No Pain, No Gain” I don’t know about you, but I’ve always felt like I had to push hard to get results. No pain, no gain. But then I started listening to my body more. I noticed when I stopped pushing myself, my body started to slow down a little and I started moving again. And then, I got injured. I was taking some new supplements and doing a lot of yoga and training. I was doing a lot of heavy bag work and got injured on my last rep of one of the workouts that was supposed to be a high rep scheme. That was the moment I realized I should have listened more to my body. That was my moment of enlightenment! I’m working on that right now, so stay tuned for more on that. Related Articles: [NOTE: If you’re currently in your 30’s and your goal is to get lean, you need to start by looking at your diet. Read that first. In fact, I’d recommend reading that first and then coming back to this.] Related and Recommended The Tim Ferriss Showis one of the most popular podcasts in the world with over 500 million downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page. Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.) 45 comments on “4 Lessons From Fonzie: How To Have Fun With Working Out” Fonzie is the perfect example of somebody who did what he loved for a living, and because he was so damn good, everybody else wanted to work out with him. I always knew that even if I was the very best, there would always be people better than me, but I would never give up until I was as good as the guy I was chasing. The difference between then and now is that I still do what I love, and I don’t make it a job or a profession. You have a fantastic voice, and a very engaging and entertaining way with words. You should try your hand at public speaking… 🙂 Thank you for sharing some info on how you got “Fonzie” in your 30s. I believe a lot of men have the same mindset, and want to do it all, and end up getting frustrated when they end up not being able to do everything they want to. Fonzie had the mindset of wanting to be the best and wanted to always be “ahead of the curve”. The fact that you were able to do that and compete, then come back and become even more competitive, is amazing. Thanks for being so open in your sharing of your experiences on this topic. You wrote a really great article and I really enjoyed reading it. You’re right – Fonzie is a good example for me as well as for most guys I know. It’s very important to take some time off after a hard workout though. It’s easy to say ‘ok let’s go’ and you feel great after a workout, but it’s another thing to stay focused and train again the next day. Your post was very inspiring for me, so thank you. Looking forward to read more of your posts! Cheers, Tomas Hey man, I’m just curious as to what you did with your personal training business? I know you wrote about it in your blog post. Maybe you could write a guest post about how you did it. It seems like a lot of people (including me) are interested in figuring out how to get a PT license and incorporate their personal training businesses into their lives (and jobs) rather than having one as a separate thing from everything else. Love the idea of just wanting to improve everyday. That’s how I’ve approached each workout now that I’m moving to a new bodybuilder schedule. Sometimes I might hit a plateau and think I’ve “maxed out”, but I just have to push harder to find my limits again. Love the idea of the bodybuilder mentality vs. mind and personality over your own abilities. I have to say that my personality is a bit more laid-back. I hate when I have a lot of work to do and I have to fight a bit harder to get things done. You just never stop working out? Wow, I’m sure the results will be great! Great job on getting your body to work for you!! […] I don’t normally post any other posts other than my original “Lucky 13 Things” post, but I’ve been reading a lot of Gary Taubes’ work lately and I found it very inspiring. Here is what I learned about personal development: […] About the AuthorMark Sisson is the founder of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet. His latest book is Keto for Life, where he discusses how he combines the keto diet with a Primal lifestyle for optimal health and longevity. Mark is the author of numerous other books as well, including The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the growth of the primal/paleo movement back in 2009. After spending three decades researching and educating folks on why food is the key component to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food company that creates Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples. I love this article, because it has really good lessons about making some changes on your health. And the best of them is that you have to be in the moment. Because you don’t have more or less time. You do have the same. The idea of being more aware of the situation, and of time is very important. I would like to read more on this topic because you seem to know much more about it than I do. I would like to hear more of your thoughts. 🙂 Thank you for the read Mark 🙂 Thank you for this amazing post. I can relate to the ‘bodybuilder’ thing, I get that all the time and it always makes me uncomfortable. I work out, but I don’t work hard at it like I should for my level of training. Anyway, I’m just glad I’m not alone! Thanks for sharing such valuable information! I have to say that when I read your post, it brought me back to my days as a swimmer. For years I saw people going through all kinds of workouts, thinking that working out more was going to give them what they wanted. (The only difference is I guess they didn’t think they had to work so damn hard.) I knew all about that “work hard, play hard” mind-set. Then I swam a couple of the triathlons and realized just how much fun it is and how much fun you can have in an activity. But the best part of it all was that working hard also made me a stronger swimmer, so it actually became easier. I think I’ve come to a crossroads on this. I don’t want to take it too seriously. If I do that, I might find myself pushing too hard and feeling like I’m having a hard time enjoying the moment. I would like to do something that’s fun. And it should be something that doesn’t feel like work. I don’t need to work out for six hours in order to get something good out of it. But again, it’s something that has to be fun. This was a great article about you and it was very inspiring. I read most of the “Lucky 13 Things”, but will definitely read it again when I’m 50. I am currently struggling a lot with finding time to work out with a young family (4 kids under the age of 10). There have been days in the last few weeks where I just didn’t feel like being productive at home. That’s why I don’t work out with a trainer anymore. So I’m pretty interested in finding some sort of work out for myself, with as little time as possible. Thanks for your post. I appreciate the opportunity to read more about you and get a bit of advice from you, Mark. Hey Peter, So do you think what you describe is actually a form of exercise? What I’ve been noticing, at least in myself, is that there is a sort of duality to this issue. One that says I have more energy when I’m working out and another when I’m not. When I am active in my daily life, whether its going to meetings or a conference, then it makes me tired. And when I’m not, I feel more awake and more energetic. I think its a very similar thing to the effect that caffeine and coffee has on us. Anyways,