“No one is coming to save you.”
“Be your own 911” or whatever…blah, blah, blah. We’ve all seen meme’d variants of at least one or both sentiments espoused by some hard charger on social media through-out the man-o-sphere. You may have even saved one or two of these posts late at night thinking you’d revisit it when you need motivation for something you shouldn’t need motivation to do.

Even if the packaging seems dumbed down, cliché, condescending, or just stupid the sentiment is valid. I won’t credit Jocko or Andrew Tate or any of those guys for this message, Socrates said it perfectly a couple thousand years ago.

In a world that allows us to outsource opinions, transportation, grocery shopping, even meeting people to date – you can’t outsource strength, so you better be sure you have built enough of your own should you need it.

This doesn’t mean you need to become an 80’s action movie hero, although that would be sick, it means there are bare minimum physical requirements a man must meet.

Bench your weight, squat 1.5 times your weight, 20 push-ups, run two miles in under 20 minutes. These are the bare minimums a man should expect of himself. Gyms are everywhere and even the shittiest, low-cost gyms will give you an opportunity to bench, squat and do push-ups. No treadmill? You should be running on the street anyway. (For extra credit just achieving an advanced novice level in any combat sport will give you an advantage over most other men.)

Maybe you’re asking why it’s necessary for a man to build strength. Here are a few reasons

-There is a non-zero chance you may have to defend yourself, your family or your home. Physical strength, and the mental strength developed during the work required for strength, will never be a disadvantage.

-Maybe the gym becomes your third place. If men are indeed experiencing a loneliness crisis in this country going to a place with a bunch of other guys can’t hurt.

-Weak things break.

-It might actually feel good. Your body releases a whole cocktail of chemicals when we try and get jacked – endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and probably a bunch other good stuff.

-You’ll just be healthier.

-Strong people can do more things for longer than weak people. Bike longer, hike longer, walk longer, etc. You get the picture.

When given the option of being half as strong as you currently are or twice as strong as you currently are, what do you think most men would choose?

But you can’t outsource this. You must get in there and do the work. I’ll spare you all the ‘grindset’ motivational crap that people who will never be strong rely on. You should want to get strong for yourself, because you’re a man and you might have to chop some wood and carry it inside someday.

If you’re just getting off the couch start easy.

Stop wheeling your luggage in the airport! Grip strength is one of the signs of all cause mortality. Exception – trips longer than 7 days or when carrying special equipment. Men wheeling their luggage just looks wrong.

Stop taking the elevator less than two flights. Exception – you’re injured, elderly, or accompanying an elderly person.

Find a gym. Concentrate on getting to the front door, nothing more. Start seeing the beauty and strength of which your body is capable.