My solitary exercise, strength training in particular, is an artistic joy. The process of creation through movement has better connected me with my artistic side than any other medium, including writing and sketching. Art through back extensions, peddling, and sprints? Beauty through movement, and art from that beauty.

A point: the act of weight training, to me, isn’t so much about lifting weights at all. It’s about creating. Scarcely, it’s about painting a picture on the canvas of my body. More so, the real art lies within the brush strokes arisen from a kinetic grace I have learned to master. I enjoy the movements and the actions, and feel my most creative when executing them. What I seek to create is not the perfect body at all, but the perfect workout – one repetition at a time. The body can be a byproduct.

Same with the sprint, the climb, the paddle, or the peddle. It’s not about the fat burned from the run, or the skin getting more taught as a result of the ride. It’s about the beauty of the stride, and the artistic connection between my mind and my body in fluid movement.

I understand most people will never embrace exercise in this way. But if you are an individual who wants to benefit from weight training, or any other form of exercise, but fails to connect with that movement, perhaps the disconnect is in your approach and your perception of what exercise is meant to be – let it be art.

Don’t think of it as weight lifting. Rather, think of it as just moving – with weights in your hands and at the ends of your feet. Fact: weight training really is just the act of controlled movement, of stretching and contracting muscles; no different than yoga or Pilates. The weight themselves enhance the stretch. Secondarily, it should be about how much you lift. Primarily, it should be about how well you lift – how well you manage and control the movement. Fluid, like a wave on the water.

Too often people expect results from exercise overnight, and when the results don’t arrive, they take a dislike to exercise because there is no positive – no result to associate with those actions. If this is you, this may be a good time to forsake the concept of the changing body, and pursue the perfect workout. As I began, in my late 30’s, to explore the workout as a creative release, my body has changed with that flow, and has done so in a more favorable way both in aesthetic and functionality. I’m pleased with both the cause, and with the direction.

There can be art in exercise. With art comes joy and awareness. Where there is joy, there is always the desire to return. With awareness, comes growth and discovery. Don’t just do squats, perform them. Don’t just run sprints, create the aesthetic and celebrate with them. Don’t just swim laps, swim into poetry. Even swinging a tennis racquet or golf club can be artistic – or it can be awkward and clumsy. If you’re going to move your body, strive to move it artistically, and good things usually happen from that.

Don’t get me wrong, even within beauty there can be intensity. There should be sweat. There must be challenge. There can be power too. All too often, the beauty in power and sweat are obscured by anxiety. Power and sweat display much more beautifully when they arise from artistic cause, and will be appreciated as such. Make today the most beautiful workout you can. Intensely beautiful. Powerfully graceful. Challenging, yet seamless and fluid.

Live your creative side through each movement of your exercise today, whatever discipline of exercise you choose. These are some of the words which I use regularly to guide each workout into art – in and out of the gym: grace, seamless, fluid, mastery, intensity, reflection, sanctity, poetry, concentration, dance, connection, prayer, and joy. To know these as you workout, is to know art through movement. Be well. rc