Star Trek and Strength
By Gus
When the Oak Street location for Gus’s Barbell Club opened, my wife got me a gift. A United Federation of Planets flag, from Star Trek. It’s a nod to the Klingon flag that hangs at the Wichita Falls Athletic Club, Mark Rippetoe’s gym where he hosts the Starting Strength Seminar. But it’s also a reminder of something I aspire to help create.
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was a meliorist. He thought the world could be made better through human effort. The Earth of the 24th century has no world hunger, no poverty, and little internal strife. Politics aside, what I love about the vision is how this improved world still left people working hard at a chosen craft for the sake of mastery. Cooking traditional meals when possible even though food could be instantly available with technology.
In the most perfect world we could imagine, humans choose to become the best they can be.
When training for strength, most of us are not trying to become athletes. We’re trying to improve our body so that we can live the rest of our life even better. Being stronger will never harm my chess study or my parenting. And it will help my ability to focus for hours at the chess tournament, and to do the work my family needs.
If every human were to improve themselves bit by bit, eventually we’d have a world where no one was left behind or bereft of opportunity. So I’ll do my part, and I’ll help anyone else who wants to do theirs.
