I just sent my book, Fitness without Fear, off to copyediting. Its been a very long, difficult process, but my book should be published by the end of April 2021. What I’d like to do now is tell you why I wrote it.

I’ve been training clients and athletes since 2008. Before that, I spent many years training myself and whoever was game enough to join me. Before that, I trained horses. Good movement has always been the key to training no matter who I was working with.

When I started going to the gym, I encountered a lot of preconceived notions (both mine and others) about what fitness was and what was important. A lot of it didn’t make sense. There was a strange disconnect between training for body composition vs training for sports; as if your body would react differently based on your intentions. Its not true. Your body adapts to work the same way no matter why you are doing it. You will build muscle, get stronger, develop more endurance, and improve your health. If you want to change your body composition, you pay attention to your diet.

Unfortunately, the average person walking into the gym doesn’t know these things. They don’t have the comprehensive knowledge of physiology, movement, and nutrition that would be needed for them to understand how to train well. They don’t understand that training is learning and that when you practice something, you get better at it. This is especially true when you have someone to teach you to do it the right way.

Every year, a small number of the individuals showed up at my gym door who had all but given up hope that anyone could help them. They had tried the gyms. They tried the group fitness. They may have even tried a trainer or two. But, they had been hurt, scared, or just didn’t feel like they ever got anywhere. They often felt like the bar was constantly rising and they couldn’t keep up. I took a different approach with them. I taught them to move well and gave them a plan. I never pushed anyone beyond their abilities. However, I taught them to build strong healthy bodies that were capable of doing more.

When it comes to fitness for the general population, I wanted to deconstruct the dogma. The answers to all the fitness questions are out there, however, they aren’t often comprehensively put together in a way that shows a clear and simple path. What most of us need is not the high intensity classes, the heavy weight training, or eight to ten hours of workouts per week. While those things may be enjoyable for some, they are not what the majority of people prefer doing. What we actually need is to learn how to move well and often throughout our day such that our daily activities contribute to our health, our strength, and our cardiovascular fitness.

Fitness without Fear is a guide to learning how to move well and build a more fit lifestyle. This foundation will serve you well for most activities and should you wish to train at a higher level, you will be well conditioned to do so. The fitness industry often pushes us to fly before we are even able to run and that’s a recipe for injury and burnout. We don’t have to kill ourselves in the gym to live a good, active life. Instead, learn to move better and find some time to play.

Get strong, and have fun doing it.