Going to the gym sucks. The traffic on your drive there. Waiting for an open squat rack. Cleaning up after the guy who leaves pit stains all over the bench.
What if there was a better way to get strong and look great?
What if all you needed was a bell, a rope, and a mat?
You’re in luck. Follow me.
Fitness is a broad term. It can mean a lot of things. Training for an Iron Man looks vastly different than training for a Men’s Physique competition.
Start with a simple question: what does fitness mean to you? For me, it’s funny how much the answer to that question has evolved.
Flashback to my high school and early college days, when all I cared about was getting as “yolked” as possible. Just thinking about the Arnold wallpaper on my iPhone 4S makes me cringe.
As I got older, I started understanding the importance of taking care of your heart and moving pain-free. Nobody should be the bodybuilder who’s out of breath walking up the stairs.
I now look at fitness as something that should be enjoyable & enhance other aspects of my life. Workouts should be fun, efficient, and energizing. You shouldn’t have to commute 30 minutes, then sit around waiting for equipment.
Mainstream gym protocols emphasize isolating parts of our bodies into muscle groups. The problem is, our bodies aren’t machines (yet) in which the parts can be isolated. How often in your real life are you doing a movement that looks like a tricep pushdown?
This isolating of muscles from the entire body is what sets us up for fragility and easy injury. Strength is important, especially as we age. There had to be a better way to build strength and move better…
Enter the bell
That’s when I found kettlebells. They can be as heavy as you need (some brands offer up to 200 lbs) and can be stored in your apartment.
There are plenty of resources online to understand the benefits of kettlebell training. Tim Ferris’ episode with Pavel Tsatsouline is a great place to start.
The reason I started training with kettlebells is because I wanted to move better. Think of it as developing Holistic Strength.
Doing leg extensions with 100 lbs is cool. But you know what’s cooler and has broader applications to the real world? Rotating your torso, pressing a 50 lb kettlebell over your head, and touching the ground.
That movement works nearly every muscle group in the body at once. How’s that for efficiency?
Kettlebells work your muscles through real planes of movement. Not only will they strengthen your muscles and tendons, but they’ll also test your cardiovascular health. A true double threat.
Simply testing my cardiovascular health wasn’t enough. I needed a way to build my endurance…
Enter the rope
I don’t have anything against running on the treadmill, I just think it’s f*cking boring. Okay, yeah treadmills suck…
When the pandemic hit and gyms shut down, I needed a way to train my endurance. I ran outside for a while, but that gets dicey with snow on the ground. So, I bought a jump rope since I could use it indoors. Spoiler alert: I haven’t looked back since.
There’s no better feeling than the euphoria from a morning jump rope session, with the crisp fall breeze cooling you down. Music blasting in your ears as you crank out your last set of high knees, criss-crosses, and pushups.
Not only are jump rope workouts a fun way to build endurance, but they also develop your agility, coordination, and strengthen your feet. All things high on the list for functional fitness.
If you’re in the fitness game for the long haul, you need to keep your heart healthy. Grabbing yourself a jump rope is an amazing way to do it.
Strength and power from kettlebells: ☑️.
Cardio blasting from jumping rope: ☑️.
Now, what about recovery from all that work?
Enter the mat
As we train with heavy weights, mobility and flexibility aren’t just important, they’re essential.
On average, Tom Brady has been sacked 1.71 times per game. Over 326 games, that’s a gargantuan NFL lineman running you over full-speed 557 times. Ouch.
Can you believe he’s still playing in the NFL at 45 years old? What’s his secret? Pliability.
Pliability is when your body is resilient and moves without restriction. How do you make your body more pliable? Through a combination of deep-tissue massaging and stretching.
My favorite way to work on my mobility and recovery at the same time is by practicing yoga. The poses might look funny, but you’ll feel 10x better after doing them.
The fitness industry has us convinced that a gym is necessary to be your fittest self. It’s simply not true.
All you need to start is: two kettlebells (20% and 40% of your bodyweight), a $15 jump rope, and a yoga mat.
So do it. Break up with your gym, and make a commitment to yourself. If you need some guidance, here’s my fitness page. (Wondering how I got here? That’s a story for another day.)
Let’s break the stigma of needing a gym to have strength, flexibility, and endurance. Together.
DALL•E is 2 for 2 on cover photos!
This week, I asked it to create “a photo of Michelangelo's sculpture of David holding a kettlebell.” 👏
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