When most people hear the word “fitness,” they think first of physical fitness. But that’s not the only kind of fitness. Your mind needs to be fit as well, and that means you need to exercise it.

I was doing some research and discovered that a quarter of adults in the U.S. have gone 12 consecutive months without reading a book—not even one! We should certainly hope that the situation is better in other countries. Considering how little any of us knows compared to the total amount of knowledge available in the world, we could all stand to read at least one book every year, and that would still be far less than acceptable for those of us who are curious about life and trying to build a strong intellect.

So, this is not to point any fingers, but if you’re literate and haven’t picked up a single book in 12 months, your mind just might be out of shape. It could be slowly withering away as you remain oblivious to the power of reading and inquisitiveness. If you’re not a little concerned about that, then you should be.

It is true that some people just don’t enjoy reading, and the good news is that there’s a solution. If reading a book is too much effort, then listen to an audiobook. They count, too, and you can even listen in your car while you drive. It can’t get any easier than that.

If you need a running start, sign up to receive our free 10-Point To-Do List to Start Getting In Shape From ZERO. It’s short and informative. You can also go to Contact Us and send a request for a copy.

Sayonara until next time.

What are you looking forward to in the next month? You should have an answer to this question at all times. If you’re over 40 years old and nothing comes to mind, it’s time to do something daily to get your energy level up. Living with no sense of anticipation of anything exciting or interesting on your horizon is a sign that you’ve capitulated to indifference. 

By getting yourself in better shape, you’ll have what I call “energy to anticipate.” Understand that anticipation feeds off energy, so when your energy is high, you seek out and make time for rewarding experiences and challenges.

You’re older, not old, so be bolder. The energy to anticipate is real. You can move and make things happen for yourself, and that will make you want to do more, see more, and accomplish more. Just imagine how living more boldly will positively transform your expectations of what’s on your horizon.

Being bolder requires you to reject being out of shape, tired, and in poor health. Don’t know how to start? Come out of your shell and reach out to us so you can start building fitness habits that generate energy.

Sayonara until next time.

That’s right, Bounce Pep is now on YouTube, so stop everything you’re doing, go to YouTube, and subscribe to the Bounce Pep Channel now. Go to this link, or just search for Bounce Pep.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCybZWdAiIca3bodwHn5TMLw/featured

I’m on a mission to help more people get in shape so they can really live life. Our new channel allows us to speak directly to you and give plain-spoken pointers you can really use. You can look forward to two talks each week about your fitness, frame of mind, or anything else I believe can help to build you up.

The Bounce Pep Channel’s central message about fitness is that it’s easier than you think. I understand that most people are not aiming to be bodybuilders. They just want to be strong, lively, and attractive inside and out. They want to feel accomplished and on top of their game.

Here’s a hint: You can do it without supplements or performance-enhancing drugs. You just need commitment.

Another hint: You’re not too old or too out of shape to start now.

So, go to YouTube and subscribe to the Bounce Pep Channel so you can stay in the know.

Sayonara until next time.

Let’s think about stars today—you know, the giant balls of hydrogen we see in the night sky that seem never to stop shining. The thing about a good, healthy star is that it’s always making energy. As far as we know, a star has no consciousness, but if it did, it’d probably be thinking, "Man oh man, I feel great! What a life!" 

So, are you a star? Do you live like the sun, always active, producing, and radiating energy? Activity is the operating principle. For you to be a star, you need to be active. You can walk a little faster and do something each day that makes you break a sweat. Your mind needs to be active, too. Seek knowledge and think deeply. Even when you sleep deeply, your mind should produce dreams and sort information and memories. 

Being tired all the time is no fun and no way to live. Fatigue is a natural state for everyone at times—even those among us who are real stars—but it can fool us if we’re not mindful. If you’re always tired and always try to overcome it by resting more, you might be getting duped by fatigue. If you don’t produce energy, you won’t have it, and feeling tired all the time is a symptom of a habitual low-energy state. To be a star and radiate energy, you need to get up and move, get your blood circulating, and lift something. Do this consistently, and your energy will go up, not down. 

Sayonara until next time.

Are you a whiner or a winner? Whiners aren’t having much fun because they’re focused on what they don’t like and overlook the good. Winners recognize what’s working well and keep doing it.

I love working out, so I push myself to get uncomfortable. Muscle fatigue the day after feels great to me because it signifies a win in my life. Wins improve my mood and make it easy to have fun.

Not everyone is enamored with working out. And if you don’t like working out, that’s OK. But you still need to do it. I don’t like going to the dentist, but I go because I’m pursuing a win. Having a mouth full of rotting teeth would mean I’m losing at the dental game, and that wouldn’t be fun at all.

When you’re getting a positive outcome, it means you’re winning. It’s fun when you walk with a long stride and an upright posture. It’s fun when your skin is supple and vibrant. It’s fun when you look 10 years younger than your age. Working out is a tiny price to pay for all that fun. So, from now on, instead of whining about the process, why not start pursuing the wins?

Sayonara until next time.

Search the internet, visit a bookstore, or talk to personal trainers and you will find no shortage of opinions on proper training techniques, frequency, and intensity. A lot of the advice is well researched and valid. It can improve your knowledge of anatomy, nutrition, and muscle mechanics and help you avoid injuries.

Just understand that your thresholds and limits for pain, fatigue, mental exhaustion, flexibility, recovery, eating, and so on are particular to you. You might hear there is one optimal way to do things based on scientific evidence or some other proclaimed benchmark, but what matters is what works for you.

If you’re resilient, there’s a good chance your thresholds will increase over time. As you gain experience working out, pay attention to your mind and body. Gauge what your thresholds and limits are. There may be someone next to you with a similar body type who is handling similar weight, yet you may be able to consistently do more reps than them. Or it could be that your body requires rest every other day, whereas your buddy is in the gym for 6 days per week.

There's no such thing as an optimal regimen that works equally well for every person. You do you, and they do them. Find your thresholds and keep building them higher.

Sayonara until next time.

I always say that the benefits of fitness start with how you feel, and sooner or later your physical appearance is bound to improve as well. But, let’s face it, concern about appearance is what drives a lot of people to start getting in shape, and that’s perfectly fine.

Here’s the question: is your status quo working for you? If you get out of the shower and don’t like what you see in the mirror, then it’s not. If you’re always tired and creaky, then it’s not. If you’re on medication due to unhealthy habits, ditto. 

And it’s also not going to change until you get fed up and change what you’re doing. It may be hard because the status quo can lull you into acquiescence. Still, the fact is that you always have to be taking the initiative to ward off malaise. That means you’ve got to take a good, long look at your habits and understand how they created a status quo that doesn’t serve you well. Then, let your dissatisfaction be fuel to work on yourself and upgrade your habits.

Pointing the finger elsewhere won’t accomplish anything positive. Get up. Lift a dumbbell. Move. Put down that giant bottle of soda. Even get some new friends if you have to. The people you regularly hang around probably influence your status quo more than anything else. In any case, if your status quo needs an upgrade, you’ll have to make it happen.

Sayonara until next time.

This is going to be a rant, but it needs to be expressed. Like most people, I have nothing against dieting. It’s good if someone commits to a diet so they can eat more healthily and perhaps lose some weight. My question is, why does dieting have something against exercise? 

There are some dieting promotions out there that send a damaging message to people, many of whom are in terrible shape. We’ve all seen them before. "Lose weight fast with no exercise!" "Proven diet for weight loss without exercising!" 

Huh? No legitimate physician, trainer, or nutritionist will promote “no exercise” as healthy. 

Beware of promotions that claim up is down and down is up. If a diet can help people lose weight, that’s great. But in promoting a diet, there’s no reason to dismiss exercise as an unnecessary nuisance. No one benefits from not exercising, and "no exercise" is actually bad for us. 

Here’s an idea: how about we all do a better job at healthy eating AND exercising? 

Sayonara until next time.

I went to the dentist today to get a molar in the back of my mouth removed, and the experience was horrible. Talk about discomfort! Just in case you don’t know, having someone intentionally poke into your nerve with a sharp needle so they can inject anesthesia is utterly awful. For the record, I never wanted to have my tooth pulled, but my dentist insisted it was necessary to do so. In the end, I survived the procedure, and my risk of dental health will be better because of it.

Discomfort is something we instinctively avoid, but sometimes it’s inevitable. And when we’re striving to grow and improve ourselves, we must be committed to overcoming it.

Getting in the gym and lifting weights is a great way to train your mind for this. You simply need to induce discomfort by performing challenging sets. It might be a light amount of weight with a high rep count or a heavy weight with a low rep count. You just need to make sure it forces you to struggle. Whether you give up or push through won’t be determined by your muscles, but rather your mind. If you’re hellbent on finishing that last rep, you’ll will it to fruition. Perhaps you’ll need a brief break or a gulp of water, but you’ll finish the job.

When you’re outside of the gym, that ability to confront and conquer discomfort will benefit other areas of your life. When you’re pushing forward to fulfill your purpose on this earth, there will be forks in your road where you must decide between the paths of stagnation and discomfort. If your mind is already wired to confront and conquer discomfort, it won’t allow you to choose the path of stagnation.

The path to becoming your best version is paved with discomfort. Don’t run from it. Leveling yourself up is about confronting it. In the end, you’ll survive and thrive.

Sayonara until next time.

Observe any gym and you’ll notice the diversity of behavior. Some go to get some moderate cardio in and maintain generally good health. Others go mainly to socialize, and you’ll see them talking at least as much as they’re moving. Meanwhile, some people are seriously trying to build strength and muscle.

The rarest kind might be the people who are there to compete against themselves. You can tell because they log the details of every exercise they’re doing. They’ve either got a notepad and pencil or they’re logging everything in their smartphone. Either way, they’re doing what most people don’t bother to do.

Logging your workout has real value. It’s great when you can review all the notes you took and look back in time at where you started and how far you’ve progressed. When you have that competitive spirit, the urge to outdo what you did last time is powerful. If that sounds like you but you’re not logging your workouts, give it a shot. Log the number of reps, amount of weight, grip direction, duration, or any other metrics you have. You’re not going to break a record at every workout, but over time, you’ll see a steady progression that keeps the fire inside you burning.

Sayonara until next time.

People want stuff yesterday. That’s just how human beings are wired. The late pro wrestling champion Eddie Guerrero exclaimed, "If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying!" Regardless of how zany it sounded, he revealed a bit of truth and taboo in the human psyche. If there is a shortcut to be found, there will be plenty of people who will search for and exploit it, even if it requires some duplicitous behavior. It is often said that patience is a virtue, but judging from our tendencies, most of us don’t much believe it.

When I started weight training, months went by before I saw any evidence that all my effort was working. I felt differently for sure, but the reflection in the mirror wasn’t validating me. Luckily, I started out with a personal trainer who explained the muscle-building process to me, so I knew that patience was required. Sure enough, about three months into training, I started to see improvements in my body.

What I learned is that the mind comes before the body, and it takes patience for perseverance to pay off. Persistence, commitment, and discipline are faculties of the mind, not the muscles. And the basis of all those faculties is patience.

Understand that the first thing you stimulate and strengthen when you work out is your mind, and then your muscles react and follow. Sure, there are shortcuts you can take to visibly transform yourself more quickly, such as gorging on protein shakes and supplements, but they won’t do you any good unless you apply yourself and stick with it. Cultivate the faculty of patience, my friends, and don’t give up.

Sayonara until next time.

Doggone it! I recently realized that I was doing something the wrong way after spending months working on it, so now I’m back to the drawing board trying to make corrections and improvements. It was hard not to feel that I had wasted my time, but I managed to reign in my emotions and recognize that I had merely encountered a setback. Fortunately, a little bounce kicked in, and I immediately set to analyzing my missteps and regrouping.

Life will throw curve balls that we’re not prepared to hit. You’ve probably dealt with a frustrating setback before and had a moment when you felt dumb and discouraged. So long as you’re human, you will sometimes have those emotions. But don’t let them fester and paralyze you. Roughly 110 billion people have lived on this earth, so whatever setback you’ve encountered has been experienced by many others before you.

Bounce is something we all need to summon from time to time. It’s what drives you to spring into action as well as recover from setbacks. When you have bounce, it won’t let you sulk too long over failures and oversights. A small setback may slow you down, and a big one may bring you to a halt. But the bounce in your spirit will compel you to come out swinging again, just as so many who lived before you have. That curve ball you didn’t see coming will be something you can reflect on and learn from. Keep swinging and you’ll figure out how to hit it.

Sayonara until next time.