What's Next for LF?  

I'm jittery with excitement as I write this.I realized this past week through a conversation I had with Reagan Rose at Redeeming Productivity (check out his website and podcast), that I have separated the "what" and the "why" in my exercise program. What do I mean by this? The mission of Layman's Fitness is to help the man in the pew understand the "what" and the "why" of exercise and fitness for God's glory. My blog posts are the "why".My videos, instructions, and my workout program are the "what". I recently repackaged my bodyweight program into a 12 week program that moves participants through three phases over a 12 week period, to build muscular stability, endurance and strength. But my workout program is too isolated on the "what". Nothing is currently offered inside the program that helps participants understand the "why" behind exercising for God's glory.I want my exercise program to be explicitly Christian, as I believe that God's Word should be the authority for all things. So... I'm excited to share that I will be crafting a series of 12 pieces of content that participants will receive each week alongside the prescribed workouts. The content will be my best effort at laying a foundation of exercise and fitness from a biblical perspective. The 12 week study of exercise and fitness will follow the same physiological progression as my workout plan. In Phase I we will look at the origins of the body in Genesis and the Gospel to understand our body and it's condition, thus gaining theological stability. In Phase II we will look at the threats to your strength so that you may be on guard and run your race with endurance. In Phase III we will look at how to apply your strength in such a way to glorify God.I plan to cover topics such as the Gospel & Your Body, Movement/Labor, Gnosticism, The Sluggard, Vanity, Strength, and much more. I started writing the content for this a few days ago and the journey has been such a joy.I likely won't be finished for a few weeks, so stay tuned.Every now and then I plan on sending snippets of the materials to my subscribers. Today, I want to share an excerpt from one of the pieces. I hope you are blessed by it!Don

'Futility Mindset'I want to begin by talking about what I call the 'Futility Mindset', which is a faulty conclusion one can make about exercise and fitness when thinking about mortality and the body's inevitable death.Every now and then, someone will object to exercising or working out due to the fact that our bodies will ultimately die and decay. Or to a lesser degree, someone who thinks this way will minimize the importance of exercise and fitness due to the fact that our bodies will age and perish.There are a few issues here.Firstly, is that we don't apply this type of thinking in other areas of our lives. An apple will rot if I leave it on the counter for weeks, so I do not eat it? My dog will die one day, so I do not take care of him? My daughters will perish one day, so do I not raise them? My wife will die one day, so I do I not love her?Secondly, Solomon grappled with this same reality in Ecclesiastes 9:1-6. He observed that death comes to everyone, and that all know it (9:5). So therefore do we not live?Not at all. His conclusions are in Ecclesiastes 9:7-10. And one of them is that "whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might" (9:10).His conclusion in a perishing body is to work hard with all your strength. Do not let your body become idle, but instead use it to labor with all of the strength that you have. In other words, use the strength of your body to work hard all your life.Thirdly, we are stewards of our bodies from our Creator. God gave you your body as a gift to be used for His glory. Don’t be the wicked steward who buries his talent in the ground (Mathew 25:26). Go steward your body well for God's glory, through all its futility, as you set your hope on Christ.Don