This past weekend, I participated in a police physical agility test.
The test included a 500-meter run, an obstacle course, and a dummy drag.
Earlier in the week, I got an email asking if that weekend would be a good time for me to take it, or if I wanted to wait until the following month.
I called a friend and asked him if he thought it would be an issue if I hosted the TRAIN HARD Men’s Club that morning, did the workout, and then went to take the test.
He almost laughed.
"Of course you can."
And that conversation got me thinking about something I’ve always believed training should give us: the ability to stay warm.
By “warm,” I mean maintaining a level of fitness where, for most of the things life might ask of you, you don’t need weeks or months to get ready.
You’re already ready enough.
That doesn’t mean you’re prepared to run a marathon tomorrow or compete in an event you haven’t specifically trained for. There are times when we need to turn up the heat and train specifically for something.
But we should never let ourselves go completely cold.
You should be able to go on a long hike with your family without thinking twice about it. Help someone move something heavy. Run when you need to run. Pick something up when you need to pick something up. Say yes to something physical without your first thought being, “I need to get in shape for that.”
That’s a big part of what TRAIN HARD has always been about.
Fitness shouldn’t only prepare you for the gym. It should give you a physical reserve that you can draw from when real life asks something of you.
Sometimes life gives you months to prepare.
Sometimes you get an email a few days before.
Sometimes you don’t get any warning at all.
The goal isn’t to be perfectly prepared for every possible situation. That’s impossible.
The goal is to stay warm enough that you’re rarely starting from zero.
Keep training. Keep moving. Keep some strength, some conditioning, and some capacity in the tank.
Then, when there is something worth specifically preparing for, turn up the heat.
But never go cold.
Because it’s not a matter of if your fitness will be called on.
It’s when.
And when that happens, you want to be ready.
Keep training hard,
Jason
