Health & Fitness

Modern culture alternates between two errors about the body. One treats the body as an idol — something to be sculpted, displayed, obsessed over. The other treats the body as an inconvenience — something to be indulged, drugged, or ignored until it breaks. Neither is Christian.

The Christian view is simpler and harder. Your body is a tool given by God for the work He has assigned you. You will answer for what you did with it. That means keeping it in working order, not because you worship it, but because you need it to serve the people depending on you.

Notice what Paul says in that second verse: physical training is of some value. He does not dismiss it. He ranks it. It is not the highest priority; godliness is. But it is not nothing. A man who neglects his body for the sake of "spiritual" things has misread the Bible.

You do not need a gym membership or a personal trainer or an elaborate program. You need to move heavy things, move them regularly, and progressively increase the load over time. That is the entire science of strength training.

• Lift three times a week. Full body. Squat, deadlift, press, row, pull-up. Add weight when you can. Rest when you must.
• Walk daily. Thirty to sixty minutes. This is the single most underrated physical habit.
• Sprint or do intervals once a week. Short, hard efforts. Five to ten rounds of thirty seconds on, ninety seconds off.
• Stretch or do mobility work. Especially if you sit for a living. Hips, hamstrings, thoracic spine.
• Do not overcomplicate it. The best program is the one you will actually do.

The word "diet" has become a battleground. Forget the fads. The principles are simpler than the industry wants you to believe.

• Eat real food. Meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, eggs, dairy, whole grains. Things that look like they came from a farm or an animal.
• Avoid processed food. Things that come in a bag or a box with a cartoon mascot. If you cannot pronounce an ingredient, do not eat it.
• Eat protein at every meal. Especially as you age. Muscle is expensive to maintain; protein preserves it.
• Drink water. Most of what you think is hunger is thirst. Most of what you drink that is not water is sugar.
• Do not eat late at night. The body does not need calories it is not going to use.
• Fast occasionally. Skipping a meal is not a spiritual discipline in itself, but it is a useful practice. It teaches you that hunger is not an emergency.

The most neglected pillar of health. Sleep is when the body repairs itself, when the mind consolidates what it has learned, and when the emotions reset. A man who is chronically sleep-deprived is impaired in ways he cannot see.

• Seven to nine hours. Not negotiable. Not a sign of weakness.
• Same time every night. The body loves rhythm.
• Dark, cool, quiet. Blackout curtains. Cool room. Phone outside the bedroom if possible.
• No screens in the last hour. The blue light disrupts the sleep hormone cascade. Read a book instead. Paper, not screen.
• No caffeine after noon. Caffeine has a half-life of five to six hours. That 3 p.m. coffee is still in your system at 9 p.m.

The point of health and fitness is not to look good at the beach. It is to be useful for as long as possible. A man who is strong at seventy can still carry his grandchildren, still help his neighbor move a couch, still work a full day, still care for his wife if she becomes sick.

A man who let himself go at forty is a man who is going to need someone else to carry him at sixty. That is a burden he can choose now not to become.

You have one body. It came from God. It will be raised on the last day. Treat it accordingly.