Body Building

Body Building is a sport. It takes time, effort, dedication and a lot of planning. Competition day takes weeks of preparation, good nutrition and focus, In a few poses judges determine the value of weeks, months and years of work. The goal?  To stand out among the crowd with the most complete physique. Its not just about size and mass, but about how the pieces of the body fit together into one cohesive whole; whether or not all parts of the body show the same level of training and tireless sculpting. Body building is a beautiful sport, not because of the muscle on display, but because of the time it takes to bring one's body into a unified harmony of strength.

The sport of body building is a science of precision and movement. Judges specifically look for 5 things: mass, definition, proportion, symmetry and stage presence. Some of these seem quite obvious, but lets take a look at the judges vocabulary:

Mass- are the muscles big enough to stand out
Definition- how visible are the muscles
Proportion- have all muscles been strengthened and are they showing good relative size
Symmetry- when comparing the right and the left how even does the body look
Stage presence- how confident is the bodybuilder, how does he look in his poses

It's not enough for a body builder to be large, we need to see definition in the muscles.
It's not enough for a body builder to be well defined, good shape is also required.
It's not enough for a body builder to work favored muscles, the small and weak ones must be worked too.
It's not enough for a body builder to work one side of the body, both sides need to be equal
It's not enough to have a complete physique, we must be moved and impressed by the poise of the builder.

There's something about all the effort it takes to bring these five qualities to life; the juggling of exercises, the tempering of each and every myofibril and the confidence in what has been built that makes for a captivating sport. There's something about body builders that makes all of us wish we could be stronger; they inspire us to achieve in our bodies a part of what they've achieved in theirs.

Body building is impressive. One of the most commonly used words to describe believers in the New Testament is, "the body" as in, "the body of Christ". It was more popular than the word, "church" or Christians. Paul, writer of numerous letters to early groups of believers, referred to them as the body. He taught then to treat each other as members of one body. Implying that each of them was a part of the greater whole. Listen to what he wrote about the body in Corinth, Greece:

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-- and we were made to drink of one Spirit.
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot would say, 'Because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice with it."

When I consider what Paul wrote, I think body builders get this; the whole body has to be worked as one. We can't seek to break it down into inferior and superior parts. All parts must work together: the strong with the weak. We cannot discard part of the body because we are frustrated with it. If a part of it is behaving inconsistently, we should train with it and around it to bring it back to stability. And bringing part of the body to a place of stability is a difficult exercise.

What I love most about body building, is the attention to detail; every part of the body is considered, cared for, and brought into supportive harmony. But more so than this, is the consistent drive to sculpt and shape. It's not enough to have built a body, it must continually be worked. Body building requires a lot of dedication. Growing the body as a body builder means consistently stepping outside of our comfort zones. It means finding the line between healthy burns and painful aches, and riding that line each day at the gym.

This sounds overwhelming, and it is. It is not possible to focus on all aspects of the body at one time. The body is too big. It is enough to focus on small little parts, understanding how the tiniest movements create big gains given enough time and dedication.

We are the body. We are the body builders. This is what it means to be a believer. My hope is that a piece of this goes with you into your day, even if its the piece about smiling confidently while you flex :)