Written by Dr. Gaia Domenici, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise
Have you ever felt like hitting a PR at the gym gave you the courage to quit your job (or vice versa)?
As Friedrich W. Nietzsche wrote in Twilights of the Idols (1888), ʻWhat does not kill me makes me strongerʼ (Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker). Without intending to decontextualise this sentence, which would go against the rigour of a historical-philological approach to Nietzscheʼs work, the meaning of such words sounds familiar to many of us: exposing ourselves to intense challenges builds character – emotionally, mentally and physically. (The concept is also phrased with similar words in a few preparatory notes and published writings from the same period, just to show the centrality of the subject in the latest Nietzsche).
The idea of an intercorrelation of physical strength, mental strength and emotional strength has led me to coin the phrase ʻtridimensional strengthʼ (3D strength), which refers to a multidimensional kind of strength, in which each of its dimensions plays a part in growing the whole. That is to say, working on physical, mental and emotional strengths separately leads to an improvement in the intercorrelation of the three which, in turn, makes us overall ʻstrongerʼ. To understand why, it is important that we look at each of these strengths and how they cooperate.
Emotional Strength (Resilience)
Resilience is defined as the ʻpositive adaptation, or the ability to maintain or regain mental health, despite experiencing adversityʼ (Hermann et al. 2011). It is the emotional or psychological component of strength, namely, it is the ability to stand up again from falls and setbacks, and to learn from mistakes. It is through resilience that we turn negative experiences, such as failures, into positive learnings and chances to grow.
To develop emotional strength, two are the elements to work on: becoming comfortable in the uncomfortable and getting used to failure. To do so, exposing yourself to uncomfortable situations on a daily basis is key. For example, contacting someone famous each week and planning the email or interview each day; walking past your exʼs workplace once a day; facing a person you once had an argument with; walking your dog where you might run into a person you have not seen in years. The exposure does not have to be extreme and you need to feel uncomfortable but also ready for that: you might want to start with something small (e.g. email your teenage celebrity crush) and gradually build up. To prepare yourself for the event, think about best- and worst-case scenarios, and ask yourself: ʻWhat is the worst thing that can ever happen if it goes wrong?ʼ, ʻWhat if it goes well?ʼ. Also, think about how you dealt with uncomfortable situations in the past, and how you could recreate the same outcome in your present situation.
Mental Strength (Discipline)
Mental strength or discipline can be defined as the ability to focus on a goal and stick to a plan. It is the ability to see through tough situations, to fight physical, emotional and mental barriers for the sake of achieving a goal. It is through discipline that we become consistent. And it is through consistency that we become productive.
To develop mental strength, creating a routine is essential. For example, being consistent with sleeping and waking times, being consistent with eating patterns, allocating time for leisure activities every week, planning certain practices in your day so that they become habits (e.g. practising 15 minutes of yoga and meditation upon rising, writing one page of your novel every evening, reading ten pages of a book before bed, etc.). If you are someone who does not like monotony, do not worry: habits are not meant to bore you or deprive you of your freedom. Think about it like this: habits are the container of your time; how you shape the content of such time is all down to you. If your main struggle is not feeling overwhelmed by the thought of the too many tasks you have to carry out, start small and build up gradually: when is the best time of your day to fit a new routine in? How much time can you effectively spare for such a routine (it can be as little as 5 minutes)? What is the most urgent routine that you need to incorporate into your daily schedule? Write down a hierarchy of routines and simply prioritise the most important ones to you, leaving the others for the future. If you get easily distracted or have the tendency to procrastinate, picking a time when your mind is freshest or most relaxed and ready to fully commit is key. Another strategy can be replacing any intrusive thoughts with productive ones: for example, if you are trying to write a page of your novel but you those birds chirping across the garden get you distracted, choose a word or phrase to repeat to yourself every time you start looking out the window, that will redirect your attention to your work.
Physical Strength
Physical strength refers to the ability to produce force and move matter against gravity. It is developed through applying progressive overload to resistance training. Similarly to resilience, physical strength also occurs in response to adaptation after experiencing adversity, through a process called ʻsupercompensationʼ: after being exposed to a stimulus, following adequate recovery, both the musculoskeletal and the central nervous systems undergo adaptations to make them more responsive (or resilient) to the same stimulus; for progress to occur, a new, stronger stimulus must now be introduced, and the cycle starts again. However, without a solid foundation of mental and emotional strengths, physical strength will most likely plateau after the first few months of training. At the same time, building physical strength will help you build discipline and resilience, too. In the next section, it will be explained why.
Correlation Between Mental, Emotional and Physical Strengths
Without improving on resilience, it is hard to bring discipline to its highest level. Namely, exposing yourself to the greatest risks of failure makes you resourceful, optimises your adaptability and mind flexibility, and makes you capable of finding strategies quickly and effectively. This translates into a better ability to adhere to a plan and fight barriers, that is to say, to be disciplined. We defined discipline as ʻthe ability to focus on a goal and stick to a plan, to see through tough situations, to fight physical, emotional and mental barriers for the sake of achieving a goalʼ, and we said that it is what makes you productive. Well, sticking to a plan and achieving goals is the secret to developing physical strength: you set for yourself long, short and medium-term goals, and work towards them by applying progressive overload consistently.
However, this is not all: physical strength also leads to an improvement in resilience and discipline. Here is how. If you have trained for strength for a long enough time, you surely know what it is like to be constantly exposed to failures, setbacks, injuries and all sorts of emotional barriers that make you resilient in the long term. Moreover, you are likely to have implemented advanced training methods in your programmes (such as cluster sets, drop sets, eccentric training, pyramid sets, super-, tri- or giant sets – to name a few); in so doing, you might have experienced the resilience that comes from enduring extremely high volume or high intensity, namely, from overcoming the pain. Ultimately, if you are a weight-class athlete or a bodybuilder, you know the type of resilience that comes from hardcore dieting – when you must get the energy from within because outside it is all running out. Hence, building physical strength also builds emotional strength. As we argued, however, increased resilience has a positive effect on discipline, as it makes you more resourceful and able to stick to a plan. With improved discipline, physical strength also improves, as we said: to live the life of an athlete, one must possess the same kind of discipline that it takes to live an ʻasceticʼ life. A new cycle starts over here: more strength leads to more exposure to failure and more resilience, which makes you more disciplined and able to adhere to your plan, which makes you even stronger.
Conclusion
Physical, mental and emotional strengths are closely interrelated and they all need to be developed equally. Focusing on 3D strength, rather than only one of its components is key to improving your overall sense of self-efficacy and ability to succeed. Indeed, emotional strength (or resilience) enhances mental strength (or discipline), which is needed to build physical strength. Developing physical strength, at the same time, enhances emotional strength and allows the 3D-strength cycle to start again.
If you feel you are lacking in one of these strengths, working on the other 2 might help you unlock your potential to improve on all of them. For example, if you lack discipline, working intensively on building resilience and setting for yourself strength goals might help you create habits and fight barriers and distractions, making you more disciplined. If you fail to achieve strength goals, exposing yourself to emotional challenges and incorporating more structured routines into your daily life will help you cope with emotional and physical setbacks, and will give you the discipline to stick with your strength training programme and achieve your goals. If you are struggling with emotional strength, start setting for yourself strength goals and stick to a training programme: you will be forced to face your demons one by one.
In short, regardless of which component of strength you need to work on, make sure you: push yourself outside of your comfort zone on a regular basis; create a sustainable daily routine; lift heavy at least twice a week. If you do not enjoy heavy lifting, pick any physical activities or sports you do enjoy, and be consistent with them: you will still build some physical strength without running the risk of losing motivation and quitting; moreover, the endorphins generated by enjoying what you do will boost your mood and improve your life quality. If you do not know how to start, hiring a coach is your best choice: asking for help is the first sign of strength – whether physical, mental or emotional.
Dr. Gaia Domenici, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dr. Gaia Domenici, also known as 'The Strongest Shield-Maiden', is a certified Nutrition and Health Coach, Strength and Conditioning Coach, Personal Trainer, and published author, with a PhD in Philosophy.
After spending a decade juggling between gym and academia, Gaia realised that body, mind and spirit are a whole, and, as such, they need to be trained together. So she founded 'Fitnosophy: Build Your Body Realise Your Self', a platform to share the spiritual meaning of fitness, and the impact of a strong body on a meaningful life. Following the sense of void and uncertainty left by the 2020 pandemic, Gaia founded the 'Shield-Maiden Tribe', a community in which women from across the world can share their inner and outer strengths, nourish their Inner Warrior, empower each other, and grow stronger together.
Since 2018, Gaia has coached countless clients and athletes worldwide, helping them get in tune with their Inner Warrior, and achieve physical, mental, and spiritual goals.
References:
Herrman, Helen et al. 2011. ʻWhat Is Resilience?ʼ The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 56(5):258-265.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. [1888]. Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer [Götzen-Dämmerung, oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert], translated by R. J. Hollingdale. New York: Penguin Classics, 1989.
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