Natural bodybuilder Michael Wittig has an outdoor workout loaded with big benefits.

It’s too easy to stay in our comfortable surroundings and never venture out. The fear of having to learn something new, do extra work, or ultimately fail may be the cause. The thing we have to remember is that God is always with us so how can we fail? Having the ability to go to your home gym is a blessing. You have access to your favorite machines and be able to chat with your friends between sets. You know where everything is and it’s comfortable. The question I want to ask you is what do you do when the gym is unavailable?

Do you just skip the workout or find a way to get the job done? What if I told you the ability to workout intensely does not reside in a location, but in your heart and mind. You can get a quality workout in anywhere, anytime if you have your mind set to get it done.

One of the best places to get the heart rate going is in the beautiful outdoors. This is especially true if you have a busy schedule and cannot make it to the gym, or traveling. Outdoor workouts are also great during deload (recovery) weeks and just changing up your routine for something fresh.

In addition to getting your workout in there many great benefits to being outdoors including: 

• Improves mood
• Reduces stress
• Strengthen immunity
• Boosts energy
• Clears skin
• Improves Sleep
• Reduce inflammation
• And much more

While it’s easy enough to get a great outdoor workout using just our body weight with movements like push ups, burpees, and lunges, there is also a way to get a muscle building, gym quality workout using resistance bands. They are inexpensive, easy for travel, and can provide enough resistance to challenge you for most movements. I recommend picking up a set of bands with handles that come in a variety of resistance levels from light, for movements like lateral raises, to very heavy for back rows and curls. Using a little creativity you can replicate most dumbbell and cable movements anywhere you find yourself. Complement your push ups with this outdoor banded shoulder workout that will set your delts on fire. 

Resistance Band Shoulder Workout Outdoor Edition

When working shoulders it’s important to touch on each of the three muscle heads:

• anterior
• medial
• posterior

When working with minimal equipment like bands exercise order can be important to get an effective workout. Rest 60-90 seconds between each set. Do 3 sets of 12-15 reps for each movement.

BANDED LATERAL RAISE

This is an isolation movement that targets the medial head of the delts. In the gym one would normally do this movement after a heavy compound exercise like overhead presses. When working outdoors with bands the lateral raise is a great movement to get started with in order to pre-exhaust the shoulders so you can press effectively with lighter resistance. 

How to do it: Stand in the middle of a lighter resistance band holding each handle with your arms straight down at your sides. As you raise your arms up to shoulder height, work to keep your elbow slightly higher than your hand and your thumb point more downwards. Think about raising your elbows out rather than lifting your shoulders upward. You want to isolate the shoulders and try to keep your traps out of it. Then slowly lower your arms. 

Do 3 sets of 12-15 reps

BANDED OVERHEAD PRESS

Now that the shoulders are warmed up with the lateral raises, let’s move on to this classic compound movement that works the anterior and medial head of the delts as well as the triceps. 

How to do it: Stand in the middle of a medium to heavy resistance band. Grab the handles and lift your arms up to get into starting position. Your upper arms should be parallel to the ground and your palms facing forward. Keep your core tight and your chest lifted up. Press your arms straight upward and lower slowly back to starting position. 

Do 3 sets of 12-15 reps

SHORT ON TIME? Another way to do this workout when in a time crunch is to do Giant Sets. Do each of these movements back-to-back without rest for one giant set. Rest 90 seconds then repeat. Do 3-4 giant sets for a challenging workout. 

BANDED UPRIGHT ROW

This is a great movement to work the front delt/pec tie in, side delts, and trapezius. Do this with a wider hand placement to work the medial head of the shoulders slightly more. 

How to do it: Stand in the middle of a medium resistance band holding each handle with your arms straight down in front of your thighs. Keeping your elbows high, raise your hands to the sides of your lower chest. Your elbows should be higher than your hands. Slowly lower your hands back to the starting position. 

Do 3 sets of 12-15 reps

BANDED PULL BACKS

Working the posterior head of the shoulder is important for muscular and aesthetic balance. This is a great movement to isolate that rear delt head. 

How to do it: Grab a light to medium band shoulder width apart, or slightly less than. Hold your arms straight out in front of you shoulder height. While keeping your arms straight with palms downward, pull your arms apart until they are straight out at your sides. Then slowly return to the starting position. Adjust the space between your hands to get the resistance at a challenging level. 

Do 3 sets of 12-15 reps

RESISTANCE BAND TIPS:

• Where you stand on the band will greatly affect the resistance. Stand with your feet together for a lighter lift, step on the band in a wider stance to increase the resistance.
• If you are exceptionally strong at specific movements you can use two bands to dramatically increase the resistance. 
• Bands can be wrapped around secure objects like poles, trees, or heavy furniture to unlock many more movements. Many band kits will come with a door attachment for indoor use as well. 
• Respect the bands and be careful how you use them. While snapping yourself may not cause critical harm, it doesn’t feel very good. 

TRAINING YOUR MIND AND HEART OUTDOORS

One of the best things about training outdoors is that it puts you in a bigger place that is more open often with less noise and distractions. That makes your workout more conducive to focusing you mind and heart on God. Instead of putting on the headphones or earbuds just let the quieter sounds of the outdoors be the background that helps your spirit to be quieter too.

Our bodies are a gift from God and it’s our duty take care of it. He called us to go out and spread the Word (Bible passages, Jesus’ teachings and the Christian lifestyle) . That can be hard to do if we are in declining health and have limited movement. Exercise so you can fulfill your mission, be a good example for your family and friends, and to respect the gift God has given you.

SHARE THIS TRAINING WITH OTHERS

The post Take Your Training Outdoors appeared first on Faith & Fitness Magazine.

In America, pastors and church leaders often ask congregants to invite friends and family to church. It’s basic outreach in line with the Biblical mandate to go and make disciples of Jesus. (Matthew 28:16-20) Churches have special events during Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter when people may be more inclined to attend a church service. The “Easter Weekend” is known as the “Super Bowl” time for churches to reach people. Some churches get creative and offer sunrise services in outdoor environments. It’s a word-of-mouth approach for church growth versus other forms of marketing media and outreach techniques.

While the approach mentioned above may seem to be an effective church growth strategy in reaching the lost, there is a growing body of evidence in North America that says this strategy is not working as well as once thought. In particular, Dr. Rice Brooks, a pastor and evangelist to college campuses
around the world writes in his doctoral dissertation “The Evangelist” the following:

“It became clear to me that the church-at-large in North America was losing the ability to reach lost people and that much of what was called “church growth” was in reality “transfer growth” or a migration of Christians from one church to the next.” He also writes “Many church growth strategies seem to paint outreach as merely reaching out to people as potential customers by providing a better church experience than the church down the street, rather than focusing on the biblical mandate to “make disciples” through new converts.” (The Evangelist, Dr. Rice Brooks, pg. 17)

In my 18 years of being a Christian, I have seen what Dr. Brooks states above to be true both in churches I have visited around America and with Christian para-church ministries designed to reach out to unique demographics. While churches and ministries say they want to reach all people in theory, in practice, the focus, unfortunately, becomes a “circle the wagon mentality” of exclusively recruiting Christians who are moving into the geographical area as others move out in terms of either growing or maintaining church and Christian fellowship numbers.

My experience as well has been that Christian individuals inside of these circles often do not regularly attempt to share their faith with friends, neighbors, and co-workers who are not Christians. This is unfortunate because it has been seen in practice that most people come to faith either as children from the example of their parents or through a genuine relationship with a Christian friend or relative. One church growth research found that “75-90% of people come to faith in Christ through a friend or relative.” (Gary McIntosh, “What Person Led You to Faith in Christ”, October 29, 2014) It stands to reason then that the problem so many churches are not growing from evangelism efforts is that churches have not equipped everyday people to share their faith and be part of the Great Commission where they work, live, and play.

Exploring the reason why everyday Christian people struggle to share their faith with those who are not of the Christian faith, especially in North America, is based on a lot of sub-cultural thinking patterns or beliefs that are unwritten but often publicly stated even where there is a political practice of the freedom of speech and public religious expression and worship without direct government interference which may be the case in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

One of those thinking patterns an everyday Christian can struggle with is to be perceived as “shoving their religion down another’s throat” with co-workers, friends, and family members if they invite somebody to a Christian message, prayer meeting, concert/worship service, or speak about their faith in public forums whether in social media, social settings, or in official events. It is often seen in North American culture today that to talk about religious convictions with people of another faith group or none at all is impolite conversation.

Church training in this matter often doesn’t help either because outreach efforts for the Christian faith are typically focused on strangers during overseas mission trips, local visitations, street/beach evangelism, homeless outreach, or community events. Here Christians find it easier to share their faith boldly without fear of rejection because they are often talking to complete strangers they likely never have to see again and don’t have to worry about offending because the practical relational consequences are minimal.

Conversely, talking to friends, family, co-workers, bosses, and other members of your regular professional and personal life whom you share a practical and emotional social need for a long-term relationship with makes these exchanges harder. If as a Christian you are rejected socially for what you believe when you share your faith, it is likely you feel awkward around these individuals in the future. As a consequence of this real or imagined fear of being seen as an outsider socially in whatever circle that may be, many Christians opt out of participating in sharing their faith where they live, work, and play which as I stated before is ironically where they have the most influence and statistical opportunity to help fellow human beings come into an intimate relationship with their Creator who is poised to meet all of their needs physically, spiritually, and socially.

Garage Gym Church: Missional Culture for Everyday People

Garage Gym Church is a place where fitness-oriented individuals who are Christian believers can intentionally create a setting of social community through intentional physical activity among neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family right inside their own homes. Inviting somebody you know to participate in a physical fitness activity, especially in a home is logistically easy (you own the garage or somebody else does!) and invites a sense of warmth and genuine relationship vs. a sense of a forced agenda that could come from inviting somebody to an overtly religious setting such as a Sunday church service. It also allows for a regular time of bonding through physical training and suffering with a natural time, especially after the workout for a deeper conversation with openness of spirit because your mind and body are tired with the natural tendency to want to rest and bond for a little bit before moving on to the next activity of the day. So how does a Christian fitness enthusiast practically create a regular fitness group out of their home garage that offers the opportunity for a missional church model? Here’s how:

Step 1: Physical Training Session Design

Come up with a workout that can be done logistically with the equipment you already have. Bodyweight workouts can be very effective if you don’t have bumper plates, barbells, sandbags, etc. Furthermore, you will want to create a workout that allows for participants to rotate in and out of equipment stations in various areas of your garage or driveway which can include partner or team workouts that split repetitions and sets. One place I like to go for workouts that are challenging but lead to a team-building spirit is CrossFit Hero Workouts of the Day which uses both equipment and bodyweight and is done in honor of military, police, and firefighters who have died in the line of duty. Reading off the citation of who the workout is done in honor of with symbolism given to the repetitions, sets, and exercises sets the table mentally and spiritually to remind oneself of the importance of living for a greater cause in service of others and being willing to lay down one’s life for one’s friends as Jesus mentioned before He Himself gave His life up (John 15:13). Typically given time constraints for the vast majority of people while also considering that most people are not dedicated athletes, you will want to keep the total fitness training time for starters to 45 minutes including a 15 minute warmup period to allow for “church” time.

Step 2: Initiate Comraderie

To initiate camaraderie, invite a Christian friend who is interested in fitness to come join you in your garage to work out and bond with a stated opportunity for Christian growth leveraging prayer and relevant curriculum content for discussion after the workout. Furthermore, have you and your friend plan to invite 1-2 friends each who may or may not be Christians to join you for the workout at a minimum with the opportunity to join you both afterward for the content discussion centered around a relevant life topic the Bible addresses. You will want to also come up with a music playlist that is fun to train too while also setting the stage for future conversations about God such as Christian rock/metal/rap such as Skillet through a Bluetooth speaker while not coming across as too churchy with worship music. The speaker I like to use that has clear sound quality, is relatively inexpensive, dummy proof to use, lightweight, waterproof, and can be linked with other speakers is the JBL Charge 5.

It is generally difficult to have more than 6 people in this type of session if you include the use of a driveway with typical numbers being 2-4 people especially when you will want to just use the garage on colder or rainy days. We’ll discuss in a future blog how to create more “Garage Gym Church” sessions out of your garage and others, but for now, start small with inviting at least one other Christian friend and both of you choosing to invite a friend. This is a very easy model that sets the stage for keeping the group together in the long haul as people tend to want to spend time with others they naturally know and like. It also demonstrates for the future how easy it is a repeatable format to create their own group.

Lastly, in terms of camaraderie, I have found that allowing space for talking during quick breaks while one person is training is helpful for forming a positive social atmosphere that guys especially will want to come back to again and again.

Step 3: Fireteam Prayer

Prior to any fitness training, have yourself and your Christian friend pray at least 15 minutes prior to the workout warmup starting using the “Fireteam Prayer” concept previously mentioned in another blog on Faith & Fitness Magazine. Having regular prayer sessions for 15-30 minutes is a great way to connect the hearts of the participants to God and create an atmosphere where God moves in the hearts of the community you are with along with your own life!

Step 4: The “Opt-In” Opening to Related Biblical/Christian Content and Discussion

At the conclusion of the fitness training session, the leader will mention something to the effect of, “I’m really glad you came and would love it if you come to train with us the next week (or day). As a supplemental part of this training session, if you would like to stick around, I am going to be having a deeper conversation with [state the name of your Christian friend] to dive deeper into [topic](or another one that is relevant that would be of interest) from a Christian faith perspective”.

Ideally, here you will also incentivize this session by offering coffee, water, food, etc. that will make the person want to stick around. This is a simple but effective component to the overall Garage Gym Church experience as it is hard to turn these down while also allowing a sense of focus on the content being watched or discussed without participants literally thinking about their need to get breakfast, lunch, or dinner for that matter.

What is amazing about this is that nobody feels forced to stay, but rather incentivized through a sense of camaraderie with individuals they just bonded with along with potential food! They also may be interested in the topic and feel this is a good time to learn in an organic setting. At the same time, if they turn you down, there is no real sense of awkwardness because at a minimum those who wanted to participate in the follow-up study will do so as pre-planned and anybody is welcome to continue with a general workout training session as a part of habitual relationship building. It may be multiple sessions for non-Christians to decide to participate in a follow-up discussion let alone be convinced to follow Christ and His teachings, but at least they are now in a setting where they feel they have been befriended and do not feel some sort of bait and switch in terms of a “church experience”.

From a content selection purpose, it should be short and to the point typically with videos no more than 20 minutes with 10-15 minute discussion on relevant life application.  I have seen that without food, people tend to lose interest after about 10-15 minutes of watching or listening to some sort of audiovisual content post-workout, especially in the morning before the workday. You will want to typically play the content from a YouTube video or other audiovisual source through the Bluetooth speaker with a follow-up discussion. Good content sources are Above Inspiration, Lion of Judah, March or Die (a military version of Christian leadership content), and Elevation Church. Another option is a series that presents in a systematic format the principles of the Christian faith called Alpha.

The purpose here is to make it clear that the workout content, discussions, and individuals present will be focusing on becoming stronger in their faith. From a Christian life group perspective, especially for men, this is a much more attractive option vs. the traditional “let’s do a Bible study” which comes across as boring to a lot of guys no matter the branding spin a church’s men’s group puts on it.

Bringing it All Together

If you like what you have read here and would like to get a Garage Gym Church going of your own, please pray about the points above and start thinking of starting your own Garage Gym Church session. Consider friends and co-workers whom you can invite, think about their felt needs, come up with content that they would be interested in along with yourself, and then figure out a fitness training plan. Then start inviting people and getting it going! Don’t worry if the numbers are small at first because the model is designed to scale through multiplication meaning eventually the goal is to get your friends, co-workers, and neighbors to do the same thing in their own garage or training space down the road! That is a topic for a future article as well. Consider 30, 60, and 90-day training plans that involve a particular schedule of curriculum, and feel free to share this ahead of time along with the workouts. Also, encourage the participants to bring their friends along too! Furthermore, feel free to email me directly and/or watch a short video on the concept with the link in my signature line below!

Fit for the Fight and Life,

Chris Reardon

Founder/Executive Director

Freedom Fitness America

Email: chris@freedomfitnessamerica.org

Concept Originator of Garage Gym Church

The post Garage Gym Church: Missional Culture for Everyday People appeared first on Faith & Fitness Magazine.

The older I get the more I understand the need for exercise and physical fitness. My motivation is no longer about improving my outward appearance. My focus now is to stay active and be healthy as I age.

Retired law enforcement officer, Anthony Vaccarella shared with me about his health journey and concerns after retiring in 2012. Like many, his own weight and the early loss of some of his colleagues prompted Anthony to get serious about his health. Today, he continues to learn about the benefits of exercise and hard work as he does strength training and growing blueberries on the family farm in his retirement.

– Martin Johnson

What motivated you to start improving your health?

Anthony Vaccarella: After retiring as a police sergeant in New Jersey, I was a little overweight and had some health concerns. Plus a number of my fellow officers died not long after retiring from the force.

I’m sorry to hear that. As the saying goes, “A body in motion stays in motion!”

Anthony Vaccarella: Exactly, my fitness goals were to improve my quality of life. I hope others can learn from my journey to improve their health.

ANTHONY VACCARELLA’S HOME GYM

Want to workout at home? Anthony has configured a space in his basement utilizing an area near his furnace. It really doesn’t take much room to create a personal gym that is extremely functional. Build it piece by piece and feature by feature to make it adequately equipped. Here you see Anthony has installed: [1] TRX Suspension Trainer strap, [2] a hanging heavy punching bag, [3] plyometric jump platform, [4] dumbbells, [5] adjustable bench with preacher curl station, [6] barbell with plates, [A] clock, [B] several basic full length mirrors and [C] rubber flooring panels. As you build your home gym, pray and seek God about using it as a space where you and others can physically train, fellowship and grow in Christ. Go to our Garage Gym Church page to learn more and get started.

What steps are you taking to improve your health?

Anthony Vaccarella: I practice intermediate fasting and I start my mornings with a protein shake before going to the gym.

THE GOOD ROUTINE OF FITNESS

What is your favorite exercise in the gym? And what are your fitness goals?

Anthony Vaccarella: My goals are to keep my weight down and keep active. When I retired I was alternating muscle groups every other day for 5 or 6 days a week. I like doing circuits and about 2 years ago I began a program like HIIT called E2M. It is an eight week weight loss program for adults. The workouts and meal plans change weekly. I have been doing this routine for the last two years and it’s great.

I’m not familiar with the program. Can you share more about it?

Anthony Vaccarella: Its three days of HIIT and three days of lifting with cardio every day. You choose five exercises (things like mountain climbers, jumping jacks, dumbbell swings with squats) for a minute nonstop. The workouts are posted on-line and change weekly. You can do the circuit workouts on-line with a trainer or on your own. Then you can do “extra credit” workouts you can do if you want to push yourself. You just keep going.

You shared with me earlier that you model your exercise after the growing seasons of farming. What has farming taught you about your faith and health journeys?

COMMITMENT AND CONSISTENCY = BETTER HEALTH AND DEEPER FAITH

Anthony Vaccarella: We need to form good habits and walk with the Lord. I tell everyone it takes two things, commitment, and consistency. You don’t always see the fruit of your work immediately; it takes time before the work pays off.

It sounds like with journeys of faith, we have to keep believing and going even if we don’t see the fruit of our labor.

Anthony Vaccarella: That’s exactly right. Even in farming, the planting season takes more work, effort, and time than the harvest season.

Share about your experience with blueberries and farming.

Anthony Vaccarella: Even before retirement, I worked on our family blueberry farm in between policing shifts and on vacation time. That’s when I learned the importance of staying active.

I’m impressed, because law enforcement itself is physically demanding, then adding the physical labor of farming is pushing it.

Anthony Vaccarella: It was and I only got through it by the grace of God. Farming has taught me a lot about my faith.

Those who read the bible are familiar with the verse that talks about having faith of a mustard seed. God doesn’t require for us to have “big” faith. We talk about how God can move in our lives even when our faith is as small as a mustard seed. Blueberries are tiny with even smaller seeds. Yet they are some of the most powerful fruits we can eat, because of their health benefits.

Anthony Vaccarella: That is so true, each blueberry has about 20 seeds in them and we don’t even notice them. I can live off of blueberries.

0h, to have the faith of a blueberry!

MAN DOES NOT LIVE BY BLUEBERRIES ALONE

Ok the real Bible proverb says, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God.” It’s wise instruction that food alone doesn’t fully sustain us. We have spiritual needs that require a healthy diet of Bible reading done frequently.

You can bet that meal prep at the Vaccarella home includes a wide range of healthy foods including a few more blueberries than most of us might have. Making a meal may be a primary role and ministry of one member of a household. However it can be a rich time of conversation, cooperation and celebrating the richness of life in Christ when breakfast, lunch or dinner are prepared together as a couple or as a family.

Being healthy is just as much inward as it is external. All we need is to have the faith of a blueberry to help us be consistent and committed!

In this article I’ve focused on Anthony’s fitness lifestyle. Now, learn more about the blueberry farming he and his family does in the companion article, A Legacy Of Faith And Fruit, published in ripen – a gardening lifestyle magazine.

QUESTIONS FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION OR SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION

1. What actions can you take to remain consistent and committed to both your spiritual and physical health?
2. What does consistency mean to you?
3. What is God showing you about your faith life?
4. How healthy is your inner life?
5. How much faith do you need to make lasting changes in your life?

The post Better Health, Deeper Faith – Anthony Vaccarella appeared first on Faith & Fitness Magazine.

Since it was 2013 when we first did the story A Pillar Of Fired-Up Muscle Ready To Help You Feel The Burn and 2017 when contributor Martin Johnson talked with Michael in Play Hard Rock – Workout Hardcore, we thought it was high time to put this guy on the cover and catch up with him. We’re glad we did because while building muscle, training people and good music may be some of the most visible and obvious aspects of his life, it is Christ at the center of his daily lifestyle that leads him and his family into greater works.

GOD WORKS HOPE

One of the most powerful things I’ve learned in my 46+ years of life is that there is always HOPE with Jesus. I went through a dark time about 12 years ago, but I see now I’ve been able to use that experience to share the gift of hope. God didn’t create that dark time, but He used it for good so that I could help others.

My wife and I separated for a short time and back then I really believed our marriage was beyond repair. I remember thinking it was utterly ‘hopeless’. A good friend of mine sat down with me and told me there is always hope with God. At that moment I didn’t believe that was true.

Oh, I believed in God, but failed to see how my marriage could be repaired at that point. I am here to tell you all that in Christ ALL things are possible. My marriage was restored. I have been able to share my story with many men through the years and encourage them that there is always hope with God.

GOD WORKS PASSION, CONSISTENCY AND BALANCE

When I list my fitness credentials it almost sounds like I’m bragging, but I’m not. I just really love helping others being their best, and I’ve really jumped into all things fitness with a singular focus.

I am an ISSA internationally recognized trainer, 10x Natural Pro Fitness Champion, Master World Champion, Natural Olympia Master Champion, 9x cover model [Make that 10 now with Faith & Fitness Magazine!], published articles featured in 50+ magazines, and published over 12 books.

My passion for fitness started back when I was 15 years old when I was so skinny I was embarrassed to go swimming with my friends or change in a locker room. My dad bought me a gray Weider bench with red pinstripes, and these gold plated weights along with Arnold Schwarzeneger’s Encyclopedia.

While I’ve had periods of inactivity through the many years since, I have never really turned back on fitness. There has always been something about the art of discipline and consistency that I connect with in my soul.

During my 20’s my friends and I started touring the world in our Christian rock band Pillar. Even then we carried a bench and weights under the bus to workout before shows. Our bus eventually had a permanent lean to one side because of all the extra weights.

Once we stopped touring, because of all the kids we had, I leaned into my longtime passion of fitness and started building a new career in my mid-thirties. I haven’t missed a workout since and have had the honor to help thousands of people world-wide get healthy.

I have never been the strongest or have I had the best physique, but what I am extremely good at is being consistent. Consistency over the years has helped me make exercise and healthy eating a lifestyle. What I hope to help people with the most when it comes to their health is making it a consistent lifestyle. When they learn to make it a lifestyle they can be their best selves.

A healthy person can be a better partner, parent, worker, and friend. Individuals will often feel selfish taking out 30-60 minutes to do exercise when their loved ones need their attention, but I am here to tell you that taking that hour will make you better and more productive at everything else in life.

I am also a big believer in balance. While I am a recognized health coach and certified nutritionist, I also love donuts and pizza among other tasty things. If you are exercising and eating healthy most of the time you can also enjoy your favorites. But balance to me is also not allowing health and fitness to completely consume one’s life. We need to make ourselves available and flexible to be available and attentive to our family and friends.

Motivation will come and go. Understand this from the start. There will be some days you absolutely don’t feel like moving. This is when being consistent is the most important. Do what is necessary especially when you don’t feel like it. Do the right thing. You can see how fitness greatly parallels our spiritual life.

GOD WORKS IN US THROUGH FAITHFULNESS AND PRAYER

I personally feel that my life is a gift. I was spared death at an early age to do great things for God and to help other people. Because of this I also feel it’s my duty to stay healthy so I can continue to be there for my family and do the work God has planned for me. Being a father of four children (Kaden 18, Kyler 16, and twins Kinely and Kennedie both 12) I also want to lead by example and leave a legacy of health for generations of my family.

My kids watch what I do and hopefully they will take some of what I do into their adulthood. Then their kids will learn from them. What we do now can affect generations of our family to come. The same is true about our walk with God. Our children will benefit their entire lives going to church with us and praying together.

I also take my exercise and healthy eating seriously because I want to be around for my children for many years to come. I was raised by my grandparents and my grandpa (dad) passed away when I was only 16 and my grandma (mom) passed about 12 years ago both from heart disease. I know we are all eventually going to die and oftentimes that time is out of our control, but if I can work now to be around for my family longer I am going to do it.

I don’t just want to be present, but be active and have fun with my family as I age. These are my main driving forces, my personal ‘whys’.

While I am very regimented with my exercise and meal planning, being as intentional with my spiritual life is something I am always working to improve. Just like I don’t like missing a workout, my family and I try not to miss church. This is the same with my personal prayer life. It’s too easy to get so busy we forget to take out even 5 minutes daily to pray. This is something I am always working to do better.

Recently we went through a very tough time with a family member. I am going to keep the details private, but it was very painful. During this time my wife and I prayed and pleaded with God daily. During this time I had the thought of how well we pray when there is trouble, but when things are going great how easy it is to let the practice slip. Daily prayer is no different than daily exercise, you just do it. When I hit a workout I almost skipped, I feel great afterwards. It’s the same when you take the time to talk with God.

WHAT WORKS FOR WITTIG AND HOW HE WORKS HARD AT IT

1. Training Consistently: While I always give every workout my best, there are days I’m tired or just don’t feel like it. During those times I am a believer of doing what is necessary especially when I don’t feel like it. Doing your best and being consistent is way more important than being perfect.
2. Nutrition Planning: I always know what I will eat the next day before going to bed. Backing up, this all starts with my family having an ongoing shopping list so I never run out of my healthy essentials. If my schedule is different one day because of acting or travel I plan ahead and bring what I need. Do today what will help you tomorrow. 
3. My Prayer Life: I realized it’s too easy for us to slow down our praying when everything is going smoothly. I’ve allowed this to happen. So nowadays I’ve been working to build the new habit of praying the second I get into my car and drive to the gym. Even if there is a great song on the radio I turn that volume down and talk with God. 
4. Managing My Time: I started getting extremely early in the mornings around 4 years ago. I’m talking 4am early! I did this to carve out new unused time to work on a specific program for 1 hour each morning before the family woke up. I sacrificed and did this so I wouldn’t have to cut into family time to pursue this new program which was writing for fitness magazines. Currently I wake up to go to the gym at 4am for the same reason. My goal is to get back right before the kids get up to make them breakfast and get them out the door for schedule. 
5. Career Building: I have been blessed to have successful careers in music, fitness, modeling and acting. Some of the principles that have helped me in all these careers include: Being kind to others, doing more than is asked of me, doing everything with excellence, and helping others succeed.
6. Being the Best Dad I Can Be: I am where I am today because of the amazing support my parents gave me when I was younger. They helped me pursue music which ended up working out very well. I try to be as supportive and helpful to my kids as possible when it comes to their dreams. My son Kaden wants to be a film director so I got into acting to help him navigate that world and make contacts. But one of the things I realized I was terrible at was being on my phone too much. It’s a work in progress, but now I try to make a point of putting my phone down when my kids are talking to me. These are moments I will not want to miss. I hear such great stories especially from my younger twin girls.

MUSIC THAT WORKS FOR MICHAEL

Here is one of Michael’s favorite songs from his band Pillar that he listens to during his workout. We thought you might like to take it to your gym the next time you lift.

The post Michael Wittig Has Found What Works And Works Hard At It appeared first on Faith & Fitness Magazine.

In October of 2022, my longtime friend Thomas Bush; a man with 2+ decades of Christian prayer ministry experience through his work with the National Day of Prayer Network, Prayer Assist Ministries, and Promise Keepers; proposed to me a radical new game-changing idea of corporate prayer called “Fire Team Prayer” with a specific emphasis for revitalizing the concept of men in taking up a greater leadership role in coming together to pray corporately as espoused by the early and infamous champion of the Christian faith Paul in the following statement to his protege Timothy:

"Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God."
(1 Timothy 2:8 MSG)

The concept was inspired by the Marine Corps infantry organizational construct of a four person "fire team" which is the smallest organizational element of this elite fighting organization that lives and fights together to gain victory on physical battlefields. This team is generally filled by young college aged Americans that who typically live in barracks rooms or field environments close together, train together in all exercises, are led by a veteran Marine typically with three to four years of active service, and are part of a greater "squad" composed of three fire teams led by a "squad leader" of the rank of Sergeant who leverages each fire team as a maneuver force in ground combat. 

The fire team is typically manned with a rifleman with a mission of scouting out an objective, a light automatic weapons professional, an assistant automatic weapons leader, and the fire team leader carrying a grenade launcher who directs "buddy rushes" in combat where generally two Marines shoot downrange at the enemy while the other two quickly run forward while the enemy has their heads down until they can start shooting followed by the other two rushing.  To understand this concept more, please take a minute to watch this epic video of real life Marines telling in their own words what a fire team is: 

Thomas’ study of the Marine Corps infantry organization and in particular the fire team came about as he discovered that in American churches, men in particular, do not readily step up to the plate to be part of corporate prayer gatherings. Of course, the vast majority of pastors are men and they lead prayer, but unfortunately, the men in the congregation, especially young professional men with or without families, are not to be found as a rule of thumb in corporate prayer gatherings of local churches. As he pondered this and conducted research aside from his years of experience, he found the two main reasons for this are as follows:

Men follow men. While men as boys grow up with moms, sisters, cousins, aunts, and grandmothers to be influenced by (as was Timothy in the New Testament as seen in 2 Timothy 1:5) or later go into a workplace setting where they may or may not have peers or leaders as women, it is a deep male need and desire to follow the path of other men they can relate to. However, there are generally not a lot of men leading the way in many church settings as it is often the older women in the congregation, “moms”, “aunts”, and “grandmothers” who are leading the charge of corporate prayer in local churches. This is good and our churches certainly need our women to keep praying fervently, but there is a desperate need for the men of the congregation to be right there in lockstep as BOTH men and women lift up the Lord in fervent prayer and praise.

Pervasive Male Attitudes Toward Prayer: Men by nature are wired to be active physically and mentally in creating in the world around them or by being protectors of others. This can be seen in the worlds of business, fitness, sports, or martial professions such as in military/law enforcement settings where men as a rule of thumb tend to find most of their lives spent outside of the home and religious roles and responsibilities. Unfortunately, many men in churches today however do not seem to equate both individual and group prayer as “going on the offensive” against spiritual darkness that threatens those they hold dear or as part of partnering with God to create and build greater works in the earth.

Watch the Fire of Heaven Come Down When Men Pray Together

As I talked these issues over with Thomas and pondered them, I realized that in the past I had succumbed to these issues myself and needed a new model of corporate prayer life with other men. I also felt convicted that I had relied too heavily on my moms and grandmothers in the Lord to pray for me and my endeavors in difficult times. In my heart excused myself as “not an intercessor like them” and therefore let myself and other brothers in the Lord in particular off the hook for advancing the kingdom of God in prayer.

Requirement for Small Teams to Run Heavenly Fire Missions

In my day job with the Marine Corps, I currently am involved with developing the “kill chain” and “counter kill chain” which in simple terms means the integration of intelligence sensors, headquarters staff processes, communications, and various munition firepower delivery to deliver havoc against enemy weapons of war while protecting friendly units against the enemy’s desire to do the same against us. This is a team sport and requires a lot of people coming together to get the right targeting data, process that data, and deliver it quickly to appropriate firing units. It also requires a team to carefully consider how to defend ourselves against similar attacks.

In particular, there are small teams of professionals within the military known as Joint Tactical Air Controllers, Fire Support Coordinators, Artillery Spotters, Forward Air Controllers, Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Companies, etc. whose job is to:

1) Understand the capabilities and limitations of long-range weapon systems such as aircraft, ships, ground-based missiles/artillery systems, cyber, space, and electronic warfare capabilities that can bring steel and fire on the enemy in order to stop their assaults while enabling friendly maneuvers against the enemy.

2) Push to receive target data from intelligence sensors and teams.

3) Come up with a game plan with appropriate friendly units to bring multiple weapon systems to bear in a combined arms attack, and finally

4) Communicate the appropriate plan to the right units that have appropriate firepower delivery systems.

In a spiritual sense as Christians, we are told:

"Be careful—watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart." 
(1 Peter 5:8 TLB)

In the military, If you are by yourself, you are likely to get your position overwhelmed because you have no ability to watch your “six” on your own or face attacks for long in multiple directions. The military has known this for a long time which is why it sends even the most elite military professionals out into dangerous territory with other professionals with other teams in support or overwatch of them. That is where one of the secrets to victory lies…the power of highly trained diverse teams who operate together in harmony to achieve a common objective. As it is written:

"It’s better to have a partner than go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. And if one falls down, the other helps, but if there’s no one to help, tough! Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night. By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third?
A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped." 
(Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

"Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there." 
(Matthew 18:18-20 MSG)

Thus, the first important principle of fireteam prayer is to have at a minimum 2 Christian individuals but ideally up to 4-6 come together to pray on a regular basis either in person or via Zoom/telephone for at least 30 min prior to a workout 1 x week. In this context, it is possible to have larger networked prayer events with more men using Zoom breakout rooms or potentially doing larger in person gatherings, but these will take more time. I have seen a standard of time of about 1.5 hours in San Diego where groups of men in a "platoon" like formation of 20-50 men pray together where there is a lot of sharing done.  Even so, there always is the small group format to allow for intimate prayer expression.

Next, we try to keep the prayer event to 30 min and time it before a workout especially in the morning timeframe to allow for a 60-minute workout session before breaking contact to spend time with family on a weekend or get to work.

The Playbook

There are 4 essential parts to Fireteam Prayer that allow for a time of intimate and intense connection to God involving the following:

1. Individual “God Stories”
2. Corporate Praise or Focused Quiet Time Listening to God
3. Corporate Prayer
4. Individual Prayer

Given a segment of 4 guys, each part will take approximately 7 minutes to complete (28 minutes total) with a 2-minute prayer close out. It is important here to start and end on time. The facilitator of the Garage Gym Church running this format can use a Gym Timer to mark off “rounds” and keep an eye on the time.

God Stories

“God stories” are individual praise reports that should take no more than 90 seconds. The facilitator can set a timer much like a WOD (GymNext Flex Timer is a good one that is free that can be used on a cell phone) that gives a countdown with a volunteer or designated person to give a God story in the allotted time with a 10-second warning prior to starting. The facilitator will keep an eye on the time and give a 30-second, 15-second, and finally, there the timer will give 3-second countdown to finishing at which everybody will clap once. Immediately following this the next person will go in the same format. For 4 people, this will take 6 minutes with a 1-minute buffer. That 1-minute buffer is used to introduce the instructions at first and then allow for transition time to include setting up the next phase with audible instructions.

Corporate Praise or Listening to Holy Spirit

An essential part of the prayer period is focusing on the object of our prayer…God. It is easy to just focus on ourselves…our problems…even think about potential solutions that we or God might take in the future. I have been guilty of this for sure. An antitode to this, singing praise to God and/or taking time to be quiet and listen for the still small but powerful voice of God (1 Kings 19:12) is crucial. For this portion, the group will either sing a praise hymn using words such as Amazing Grace, easily searchable on a cell phone or a YouTube video with captions enabled will be played. Ideally, the song should be a praise song that has a “fight” aspect to it. An example is the latest Elevation Worship song “Lion“, Bethel Worship’s “Ain’t No Grave“, or Sean Feucht’s “Liberty Bells“. The point here is to lift God in worship, but get in an offensive spiritual warfare mindset to “do battle” against the gates of hell prior to the next phase. This portion should take no more than 6 minutes allowing for 1 minute of transition time to set up the next phase to ask various people to pray for different issues called out based on the leading of the Holy Spirit by the facilitator. If any of the members of the group felt led that particular issues should be mentioned, they should be brought up to the prayer facilitator ahead of time or during that session and prayed for on the spot.

As an alternative as led by the Holy Spirit through the facilitator, this time can also be a time of quiet reflection where the men in the group focus on trying to listen to what God is saying in their hearts and mind to share in the corporate and individual prayer sessions.

Corporate Prayer

In a similar fashion as the praise reports to include time, the facilitator will assign “prayer targets” as led by the Holy Spirit or will allow the group members to pray for something that they felt led to during the time of previous reflection. These prayers include praying for the specific Garage Gym Church outreach and discipleship efforts to include specific individuals being reached out to; prayer for local churches or community/state/national ministries affiliated with members of the Garage Gym Church, prayer for the local government and community business leaders, prayer for a cultural community/state/national issue such as high rates of suicide, and finally, prayer for some type of missions effort whether locally or internationally. The facilitator can ask the team ahead of time via text the general targets and see if anybody feels that the Holy Spirit has put on their heart the need to pray for a specific topic ahead of time as well.

Each individual will pray for their specific target ideally calling out promises in scripture as applicable to include thanking God for answering the prayer. This should take about 90 seconds for each person with rapid succession around a circle.

Individual Prayer

Now we move to the last part of the prayer session where guys will take turns sharing their hearts and asking their brothers to go to war in the spirit for them by praying in faith for each others’ concerns while also sharing a word of encouragement or loving correction. Last year, I felt this intense desire to be able to be completely transparent about my personal needs with other men who wouldn’t judge me and try to turn my prayer request into a lecture. Instead, they would simply be there to pray for me which has and certainly does include hearing from the Holy Spirit a word for me. The way this prayer session works is as follows:

One guy will volunteer to go first and ask for prayer in a specific area(s) of life. They will then quickly pray for themselves and each man in turn will pray for that person or share a word of encouragement for their brother. Once this concludes, the next guy will do the same and the cycle will repeat. This will continue until everybody has prayed for each other. The focus is to try to stay on time here as well, but there is a two-minute buffer and in more extreme emergency cases where it is clear more time in prayer or encouragement is needed, there might be some follow on work right there and then or at a later time after the workout.

Moving Forward Into The Battle…Into the Next Dimension of Life

For the men out there who are looking to take their spiritual power to see a radical change in the lives of their families, friends, workplace, churches, and communities, getting together with other men in small bands of brothers is a game changer, especially when using the relational leverage of tying a group workout to this evolution. I have heard a lot of guys I know talk about the physical measures they’ll take to defend their homes and themselves including arming themselves with concealed weapons. Nothing wrong with this, but I have found in my regular life the greatest enemies threatening me and all those I hold dear cannot be fought with physical weapons although spiritual warfare is manifested and certainly must be completed with natural actions according to the situation.

I will tell you that when I started praying together on a weekly basis with other men in a bold offensive way of warfare, I have seen God show up in ways I didn’t before. I feel God’s presence in a new way and feel an inconquerable sense of hope and peace that drives out discouragement and fear even in the midst of the darkest circumstances. I even now take this prayer concept with my blood relative brother who is a Christian as we pray to take back our extended family to come under God’s authority and blessing. I can’t see us doing that without prayer.

If you would like to participate in a demonstration live streaming training of Garage Gym Church on Zoom, please register here for Good Friday, April 7, 2023, at 3-4:30 pm PST/6-7:30 pm EST for a Garage Gym Church Demo with Fire Team Prayer with recordings sent out via email to those who register but can’t attend. We’ll also be recording this for YouTube which you can subscribe to ahead of time at Shoot Move Communicate.

With that being said, my hope and prayers are for Christian men out there to join me in being part of a new wave of taking back a key offensive weapon in their lives to advance against the darkness and expand the kingdom of light in their world.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense (DoD) or the US Government. Furthermore, the appearance of U.S. DoD visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

The post Garage Gym Church and Fire Team Prayer: A Band of Brothers Who Train and Fight Together appeared first on Faith & Fitness Magazine.

It was August 2021. I had just returned from a 13-month unaccompanied overseas tour in the Middle East with the US Marine Corps to reunite with my wife and son in San Diego, CA. We were in the midst of multiple major transitions and challenges as a family on multiple levels. One of the biggest ones was my reintegration as a military spouse/parent returning from an extended time away from my family based on my tour.

Going back to less time at work was nice and seeing my family was also nice not to mention now having weekends generally off aside from the occasional duty obligation, business trip, or training exercise. However, in my off-duty time, I now had a family to tend to at home where free time overseas was spent hanging out with friends, working out, reading, or working on a special personal project. I certainly had lost a sense of the daily rhythm of day-to-day family routines, especially in terms of raising a small child and handling the emotional ups and downs of a spouse in everyday life from the positives of fun recreation to the negatives of something getting broken in the house or in the car for example. On the other hand, my wife and son had gotten used to me not being there and had their own routines which were now disrupted having to take into account my presence as well. As you can imagine, reunification was a stressful time that took a lot of time, work, and empathy.

Obstacles to Personal Physical and Social Wellness

On top of reunification from my time overseas, we as a family were in the midst of moving into a new home and faced a series of health challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic where we had to limit exposure of our immediate family members to the virus because of high risk for hospitalization and death at the time to a nearby grandfather diagnosed with cancer and a pre-school aged boy with upper respiratory complications. As a result, in order to minimize the risk of being exposed to the virus and bring it home to susceptible family members at the time I started working out with a sandbag and doorway pull-up bar as the only equipment in my garage. Over the next few months, I added a box jump, bumper plates, and a barbell.

The Birth of the Garage Gym Church Concept

I have always enjoyed working out as a way of relieving stress and while I was less than happy about being confined to the garage to workout by myself during that season of life, God used that time to work in me a new vision of what Christian outreach and discipleship could look like out of a chaotic and stressful time in my life where I was also very lonely due to the dual realities of trying to build a new support structure in the midst of moving to an entirely new job, physical location, and not being able to meet other people, especially Christian brothers and sisters in physical church settings. Over time I was able to rebuild this network as the situation with my family changed. That being said, much like an oyster is able to build a pearl with secretions of fluid over a sand particle irritation in its soft flesh, God birthed in me a new concept of growing spiritually individually, and corporately during my times alone working out in the garage with a concept I dubbed “Garage Gym Church”.

Satisfactory Physical Fitness But Not Enough Time for Spiritual Fitness

When I started working out in my garage gym I faced a dilemma regarding the amount of time I had fitting in my personal devotional time in the morning, quality time working out in the garage, showering and changing for work, walking the dog, and my morning commute to get a parking spot on the military base I worked at before it filled up forcing me to walk a much further distance. Trying to do a personal devotional or working out in the afternoon/evening was almost a non-starter with a young kid clamoring for my attention after work and a harried spouse who was glad to offload my son on me once I got home! I hate to admit it, but when forced to choose where I would take the cut between staying in physical shape and spending alone time with God, I started cutting corners in my alone time with God. Maybe you can relate. On weekends when I didn’t have to go to work, I still needed to get devotional and fitness time in before my now 5-year-old son woke up typically by 7 am. Sometimes I didn’t get even that and would be surprised to see my wife open the door between the kitchen and the garage to let my son wander in to join me in my workout while she either went to take a shower or stay in bed.

I found that integrating my morning commute of 20-30 minutes with devotional time either through prayer or listening to an audio Bible was a pretty good way for me to get my devotional time in while also snacking on a light breakfast of apples and boiled eggs while driving. That being said, I started to consider that maybe I could integrate motivational and educational content I have amassed over the past few years since 2017 that has been focused on my work with total force fitness in the military community. I decided though to try listening to content during my workouts in my garage that were both secular and Christian in nature to help me develop my mental and spiritual toughness along with my physical toughness first in the morning.

Integrated Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Fitness Training Sessions in the Garage

I discovered that playing educational audio content whether watching it on a TV or listening to it during workouts was challenging because my mind would get caught up in counting reps, thinking through my next workout steps, or losing focus on the content due to difficulty in exercise technique or sheer difficulties in the workout scheme as I was gasping for air during challenging sets. However, I discovered that listening to high-energy “life trainers” such as retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Pastor John Hagee, Pastor Steven Furtick, Joyce Meyer, and other motivational thought leaders both secular and Christian especially integrated with background music typically found in the adventure and war scenes of epic movies was a powerful physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual experience!

Using motivational content during the workout I for one was able to concentrate on the content for some reason I feel because it was somehow being psychologically tied to my mindset during and after the workout. Two, it literally pushed me harder as I felt the emotional uplift in the content give me literal physical strength and energy I previously didn’t have. Three, I was able to immediately tie the content in my mind not only with the physical challenges I was putting myself through in my garage but also the challenges I was having at home, work, and in my ministry. Four, the challenges of thought leaders such as Joyce Meyer talking about the importance of applying principles in life such as the command to “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” found in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 forced me to remember to think and speak positively vs. negatively which had an emotional uplifting shift. Just try thinking and speaking thoughts and words of negativity or complaining and consider how you feel. Now do the opposite to think and speak words of gratitude, courage, positivity, etc. and you will literally start to feel happier. Thoughts shape our feelings which shape our words, behaviors, and habits. I have learned to discipline my thinking both during physical exercise and in life in general. In a previous post, I speak on the importance of positive self-talk to physically get you through challenges which you can find here: Officers Don’t Fall Out of a Hike…Ever.

Difficult Fitness Experience Opens Up Heart and Mind to Pain and Growth

Furthermore, because the workout was physically challenging, my heart felt through my emotions and my overall mental state was more open to being challenged in the same way as well to suck up the pain and get stronger. I listened to multiple motivational videos from the Lion of Judah YouTube Channel including “Take a Stand: Never Give Up Child of God” while doing the “Jesus” Hero Workout of the Day on Good Friday and it was an incredibly uplifting experience to be reminded and challenged to go all out living for Jesus in my life when I considered all He had done for me. There were times I wanted to quit but I felt like I would literally be a hypocrite while listening to content telling me not to quit! This inspirational aspect was told to me by a Navy Religious Program Specialist during one workout in a military outdoor gym where he felt like he wanted to throw in the towel during the workout but was motivated by the content from Motiversity highlighting the famous story of David and Goliath along with others to persevere in the midst of challenges!

Starting Your Own Garage Gym Church Experience and Total Fitness Partners

After some time of tying in Christian and secular content to my garage gym workouts, I felt inspired by God that these training sessions could be easily something a small group of 1-4 other individuals could participate in depending on equipment, space, use of the driveway, etc. I noticed that in my neighborhood which was a military housing community, many of my neighbors had outfitted their garages into mini functional fitness gyms with pull-up bars and squat racks, various bumper plate sets, and other equipment. I even watched a group of about four ladies who were likely military spouses working out together between the garage and driveway with what looked to be some type of CrossFit or High-Intensity Interval Training group workout. Interestingly enough, what also made this concept in my mind start to emerge was logistically all it took was just one individual/family to open up their garage which most American homeowners especially have for a group fitness session. The amount and type of equipment vary but I was able to outfit my garage gym inclusive of a doorway pull-up bar, 145 pounds of bumper plates, a 45-pound barbell, a scalable 10-60lb sandbag, a 20″ x 24″ x 30 ” box jump, a jump rope, and a yoga mat for just under $800. My wife also wanted a $1300 rower as well which completed the setup. I also had my military equipment including a flak vest for weighted vest training and my rucksack to round out the training. If you go to Rogue Fitness Garage Gym Equipment Packages, you will find some fairly inexpensive scalable options for starting out your own garage gym. What’s nice about the garage gym concept for starting an individual, partner, or small group training program is the initial investment is not all that much. Even if you just want to try out the concept, you can literally do bodyweight workouts in your garage or purchase a sandbag from a company such as GoRuck. From a Christian hospitality standpoint, turning your garage into a space for the neighborhood, co-worker, family, or friend outreach is not all that far-fetched when you consider many church life groups today operating out of lay leader home living rooms, kitchens, and patios. The operating cost is practically the same whether you use the space for Christian outreach or not and for churches considering this concept, the “ask” of members really is just to consider throwing in a workout with amazing content for small group discussion!

With that being said, I would like you to consider the “Garage Gym Church” concept in the New Year as a way of developing yourself and others physically, mentally, and spiritually. If you are looking for a good playlist, please subscribe to the Freedom Fitness America YouTube channel “Shoot, Move, Communicate” and join our brand new “Tactical Garage Gym” private Facebook Group where we will be posting a weekly workout challenge + personal development content both secular and Christian in nature along with updates on outdoor adventure total fitness training opportunities. Furthermore, if you are looking for a regular “done for you” training program to follow in your garage gym, consider our “Tactical Garage Gym” training program that includes nutrition tracking, regular motivational content to listen to during your workout training sessions, and easy to follow functional fitness workouts designed originally for tactical athletes with exercise video links all delivered from the confines of your smartphone! Lastly, please feel free to join a combined Faith and Fitness Magazine and Freedom Fitness America 30 min Focus Group Zoom Call at 0730 PST on Jan 10 to learn more about how to get involved in the Garage Gym Church movement in 2023!

Fit for the Fight and Life,

Chris Reardon

Major, US Marine Corps

Founder/Executive Director

Freedom Fitness America

https://freedomfitnessamerica.org

The post Turning Your Garage Into a Place of Physical AND Spiritual Fitness in the New Year appeared first on Faith & Fitness Magazine.

A CHRISTIAN DISTINCTIVE

Contrastingly, at Christmas we begin to think of giving gifts and receiving gifts to and from our loved ones. Sometimes we don’t realize the value of the gift of sex in a loving monogamous relationship that we share with the love of our life, our spouse. An outstanding hallmark of Christianity from the beginning has been monogamous marriage. Christians stood out within their communities because of it. It has also stood the test of time and there are so many benefits to sex within monogamous marriage. Let’s take a look at some of them.

First of all, sex is a great releaser of stress. Sex within marriage doesn’t carry all of the negative baggage that sex previous to, or otherwise outside of marriage carries like guilty feelings, regret, worry about STI’s or an unwanted pregnancy with someone who is not your spouse.

BENEFITS ON MANY LEVELS

Sex within marriage leads to greater and greater levels of intimacy. You get to know each other better and better in a way that no one else on earth does. This helps develop a trust relationship that is sure and steady. In happy marriages this can have interesting physical benefits. Happily married couples blood pressures drop when they sleep together. Their heartbeats synchronize as well. Their hearts literally beat as one because of the assurance that they have that their spouse loves them absolutely and has their back at all times.

The physical contact involved in this helps us to bond more strongly all of the time. There are endorphin receptors throughout the skin covering of the body and they react to intimate and loving touch, which generates endogenous (or internal) endorphins, a kind of super relaxant. Hugs contribute to this, and married couples are encouraged to hug each other at least eight times per day.

LIFE LENGTHENING AND ENHANCING

Another great benefit of married sex is that it is antiaging. Cells in the body that are anti-inflammatory are released during sexual activity. This helps the body to be able to repair more effectively and seems to be a built-in way that the wellness and well-being of the married couple is enhanced.

Sex within marriage raises our immune system by causing the release of an antibody called immunoglobin A. This helps protect our bodies against invasive bacteria and viruses. A lifelong marriage is a very holistic stabilizing factor physiologically for a couple.

SLEEP LIKE A HUSBAND AND WIFE

An awesome married sex life helps us to sleep better because oxytocin is released substantially after orgasm. Cuddling afterwards and going to sleep is very natural and healthy. It helps us to have healthier looking skin as it promotes blood circulation, and it even helps women to have lighter periods. Many women have cramps during their monthly period, and regular sex to orgasm can make a difference through frequent uterine contractions that help expel toxins and tissues.

Sex within marriage raises our moods and gives us a more positive outlook on our spouse. If we are reflective we see that it’s benefits go far beyond immediate pleasure. When we look at the physical and spiritual fruits of our married sexual relationship: our children and grandchildren, it is obvious that this is definitely one of God’s most important gifts to us. After all, his first words to humanity were to go forth and multiply. As they say, this is the gift that keeps on giving as we experience one wonderful and memorable Christmas after another, year after year, and decade after decade.

GOD’S WAY IS ALWAYS THE BEST WAY

Married sex is a wonderful example of men and women displaying consistency, intentionality, and most of all faithfulness. This is what God intended for humans and without doubt, it is best for us. As noted above, it pays dividends multi-generationally to a family and then to all of the lives that a family influences in their lifetime. As we have seen before, it is always in our best interests to do things God’s way. Profound and magnificent blessings follow in that pathway. One path leads to death, the other path leads to life. Let’s choose life!

Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

Hebrews 13:4 CSB

Sources: Importance of Sex in Marriage: 15 Physical & Psychological Benefits

5 Reasons Sex Within A Marriage is the Best Sex You Will Ever Have

The post THE CHRISTIAN GIFT OF SEX WITHIN MARRIAGE appeared first on Faith & Fitness Magazine.

Some of these young people who had done this in some cases for over a year seem to be some of the most well-adjusted and mature young adults that I had ever had the honor to work with. With their choice to do this they had absolutely demonstrated consistency, intentionality, and faithfulness to their Christian beliefs. They seem to be very happy and in control of themselves after having taken their impulses under control and lived a life that was the polar opposite of most of their college friends for an extended period of time.

GOOD CLEAN FUN

One of their characteristics that really stood out was the way that when we were all in a group, we would all be laughing about some of the funniest morally clean things that happened to them on their journeys that I could imagine. There was something just really good about being able to laugh about these things that happened that demonstrated their strong commitment to ethics and morality but were at the same time, sidesplittingly funny circumstances among these young adults who were now in couples and navigating relationships. It was the old expression “just clean fun!”

I made a mental note of this, and beyond a strong admiration of what they had demonstrated, did not give it much more thought. That is, until my research brought me upon the concept of dopamine depletion. This is a widespread phenomenon in our 21^st century society. Basically, the problem is that as outlined in earlier posts, our lives do not match up very well with the lives of our ancestors. Here, we are having too many hedonistic pleasurable experiences in close succession and chronically. Our ancestors had very few of them and had to work very hard to get them.

MODERN DOPAMINE SPIKING LIFESTYLE

What am I talking about here? Well for one thing the way we typically eat. For example, the amount of sugar we consume per day now compared to the past. In 1700, the average intake of sugar per day was about 5 g. By 2009 the average had risen to 227 g per day. Sweet tastes spike dopamine levels. Every time dopamine spikes it crashes and lowers the baseline level. Eventually this leads to depression and the need to eat more and more sugar to get the same pleasurable high.

The same thing happens with sex. Hookup culture with its continuous casual sex to orgasm does the same thing to dopamine except more extremely. The same is true of porn use. Again, this is not Natural Lifestyle Matching in any way. Hookup culture and porn use can be looked at as behavioral addictions that are dopamine depleting. The dating abstinence that I have witnessed from the young adults I’ve had the honor of working with this year has the opposite effect. It is dopamine replenishing.

JUNK FOOD AND JUNK SEX

So, a hedonistic lifestyle, whether it be in the area of eating or the area of sex, is destructive to humans. One way we can think about it is that neither Junk Food nor Junk Sex is good for us. The Bible speaks to this:

“If you find honey eat just enough-too much of it and you will vomit.”

Proverbs 25:16 NIV

“Treat older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.”

1 Timothy 5:1-2

          This clean, biblical approach to life allows us to relate to each other with a clean conscience and really become good friends that can have a great time together. When I saw these young adult women and men relating to each other in this way, it made me and them laugh!

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SEX DRIVE DIFFERENCES

When it comes to sexuality, as we have seen in earlier posts, men and women are profoundly different. One of the greatest areas of difference is in the ease of the ability to arouse one sex versus the other. It should be clear by now to anyone who is been reading these posts that is generally much more challenging for women to become aroused than for men. There are many factors that contribute, for instance the comparative levels of testosterone. The women with the highest testosterone levels register 75 ng/dL while the lowest men register 200 ng/dL. When graphing female versus male testosterone levels, they are not even on the same graph. This differs from height for example where some women are taller than some men.

Another reason for this difference in arousal/sexual response potential is brain anatomy. We should remember that the sexual pursuit area of males brains is 2 ½ times larger than females. It is also packed with twice the density of neurons in these areas as the female brain. One other factor that makes typical young men supercharged sexually is that these brain areas are sensitive and react to testosterone levels. Yet another factor comparatively dampening female sex drive is the fact that females have much higher levels of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG). SHBG binds to hormones and makes them incapable of making changes to the cells. This means that only what is called free testosterone can have these stimulating effects. Some women have 13 times more SHBG than men.

WOMEN’S SEX DRIVE CHALLENGES

For all of these reasons it can easily be seen why most women have a much lower sex drive than men. As a matter of fact, Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder or female sexual interest/arousal disorder is the most common sexual disorder in women. There is one more complicating factor with women as well. Their sex drives are strongly related to their ovulatory cycles. Their levels of estrogen and testosterone increase greatly before and through their ovulation but especially in the five or six days prior to ovulation. As estrogen and testosterone decline in the days after ovulation progesterone rises to take their place and it has more of a sedating effect.

US CLUELESS HUSBANDS

For many husbands (including me previously) who have no idea or knowledge about all of this about their wives, and their sex drives, it can prove to be very mysterious and possibly even frustrating. I am encouraging husbands to get educated on their wives’ sexuality and put that education to good use in helping her to reach satisfaction as well.

A couple of other characteristics that are important for husbands to know is that the pelvis of their wife is unique among women in how it is innervated. The various parts of her sexual organs have differing nerve wiring proportionally from other women which makes their sexual anatomy unique to them, like a thumbprint. Without getting too explicit this means that husbands need to get to know their wives intimately and learn what stimulates them and what doesn’t. Additionally, a wife’s autonomic nervous system (ANS) has to be able to relax fully in order for her to reach climax. All of this biology screams for marriage and monogamy for humans and against hooking up and promiscuity, especially from a female perspective! There is very little chance that a woman will reach satisfaction through casual sex and the research supports that.

GOD’S DESIGN FOR SACRIFICIAL MARRIAGE

Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

Ephesians 5:25 CSB

To conclude, God has designed the marital act to take place in the context of a loving, lifelong committed relationship between a man and a woman. In this trust relationship a married couple can practice the marital act over and over again with more and more intimacy. Married love is not about instant gratification and what we (especially men) get out of it. It is the kind of love that is modeled throughout the Bible and especially by Christ in his sacrificial love for us. This is obviously a tiny sacrifice compared to Christ’s but an important one for the health of our marriages. Husbands, with mindful and intentional practice with our wives, we can provide them with the same kind of satisfaction we achieve each time they unite with us in the blessed marital act. They will be happier, and we all know the saying “when Mama is happy everybody’s happy!”

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ROMANCE LOWERS TESTOSTERONE

It is extremely important that most young people get on a pathway that is going to lead to a happy and a lifelong marriage, for their safety and well-being sake, and this is especially important for males. Excess testosterone is the root of many young men’s physical, emotional, and mental problems. When a man romantically commits to a woman his testosterone drops. If they get married, it drops further. If the couple then has children his testosterone will drop even further. In some research fathers have shown testosterone levels that are 50% lower than unmarried men with no children. As we learned in Part 1, constant high testosterone levels are bad for any species of God’s creation. An example cited was deer who only have high testosterone and antlers during the fall rut each year.

In the past 60 years there have been forces in our society that have tried to push us away from a culture where premarital chastity was honored and reinforced by societal norms. In 1960 for instance, in our 20 to 29-year-old population, there were three times more that were married. For that matter in 1960, 75% of all of those over 18 and older were married. One other telling statistic is that in 1960, 5% of children were born out of wedlock. By 2010, 40% of our children were being born without the benefit of their parents being married.

FATHER PRESENCE IS HUGE

This situation where more and more of our children are growing up in homes headed mostly by single mothers (many of whom are doing a heroic job) is helping to lead to many of the negative social situations in our society. Children need both parents as strong role models. Because of the explosion of testosterone at puberty, especially at ages 13–15, during which it increases 30 times their boyhood levels, the need of males for strong male role models in their father’s is imperative. If they don’t experience it, then often times they will look for it elsewhere. The females in the family, and especially sisters, also provide important lessons on what girls behavior is like in everyday life. Young men whose first experience with similar age females is dating often do not know how to relate to them and are scared to even try. The family is God’s relationship training ground.

MARVELOUS AND MAGNIFICENT MARRIAGE TO THE RESCUE!

For all of these and many more reasons Marvelous and Magnificent Marriage acts as excellent therapy for Testosterone Trap Trauma and provides safety for the Male Danger Zone. Marriage is Testosterone Trap Therapy for males. It protects them from the Male Danger Zone through the aforementioned lowering of their testosterone levels, but it also focuses them on good things. Marriage molds men into producers, providers, and savers. Married men are more committed to the workforce, they have fewer addictions, they commit less crime, and they are less likely to become crime victims themselves. They also have better health and are less prone to accidents.

Then the Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone, I will make a helper corresponding to him. Genesis 2:18 CSB

In Genesis we read that God recognized that it is not good for man to be alone. Being married helps a man on so many different levels. Brides bring with them into the marriage a natural ability to create and maintain social networks. Husband’s benefit from this mightily. When divorce happens that network generally goes with the wife. The result of this and many other factors makes married men have better immune systems, have lower levels of depression and stress, less likely to commit suicide or murder. In fact, married men are 250% less likely to die prematurely then divorced men from all causes! This is a great example of Natural Lifestyle Matching because this pattern of young men and young women finding each other, falling in love, getting married and having a family has repeated itself for thousands of generations.

Even so, some young men having escaped the Testosterone Trap earlier, have a tendency over time to seek extramarital relationships. God’s wise design for Marvelous and Magnificent Marriage with all its benefits stands the test of time though. Males would do well to keep the wisdom of the Bible as their unfailing guide for their lives.

Let your fountain be blessed and take pleasure in the wife of your youth. A loving deer, a graceful doe-let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever. Proverbs 5:18-19 CSB

As our Creator, God knows us, and especially our challenges, so well.

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