By Thom Salo, Founder
Sisu is the strength to persevere and overcome.
It is a Finnish word derived from sisus, meaning guts or innards. It has been around since the 1500s. Sisu is more of a concept than a definition, and there is no single English word that captures it.
Sisu is the choice to keep going, to take that next step when your mind is telling you not to. A Finnish proverb says sisu is taking action against slim odds. It is a reserve of strength you find after normal strength is gone, the second wind after your second wind. It is not about winning. It is about continuing. Not bailing when you have the chance to, but finding the strength to keep going.
Dr. Emilia Lahti, a Finnish psychologist at Aalto University, calls sisu an action mindset: the capacity to push through adversity when the rational mind says to stop.
Sisu is the Finnish national spirit. In the mid-1800s, the Finns overcame famine. At the end of World War II, outmanned and outgunned, they found it within themselves to hold off the Soviet Union.
I was reminded of what sisu looks like on the Manitou Incline. 2,774 steps. One foot in front of the other, breath by breath, until the top.
But sisu is not only about sports. It shows up in the quiet everyday moments. It is doing the strength session on the day you do not want to. It is walking away from dessert the fifth night in a row. It is getting sleep instead of the second drink. It is showing up to the sauna and getting into the cold plunge because that is the protocol. It is getting on the floor and getting back up again, every day, for decades. It is doing the things around the house that you do not want to do.
Frailty is not inevitable. Decline is not inevitable. The only thing standing between you and either is a daily choice. The small sisus.
I did not choose sisu as the name of this studio because it is a cool word, or for marketing. I chose it because it means something. The strength to persevere and overcome. This studio is not about a spa day. It is not about a beach body. It is about the long fight. It is about not accepting frailty as inevitable.
It is about action over inaction. It is about healthspan over just lifespan.
Live Better … Longer.
