Around 2023 I encountered the sage wisdom, regarding strength, that “sometimes we need to push against something until we can push ourselves.” Therefore, strength is “the ability to overcome.” In this particular program, we started with mobility (pushing ourselves) and later graduated to hypertrophy (pushing an external object like a barbell). However, these processes are complimentary, not contradictory.
It could have been the case that you completed the mobility module and movements such as CARs without totally “getting it.” Most people understand strength as the above mentioned “ability to overcome”, though that vision is usually limited to an external object. Hence, my revised definition that “strength is the ability to hold tension evidenced by creating or resisting movement.”
An external object may help you “feel” tension and become familiar with the sensations of struggling and overcoming. Then, we can come full circle (as you’ll have an opportunity to do in the re-assessment module) towards manifesting those same sensations internally.