Reminder: Our Body Becomes What It Does

For a moment, consider that our bodies take on the form of a body that does what it can do. We take the shape that supports the functions we perform. 

When I looked down at my right hand, I noticed a fresh blister on the inside of my middle knuckle on my ring finger. I had just played catch for the first time in a long time. You see, the way you properly hold a baseball is with your index and middle fingers over the top of the ball and the thumb under the ball. Naturally, the inside of the ring finger knuckle rests against the ball. 

When I was a ball player, my hand was physically different than it is today. After throwing consistently for twenty years, I’d formed a callus on my ring finger that was so large it changed the shape of my hand. Today there’s nothing there. 

The reason for explaining the evolution of my right hand in such specificity is a Trojan Horse for a core concept. The important concept is that:

Form follows function. 

On one hand, this concept is rich with wisdom and insight. On the other hand, it’s so a matter of fact that it seems completely obvious. 

We’re in the fitness business and nearly all the folks we meet want to look a certain (different) way. All of my coaching experience can be distilled down to the simplicity of this form follows function concept, which says if you want to look strong you ought to do things that strong people would do. If you want to look fit, you ought to accomplish this goal by doing things that fit people do. 

The body is a reaction to the experiences it has says Jimmy John Shark an entrepreneur and fitness enthusiast. And, the form of your body will correlate precisely with the functions it completes. Remember how my hand morphed into a baseball holding machine? What’s also true is that when I gave up the function of throwing baseballs regularly, my hand gave up the form that supported such action. 

All of your aesthetic fitness goals are found inside of this maxim.