Strength Is More Than A Physical Thing

When people talk about strength, they usually mean muscle.

How much you can lift.

How fast you can run.

How many reps you can grind out before collapsing in a sweaty heap.

And don’t get me wrong - physical strength is brilliant. I'm a fan.

It builds confidence, resilience, and trust in your body. It helps you move through the world with a little more ease.

But it’s not the only kind of strength that matters.

And if we only celebrate the physical stuff, we miss some of the strongest, bravest, most important work people are doing every day.

The Strength You Don’t See

Strength is turning up for yourself when you don’t feel like it. It’s recognising when you need rest and actually letting yourself take it. It’s choosing to eat when a part of you says you haven’t “earned it.” It’s sitting with uncomfortable feelings instead of running from them. It’s setting a boundary you know might disappoint someone. It’s letting yourself be soft when you’ve spent years learning to stay hard.

These aren’t things that get measured in a gym.

But they shape your relationship with food, with movement, with your nervous system, with other people, and with yourself.

They’re the strength you carry into every part of your life.

Your Nervous System Shapes Your Strength Too

Here’s something you won’t hear much in traditional fitness spaces:

You can’t access your strength - physical or emotional - when your nervous system’s stuck in survival mode.

If you’re in fight, flight, or freeze, your body isn’t interested in growth. It’s interested in safety.

That’s why sometimes the strongest thing you can do is pause.

Breathe.

Check in.

Choose something gentler.

Ask for support and be with someone.

Or step away altogether.

And that’s not weakness. It’s regulation. It’s self-leadership.

It’s the kind of strength that means you don’t have to keep white-knuckling your way through life.

The Kind of Strength We Celebrate Here

At Fresh Air And, we train for physical strength - absolutely.

But we also hold space for:

• Strength in choosing connection over control

• Strength in unlearning old food rules

• Strength in claiming rest as productive

• Strength in getting to know the parts of you that show up in stressful moments and learning what they need

• Strength in letting yourself be fully human, with all your contradictions and messy middle moments

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This is strength as a feeling, not a look.

Strength that makes room for softness.

Strength you carry into your work, your relationships, your decisions, your rest, your old age.

If You Want to Build That Kind of Strength

We’ve got space for you.

Our group movement and coaching sessions aren’t just about physical gains. They’re about nervous system safety, unlearning old patterns, and moving your body in ways that actually feel good.

And if you want to dig a little deeper into what’s driving your habits, your reactions, your relationship with food, rest, and control - my 1:1 IFS sessions are open too.

Because strength is so much more than muscle.

And you’re allowed to claim every version of it.