Fitness Hobby vs. Fitness Practice

It feels like every time I open the internet I am flooded with a wave of “optimization” and “maximalism” around fitness and exercise. 4:30am morning routines, hybrid training splits, hours of zone 2 cardio and weight training programs that can only be completed by someone who must live in a commercial gym. And something I have come to realize about myself and the people who make this content, is that these maximalist protocols and programs work for these people, because their hobby is fitness.

I lump myself into this because for me it is very much that way, most of my free time is spent in the domain of fitness. I am 4 weeks out from Hyrox NYC at the moment so my weekly training volume gets to 10+ hours a week. This becomes a problem because the average person sees a really fit person post about something like that and can get really discouraged because it looks like that is the only path towards their dream physique or fitness level.

Instead I want to take a second and distinguish between a fitness hobby and a fitness practice. I think the latter is important for every person to have while the former is great for those people who like to do fitness things like run marathons and/or spend hours in the gym bodybuilding.

The Difference

I want you to think of a fitness practice as a form of personal hygiene. We spend lots of time and money on our hair, nails, skin and teeth, but we neglect the heart, muscle and bone. I don’t particularly enjoy brushing my teeth, but I do it anyway. For a lot of people this is probably how they need to approach fitness. Not something you particularly love doing, but something that keeps you healthy, helps you look more attractive, and is minimally invasive. It doesn’t need to involve hours in the gym or on your feet running. Just the basics.

The Practice

So what does a good practice look like? At this point it feels beaten to death but really it just involves some basic strength training and walking. 3 days of lifting relatively heavy weights for 45-60 minutes at a time. On one of those days you should take the last 10-15 minutes to do something to spike your heart rate way up like sprints on a bike or a HIIT circuit. Combine that with some kind of daily walking practice of just 15-20 minutes once or twice a day and I guarantee that you will look, and feel better than 99% of the population. Of the 168 hours in a week, this protocol would only take up 4 hours at a minimum and 6 hours maximum, I know for me I can find those 4 hours in just one day worth of screentime.

Just like with brushing your teeth or taking a shower, this can’t be something that you just do every once in a while, it needs to be consistent and repeatable. And the really beautiful thing which is backed up by all of the research, is that any amount is better than nothing, so even if it is just waking up and doing 10 minutes of DB only strength training followed by a 10 minute walk everyday, that is worth doing.

The Hobby

Now that we have looked at the basics of a standard fitness practice, it is worth taking a second to consider adding a fitness hobby. A fitness hobby is great because it builds on the foundations you already are establishing with your fitness practice. The hobby should be an addition, not substitution for your fitness practice except where it makes sense to substitute. If you are adding running or cycling into your week as an extra practice, that cardiovascular training can take the place of going on walks for those days. Or if you want to pursue something like bodybuilding, The bodybuilding strength training workouts will take the place of a basic strength training program, just more specialized to the sport of bodybuilding. But adding in running, does not mean that I just don’t need to strength train anymore and adding bodybuilding shouldn’t mean that you neglect your cardiovascular system.

I think it is a great idea for everyone to try and find some kind of active hobby that they do on top of their basic practice. But the important thing here is that the hobby should be something that you as an individual enjoy, because that is the whole point of a hobby. I enjoy long runs and bodybuilding style workouts, but most people don’t. For you, a great active hobby could be line dancing, pickleball, tennis, rec sports like soccer and kickball or hiking. I would classify things like yoga or Pilates here as well, not essential to looking and feeling your best, but supplemental and enjoyable.

To summarize, we all should find a practice that we can stick to week in and week out with some combination of heavy resistance training and cardiovascular training, and then add onto that with some kind of hobby or hobbies where we get to enjoy the movement and functionality of our body.

God Bless,

~ Jacob Kiser

Co-Owner and Coach

GYM CLASS US