building muscle

When my gym revamped its annual fitness challenge—I didn’t expect it to change my spiritual habits.

Traditionally, the challenge was an eight-week competition focused on wellness, nutrition, and exercise, with the prize—a fancy e-bike—going to the person who lost the most body fat. Last January, however, they introduced a new twist: participants could choose to compete in either fat loss or muscle gain. After a lifetime of defaulting to the “lose fat” option, I decided to hop on the muscle train.

If you had asked me last January, I would have told you I was already on that train. After all, I’d been dabbling in weight training for decades. I first learned about the benefits of lifting weights for runners when I was on the cross-country team at BYU-Hawaii in 1990. In the ’90s, I even taught a weight training class at Deseret Gym. Over the years, I’ve done countless squats, lunges, push-ups, and sit-ups, and I carried six toddlers on my hip for 15 years. More recently, I’d scaled back on running and incorporated weight training into my gym workouts.

But here’s the truth: despite my history with weights, I never fully committed. I never reached for the heavier dumbbells or prioritized strength training over cardio. For me, cardio was the real workout. The endorphin rush of a long run, the satisfaction of a sweaty ponytail, and the false promise of burning 100 calories per mile kept me hooked.

Still, as a woman in the 2020s, it’s impossible to ignore the countless studies emphasizing the importance of weight training, protein intake, and and putting on muscle if we want to age well. So, when the gym announced the new challenge, I decided to go all in on the muscle track. I prioritized weightlifting classes over my usual mix of cardio and weights, ate ridiculous amounts of protein, and finally reached for those 35-, 50-, and even 65-pound dumbbells. You’ve probably heard the recommendation to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight? Well, I took it seriously—chicken breasts, protein shakes, egg whites, cottage cheese…

And it worked. Over eight weeks, I gained two pounds of muscle and lost two pounds of fat. For me, that was a huge win. My body type tends to hold onto fat, and building muscle has never come easily. I didn’t come close to winning the e-bike, but the results felt like a personal victory. I discovered that I could change—if I fully committed. I didn’t put in any more time; I just made my workouts more intentional. And I reaped the benefits: lifting heavy boxes onto high shelves, carrying Wells and Lars up and down the stairs, and hiking Mt. Olympus without a hint of soreness. It made me wonder: What if I spent the next 40 weeks transforming ten pounds of fat into muscle?

This experience got me thinking: Where else in my life have I been going through the motions? Where have I been putting in half-hearted effort and missing out on the full benefits of commitment? Because it’s true—when you only give 50%, you only see 10% of the results. But when you push to 80%, 90%, or 100%, that’s when real transformation begins.

I took an honest look at my spiritual habits and realized I could do better. I often rushed through my morning prayers, distracted by my to-do list, or skimmed scriptures without really absorbing their meaning. I wondered: What if I put more heart into these efforts? What if I were more present in my prayers and scripture study? What if I made a greater effort at church and in the temple? Could I love my neighbors better, extend more grace, and recognize my blessings more fully?

So, I’m working on it. Building spiritual muscle is harder to measure than physical muscle. It’s like the wind—you can’t see it, but you notice its effects in the form of more peace, more laughter, and less worry. And just like a fitness routine, it’s easy to fall off the wagon, skip a few days, or slip back into old habits.

I’m learning to be kind to myself and patient with the process, revising unrealistic goals along the way. But I’m all in. I want to trust God more deeply, access more of His peace, and worry less about the future, knowing with certainty that He has a perfect plan for me, my family, and all of His children in this broken world.