by Tyler Quinn
As Fight Club’s Tyler Durden so eloquently put it – most of us end up “working jobs we hate so we can buy sh$t we don’t need”. This somewhat accurate depiction of society is impressively profound – enough so to make you a little squeamish if you stew on it for too long. But I’m not here to make you squeamish. I’m here to borrow the quote, massage it a little and reframe it in terms of your fitness. It’s a bit of a jump from Durden’s minimalistic utopia to your workout routine but bear with me.
First, replace “working jobs” with “working out”. Now replace “buy sh$t” with “do stuff” and you’ve got yourself a poorly crafted but equally poignant statement about how the average workout routine relates to the average life;
Most of us end up “working out so we can do stuff we don’t need to do”.
It’s a common pitfall to see improvement in the gym as the ultimate objective of our exercising. I’m telling you that’s wrong – I want to know what you plan to do with all that fitness outside of the gym?
Why do you work out? Is it really about increasing your max pull-ups? Is it really about bumping up to those 25lb. dumbbells? It might seem that way from a distance, but I’m here to challenge that thinking. In fact, I would argue that all the time you spend in the gym isn’t worth the membership you pay if you don’t use that fitness outside of the gym. Don’t strengthen your legs so you can squat more, strengthen them so you can ski one more hill this winter. Strengthen your back so you carry a pack through the boundary waters this summer. Increase your mobility so that putting socks on isn’t the worst part of your day (you know who you are). The point is- reframe your mindset around why you exercise and try not to forget that you spend twenty-three hours of your day outside your gym.
And even at the risk of missing you this week (and we will miss you!) consider skipping on a day of in-the-gym training for a day of expressing your fitness at the park, on a bike, throwing a Frisbee, going for a hike, learning a new sport, or any other activity you can think of, and feel alive.
Tyler Quinn is a coach, co-Founder, and CEO of Alchemy 365. In his spare time he enjoys reading, hockey, jiu jitsu, and gun-slinging.
