The Real Goal:

“It’s the human condition to grow old and die, but you don’t have to live your life as a weakling or accept fragile health, a poor appearance and lack of vigor as inevitable. Those who make training a lifetime pursuit tend to live very well for all of their years. The rewards of lifetime training include health, discipline, confidence, and strength. You just plain feel good.”--Grandmaster Bradley J. Steiner

Bradley J. Steiner wrote those words almost two decades ago, yet they become truer to me every year.
It’s nuts that in our society only 30 percent of all adults perform any type of exercise on a daily basis. And only 5 percent exercise vigorously. Yet vigorous exercise is one of the keys to lifelong health, vitality and well being.

Most people tend to view exercise as a chore they need to do in order to drop a few pounds. So, they’ll embark on an exercise program, lose a little weight, start feeling and looking better, then stop and go right back to the lifestyle that caused them to be fat and out of shape in the first place. Then they’ll bitch and moan and begrudgingly start the entire process over again.

Anyone ever hear of Einstein’s definition of insanity.

Instead, I say that you make vigorous exercise apart of your daily life and look at it being a life long goal. Start viewing your exercise not as a chore, but instead as your time to practice and play with new skills. Skills of strength, endurance, flexibility, vitality and health.

I’ll guarantee you that you’ll not only look and feel better, you’ll actually be better. You’ll improve your physique, your hormones, your health, your vitality, your strength, your stamina, and more. The positive effects will even creep into every other aspect of your life. After all there’s a reason why so many of the most successful business people in our country will freely talk about how they achieved their success only after they got themselves in shape. Vigorous exercise can play a huge role in improving any and all areas of your life.

It astounds me how many of the people that I know that are my age or even younger that already possess bodies that are ready for the scrap heap. I remember as I turned 30 hearing from so many people, “Brett, now that you’re 30 things are a lot different. Your metabolism is going to slow down. You’ll lose your flexibility. It’ll be harder to stay in shape. You’ll lose your strength.” And so on and so forth. Yet, as I’m approaching my 36^th birthday I’m currently stronger, faster, more flexible and mobile, have more stamina and endurance, and carry more healthy and functional muscle mass then I ever have before. I also feel better, look better, perform better, and I’m healthier than ever.

And I’m not alone. The people that I respect like Scott Sonnon, Charles Poliquin, Brooks Kubik, John E. Peterson, Steve Maxwell and Clarence Bass are all in their forties, fifties, and even seventies, respectively, and they’ll all have had the same experiences.

So I say that starting today stop looking at exercise as a bad thing and as a chore. Start looking at it as something splendid and fun, something to be integrated with your lifestyle. Start playing and practicing instead of working out. And make it a lifelong thing, not something that you’ll do for a month or so and then give up.

As Bradley J. Steiner said, “Realize how important your training is to you and resolve never to quit. Your personal reward will make any title pale in comparison.”

Now go out and train hard. I’ll talk with you later.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan