The Next Frontier of Fitness is Spiritual
Modern fitness "culture" is a dead-end. Conjure ecstasy and power through the wild path of meaning.
We are so back.
It is I, your trickster demon pirate of a host, Captain Claymore - art mage, poet gym bro and filmmaker extraordinaire.
I'm happy to be sharing; this winter was a period of deep interior cultivation and re-orientation that didn't lend itself to delivering longer shares. I've been re-aligning into a more easeful, spontaneous, playful relationship with how I share my work, so thanks for being here and I hope you encounter something that stirs you, shakes you into awareness, or sparks hope and joy for your next adventure.
Speaking of adventures.
Modern fitness has run its $150 leggings into a cement wall. It has choked on its cake-flavored protein bars. It has reached the limit of what it can offer the individual seeking transformation, stimulation and challenge. Social media is drenched in influencers slinging supplements and super-special workout routines, and doing their very best to prey on the insecurities of the average person, who is likely beset with the informational and emotional overload of the epoch.
While there are some great trainers and educators out there putting out solid information on the technical how-tos (and thank goodness for them, check out Lucas Hardie/Range of Strength for one of my favorites), the landscape is frustratingly drab, and hard to navigate, particularly for people who have never had much of a fitness habit, and are trying to get started.
I believe this speaks to a deeper issue within fitness “culture,” which is that physical self-cultivation exists in a vacuum dominated by insecurity, and lorded over by those who would take advantage of it.
It void of meaning or personal spiritual value.
There is little discussion of how and what it means to actually stimulate, and challenge your body as it relates to the individuals quest for meaning, purpose, and living in coherence with their heart. There is little consideration for who you are, your values, and what you believe about yourself.
Fitness has to grow beyond recycled, hollow templates of self-sabotage and self-restriction.
The next frontier for fitness is spiritual praxis.
By spiritual, I mean the dimension of ourselves and reality that is beyond words and matter, but is just as real and important as our heartbeat. It’s the Mystery, it’s the hidden pulse in all things. It’s you, and it’s everything. However you relate to the numinous (or don’t), there is always opportunity to soften the edges of matter and not-matter, and to weave magic and meaning into our physical world.
It is rejecting mechanical coercion and opening up to curiosity. It is recognizing that there is no separation between mind, spirit, heart, and body, and that when the mind dominates the body into doing things utterly mis-aligned with what the whole person actually needs, it tends to degrade the person over time; it can also create extremely negative feedback loops that become hard to release behaviors.
A person might start an exercise program that’s not appropriate for their goals, lifestyle, or needs, they work hard (because working hard can feel great by itself), but they fizzle out after 4 weeks. They stop training for months, only to repeat the cycle. This is incredibly dispiriting, and its avoidable.
Or, they might find themselves perfectly consistent and training at admirable levels of effort, but be so fixated with number-chasing (whether that’s weight on the bar or number on the scale) that they lose the joy of what their practice can offer them. I’ve witnessed this first-hand too many times.
(I’d be remiss to not mention that modern life can make it extra difficult to create a fitness habit, I discuss common pitfalls and how to get support and avoid them here.
Your body is a spiritual organ, not a machine. It's a humming hive of life, hungry for expression and challenge that makes sense to it.
The way we train, and the way we move ourselves needs to be rooted and expressed from who we are, what we believe about ourselves, and how we want to show up in the world.
No one can tell you what the formula is. There isn’t one.
For example: I like to feel like a superhero, and I’m a performer, and I am fortunate to love the intrinsic experience of lifting weights. So I lift weights, dance, and dabble in martial arts and weapons, and keep my conditioning up. It is aligned with my identity, and how I like to show up in the world. It is intrinsically motivating, and it makes me feel like me. It can also ground me, energize me, and help me express myself in ways that only the body can.
If your actions are arbitrary and coercive, spawned from insecurity, and divorced from meaning, your fitness habit will not produce something generative. It will amplify the very feelings you went in to try and "fix."
You will never be strong enough, ripped enough, fast enough, or good enough.
But training can be so much more than a race to reduce or inflate yourself.
It can be a practice of your power, courage, presence, and love - an ecstatic rite of fortitude and discovery.
It can be an invocation of your godhood, a summoning of your deep self, and a remembrance of all of the wild, weird magical parts of you that want to come play.
When I say that your physical training practice can be transmutational spiritual praxis, I mean, it can be just as potent as any of the activities that pop into your head when I say "spiritual" - seated meditation, prayer in church, breath work, religious ceremony, etc.
The body is altar, guardian, ally, shrine. It is a host of spirits; it is a pulsing, ever shifting, portal to material reality.
Whether it's lifting weights or holding yoga poses or climbing rocks or dancing or martial arts, time devoted to the body's experience of challenge, play, and self-expression (or all 3 together) is time of potential engagement with your innermost fire, deep aspects of the self that words and the intellect can utterly fail to notice, affirm, express or validate.
Being in presence and listening to that dimension of ourselves is a pathway to personal connection with the numinous, beautiful, & joyful.
What I'm saying is, push ups can be prayer, dancing a hymn. Move and spirit moves with you.
What would it feel like to approach every workout as a spell that empowers your brightest self? That enflames every movement with meaning, gratitude, and bliss?
It’s possible.
Training does not need to be apology, punishment, or slog.
We’re not always going to want to do what’s best for our body. There will of course be days when we just don’t feel like breaking out of our ego’s rhythm (training can be very confrontational to the ego), and we don’t feel like training.
What would it feel like to know that you can imbue your work with incredible purpose, to help you meet that resistance with compassion and loving discipline (which can be another word for devotion)?
You can enchant your training to connect you to the godspark of brilliance that is aching to illuminate your life with joy, meaning and power.
Next time you work out, connect to who you are, to your own infinite becoming and unfolding.
Light the fire.
-C
Thanks for reading! I am Cara Claymore, filmmaker-actor, artist, Tarotist, strength mentor & fitness coach, speaker-writer and retired competitive strongwoman athlete.
I help people level up and uncover their power with Strength Magick Tranformation Guidance strength and fitness coaching (1:1 NYC & Remote).
I offer Tarot lead support for clarifying your reality context so you can make the adjustments and forge a path most true to your heart. I use the Tarot and embodied intuitive tactics to access emergent information, to see and support you in your power, and help you take aligned right action in your life.
You can contact me here for speaking engagement and film inquiries, and all other inquiries.
This is so liberating - thank you.