IAQs – Infrequently Asked Questions

What’s the deeper purpose for being fit?

Trail run between fire towers in upstate New York on Saturday.

So far, I have 35k followers of my work stuff but <100 followers of my play, so “frequently asked questions” on the latter would be a bit of an affectation.  But I get some infrequent ones.  Here is one; feel free to add any questions in the comment section and I’ll try to get to them!

Work

Play

Q: Chris,

What’s your deeper purpose for being fit?

– Alli Covington

A:  Alli, my most personal reasons for my current effort are all related to fatherhood.  I have young kids.  I love doing stuff with them including quite strenuous stuff like rock climbing.  I want to be able to keep going, then do it all again with my grandkids.  Depending on scientific advancements, maybe with my great grandkids, too. 

I want to be hard to kill.  I don’t like violence and would be happy to have none of it.  But when it comes, I like being good at it.  Strength helps.  And MMA is a great lie detector for fitness.  Getting choked out is terrible, but a bit less terrible with neck strength.  Getting repeatedly struck in the diaphragm is bad, but less bad with core strength. 

I love adventures and want to be an immediate hard “yes” when adventure awaits.  When a friend asked me to join him on a hike up Kilimanjaro and safari in Tanzania, I wrote back “in” within a minute.  The next week, while trail running I invited another friend who said “yes” without hesitation.  Someone overheard us and asked if we were serious and if we’d talk about it before committing.   I said simply “we just did”.  But that takes staying on top of fitness (and logistics and calendars and finances etc.).

I want to be as capable and functional as possible at every age.  Chris Sharma is still going strong climbing in his 40s and Laird Hamilton is still going strong surfing in his 50s.  They have been able to earn money, spend time, and stay fit in ways that make for intentional, effective, fun lives.  They balance strength and abilities to move well in ways that make them as good as possible at their crafts.  They are probably two of my favorite athletes in terms of how they have aged and their longevity at high levels of their sports. 

Last and least, if you set up a polygraph in the gym, no one would get away with claiming that they don’t want to look better.  I don’t have any aspirations to look better than average, but think everyone should do everything possible to look like the best version of themselves.  God and/or nature intended you to look a certain way.  Your jaw and abs were meant to be visible.  Men’s lats should be much wider than their waists.  This is just looking like you’re biomechanically meant to look.  It isn’t (just) vanity.  In short, your design’s blueprint looks like the one on the left.

On the topic of vanity, it is worth getting clothes that fit.  If you’re between medium and large t-shirts, go with medium.  If someone else is paying for them, I like Mack Weldon.  If some else who you don’t like is paying for them, I like Sunspel (but what is it with European shirt head holes that are smaller than fairly ordinary sized skulls?).  If you’re paying your own way, my favorite is True Classic which aren’t as blousy as most men’s tees and you can get a bunch at a reasonable price. Get some.