INCREASES YOUR ENJOYMENT OF LIFE
I train so I can play. It’s true that I want the actual
training to be as enjoyable as possible, but I don’t
live to work out. I live for family outings, dinners with
friends, snowboarding trips and paddle-boarding
sessions with my kids. Unless you’re a profession-
al, the ultimate goal of getting fit is to be healthy,
lean and strong and to enable an enjoyable, active
lifestyle doing the things you love to do.
Some people honestly enjoy pushing their bodies
to the limits and killing themselves in the gym, but
I don’t. I’d argue that if these folks saw the light
and reframed their competitive fitness goals into
areas that were less physically exhausting and
destructive, they would gain even greater satisfac-
tion than they do from struggling and suffering to
achieve extreme goals.
KEEPS YOU GUESSING!
Life is fractal and randomized. Natural terrain is
uneven and strewn with obstacles. Our bodies are
basically symmetrical, but the environment we use
them to navigate is not. Even a healthy human
heartbeat follows a fractal pace, rather than a met-
ronomic one. As humans, though, we’re unneces-
sarily intent on creating symmetry, smoothing out
natural terrain by laying concrete and removing
obstacles. It even extends into the workouts—gym
regimes full of precise numbers of sets and reps;
endless miles on a flat, rubber treadmill or urban
sidewalk at a painstakingly consistent pace. The
tortoise and hare fable holds that slow and steady
wins the race, but I’d rather be that crazy, erratic
hare, switching up speeds, stopping to smell the
roses, and having much more fun than the slow
and steady tortoise.PBF understands that certain elements of work-
out structure and periodization are important, but
also that life should be fractal. Instead of treadmill
runs, we go on hikes, trail runs, and hill sprints.
We keep things random, with enough linear pro-
gression to ensure gains but not so much to stifle
your imaginative spirit.11