is one of culture. Our mission is one of raising the baseline physicality of society at large.
As much as we are fans of physical training, we also don’t silo strength to just the physical. Our gym, since its inception, has always held the motto that physical training is a vehicle to forge character, to outwork our self-doubt, and maximize our mettle. There are plenty of physically strong people I wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with. People who can squat the entire gym but are as mentally fragile as they come. We are not okay with this. This is not a holistic approach to strength. This is not one that improves our communities.
In the same way that health cannot be looked at from just a training standpoint, strength must be viewed from different avenues. There is mental strength and emotional strength. The foundation of one of our human endowments… our willpower. Here is where we must draw the connection between physical training and everyday life. If we are not viewing how the adversity we face along with how we respond in the gym relate to our everyday lives… then we are failing. We must see the raising of our physicality as only a piece of the larger puzzle.
YOUR LOWEST STANDARDS BECOME YOUR CULTURE
One of the overarching problems with society at large is the utter lack of standards. Due to innovations that are aimed at continual improvements in comfort and convivence, many walk around not even knowing what their capabilities are. This has spawned a culture of physical mediocrity that continues to creep towards accepting lower and lower potential. If we don’t set the bar then we will continuously allow ourselves to get weaker and weaker.
Many people view cultures by their aspirational identities. With mottos and cute sayings that are preached but never really upheld. The true performance of a culture is measured not by what they preach but by what they tolerate, specifically the lowest standard that they tolerate. If we say that we are a culture of mental and physical strength yet we repeatedly allow the mere sight of a doughnut to make us cancel our physical training for the day and instead bend the knee and do as the sugar-coated dough commands, then what are we really?
This gym cares, not only about the community inside of it but how that community expands out into the greater Pensacola community. We don’t say that lightly either. Having standards for the people inside your team is a way to show that you actually care about them. I’ve seen some organizations that spout off that they care when in reality they are just being nice in order to appease everyone. There is a difference between being nice and being kind. Being nice is telling everyone what they want to hear… being kind is telling them what they need to hear (even if they may not like it) because you care about them and their long-term development.
In the nature of being kind, our goal is to call out the fact that we can do better. This is a call to raise the bar. And it must start with the individual and naturally expand outward. I like the saying that there is no I in team but there is a ME. This is not a call for egotistical, look at how fit I am bullshit. We have enough of that in the fitness industry. The ME in team is about recognizing the individual responsibility for the betterment of the whole. Our cultures are the sum of our collective individuals. You are a contributor whether you like it or not.
WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE
At Salvation, as part of our philosophy, we have always put strength at the base of our pyramid. There is no shortage of gyms out there that provide a robust cardiovascular stimulus. These range from boot camps to spin classes and even CrossFit gyms. Most of them focus on getting you breathing heavily in order to help you feel like you got a workout for the day. And though we agree that having a good cardiovascular system is a part of the picture for health and performance, generally speaking for most people going to gyms to improve their health and fitness, it’s not their problem.
On the other hand, if you were to assess the baseline strength, we’d bet that a large percentage would not be able to perform a well-executed set of push-ups, strict pull-ups, pick up their own bodyweight, or lunge 40 yards with a relative percentage of their body weight.
We argue strength first for a number of reasons. Mainly because it is the quality that will bring you the most trainability for desired outcomes. Simply put, you become more capable of training in different directions ONCE you have a base level of strength. Want to run faster, get stronger. Want to prevent injuries, get stronger. Want to improve your body composition, do resistance training and eat in a slight caloric deficit.
I like to imagine a world where, when you walk down the street the average person is capable of basic strength standards. We’re not asking for everyone to be powerlifters. Just look at the basic movement patterns of upper pushing, upper pulling, squatting, hinging, and carrying, and have a minimum standard for each. And yes we acknowledge that some are going to have some anatomical disabilities that will prevent some things… but there is always a way to have a standard that fits you.
HOW DO WE MAKE THIS HAPPEN
This is a campaign for us here at Salvation Strength & Performance. It starts with the individuals who are currently a part of our culture. You all are the leaders of this movement. Your hard work and dedication make our small facility a beacon of strength. A beacon that we hope will help inject strength into the lives of all those who call this great community home.
If you believe in this mission of strength then we ask that you spread it by showing it. Not only with your hard-earned results but also by signaling to others to join the campaign. The best way that we can do this initially is by providing the leaders of this movement with some swag.
If you’ve been with us for a while then you have seen our “Make Pensacola Stronger” shirts before. Well, they are making an aggressive comeback. If you are interested in getting a shirt sign up here. The first 10 to sign up will get 10% off. We will be making these in-house so our initial order will cap at 25. We will be taking orders until August 15.
