How my understanding of strength evolved

A reflection on how my understanding of strength changed through mountains, injuries, recovery, and everyday life.

Strength for Appearance

For most of my adult life, I never trained for strength consistently.

Honestly, I didn’t really understand why strength training mattered. I mostly associated it with building muscle or looking “toned”, and at that time, neither of those goals motivated me enough to stick with it.

Strength for the Mountains

That changed when I signed up to climb a few mountains.

The first time I went on a hike with a heavier pack, I had to dump most of the water in the first 15 minutes. After the hikes, I had very little energy at home. I had to build strength to start enjoying hiking again.

For the first time, strength training had a purpose, and that made it easier to stay consistent.

Strength for Resilience

A few years later, as I started going through perimenopause, I began dealing with increased running-related injuries. Long hours at my desk started catching up with me, causing stiffness. It was frustrating to spend weeks recovering from an injury, away from things I enjoyed doing.  Strength training was becoming less about mountain goals and more about staying active in life.

Yoga also played a big role here. I thought of yoga as stretching and flexibility. Through practice, I started appreciating how much strength I could build with just my own body weight.

Strength for Everyday Life

Then came another shift, watching my mom recover from knee surgery at the age of 75. Strength training became an important part of her recovery, helping her get movement back and return to everyday life.

Strength means something different to me now. It has become non-negotiable to keep doing what I enjoy, at any age. Strength training has also taken different forms - weights at the gym, yoga, Pilates, or just bodyweight exercises.