A False Belief About Fitness & The One-Armed Explorer

🔎 In This Fit Tip Friday 

 Inside you'll find:

• Tip: A false belief about fitness

• Finds: 1,346 kettlebell swings in an hour (and more)

• Story: The one-armed explorer

• Quote: The musical canyon

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❌ A False Belief About Fitness

If you are a busy Christian guy, you have a lot on your plate.

• Family responsibilities…

• Vocation responsibilities…

• Spiritual responsibilities…

• Economic responsibilities….

We know stewarding the body God gave us is also a responsibility… but finding time for this is a continual challenge.

But I think we make this responsibility harder by a false belief we have. And here it is:

Fitness = hours at the gym each week.

This is not only unhelpful, but it’s also not true. You don’t need to spend hours in the gym each week.

And you don’t even need to go to a gym each week.

You can do all that you need to do for your fitness at home.

In fact, in the 30-40 minutes it takes you to go to and from the gym, you can already be done exercising at home.

With simple equipment, you can spend 30-40 minutes at home, just a few times a week, to build muscle, lose weight, and develop functional strength. 

For the last 7 months, I’ve been working on a program designed to help Christian guys save time each week by only spending 30-40 minutes exercising at home a few times a week. 

And on Monday, July 8th, I plan on launching it.

🔎 Finds This Week

Here are some of my favorite finds this week:

• This man holds the record for the most kettlebell swings in an hour with 1,346 swings using a 53lb kettlebell (more)

• This woman holds the record for the most kettlebell swings in one hour with 1,759 swings using a 41lb kettlebell (more)

• 17 healthy and delicious alternatives to candy (more)

• How kettlebell training can help your golf swing (more)

• Use this tool to calculate the total energy (calories) you expend each day (more)

• 5 ways tips to eat for longevity from a doctor (from Peter Attia) (more)

• How hydration impacts your brain’s ability to function (more)

🛶 The One-Armed Explorer

You can read the following story on my website if that’s preferable for you.

Stories of strength, adventures, and risk-takers inspire us to get off the couch and take action. Which is one of the reasons I share a story each week in my newsletter.

This next story is especially remarkable to me for one reason — the GPS.

It’s hard to imagine a time prior to GPS. In the last few weeks, I have driven 1,000+ miles, and you can bet that a GPS has told me where to go every single one of those miles.

This next story is about a guy who lived well before the GPS.

This adventurer made a 1,000+ mile trip in a rowboat, through largely unexplored rapids, without GPS, and with one arm.

In 1834, an itinerant preacher and his wife gave birth to a baby boy named John Wesley Powell. The Powells were living in New York at the time, but they saw the opportunity in the western United States, and soon they settled in Wisconsin.

Young John Wesley Powell was an adventurer at heart.

• When he was 21, he spent four months walking across Wisconsin.

• When he was 22, he rowed down the Mississippi from Minnesota all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

• When he was 23, he rowed the Ohio River, from Pittsburgh to St. Louis.

When the Civil War broke out, Powell enlisted. And in 1862, Powell took a bullet to his right wrist, and under doctor’s orders, his right arm was amputated.

But this did little to stop Powell. In fact, his most famous exploit hadn’t happened yet.

In 1869, Powell recruited a team of 9 men to explore the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. This was dangerous journey, crossing about 1,000 miles of rapids, dangers, and risks.

Powell started his voyage in Wyoming, rowed through Utah, and 4-months later finished his trek through the Grand Canyon. Two years later, Powell did the same voyage again.

His writings and reflections on his journey, particularly that of the Grand Canyon, have enough inspiration to get anyone off the couch and into God’s creation.

👍 Did You Like What You Read?

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I also enjoy hearing about what others are doing with their health and fitness. Hit reply and let me know what you’re working on.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

Be strong,

Don

P.S… When you share the newsletter with a friend, you give them access to the Home Gym Workout Collection, which is 30+ weeks of workouts that can be done at home.