CHARACTER BUILDING: Exercising for Increased Capacity

Welcome back Viphilus*

My October and November posts are linked to the theme of character building. So far I have looked at breathing, feeding, resting and evaluating. I’m sure that you don’t see any real pattern yet, but you will in December as I tie it all together. First, though, I need to conclude the theme by looking at the last topic under character building … the topic of exercising. I am looking at this one in more detail than the others and will spend the next few weeks looking at 4 different purposes for exercise; to increase our capacity in the areas of: strength; endurance; flexibility; and resilience.

So let’s jump right in by defining each of these, noting that the common element between each of them is that they each are a measure of our capacity:

Strength is a measure of our capacity to do work or complete a desired task that requires intense energy.

Endurance is a measure of our capacity to exert effort for a prolonged period of time.

Flexibility is a measure of our capacity to stretch and adapt to changing forces without damage.

Resilience is a measure of our capacity to absorb energy upon deformation and recover upon unloading.

Whether or not you are a person who exercises your body, you are most likely familiar with at least the first 3 of these … at least as far as your body goes. You likely know that if you want to get stronger, you need to lift weights to build muscles. You likely know that if you want to have greater endurance, you need to train your cardiovascular system (heart and lung muscles) to handle increasing durations of work. You likely also know that if you want to have greater flexibility, you need to stretch your muscles in a systematic way so that they become more flexible. As for becoming more physically resilient, you may or may not know exactly what/how you need to train in order to intentionally toughen your body against serious injury.

But here’s the point of today’s post … it isn’t just our physical muscles and body parts that need to be exercised. We also need to learn how to increase our capacities emotionally, mentally and spiritually … and in each of the four areas of strength, duration, flexibility and resilience. I want us to look at each of these character markers in each of our four basic dimensions.

We will start by looking at what those terms mean in each of our 4 dimensions. Below is a 4x4 table that I want you to take a stab at filling in. This is a great exercise in itself in that you will develop a deeper understanding if you try to fill it in before I just give you my answers (which I will give at the start of next week’s post). To get you going I have filled in the row for Physical and given one sample for each of the other markers. Just fill in the rest on your own, or at least wrestle a bit with the concepts before next week.

Come back next Monday to compare your answers to what I post and also to look at exercising-for-strength.

Blessings Viphilus,

Your friend, Omega Man

OCA Training

* Viphilus means, "lover of life"