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Now onto this week’s article:

Most people who exercise or consider themselves focused on health and fitness aren't fit.

Further, many people who appear to be fit are not actually fit.

It's a bit of a provocative statement to grab your attention, but I genuinely believe it, and I'll explain why.

To both me & Charles Darwin, fitness & adaptability go hand in hand.

Here is a quick story:

One day, after finishing my workout, I sat in the sauna at my favorite gym, Body Electric Athletic Company in St. Pete (RIP).

A guy joined me in the sauna. I had seen him at the gym almost every day, always in the middle of impressively intense workouts or using the sauna and cold plunge tub in the morning.

On this particular day, he joined me in the sauna after taking a dip in the cold plunge, which surprised me since it deviated from his usual routine and the generally accepted protocol both at this gym and in the fitness community.

I was prepared to cite studies backed by Andrew Huberman and pull out all the stops to explain why he should follow the optimal protocol of sauna followed by cold exposure and how he might be harming himself by doing the opposite.

But before I could do that, he simply responded to my question by saying,

"Sometimes, I just like to throw my body a curveball."

As a former baseball player, this resonated and was a true "Aha" moment for me.

Fitness

The fitness space has become somewhat lost, which I would summarize with this one image:

As I often do, I reflect on the Why — Why do we exercise? Why do we strive to be fit in the first place?

For me, it all boils down to energy. The fitter and healthier you are, the more efficiently your body moves and functions, reducing the energy expended in daily minutia activities. This leaves you with greater capacity to wholeheartedly engage in the things you love, with more energy, which contributes to a healthy mind.

We should train to be functional, rather than solely optimizing our performance within the confines of a gym session. Much of today's fitness advice merely creates a feedback loop where you train in the gym to become better at training in the gym.

The fitness world has fallen into taking artificial pre-workout supplements, wearing tight synthetic materials and pumping up muscles, which often become stiff, inflamed, and imbalanced due to one-dimensional training focused on maximizing weight. It doesn't make much sense to prioritize the development of bulky, asymmetrical muscles while neglecting overall functionality, mobility and energy levels. This can result in spending time outside the gym feeling lethargic, sitting on the couch with low energy and a sore back.

Exercise aims to enhance fitness and health, and this can be achieved outside the gym as well. While the gym offers valuable tools when used correctly, its ultimate purpose should be to improve your functionality beyond its walls.

Throwing the Body Curveball

So, how does the idea of throwing the body a curveball come into play?

In baseball, a curveball is an off-speed pitch that deviates from a fastball. It is typically 14 mph slower than a fastball with different spin, catching the batter off guard and disrupting their timing. Since hitters often train to hit and see more straight fastballs, a well-executed curveball can be devastating to an offense.

When I say we must throw our bodies a curveball, I mean that contemporary training methods resemble constant practice against fastballs, leaving us ill-prepared for the curveballs that life throws our way.

Everything we do in the gym has a real-world equivalent. We must pay attention to the details.

Sure, you can deadlift x weight, but outside the gym, weights are rarely perfectly distributed on a barbell with chalk, and you certainly don't wear a weight belt (or at least I hope you don't). Weights we may come across in the world outside the gym are often irregular in shape and distribution, requiring engagement of different muscles. Many gym exercises optimize for a limited range of motion and specific muscle groups, resulting in a lack of variation.

Throwing the body a curveball could look like stepping outside the gym and picking up a heavy rock, doing a pull-up on a tree branch, balancing on a handrail or rock with one leg, sprinting as fast as you can at random intervals, lifting a log above your head, sprinting up a mountain at high elevation, carrying a rock up a hill, plunging into the ocean in winter, doing agility work in sand, hiking the tallest mountain in your area, trying Pilates or some other class outside your comfort zone, performing a lift with significantly lighter weights focusing on the mind-muscle connection, going for a three-hour walk, transitioning from hot to cold when you typically do the opposite, and stretching the opposite way than you are accustomed to. Your body is far more resilient and adaptable than you may think.

Variability leads to fitness. We should train to be adaptable. Repeating the same routine week after week may give the illusion of fitness, but it does not necessarily promote adaptability and therefore fitness. When faced with any form of variability, much traditional gym training goes out the window. If you need to have x supplement, or y gear & can perform only at a certain time or place you are not truly fit. It's like practicing batting against fastballs only to find yourself clueless when a curveball is thrown at you in a game.

Your practice must involve the ability to adapt to life's curveballs, both mentally and physically. While this discussion has mostly focused on physical fitness, the mind-body connection is real, and exploring "mental fitness" and its application to this concept could be a topic for a future article.

Challenge yourself with some curveballs this week. Do something outside of your routine, something out of the ordinary. Yin where you typically yang. Instead of running, go for a swim. Try buying entirely different groceries than you usually would. Don’t eat breakfast or dinner. Wake up at 4am. Opt for cooling down when you would typically heat up. Randomly vary the intensity of your workouts. Adapt and embrace the changes.

By throwing yourself these curveballs, you'll be better prepared to read the spin and sit back.

G