As I read this week, a saying from Morton Kelsey came up… Who is Morton Kelsey? I’m not sure yet, but he did say something that got me thinking, and here we are…
“The Church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners.”
In other words, the Church was never meant to be a place where perfect people gather to show off how perfect they are.
It is a place people come because they need something.
They come broken. Lost. Searching. Struggling. Now we could discuss this further, and I may have already lost you talking about Church, but this quote got me thinking: we should start thinking about the gym the same way.
The gym isn’t a museum for athletes; it’s a hospital to make you one!
Somewhere along the way, we, society, have created the opposite perception.
People look through the window of a gym and see strong people lifting weights, fit people running, athletes doing pull-ups and people seemingly comfortable in their bodies.
And they think:
I need to get fitter before I go there.
But that’s like saying you need to get healthy before you go to the hospital.
The people you see inside aren’t evidence that you don’t belong. They’re evidence of what can happen when you do!
Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman famously said, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.”
I love that definition because it removes the qualification.
Not if you’re lean.
Not if you’re strong.
Not if you can run 5km, do a pull-up or lift twice your bodyweight.
If you have a body, you are an athlete.
Maybe that athlete hasn’t trained for twenty years.
Maybe that athlete is overweight, weak or lacking confidence.
Maybe that athlete has forgotten what their body is capable of.
That’s okay.
That’s what the gym is for.
You don’t go to the gym because you’re already an athlete.
It’s where you go to develop the one that’s already there.
Sickness → Wellness → Fitness
CrossFit explains this beautifully through the Sickness-Wellness-Fitness Continuum:
SICKNESS → WELLNESS → FITNESS
At one end is sickness.
In the middle is wellness.
At the other end is fitness.
And throughout our lives, we’re moving somewhere along that line.
We can lose strength, muscle, mobility and cardiovascular capacity and slowly move towards sickness.
Or we can train.
Become stronger.
Improve our cardiovascular capacity.
Build muscle.
Move better.
Become more capable.
Move towards fitness.
That’s what training is for.
A gym isn’t just for making already-fit people fitter.
It’s to help people move in the right direction.
So if you’ve gained weight, lost strength, become unfit or simply don’t feel like the person you used to be, that’s not a reason to avoid the gym.
That’s the reason to walk through the door.
The Athletes Inside Weren’t Always Athletes
And this is the part we forget!
You see someone lifting a heavy barbell, doing pull-ups or running comfortably and think:
I can’t do that!!!
But you’re looking at their middle and comparing it to your beginning.
You didn’t see their first day.
You didn’t see the empty bar.
The scaled workout.
The walking instead of running.
The missed reps.
The nerves before walking through the door.
Maybe they’ve been training for ten years.
Maybe you’re on Day One.
Day One still counts.
The athletes you see aren’t the admission requirement.
They’re evidence of what consistency can produce.
You Have To Be Humble Enough to Begin
There is another idea from the Bible that I think applies beautifully to fitness:
“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” — Luke 14:11
Fitness requires humility!
Fitness requires you to be meek, which doesn’t mean weak; it means being quiet, gentle and patient, choosing not to fight or argue and not pushing your own opinions upon others… ie, your view that you can’t do the thing…
You have to stop worrying about where you think you should be and accept where you actually are.
Maybe you need the empty bar.
Use it.
Maybe you need to walk.
Walk.
Maybe you finish last.
Finish last.
Maybe you need help.
Ask for it.
There is no shame in beginning.
The danger is allowing your pride about where you think you should be to stop you from becoming what you could be.
Humble yourself enough to start.
Humble yourself enough to be coached.
Humble yourself enough to struggle.
Humble yourself enough to be a beginner.
And then watch what happens.
The person who walked begins to run.
The person who lifted the empty bar gets stronger.
The person who was nervous about walking through the door eventually becomes the person welcoming someone else through it.
Sickness becomes wellness.
Wellness becomes fitness.
So if you’ve ever thought:
I’m too unfit for the gym.
You’ve got it backwards.
You don’t get fit so you can go to the gym. You go to the gym so you can become fit.
We don’t need gyms because the world has too many fit people.
We need them because it doesn’t have enough.
We need places where people can change direction.
Where sickness can move towards wellness.
Where wellness can move towards fitness.
Where people can become stronger, healthier and more capable than they were yesterday.
So don’t wait until you’ve lost five kilos.
Don’t wait until you can run.
Don’t wait until you’re stronger.
Don’t wait until you think you look like you belong.
If you have a body, you are an athlete.
Humble yourself enough to start where that body is today.
Walk through the door.
Start moving in the right direction.
Because the gym is not a museum for athletes.
It’s a hospital to make you one.