What I’ve Learned So Far as a Practitioner and Professional in the Fitness World
Building ANCORE has put me front and center on all things health and fitness. So today, I want to share everything I’ve learned so far.
Four years ago, I was assembling the early pre-orders of ANCORE’s first generation portable cable machine in a garage on the North Shore of Boston. It was peak pandemic, and I had just joined the company as their first employee. The irony wasn’t lost on me — I was building fitness equipment while being someone who’d rather test their seasonal allergies on a springtime trail run than go anywhere near a kettlebell.
You see, my relationship with fitness was like my relationship with vegetables as a kid: I knew they were good for me, but I’d rather have chicken nuggets. Weight training was something I’d done in high school, but once I hit college, I dropped it quicker than 8am macroeconomics. Running around Mizzou’s campus and the MKT Trail was just too tempting — especially when the alternative was a campus rec center packed tighter than a fraternity basement on Halloween Weekend.
Until I joined ANCORE, running (with the occasional yoga class thrown in for “balance”) was my only physical activity. There was no plan, just my shoes and a rough mental sketch of the day’s route. The heaviest thing I’d picked up during a workout was my ancient iPod shuffle (a device that now belongs in the Smithsonian next to the arrowheads of early cavemen).
In the intervening years, though, building ANCORE has put me front and center on all things health and fitness. So today, I want to share everything I’ve learned so far. I’ve experienced it as a hobbyist, literally sweating it out (almost) every day, as a professional spending countless hours immersed in the industry, and as someone who has received a fly-on-the-wall master class along the way. Now I embrace weights instead of avoiding them, but that’s only the beginning of the story.
Just Move (No, Really, That’s Step One)
The easiest and best place to start is simply by finding a way to move. You don’t need to run fast or far. There’s no rule saying you have to lift heavy or immediately start setting new PRs. Start with the thing that gets you moving. For me, that thing was running. I wasn’t fast and didn’t have a clue about interval training, speed workouts, or tempo runs. But, I was excited to clip on my iPod shuffle (so old school) and put one foot in front of the other. As I continued to enjoy running, my routes got longer and my interest deepened. The runner’s high was my gateway drug to fitness.
However, I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s the takeaway: just start with the thing that interests you the most. If you enjoy listening to podcasts while walking, go for it. If you want to ride a stationary bike with Succession on your iPad, that’s great. Nothing motivates like watching Logan Roy yell at people. Maybe you want to jog and listen to Post Malone’s transcendent country album F-1 Trillion album. Giddy up and heck yes, partner. The only thing that matters is finding the movement that fires you up and doing it consistently. All the other stuff will follow.
Check the Box: The Art of Showing Up
Even once you’ve found a movement that fires you up, not every day will be perfect and you will feel less-than-fired up at the prospect of physical fitness. In these instances, focus on checking the box. Show up, do your best, and get done what you can. Not every workout is going to be an A+. I’ve had more than a few workouts where everything stinks from beginning to end. I feel like crap and generally have a scowl on my face for most of the workout. Yet, when I’m done, I have a slightly cheerier disposition. Make no mistake, that does not mean I’m moonwalking on sunshine to my car, but I do feel at least one percent better — and that has got to count for something. No one said it has to be pretty or perfect. Check the box and move on.
The Ed Thorpe Equation: More Gym Time = Less Hospital Time
I’ve mentioned this quote from the massively successful (+$800 million net worth) investor Ed Thorpe before but it bears repeating here: “I think of each hour spent on fitness as one day less that I’ll spend in a hospital.”
Whenever I need motivation to do something, this is the thought that pings in my head like one of those cymbal-clanging monkeys. Just one hour spent walking, lifting, running, yoga-ing, or whatever moves you is an investment that will pay off later in life. That translates to more time with loved ones, more traveling the world, more of all the stuff that makes our time on this big blue marble worth it. Don’t overthink it, just do it. So, you can start reaping the compounding benefits immediately.
Keep It Simple (Like, Really Simple)
Speaking of not overthinking it. I believe this learning is so important that it deserves its own dedicated section. Don’t overthink it when searching for a training plan. Pick something simple and begin. When I started weight training, I used a three-day-per-week plan I found on BodyBuilding.com. When I trained for my first half marathon, I found a simple plan from Runner’s World.
As someone who loves to Google the first random thought that pops into my brain (wait, what movies came out when I was born?) and could spend hours reading through obscure baseball Wikipedia pages (did you know Adam Dunn once had a season where he hit 40 home runs while batting .204?), I can confirm it’s a form of procrastination. There are an endless amount of plans out there for beginners and folks just getting their fitness feet wet.
Find a training plan, double check it with a health professional (doctor, trainer, etc), and begin. As Leonardo Da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Historians will debate whether that was a reference to basic functional strength training or painting the Sistine Chapel, but you get the point.
The Sleep Situation (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Early Bedtimes)
A few weeks ago, we — the ANCORE team — were at the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Summit. For some added context, TPI is a leading organization that combines health, fitness, and science to help golfers of all types play their best. They work with everyone from major championship winners to guys trying to break 90 at their local muni. In short, they know their stuff.
The most surprising insight of the summit, though, had nothing to do with swing speed or ball flight. It had to do with sleep. Here it is: Nearly 100 percent of all negative health manifestations (cold, stress, high-blood pressure, etc), have roots in not getting enough sleep. That’s not to say, sleeping 12 hours each night will make you immune to all diseases and transform you into a supernova of happiness. But a good night of sleep will certainly put you in the driver’s seat for the coming day.
Now, for some honesty. This is an area where I struggle. I’ve never been a good sleeper. I’d rate myself a C+ and would be delighted to get a B- before I turn 30. It’s impossible to learn this skill, or any of these skills, overnight. They are a lifelong practice and you won’t be perfect day-to-day.
Long-term > Short-term
How about that for a segue? Anyway, let’s land this plane.
It’s very easy to get myopic with our approach to fitness, and this completely makes sense. Most of us barely have five-month plans, let alone five-year plans. So, why should we know how much we’ll be deadlifting two-years from now? Or if our program will mostly be comprised of free weights instead of machines? We don’t know and absolutely should not feel that pressure. What we do know, though, is that we want to live a long, healthy life.
Personally, I want to be healthy enough to play with my future grandchildren and enjoy all of life’s joys with my fiancé. The best way to put myself in a position to achieve those goals is to take a long-term approach to my fitness. Some years will be better than others. Life gets busy, you get more responsibility, and I guarantee you it will not be perfect.
But, I’m confident that if I show up, put in the time, and get enough sleep, I’ll have put myself in the best position possible.
And that sounds like a pretty darn good deal to me.