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I notice many Orthodox men who are regular gym-goers and wonder if this is a cultural trend. I also want to know what they eat to keep their muscle mass during fasting periods.
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Working out with weights is among the most beneficial things you can do for your health over the long run
That goes for everyone, and it applies even more to men, since our testosterone tends to drop as we age.
As a woman, the advice I get is definitely skewed, but I've been told weight training matters even more for women because we're far more likely to develop osteoporosis as we get older. Especially if you've had kids.
It matters most for anyone who isn't already doing some basic strength work and cardio to keep a baseline.
Yes, super important for women's bone density!
There's no gym doctrine or anything. The gym is just a hobby that happens to be trendy right now.
Well I'm 61 and going to the gym, working out and staying fit has been a lifelong project for me and it's worked out well so far. Strong body strong mind, lots of discipline. For some people staying healthy and fit is a way of life. Our bodies are the temple of God.
Fine, but that still doesn't make the gym some obligatory religious devotion, or a devotion of any kind.
You're absolutely right, it's not a religious requirement. It's a personal choice for everyone
It's not a devotion, but exercise really is deeply important for the health of both soul and body. Saint Nektarios spoke well of exercise, and plenty of monastics, gym or no gym, labor to reduce the passions.
It's an online masculinity trend. Going to the gym is good. And the saints have always said we should be active and exhausted. It really comes down to the intentions of the person at the gym. Like money or food and so on, it's neither good nor evil, it depends on intentions. Socrates said: No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable
We can't actually be sure Socrates said that, since he wrote nothing down himself. And he was most likely talking about being fit for battle, not being a Chad. I don't think strength training is a phase, but I also don't think the gym is necessary. Women need strong muscles and bones as they age too. Ten bucks at Home Depot gets you a concrete block and some bricks. Just start lifting. Lift a 15-pound cat if you have to and do some kitty curls. Also, if you watch a prison workout video on YouTube, you'll see how unnecessary it is to drive somewhere and pay for a gym. All you need is discipline.
Discipline is the key, whether it's barbell, kettlebell or bodyweight. Showing up for every workout is often a form of mortifying the flesh
Agreed, that's why I said it all comes down to intentions. Being fit and healthy matters both for ourselves and for our families.
Who said anything about "being a Chad"? Physical fitness and strength have plenty of uses. A fit body lets you help elderly family or community members with physical tasks. A stronger immune and nervous system handles common sickness better. Being fit means keeping up with young kids and keeping the house in order. Et cetera. Forgive me, I got hung up on the "either or" of battle or Chad, lol. In other words, I agree. Man or woman, young or old, everyone should take care of themselves.
I brought up the Chad thing just as a joke. My husband is a fitness trainer, 50+ years at it, and he works with elderly folks. You two would probably get along great! 😄
That joke totally flew past me, lol. It's hard to tell tone when you're just reading text on reddit!😁
Helping your neighbor and protecting your family often takes physical strength. If your parish is doing a community clean-up, helping after storm damage, or doing landscaping or construction work, you're no use to anyone if you're weak as water. Think about Christ and St. Peter hauling that net full of fish out of the water. Imagine how heavy that was? Our Lord was no weakling in his earthly body, and we should aim to be strong too if we're able. Exercise is just another form of discipline for the mind, and a much better use of time than video games, doomscrolling, and TV. People argue gym culture breeds vanity. Sure, that's true, but pretty much any hobby in this fallen world can pull us toward some temptation of the passions. Stay healthy and strong and you won't have to lean on others so much when you're old.
The gym matters, but not because of anything Orthodox-specific. Keeping your heart, lungs, bones, and muscles healthy is the best way to stay active when you're older and it lowers your risk of heart disease and broken bones. As for fasting, people who want to keep their protein up will eat lots of beans and lentils, or maybe some protein bar.
In this day and age I think exercise is even more important, and strength training is the best kind in my opinion. Society pushes pleasure in every form now, and there's way more chemicals and poisons in our environment, food, water and air than decades or centuries ago, when men worked physically all day instead of sitting in a car and cubicle getting fat. My wife and I are 60 and have strength trained most of our adult lives, and it shows in our physical and mental health. Nearly everyone on both sides of our extended family, including the young nieces & nephews, is obese or sick with some metabolic lifestyle disease. ADD/ADHD is everywhere. Nobody's outside doing yardwork or getting fresh air and sunshine. We're the only ones we know who aren't sick and have the energy to work outdoors all day after a full work week. We're not vain bodybuilders either, just normal people who eat healthy: meat, veggies, water, coffee, juice, occasional wine. We keep the fasts and eating vegetarian a couple days a week is no problem at all. It hasn't touched our strength. We are never ever sick. The kingdom of heaven is within you. God bless you all. The other comments quoting scripture are on point. Pay attention.
"Why dost thou ruin thy strength with fat? This fat is flabbiness, not strength. Whereas, if thou break off from these things, and manage thyself differently, then will thy personal beauty also improve according to thy wish, when strength and a good habit of body are there." St. John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 29. It's a spiritual thing, not a culture thing. St. John Chrysostom taught morally against gluttony and soft living over and over, tying it both to physical flabbiness/disease and to spiritual harm.
¹⁹ Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; ²⁰ for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body… 1 Corinthians 6:19,20
I've always loved working out and I'm Orthodox too. I never post about it online because 1) I'm an old man, it'd seem stupid, and 2) I do it for my health and sanity, not for internet points. Like others said, it's great for your physical, emotional and mental health, short term and long.
Keeping physically fit matters, for your own well being. It doesn't *have* to be at a gym, of course, but gyms make their money on monthly subscriptions, so they have a strong interest in being tied to physical health, which I suspect is part of why you see so much gym content on social media. These things can go too far, to where we put certain parts of physical health *above* the practices God gives us in the Church (remember the word "asceticism" originally comes from athleticism and exercise), and it can definitely become a road to vainglory and self-righteousness. So we have to stay watchful and careful; every virtue needs to be governed by prudence. We also need to watch which virtues we chase; not everything modern society calls a virtue is a virtue in the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is what we're preparing to live in.
i was vegan for over a year. ate lots of nuts, beans, lentils, sometimes tofu. went to the gym three times a week, an hour each. put on 20 lbs of muscle. probably the best shape ill ever be in my life. then i lived in africa for a bit and gave it up there for logistical reasons. but it's not doctrine or anything.. take care of yourself physically and spiritually. that's what matters. you don't need the gym.. follow your priests advice on work and prayer.
Being deliberately active is a smart habit to keep. I'm recovering from knee replacement, so soon I'm looking forward to walking, hiking, and rebuilding stamina after a few years stuck in a recliner. But bodybuilding and gym bro culture aren't my taste. In the current US cultural moment there's a strange amount of focus on gender. When that gets imported into American Orthodoxy, it can come out as performative masculinity. Though I can't say how relevant that is here.
being healthy is fine, but gym culture is built on vanity. lift weights to be stronger and healthier, not to chase a physique
I'm literally a bodybuilder and certified personal trainer. My priest is one of my clients and has come to my bodybuilding shows before. Don't speak so definitively when orthodoxy isn't that definitive and understands nuance. You can build a physique and it not just be vanity.
I hide the physique I built from training under baggy clothes, and I don't think that counts as pride or vanity. Bodybuilding and "showing off" muscle is like showing off your piano skills at a competition or concert - nobody calls that prideful either. It's just a skill, just don't make it your personal idol.
Going to the gym is good for you. There are fasting-friendly options, but I'm not great at those, and my ability to get to the gym (my working hours and locations vary a lot) will always be somewhat limited long-term anyway.
Staying active and looking after your health matters. If you neglect your body when you're young, your old age will be noticeably worse and harder. I want to still be able to stand through Church and do prostrations in my 70's, and sitting in a computer chair all day won't get me there. Back when everyone worked with their hands and life revolved around farming, maybe it didn't matter so much. But in the tech age? Some kind of exercise program seems necessary to keep the physical health we'll need for old age. We don't have a body. We are a body - an embodied soul. What's NOT necessary is guys having an IG or posting muscle pics, doing it for vanity or to get women's attention. Male modesty matters too, even if people only ever push it on women. But being active, strong, and healthy makes you an asset to the people around you... even if it's just so you can lend other families a hand, hold babies during liturgy, or show up to parish work days to do yard work and haul garbage bags.
Physical health matters, but it isn't everything. Don't turn it into your god and don't let pride swallow you. God gave you a body - use that resource wisely and remember it's only a temporary gift you've been given.
The gym specifically? Not necessarily. Being FIT and STRONG and DISCIPLINED? Yes, that absolutely matters. Usually that happens in a gym, but you can do it at home or with a home gym too. You need both a strong mind and a strong body, especially for what's coming. There's actually a book by an Orthodox writer about fasting and keeping yourself up while fasting.
